How photo with Gandhiji immortalised Jill the cow

BENGALURU: It was June of 1927 and Mahatma Gandhi was camping at Kumara Krupa guest house here on the advice of doctors following ill health. But he took 45 minutes off every evening to visit what today is the National Dairy Research Institute (NDRI) in Adugodi. He posed for a photograph along with fellow freedom fighter

Madan Mohan Malaviya

and a cow named Jill, turning the animal into an overnight celebrity.


As part of his South India tour to promote the

Khadi Movement

, Gandhi had come to the princely Mysore state, but doctors advised him strict rest after he suffered a mild stroke. He decided to go to Nandi Hills for a break and arrived at Yeshwantpur railway station on March 20, 1927 en route to the hills. But he cut short his Nandi Hills stay and returned to the city on June 5. He was recuperating at the guest house under the care of famous surgeon, Dr Subbarao of Victoria Hospital.

In his Kannada book

Bengalurinalli Mahatma Gandhi

published in 2004, historian

Vemagal Somashekar

has recorded an unexpected meeting at the guest house between Gandhi and William Smith, a Scot who was the director of Imperial Institute of Animal Husbandry and Dairying (now the southern regional station of NDRI).

“Smith and his team of veterinarians were impressed by Gandhiji’s knowledge of cows and invited him to the dairy institute. The Mahatma managed to convince his doctor that he would spend 45 minutes at the institute every day,” says Somashekar.

As per records at NDRI, Gandhi visited it daily from June 12 to 19. His last day at the facility with Malaviya is historical. “Gandhiji was introduced to a cow named Jill that was an Ayrshire and Haryana crossbreed and quite a celebrity at the institute. She had given birth to 16 calves and remained disease free and was the subject of research for veterinarians not just in Bangalore but across the country. It is recorded that she gave 10,000 pounds of milk annually,” author and Gandhian Somashekar said.

On that Sunday evening, Gandhi enthusiastically posed with Jill alongside Pandit Malaviya and the black and white photograph became a sensation across the country after it was published in Kannada and English press the following days.

Jill went on to bear her 17th calf before dying. A cow shed was named after her at the institute, with details of her life, including her most famous visitor. It still stands.

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