6. A culture of public service

My forefather was, by all accounts, a principled man, and felt considerable remorse at having appropriated the treasure he found in his fields, rather than handing it over to the Queen’s representative. He resolved his moral dilemma by allocating one part of the wealth to the Lord – in the form of the title to the house and enough funds for the care and rituals involved with the shrine. He allocated another part of the wealth to charitable causes, acknowledging the need to share the good fortune that had come his way with the wider community. 

No organized channels of philanthropy existed in the 1800s so the family invented their own, to use the funds earmarked for charity with thoughtfulness and responsibility. The home became a hub for public works undertaken by the family. In an era where traveling was a hardship due to non-existent infrastructure, they built free guesthouses, housing and feeding travelers and stocking them for their onward journey. In times of floods and other natural disasters, they ran relief programs, paying for the construction of earthen dams, repairing roads and homes damaged by torrential rain, and creating employment opportunities for people who sorely needed the income. They ran charitable healthcare clinics and even founded a bank for the service of the poor. 

By the 1900s, the Katapadi homestead became the embodiment of the deeply nationalistic spirit that was sweeping India as the country strove to rid itself of the shackles of colonial rule. Many members of our community participated in India’s struggle for independence. Several, including those not part of our immediate family, sought refuge from persecution by British police in the house’s rabbit warren of rooms, where finding anyone was practically impossible. There are records of family members having escaped being arrested by British forces via a secret tunnel that went from the house down to the riverbank nearby. 

Stepping into public life in a way uncommon for women, many female members of our community participated in the freedom movement. They stripped off their gold ornaments and willingly gave them to fund Mahatma Gandhi’s Civil Disobedience movement. They participated in the public burning of Manchester-made cloth to protest British economic policies and committed to wear only handspun “khadi” saris to support Indian village enterprises. 

Mahatma Gandhi in South Kanara, not far from Katapadi, mobilizing people to participate in India's freedom movement