The demand for a flag follows a re-assertion of Kannada pride in the state in the last half decade
The current Karnataka State Anthem, Jaya Bharata Jananiya Tanujate written by KV Puttappa reads in translation as, “Victory to you Mother Karnataka, the daughter of Mother India! Hail the land of beautiful rivers and forests, hail the abode of saints!” 80-year-old Vasanthi Hegde, mother of one of the authors, remembers an earlier anthem from her schooldays which went "Udayavagali namma Cheluva Kannada Nadu", which loosely translates as "may our dear Kannada Land arise and dawn".
It took many years for that dawn to arrive. During British rule, areas that now comprise Karnataka were under 20 different administrative units. The princely state of Mysore, the Nizam's Hyderabad, the Bombay Presidency, and the Madras Presidency were among the prominent ones. The physical boundaries of the modern day Karnataka were created during the linguistic reorganization in 1956. However, the quest for building a common identity continued, even after unification.
This was largely because people from the now merged areas, spoke different languages. Kannadigas in Hubli, that was earlier under the Bombay Presidency, also spoke Marathi. Urdu was often the dominant language in the Hyderabad region. Tuluvas in South Canara came from Madras Presidency which used Tamil as the main language. Further, Bangalore’s growing cosmopolitan posed a challenge to the Kannada language in the 1960s. Theatres patronized non-Kannada films.....(READ MORE)
No comments:
Post a Comment