Unification of

Karnataka

This article has multiple issues. Please help

improve it or discuss these issues on the talkmore
Learn
Present map of Karnataka. Only South Karnataka was
Mysore State from 1947 to 1956.

The Unification of Karnataka (Kannada:

ಕ ಾ ಟಕ ಏ ೕಕರಣ) refers to the formation
of the Indian state of Karnataka, then
named Mysore State, in 1956 when several
Indian states were created by redrawing
borders based on linguistic demographics.
Decades earlier, during British rule the first
demands for a state based on Kannada
demographics had been made.

Historical background

Territories before unification

During the period of British rule, areas that
now comprise Karnataka were under as
many as 20 different administrative units
with the princely state of Mysore, Nizam's
Hyderabad, the Bombay Presidency, the
Madras Presidency and the territory of
Kodagu being the most important ones. In
effect, nearly two-thirds of what is now
Karnataka fell outside the rule of the
Wodeyar kings of Mysore.

This meant that the Kannadigas in these

regions, in spite of their large numbers, did
not have an administrative patronage.
Kannadigas in the Hubli-Karnataka region
for example, came under the rule of the
Bombay Presidency where Marathi was
the official language. Those in the
Hyderabad-Karnataka region came under
the Nizam's rule where Urdu was the main
language. Kannadigas in South Canara
came under the rule from the Madras
Presidency which used Tamil as their main
language.

Under these conditions, a feeling of

discontent began among Kannadigas
outside Mysore. Thus, while the
Kannadigas under the Nizam felt that Urdu
was being forced on them at the expense
of Kannada, those in the Bombay
Presidency felt similarly concerning
Marathi.[1] These areas also remained
economically undeveloped. It was in these
conditions that the movement that first
started as a protest against linguistic
oppression, began demanding the creation
of a separate state consolidating all
Kannada-speaking regions. This was
called the Ekikarana or 'Unification'
movement.
Role of North Karnataka
Almost the entire southern half of
Karnataka was then under the Wodeyars
of Mysore with Nalvadi Krishnaraja
Wodeyar. The official language of the state
was Kannada and the state was also one
of the more progressive states of the day.
Important protagonists of the Ekikarana
movement including Aluru Venkata Rao
were from northern parts of Karnataka.
One of the earliest and most important
organisations that was chosen to lead the
movement, the Karnataka Vidyavardhaka
Sangha also began in Dharwad.
The Vidyavardhaka Sangha
and other organisations

Participants of the first Kannada Sahitya Parishat

The Karnataka Vidyavardhaka Sangha,

Dharwad, was established in 1890. It was
established by R H Deshpande with the
objective of working for the resurgence of
the Kannada language which had been
marginalised under the rule of the Bombay
Presidency where Marathi was the official
language.[1] The Vidyavardhaka Sangha
became the aegis under which leaders
from all over Karnataka gathered to further
their agitation. The influence and success
of the Vidyavardhaka Sangha soon lead to
more such organisations being set up
throughout Karnataka. The most notable
of these were the Kannada Sahitya
Parishat (Bangalore) that was set up in
1915, the Karnataka Sangha (Shivamogga)
that began in 1916 and the Karnataka
Samithi in Kasaragod in 1955.
Karnataka Samithi (R),
Kasaragod
This section does not cite any sources.
Learn more

Karnataka Samithi (R), Kasaragod was

established in 1955 to advocate a merger
of Kasaragod with Karanataka state.
Umesha Rao, popularly known as
Gadinadu Gandhi, was the first president
of the organisation and the only person to
be elected to the Kerala Assembly
unanimously. On his death in 1957, B. S.
Kakkillaya succeeded him as president
until 1967. A prominent figure in the
movement for unification of Karnataka,
Kakkillaya was later honoured by the
government of Karnataka, which gave the
Suvarna Karnataka Ekikarana Award to the
Samithi on the occasion of Suvarna
Karnataka Rajyotsava in 2006. His
photograph was among those used in the
Karnataka Government's Suvarna
Karnataka calendar of 2006.

Kallige Mahabala Bhandari, an advocate,

was elected to the Kerala Assembly from
Manjeshwaram Constituency in Kasaragod
under the Samithi banner. U. P. Kunikullaya
was similarly elected in 1967. The efforts
of the Samithi led to the Kasgarod
unification issue being referred to the
Justice Mahajan Commission by the
government of India in 1966. B. V.
Kakkillaya prepared a case for
presentation before the commission,
where K. R. Karanth, a former minister
under Rajagopalachari in the then state of
Madras and a leading advocate,
represented the Samithi. The commission
upheld the claim for merger of Kasaragod
with the state of Karnataka. The
Parliament of India is yet to take a final
decision in the matter.

B. V. Kakkillaya took over the presidency of

the Samithi in 2000. During his term as
president, the government of Kerala
nominated him as a member of the State
Level Committee for Linguistic Minorities
in Kerala. He, too, received the Rajyotsava
award in 2006.

Aluru Venkata Rao

Although resentment and protest had
started as early as in 1856 and the
Karnataka Vidyavardhaka Sangha had
been established in 1890, the movement
took a dramatic turn with the arrival of
Aluru Venkata Rao on the scene. Speaking
at a meeting of the Sangha in 1903, Alur
Venkata Rao made a case for integrating
all Kannada regions of Madras Province
and north Karnataka with Mysore
kingdom. Aluru himself was inspired by
the protests that followed the British
partitioning of Bengal.

In 1907 and again in 1908, Rao organised

the All-Karnataka Writers' Conference in
Dharwad. Inspired by the Vidyavardhaka
Sangha and the efforts of Deshpande,
Aluru helped found the Kannada Sahitya
Parishat in Bangalore in 1915. This
Parishat found a patron in the ruler of
Mysore. The Parishat began holding
annual literary conferences (that continue
today) in different parts of the state.
Intellectuals from across the Kannada
speaking regions attended these
conferences. During the Home Rule
Movement, Aluru floated the idea of a
Karnataka 'Provincial' unit of the Indian
National Congress. This soon took shape
and the Karnataka Pradesh Congress
committee was formed.

Karnataka Gatha Vaibhava …

Amidst all this, Aluru published his most

renowned achievement, the Karnataka
Gatha Vaibhava in 1912. Karnataka Gatha
Vaibhava literally means The glory that was
Karnataka!. It was a book that recounted in
detail the history of Karnataka until the fall
of Vijayanagar after which the Marathas,
Nizam and the British took over. The book
impacted the young and old alike. The
movement soon caught the imagination of
the public and people started rallying
around the Ekikarana movement and the
movement picked up momentum. For all
these efforts and for being the one who
inspired a whole movement, Aluru is today
remembered as the Kannada Kula Purohita
or the 'High priest of the Kannada clan'.

Karnataka region in pre-independent India which

belonged to five states of British India
belonged to five states of British India

Growth of the movement

Starting with Aluru's call for a Kannada
linguistic state, the movement had slowly
started gaining momentum and following.
It was also around the time that the Indian
independence movement was gathering
momentum. Organisations in the
movement began organising rallies, talks
and conferences where demands for a
separate state for Kannada speaking
people was made.
Apart from Aluru, supporters like Gudleppa
Hallikeri, Siddappa Kambli, R H
Deshpande, Rangarao Diwakar, Koujalgi
Srinivasarao,Srinivas Rao Mangalvedhe,
Kengal Hanumanthaiah, Gorur
Ramaswamy Iyengar, S Nijalingappa, T
Mariyappa, Subramanya, Sowcar
Chennaiah, H K Veerangowda, H C
Dasappa, H Siddaiah,K. R. Karanth, B. S.
Kakkillaya, B. V. Kakkillaya and Anakru
were by now prominent in the movement.
Anakru in particular, was influential with
his writing and oratory.
Nagpur Conference
Due to the efforts of these organisations
and leaders, the movement not only
gained in momentum but also attained a
quasi-political influence. In 1920,
Karnataka State Political Conference was
held at Dharwad. At this conference, which
was presided over by V P Madhav Rao, a
unanimous resolution was passed
demanding the unification of all Kannada
speaking areas. The conference also
advised Kannadigas to attend the Nagpur
Congress to be held later that year in large
numbers. Almost 800 delegates attended
the Nagpur conference where the Indian
National Congress made the decision to
create the Karnataka Pradesh Congress
Committee. This aided the movement and
leaders of the Congress like S Nijalingappa
and Kengal Hanumanthaiah (both of
whom went on to become Chief Ministers
of Karnataka) and Gudleppa Hallikeri also
served as active members of the
movement.

1924 Belgaum Conference

In 1924, the Belgaum congress was held
under the aegis of the newly formed
Karnataka Pradesh Congress committee
arm of the INC. Mahatma Gandhi presided
over this historic conference. This
conference was attended by Kannadigas
from all parts in large numbers. The first
Karnataka Unification Conference was
also organised at the same venue. This
was presided over by Siddappa Kambli.

These two conferences were attended by

a significant number of leaders, writers,
poets and intellectuals from Karnataka. It
was here that Huilgol Narayana Rao first
sang his Udayavagali namma cheluva
kannada nadu, which meant Let our
charming Kannada land dawn!. The INC
lent formal support to the cause; this was
the first time the movement had explicit
political support. As a result of these
conferences, the Karnataka Ekikarana
Sabha which was to work in collaboration
with the KPCC began with the objective of
the unification of Karnataka. The
Karnataka Ekikarana Sabha later came to
be known as the Karnataka Ekikarana
Sangha.

Nehru committee
recommendation
In 1928, due to the efforts of Gudleppa
Hallikeri, the formation of a single province
by uniting all Kannada speaking areas was
recommended by the Nehru Committee. It
was stated by the committee that there
was a "strong prima facie case for
unification". It also went on to state that it
believed Karnataka could also be a
financially strong province. This
recommendation aided the movement.
There was later support from literary
figures like Kuvempu, Bendre, Gokak, S B
Joshi, Betgeri Krishna Sharma, M Govinda
Pai, Shivarama Karanth and Kayyara
Kiyyanna Rai. There was also widespread
support growing from the newspapers and
media. Several smaller public and college
organisations also began, notably in
Bengaluru, Shivamogga and Raichur.

1937 elections
Following the Simon Commission,
elections were held in 1937. The Congress
said it would favour the formation of the
separate Karnataka and Andhra states.
This was met with some resistance from
the British and also some of the princely
states. While the princely states feared
that they might stand to lose some
territory, the British themselves were
unsure of how they would handle the
reorganisation.

Siddappa Kambli sensing the reluctance,

decided that the movement had to
approach the Simon Commission with
their case. But the other leaders of the
movement like Gangadharrao Deshpande,
Rangarao Diwakar, Koujalgi Srinivasarao
and Aluru advised him not to do so as they
had boycotted the commission. Gudlappa
Hallikeri invited the Maharaja of Mysore to
tour the Kannada speaking provinces of
Bombay and Hyderabad. After the tour and
several discussions the movement gained
his active support.

1946 conference
The tenth conference of the Ekikarana
movement was held on 10 January 1946
in Mumbai. This conference was
inaugurated by Sardar Patel and attended
by the likes of B. G. Kher, the then Chief
Minister of Bombay presidency. In his
speech at the conference, Sardar Patel
stated that the interests of all linguistic
groups would be high on the list of
priorities for the new government of
independent India. This served to reduce
the apprehensions of the movement
leaders and the common people. This was
also to have a bearing on the constituent
assembly that met in the same year.

In the same year, the All-Karnataka

convention, a gathering of Kannadigas
was held in Davanagere, in central
Karnataka. This was presided over by Mr.
M P Patil, the revenue minister of Mumbai.
This convention attracted tens of
thousands of Kannadigas from Karnataka.
Leaders like Gudlappa Hallikeri, Kengal
Hanumanthaiah, T Mariyappa,
Subramanya, Sowcar Chennaiah, H K
Veerangowda, H C Dasappa and H
Siddaiah attended this convention and
urged the constituent assembly to create
the linguistic states.

Post Independence
Political Divisions of Karnataka post Independence.

India soon gained independence in 1947.

The new government soon began delaying
concerning the Karnataka Ekikarana
movement. Kannada speaking areas were
now grouped under five administrative
units of the Bombay and Madras
provinces, Kodagu, and the princely states
of Mysore and Hyderabad. The Akhila
Karnataka Ekikarana Parishat met in
Kasargod and reiterated the demand for a
separate state for Kannadigas.

Opposition by Mysore State …

Ironically, the state of Mysore and several

politicians opposed unification of
Karnataka, on the pretext that Mysore
state has fertile lands, more developed
and present North Karnataka was not
developed with large area of dry land.[2]

Liberation of Hyderabad-Karnataka …
While Karnataka became independent with
the rest of the country on 15 August 1947,
this did not occur in some parts of the
state that were under the rule of the Nizam
of Hyderabad. Hyderabad consisted of
large portions of what were later to be the
north eastern districts of Bidar, Gulbarga
and Raichur of Karnataka state. The
Lingayat minority in these regions also
largely believed that they had been
neglected and resented the oppression of
the Nizam and the Razakars. The Nizam
refused to accede to India until his rule
was overthrown by force. Following the
'police action' against the Nizam,
Hyderabad province and its citizens
became independent on 17 September
1948. This day is celebrated by the
Karnataka government as the Hyderabad-
Karnataka liberation day.[3]

The Dhar and JVP committee …

In the same year, the government

appointed the Dhar commission to look
into the demands of the Ekikarana
movement as well as those of the other
parallel movements in the other states.
The Dhar commission in its report,
opposed any reorganisation of the states.
This was criticised by all quarters
including the Jaipur Congress.

The government now formed the 'JVP'

committee. This committee had
Jawaharlal Nehru, Vallabhbhai Patel and
Dr Pattabhi Sitaramayya on the board. This
committee examined the demands again
and created a report. The JVP report,
however, favoured only the creation of the
Andhra state while the Karnataka Ekikarana
movement was deliberately ignored. The
Ekikarana movement saw this as a
betrayal of the Congress which had
declared the creation of linguistic
provinces as one of its goals in its 1951
manifesto.

The movement now formed the Karnataka

Ekikarana Paksha to contest the 1951
polls. This was supported by literary
figures as well as politicians like Gudlappa
Hallikeri, Kengal Hanumantayya, S
Nijalingappa and C M Poonacha, the Chief
Minister of Kodagu.
The Fazal Ali Committee …

This section does not cite any sources.

Learn more

In January 1953, at the Congress session

in Hyderabad, a resolution was also
passed favouring the creation of Andhra
Pradesh but not Karnataka. A. J. Dodmeti,
a senior Congress leader and the member
of the Bombay assembly, immediately
resigned from his seat and launched a
hunger strike at Jakkali in Dharwad. This
was widely supported. In the riots at Hubli
that followed, many people were injured
and several courted arrest.

In the Hubli-Dharwad by-elections that

followed, the Congress were defeated
while the Karnataka Ekikarana Paksha's
candidate won by a landslide. Under
pressure, Prime Minister Nehru
constituted the States Reorganisation
Commission (SRC), also known as the
Fazal Ali commission due to being headed
by Justice Fazal Ali. At the same time, the
Mysore government appointed a fact-
finding committee, headed by M.
Sheshadri. The SRC opposed the
unification but its findings were ignored
due to overwhelming support in favour
from Mysoreans such as Mokshagundam
Visvesvaraya.

Congress leader Gudlappa Hallikeri

furthered the cause of unification within
his party by advocating for states based
on linguistic demographics. He also
represented and urged unification in front
of the SRC. The SRC eventually
recommended the reorganisation of the
states based on linguistic demographics
and this was soon ratified in parliament.

Aftermath
This section does not cite any sources.
Learn more

The ratification in parliament of the

recommendations of the SRC was reacted
to positively by Kannadiga people,
although there was also disappointment at
the non-inclusion of certain parts of
Mysore state. Most notable among the
excluded areas was Kasargod, which had
been one of the centres from which the
Ekikarana movement had launched its
agitation. This is an issue that continues
to affect those who fought for the
unification of Karnataka.

On 1 November 1973, under Devaraj Urs as

Chief Minister, Mysore state was renamed
as Karnataka.

Ekikarana Awards
To mark the celebrations of the 50th year
of Karnataka's unification, the state
government headed by the then Chief
Minister H D Kumarswamy awarded 36
individuals and 4 organisations with the
Ekikarana Award for the service they had
rendered for uniting Karnataka.

The Karnataka Vidyavardhaka Sangha,

Dharwad and the Kannada Sahitya
Parishat, Bengalooru (that Aluru once
assisted and headed) and Karnataka
Samithi (R), Kasaragod were included
among the recipients.

See also
Mysore (disambiguation)
 History of Hyderabad
Karnataka History Timeline

Notes
1. "Contributing to the cause" . Deccan
Herald. 1 November 2005. Retrieved
28 November 2006.
2. Pattanashetti, Girish (22 July 2014).
"People of Karnataka still haven't
united on an emotional level:
Jamadar" . The Hindu newspaper. The
Hindu. Retrieved 5 July 2018.
3. "Hyderabad Karnataka Liberation Day
to be celebrated in Bidar on September
 17" . The Hindu. 13 September 2006.
Retrieved 28 November 2006.

References
A detailed account of the Ekikarana
movement in the Deccan Herald
An article about the Vidyavardhaka
Sangha in the Deccan Herald detailing
the unification of Karnataka
Details of the Liberation Day
celebrations in The Hindu
Contributing to the cause - An article in
the Deccan Herald detailing the struggle
for unification
 An article in The Hindu throwing light on
the 'liberation' of Nizam's territories
Mention of the Fazal Ali report - The
Hindu
Unification and Congress support

External links
G B Pant's statement on reorganisation
Freedom fighters of Karnataka
Ekikarana awards list
[1]
Retrieved from
"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?
title=Unification_of_Karnataka&oldid=937053628"

Last edited 2 months ago by Vif12vf

Content is available under CC BY-SA 3.0 unless

otherwise noted.