The kannaDiga identity - first shot at expressing a sea of thoughts
Cross posted from LJ Bangalore, vinay_ks avara korikeya merege.

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Even though I have been a reader of LJ-Bangalore for a while, I've never actively participated. But, in the aftermath of responses to my post, I'm surprised at the range of emotions and especially the lack of Kannadiga-kannadiga voice in this forum. I'll try to address that lacunae.

I'm a kannaDiga by birth. I was born and brought up in Bangalore. I chose to study in a Kannada medium school till 8th standard when, at the age of Five, my father gave me a choice to select my medium of instruction . I grew up reading kuvempu's philosophy of "vishvamaanavata vaada"(universal humanism). He famously said, you can be a kannaDiga even when you are not in karnataka. If you are climbing Alps, that is your sahyadri; the water of Mississippi is your kaveri. Generations of kannaDigas outgrew the shackles of casteism, and other "traditions" by reading his works.

While this was true for people with letters, unlettered people got that message from Rajkumar. People who have to come to Bangalore recently fail to understand all the ruckus and sometime even misunderstand Rajkumar as the one who incites mobs against non-kannadigas. They could not have been more mistaken. It was Rajkumar who carried the message of "nava-bharatha" and later "nava-karnataka" to the corners of Karnataka. Go and watch "bangarada manushya"(lit. Man of Gold), where Rajkumar plays the role of a educated son returning to his village to fight the casteism not by throwing blood around but by bringing in education, technology and good-will. That was a path breaking statement for people who were torn between the old and the new.

Rajkumar himself was from the caste of "eeDigaru (toddy-tappers)" (an OBC in government-speak). In a country where, even after 58 years of Independence, casteism still rules in parts of India, kannaDigas of all castes and creeds accepted Rajkumar as their elder brother. If Karnataka is far ahead of many states in India in social equality, attribute some, if not all, of that to Rajkumar.This alone shows his service to karnataka and India.
Enough about Rajkumar. I'll write about more about him, when emotions on both sides have cooled down.


Yesterday, I visited the heritage sites of talakaaDu and somanathapura. See photos below.
talakaaDu was the capital of the earliest kannada kings - the Gangas [c350 AD].










more here

Somanathapura temple is an exemplary example of Hoysala art.


Even though this trip was planned long before Raj's death, it allowed me to get away from the emotion filled bangalore and take a look inside myself - what is kannada, who are we and more importantly where we want to go from here.

We are a people who have a "recorded" history of nearly 2000 years. We have always been a race of brave and tolerant people. For a race which once ruled India upto the Ganges, we are remarkably non-aggressive. In fact, the earliest kannaDa inscription talks of KannaDigas of being "paradharma sahishNutaru"(tolerant towards others).Karnataka is a place where many religions and hindu revivalist movements have grown. If there is one single quality that distinguishes kannada rulers from others, it has been religious tolerance. Whether it was Rashtrakutas towards Bhuddism or Gangas towards Jainism or later hoysalas towards advaita philosophy(Hindu revival) , or Tippoo sultan towards Hinduism, they have left a tradition which is remarkable. The social equality movement started in Karnataka in the 11th century AD with basavaNNa.

I would also take this context to remind that this quality of kannada and kannaDigas which made many like masti venkatesha iyengar (gnanapeeth awardee) , AK Ramanujam [Tamil], Govinda Pai,Girish Karnad [Konkani] and many others to adopt kannada to do their literary work over their mother tongues.

KannaDa and karnataka has always been a creator and not just a consumer in arts, literature, culture and religion. Today, it angers me and a lot of educated kannDigas when people lump us with rest of South India and call "madrasis" or some such inane word.

This history lesson has a context. When the present moment appears too close to the skin, it is time to look back and look into the future. As Siddhartha, the founder of Fireflies said the other day, "You have to be like a bow; the more you draw your arrow towards yourself, farther your arrow can fly".

While a part of me wants to blame all "outsiders" for "misusing" the hospitality of kannaDigas, my history and culture does not allow me to wallow in self-pity.

Dr. Raj's death brought me out of my self-enforced silence and made me evaluate what a kannadiga should be. Perhaps, it is not surprising that Rajkumar himself gave me a way out of it. I'm talking of Mayura Varma, the founder of the first Kannada kingdom - the Kadambas . He was a brahmin who chose to become a warrior to avenge an insult to a peace loving, non-violent student - himself. The first kannada kingdom took shape to give "swabhimaana"(self respect) to kannadigas. Rajkumar played the role of Mayura in the eponymous movie - Mayura.

But, Rajkumar, true to his image of all things kannadiga, downplayed the "avenger" part and chose to use his role to tell us what "being a kannadiga" means. Read this , this , and this review for a scholarly analysis of that movie.

I dont want kannaDigas to take up arms, like Mayura Varma did, but to introspect and find strength in the fact that we have done well, without being nasty or conscending of other people. We can be the race other people look up to rediscover qualities of humanity, tolerance, creativity and more importantly humility.