What started as a minor dispute over installing of a statue of Sangolli Rayanna without permission at Peeranwadi village in Belagavi district, has blown up into a State-level issue within a fortnight. It reached a flashpoint on Friday when the statue was installed before dawn by unidentified people and another group tried to install a statue of Maratha ruler Shivaji at the same place.
There have been demands in recent times for naming structures in Bengaluru and other places after the freedom fighter from Nandagad in Belagavi district, who fought for queen Chennamma of Kittur and was eventually executed by the British.
Caste and language issues, besides political ambitions of leaders, appear to be linked to the resurgence of the demand for installation of Sangolli Rayanna statue in an obscure village in the border district where Kannada-Marathi linguistic pride is quick to reach a flashpoint. On Friday, while Congress leader Siddaramaiah and Minister K.S. Eshwarappa demanded installation of the statue at Peeranwadi, BJP MLC A.H. Vishwanath (now a ministerial aspirant) demanded that a tall statue of Rayanna be placed in front of the Suvarna Soudha in Belagavi. All three are leaders of the Kuruba community to which Rayanna belonged.
Political observers say the issue has multiple dimensions. “The Kuruba youth considers Rayanna as an iconic warrior from the community, as he was born in the Sangolli Rogannanavar family at Nandagad that belonged to the Kuruba community. Secondly, in a place such as Belagavi, he is seen as a Kannada hero juxtaposed to a Maratha leader like Shivaji. These are reasons enough behind the resurgence of the demand for erection of his statues. But the possibility of a political motive is strong behind such sudden movements,” said D.S. Chougale, a Belagavi-based writer. He added that such national heroes go beyond the confines of caste and language groups
Ashok Chandaragi, convener of the central committee of Kannada organisations in the district, also suspects strong political undercurrents behind the sudden resurgence of the demand. “A few days ago, the city police removed a Rayanna statue as it was installed at Peeranwadi without due permission. What was limited to a village was made into a State-level issue by political leaders,” he said and added that it was part of a desire to assume community leadership and demonstrate its lobbying powers.
Raghunath Malkapure, former MLC who has served as office-bearer of the Kuruba Sangha, said there were political dimensions to the assertion of the Kuruba identity. He contends that while the community leadership was so far assumed to be that of leaders such as Siddaramaiah, there is now an effort to “decentralise” the leadership. “This is not to say that it will be inclined towards the ruling BJP. But it is changing for sure,” Mr. Malkapure said.
Mahadev Talwar, State convener of the Karnataka Rakshana Vedike, decried attempts to label Rayanna as a Kuruba leader. “Rayanna is a national hero. Is this how we treat national heroes? The government is diluting the struggle by giving it a political colour,” he alleged.
The district administration faced a similar problem last month when some youth tried to place a Shivaji statue at the village square at Managutti. The police removed the statue and held a meeting of village elders. Local Maratha and Kannada groups held a joint press meet where they said they had resolved the issue locally, without the need for outside influence.
