Demand for statehood for Tulu Nadu, Kodava Land resurfaces.
Following the Telangana development, rumblings of a separatist movement has begun down south in Karnataka as well.
Two main separatist groups have got up from their slumber in Madikeri and Mangalore and soon they may surface with demands for carving out Tulu Nadu and Kodava Land from Udupi in Dakshina Kannada and Kodagu respectively.
The Codava National Council (CNC) had already demanded special status for the Kodava community after the national census had indicated an appalling decline in the number of natives in Kodagu district.
“The struggle for a separate statehood for Kodagu has been in the air for the past 24 years. It stemmed out of a long wait for the state to give Kodagu its share of resources.
Kodavas, who are natives of Kodagu district, are never given their share in government jobs and many other government resources that is needed for the development of Kodagu,” said journalist AC Mahesh Nachaiah.
Meanwhile, the CNC is planning to take a delegation to the central government and hold a meeting outside the parliament house in Delhi later this year. “We are a community that is dwindling in numbers at a fast rate. There is a need to sustain the Kodava genus constitutionally under the article 340 and 342, which provides for recognising ethno linguistic tribal minority nationality,” said NU Nachappa, president of the CNC.
“We may not press for a separate statehood, but we will definitely press for autonomous region status for Kodagu,” he added.
According to the 2011 census, there were 2.25 lakh Kodavas in the world, of which, only 1.25 lakh Kodavas were living within the political jurisdiction of Kodagu district. Kodagu was a separate C grade state till 1956, when the reorganisation of states was taken up.
Meanwhile, the demand for granting separate statehood for Tulu Nadu is picking pace. The first call for Tulu Nadu was made just after the quit India movement in 1942.
“Srinivas Updhyaya Paniyadi, a banker and a press owner from Udupi, had given momentum to this movement in 1943-44, when the leaders were organising their regions on the basis of languages. At that point of time, the Karnataka Ekikarana Samithi had requested Paniyadi not to press for Tulu Nadu. But, with the winds of bifurcation of states for creating smaller administrative units taking place in Telangana, the Tulu Nadu movement should also start now and we are getting together for a series of meetings, starting on Friday,” said Niranjan Rai of the World Tulu Federation (formerly Tulunada Rajya Chavadi).
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