Rani Chennamma a tale of brave Queen betrayed by her own

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Anupama Nair

www.mediaeyenews.com

Our great Prime Minister Modi inaugurated the Amrit Mahotsav or celebration of  India’s 75th year of Independence. We will be celebrating this event till 2022. I am going to write a feature on all those great men and women who fought against foreign invasion not just against the British. Today, I am going to write about the great but unknown Rani Chennamma, from Karnataka, who gave her life to save her kingdom from the British East India Company. She is one of the earliest individuals to rebel against the British East India Company's supremacy in India and she succeeded. Did you know she was the first Indian queen to fight British Imperialism, some decades before Rani Lakshmi Bai?

To understand the story of Rani Chennamma, I need to take you back many centuries before. India was ruled by the cruel Mughals. It is a credit to the British, how the merchants who came to do trade with India, within 300 years became the masters of the entire land from Khyber to Chittagong and from Kashmir to Comorin (now Kanya Kumari), i.e., entire Sub-Continent. The English East India Company was formed by merchants of England to trade with Asia and India the “golden bird” in particular and America. It was formed by Royal Charter on New Year’s Eve on 1600. They landed in the Indian subcontinent on August 24, 1608, in Surat (Gujarat).

The Battle of Plassey (1757) and Battle of Buxar (1764) , smoothened their path to conquer the sub-continent. Robert Clive became the first Governor General of British India. By spinning a web of deceit, and many laws like Subsidiary Alliance (Lord Wellesley) and Doctrine of Lapse (Lord Dalhousie), they succeeded in ruling the entire sub-continent by the 19th century. Jawaharlal Nehru in his book Discovery of India quoted “British rule in India had an unsavory beginning and something of that bitter taste has clung to it ever since”.

Rani Chennamma was born on October 23, 1778, in Kakati in Belagavi District (Karnataka), and belonged to the Lingayat community. Like Abakka Chowta she was also well trained in archery, and sword fighting from a young age. She was married to Mallasarja Desai, the king of Kittur (Karnataka), and thus became the queen of Kittur. She had a son and after the death of her husband in 1816, he also died in 1824. Chennamma then adopted Shivalingappa with the aim of making him the heir to the throne of Kittur. Do you see the similarity between her and Rani Lakshmibai, both were young widows, lost their young sons and the British were not happy with them adopting sons Damodar Rao and Shivalingappa?

The British ordered her to exile Shivalingappa and threatened her to annex her kingdom under the Doctrine of Lapse. What was the Doctrine of Lapse? The Doctrine of Lapse was a clever policy of annexation initiated by the East India Company in the Indian Subcontinent to illegally capture kingdoms. The Doctrine was introduced by Lord Dalhousie the Governor General of India between 1848 and 1856. However, the Directors of the East India Company used this policy in 1847 and annexed many princely states. Dalhousie used the Doctrine most forcefully and widely, so it is generally associated with him. According to the Doctrine of Lapse, if the king of a princely state, was either "manifestly incompetent or died without a male heir”, the East India Company had the right to annex the kingdom. So, according to the British, Kittur belonged to them and Rani Chennamma like Rani Lakshmi Bai refused to surrender her kingdom.

She refused to accept the Doctrine and exile of Shivalingappa. She appealed to Lord Elphinstone, the Lieutenant-Governor of Bombay, to let her son become the king. As expected, the plea was rejected, and the Dharwad collectorate took over the administration of Kittur. Rani Chennamma was informed that the new ruler and regent were not recognized, and Kittur would have to accept British rule.

Rani Chennamma refused to agree to the British, and they decided to teach her a lesson. They decided to loot her wealth (around 15 lakh rupees), to make her economically weak. In the first battle between the British and Kittur, in 1824, British forces had to face heavy losses. St. John Thackeray, the Collector, was killed by Rani Chennamma’s lieutenant, Amatur Balappa. Two British officers, Sir Walter Elliot and Mr. Stevenson were also taken hostages by Rani Chennamma’s forces. Rani Chennamma now negotiated with the British Commissioner Mr. Chaplin and the Governor of Bombay. She agreed to release the hostages believing the promise of the British that the war would no longer be continued. However, this promise was only an act of deception. Humiliated by their first defeat at the hands of a woman, Mr. Chaplin treacherously returned with much larger forces from Mysore and Sholapur to attack Kittur once again.

They also convinced two of her soldiers to betray her by mixing cow dung and mud with the gunpowder used for canons. This time, she was unfortunately captured and imprisoned for life in Bailhongal Fort, and she died in 1829. After her death, one of her most loyal and courageous lieutenants, Sangoli Rayanna, continued the war till he was hanged to death. Her son Shivalingappa too, was arrested by the British. Rani Chennamma was buried in Bailhongal and her burial place is a park maintained by the Government of Karnataka.

Her legacy still lives on and is still commemorated, during the Kittur Utsava held from 22–24 October every year. There was a blockbuster movie in Kannada made in 1962 called Rani Chennamma with Saroja Devi in the title role. This movie needs to be remade in Hindi and English as everyone in India can see it. A postage stamp was released in 1977 by the Government of India. The Coast guard ship "Kittur Chennamma" was commissioned in 1983 in her honor. The Indian Railways runs a train in her memory connecting Bangalore and Miraj. Rani Chennamma University in Belagavi is named after her.

A statue of Rani Chennamma was unveiled at the Indian Parliament by the first women President Pratibha Patil. The statue was donated by Kittur Rani Chennamma Memorial Committee and made by Vijay Gaur. There are also statues commemorating her at Bangalore, Belgavi, Kittur, and Huballi.

We need to recognize such great daughters of Bharat Maa and their sacrifices should not go in vain. It is my mission to see such great sons of Bharat Maa get their due. It is our duty not to let them be buried in the sands of time.

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There are 30 comments

  1. Our history of valour is being tactfully sidelined and our children and future generation need to know this. We knew it as school going children, but unfortunately very few of present school going may know it.
    The betrayal by our continues since centuries.

    Reply

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