Madikeri: The Kodavas (original inhabitants of Kodagu district) in Karnataka have today asserted their need to be given the right to live with dignity and their own geopolitical freedom and freedom from the clutches of the majority communities that are a part of the state’s coalition government in Karnataka. These two major resolutions among the five they passed during the 28th Kodava National day held on December 2 (Sunday) has been perceived as a definite demand for either a different statehood for Kodagu or an independent Hill council or an autonomous administrative region status.
The Codava National Council (CNC) has been organising Kodava National Day for the last 28 years and had been protesting against the alleged efforts of the majority community in the old Mysore region to minimise Kodavas, specifically to snatch their land from them by deep and intensive political moves.
The 28th Codava National day also decried the ‘systematic and clandestine’ attempts by the government functionaries in Karnataka and in Kerala to divert the relief material given to the Kodagu landslide victims to the Rohingya refugees who have arrived in Kodagu from Kerala and posed as the victims of the landslide in Kodagu. The real Kodavas have got nothing out of the relief material which flowed from all over the country.
The resolution outlined the quest for the geopolitical autonomy and right to internal political self-determination for the Codava tribal world, which Kodagu enjoyed as ‘C’ state category till 1956.
The charter of resolution also has placed on record that the private member’s bill tabled by the Rajya Sabha MP Subramanium Swami must be cleared and Kodagu must be given its tribal-state status.
The CNC has also extended its solidarity to the Statue of Unity in Gujarat as it was Sardar Patel who stood by Kodagu and advocated an independent state status for Kodagu during the reorganisation of Indian states. It also put on record the efforts of MP B K Hariprasad in including Codava Thakk in the eighth schedule of Indian Constitution. The charter also opposed the proposed statehood or nation status for the Old Mysore region which is now being worked out insidiously by conspirators.
“We want justice and compensation for both of these crimes of ethnic genocide of 18th Century and greatest Geo-Political catastrophe of 20th Century for, which the CNC stood like a rock. In a first tragic incident of the war crime, maximum Codava clans lost their lives along with their wives and children. This led to the dwindling population of Codava Tribe,” said N U Nachappa, President of the Codava National Council at the Kodava National Day.
In the second incident, Codavas lost their political independence (right of self-determination). We have been ignored, marginalized and disrespected, he said.
The speakers at the Kodava National Day decried the attempts to raise Tippu Sulthan to Hero’s status when he had massacred thousands of Kodava at Devattparamb, which was nothing short of a catastrophe for Kodavas.
“Instead of consoling us, even now the same school of thought from old Mysore is terrorizing us by imposing compulsory celebration of Tipu Jayanthi against the wishes of native Codava tribe, thus insulting and humiliating Codava emotions,” Nachappa observed.
