March of Patriots

Independence of India

1947

The research in Molecular Biology concluded in 2009 by Harvard University in thirteen

states of India was uncertain of the “Aryan Invasion” theory of India. The inconclusive
scientific study of Harvard University is a stepping stone in right direction for finding the
facts regarding ancient tribal migrations into India since the dawn of civilization. Initially,
Max Muller, a professor of theology at oxford, gave three lectures in 1861 called “Science of
Languages” in which he argued that the blackest Indians belonged to the Aryan culture
more than the fairest Scandinavians. The interpretation of the English rulers manipulatively
introduced the racial undertone to the Max Muller’s hypothesis. Furthermore, they twisted
Muller’s hypothesis to fabricate a new theory, “Aryan victory over the Dravidian aborigines
of India”. Muller resented the English rulers for misrepresenting his theory on the Vedic
culture in racial terms. Aryan is purely a culture based on Vedas and Upanishads and not a
race. The misinformed Aryan racial propaganda came back to haunt England and the world
during World War II. Hitler embraced the fallacy of Aryan Supremacy and ruthlessly
murdered millions of Jews whom he called non-Aryans.

The Aryan and Dravidian hypothesis is just hundred fifty years old. It was well accepted by
the people in India and majority of them tried to relate their ancestry to the Aryan race and
even linked to the Saxons of Germany, purely out of their intrinsic feelings of lowliness. The
notion of the Aryan and Dravidian segregation was further magnified in India, after the
Second World War. The Brahmins of North India identified themselves as Aryan Brahmins
and disparaged the Dravidian Brahmins of the south. It is quite transparent that the “Aryan
migration from the Central Asia” was a plot of the British without any relevant historical
evidences or scientific proof. The Turkic slave king, Gazni Mahamud attacked Peshavar in
1001 AD and continued his campaign in India till 1024 AD annexing Sind, Punjab and
Kashmir. He brought 10,000 Turkic and Iranian soldiers who gradually blended with

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Indians. Mughal rule of India (1526- 1764) by and large instituted Turkic cultural concepts
including literature, art, architecture and food in most of the northern India. The popular
Kathak-Mughal dance lately seen in the Indian movies came from Uyghur which was
comprised of central Asia and western China. These are just two of many earliest incidences
of northern influences on India. Since the first century BC, the facts regarding the exodus of
Scythians, Kushans, Gandharas, Huns, Persians, Turks, Mongols, Moguls, Portuguese,
French and British are well documented in the history unlike the sketchy belief of the
migration of Aryans. The Scythians and Kushans are the earliest confirmed invaders from
central Asia who settled in India. The Kushan king Kanishka ruled Persia, Bactria,
Afghanistan and North India that made the Kushan Empire an amalgamation of many
civilizations. He honored Prakrit, Sanskrit, Persian and Bactrian languages on equal
footings. The ethnic interchanges brought in new cultural values from Iran and Bactria to
northern India. Four hundred years prior to Kanishka, Emperor Asoka exported indigenous
religious values of Buddhism to Afghanistan and China. Many recent historians had
assumed that Vedic teachings belonged to the immigrants from Central Asia. Why even the
slightest traces of the Vedic divinity other than Buddism cannot be found in Central Asia,
presumed original abode of Aryans?

Approximately four and a half thousand years’ old Dravidian settlements of Saraswati and
Sindu civilizations were discovered in the early part of the twentieth century at Rupar,
Kalibangan and Lothal in India, and Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro in Pakistan. According to
the recent archeological findings Vedas existed during the Saraswati and Sindhu
civilizations, which dates at least fifteen hundred years prior to the hypothesized Aryan
invasion. India is a melting pot of immigrants and cultures that started blending with the
people of India since two and a half thousand years ago. The Kharosti calligraphy of the
fifth century BC found in Taxila might be one of the earliest historical evidences of the
western influence over India. Taxila University, which was founded in the sixth century BC
during the reign of the Achaemenid Dynasty, initially taught in the Old Persian language.
The skepticism arises from the absence of relics or historical evidences such as, ancient
architectures, weapons, stamps, coins, and skeletal remains backing the Aryan migration
from the central Asia. In this scientific age, substitutions of the mythical stories of the
Hindu epics to justify the Aryan connections are inadequate. The legend of Aryan invasion
was deliberately fabricated by the British rulers. Even though it was a figment of fantasy,
the Indian skeptics forced themselves to believe in the romantic thought of belonging to the
Indo-European race. They didn’t even bother to verify the specifics supporting the
hypothesis. Starting from the invasion of Alexander the great in the fourth century BC,
India was invaded by foreign invaders many times till the independence of India. Indians
didn’t believe in their ability to the extent they easily gave into alien invaders. That very
quality made them romanticize of being mythical Aryan invaders.

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The Britishers took advantage of the widespread illiteracy to uphold their tenure in the
Indian Subcontinent. They deliberately divided India into Hindus and Muslims, Aryans
and Dravidians, North and South. They magnified the prejudice among the castes by
officially publishing the list of castes. They even created many new castes, which did not
exist prior to the British Rule. The cataloging of the castes created countless number of
social silos and chauvinistic sectarianism. A community in the western countries means
neighborhood but in India it is strictly a group of people belonging to the same caste.
During the British rule, most of the Indian communities were neither self-sufficient nor
helpful to other communities. The country based on pseudo values such as, religion and
caste became hopelessly heterogeneous. The segregation induced by the British rule was
one of the main reasons for the division of British India into two separate countries, India
and Pakistan. Britishers tactically tried to alienate India from its own culture. The fabricated
flimsy plots to split Hindus and Muslims hoisted doubts among many political leaders of
India including Mahatma Gandhi who was a blunt opponent of the partition of India.

By the end of the nineteenth century, manipulative methods of the English rule that
controlled the masses of India created a favorable environment for the English language to
gain prominence over the Indian languages. For Indians proficiency in English became the
mark of literacy. The British bureaucracy started employing Indians to the lowly mundane
governmental jobs. With scanty education in English, most Indians eagerly accepted menial
jobs such as record keepers and police constables with great pride. Sitting on a chair behind
a desk became a pretentious accomplishment for them. The Viceroy of India (1869-72), the
Earl of Mayo, called it “Denationalization of the Governed”. In plainness the Viceroy
expressed his premeditated plan of programming the people of India to be submissive to
the alien rulers of England. Nadavaras, because of their inherited a sense of ego filled with
the admiration for self-rule did not endure the British rulers. In the beginning of the
twentieth century, when Gati Sahib (Venkanna H. Naik, Gonnehalli 1879-1929) was
preparing to leave for Cambridge, England in 1907 to pursue his higher education, the
community provisionally outcasted him. In the Hindu caste system, an individual would be
excommunicated from the caste, usually for breaking caste restrictions. Till 1920s, many
Hindus were outcasted for going abroad as it was presumed that they would commit some
ritual offense. However, Nadavaras were not religious enough to exclude a promising
fellow Nadavara man from their caste. Perhaps, Sahib was outcasted on the belief that he
was joining the British.

Sahib was not deterred and went on to complete his MA at Cambridge. In 1911 after
returning to India he was assigned to Agricultural Department of Bombay State. He did not
have the job satisfaction as limited authority was permitted to take on any meaningful

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projects. He demanded for more responsibility, but the Governor of Bombay turned down
his request. He explicitly expressed his feelings to the Governor. According to Sahib, the
negation was neither a personal insult nor the fault of the Governor but was a bigger issue
of discrimination confronting Indians. He decided to go back to England to pursue Bar-At-
Low. Unfortunately, the World War I broke out in 1914. He waited for the war to end and
in 1919 he revisited England with a focused objective of studying the British Law. In 1921,
he was called to the Bar and was awarded Bar-At-Law by the Honorable Society of
Lincoln's Inn which was one of four main courts to which the barristers of England and
Wales belonged. Barrister Mahamad Ali Jinnha (1876- 1948), the former President of
Pakistan, who was a good friend and frequent correspondent of Sahib, was also an alumnus
of Lincoln’s Inn. Before returning to India, he worked for a brief time with a team of
economists to prepare a plan for the land development in Scotland. He told his friends that
his involvement in the project was an error as he could have gone home three months
earlier. Sahib loved his native land. After returning to India in 1921, Sahib joined the
bureaucratic British Rule, but he was planning on starting his own law practice soon after
implementing a few projects that he initiated for the people of Northern Karnataka. In fact,
to join the Independence Movement, Sahib was pondering on quitting the coveted rank of a
collector which was consigned only to an Englishman with Indian Civil Service
qualification during that era.

Mr. Jinnha was trying to persuade Sahib to join his law practice in Bombay (Mumbai). In
the 1920s, Jinnah was actively involved in the politics of the National Congress Party and
Muslim League. He had tempestuous relations with many leaders of the Congress Party
including Mahatma Gandhi and Vallabhbhai Patel. Was he really trying to partner with
Sahib to promote his law practice? Or was he trying to get help from Sahib to accomplish
his privileged political ambitions? The year 1920 was a critical time in Jinnah’s political
career when he opposed the resolutions proposed by Mahatma Gandhi. He strained his
affiliation with the National Congress Party and severed his ties from the members of the
party. As Jinnah was one of the most senior and qualified personalities in the Indian
political arena, he hoped for the emergence of a single-nation state of independent India
and dreamed of becoming the head of the state. In 1922, in an attempt to earn the goodwill
of Mr. Vallabhbhai Patel, Mr. Jinnah successfully defended fund misapplication case filed
by the government against Mr. Patel. Still they continued to remain at odds in the Indian
political beliefs. Jinnah was the President of the Muslim League and the League’s goal was
to create a separate nation for the Muslims of India. The League’s goal of a separate nation
did not concur with the Jinnah’s dream of one secular nation. In late 1920s, during such a
momentous period in his political career, conceivably, Jinnah wanted support from Sahib to
stabilize the confusing political situation and to improve his relations with the National
Congress Party that was dominated by the Hindus.

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The Governor of the Bombay state, Sir Fredrick Sykes learnt about Jinnah’s correspondence
with Sahib and Sahib’s communication with other political leaders of the National Congress
Party. He questioned Sahib about his intentions. Sir John E Hotson, the Secretary of the
Bombay Presidency and later in 1932 the Acting Governor of Bombay Presidency,
suggested that Sahib be appointed as an authority to promote the agricultural development
in India. Shortly after the Sir Hotson’s proposal in June 1929, Governor Sir Sykes asked
Sahib to be one of his four direct reports. Sir Sykes was especially fond of Sahib’s style of
management. Sahib was expected to take on the new responsibility, Divisional
Commissioner of the Central Division, with the administrative office in Poona in January
1930. Unfortunately, two months prior to his new assignment, in November 1929, Sahib
prematurely died after a brief illness. Sahib was operated for minor appendicitis conditions
at the Bijapur Civil Hospital. Apparently, he was given an overdose of medicine for a
speedy recovery by his family doctor. Overmedication might have triggered an adverse
reaction. It was the era prior to the miracle of penicillin when people undergoing minor
surgical procedures often died due to infection. Sahib was cremated in front of the Anti-
Famine Institute in Bijapur with a stately honor. The Anti-Famine Institute still stands in
the center of Bijapur downtown as Sahib’s memorial. The postmortem report prepared by
the British District Surgeon, Dr. Bene confirmed that he died of food poisoning. Mr. Basnur,
the police chief of Bijpur, without delay launched an investigation to find the cause of the
Sahib’s death but mysteriously the police investigation was put on hold. Sahib’s family and
friends suspected murder. The mystery surrounding his sudden death instigated rumors
based on conjectures. If foul play, who was responsible? Was it a doctor’s error? Was it a
well planned political conspiracy?

Gati Sahib’s career in India was too brief. In Bijapur, Sahib founded the Anti-Famine
Institute to help farmers improve their productivity through agricultural research. In the
early part of the twentieth century the people of India suffered from the protein deficiency.
In order to curb the protein shortage, Sahib implemented a scheme to grow hybrid peanuts
that could be grown in the semi-arid tropics where other crops failed. He imported hybrid
peanut seeds from the US. The improved variety produced more peanuts and fodder for
livestock than did the indigenous peanut crop. The farmers of Northern Karnataka got
enthused and started multiplying the hybrid seeds that eventually spread all over India.
Gati Sahib was a close friend of Alur Venkataraya one of the pioneers of Karnataka
Ekikarana (Unified Karnataka). Being an associate of the bureaucratic British Rule, Sahib’s
hands were tied to work on political issues. Alur Venkataraya with great admiration
revealed Gati Sahib’s covert letters on Karnataka Ekikarana after his death. Karnataka was
partly split between Bombay and Hyderabad states where Kannada was ignored. Gati
Sahib wanted Kannada to be on equal footings with Marathi and Telugu.

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Gati Sahib’s efforts on building a main port on the West Coast of India at Bhatkal, Uttar
Kannada and a high school and a college under Bombay University at Gokarna were
approved by the British rulers only a short time before his death. After his demise no one
from Uttar Kannada was able to pursue the projects he began. Many years after Sahib’s
death, instead of Bhatkal the port development project was shifted to Mangalore, Karnataka
and then it was under Madras Presidency. Sadly, the planned educational center of
Northern Karnataka in Gokarna never materialized. Sahib’s rare qualities of genius,
intensity and compassion are cherished and personified as the model student at
Vidyavardhaka Sangha, Dharwar. He was a sweetheart of the Nadavara community. For
many years, the friends and relatives frequently discussed the shortfall due to Sahib’s
untimely demise. Usually the backward looking “what if” scenarios are hard to fathom but
undoubtedly the death of Sahib affected the progress of Northern Karnataka.

In the eighteenth and the nineteenth centuries, because of the Industrial Revolution,
productivity of England soared. The Victorian age (1839-1901), the period of Queen
Victoria’s reign was considered to be the pinnacle of the English prosperity. Great Britain
controlled the largest colonial territory including India, Canada, Australia and South Africa.
England relied greatly on the raw materials such as cotton, indigo, jute and other
agricultural products from India. The raw materials out of India were exported without any
concern for the people of India. Colonial India under Lord Dufferin, the Viceroy of India
(1884-1888), exported high grade sea salt produced in India and imported Cheshire rock salt
from England for the Indian consumption. The population of England doubled from 15
million in1850 to 30 million in 1900. For the maintenance of their lofty standard of living,
the British Parliament opted to raise taxes on the people of India. Rudyard Kipling’s,
satirical poem of 1897, “Recessional” likened the destiny of the British Empire to the
pompous empires of the past. The poem was deemed to be the harbinger to the
forthcoming decline of the British Empire. Kipling wrote it after sensing the gradual
worsening of the British hold of India. Dadabhai Naoaroji, Gopal Krishna Gokhale and Bal
Gangadhara Tilak were the earliest nationalists to perceive the coming of the end of British
Raj.

Though the British Rule wasn’t appreciated by many rural communities all over India, it
greatly helped to integrate India into one large modernized nation. India was adversely
fragmented into numerous small kingdoms prior to the English occupation of the
subcontinent. The consolidated British India with its new railway network and
telecommunication system made the interaction between the well spread out Indian cities
much easier. The wealthy minority mostly living in the cities started imitating the fashions,
customs, education, and sports of the westerners and a fortunate few even sailed across

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many seas to England for education. They became elite Indian class that formed
hierarchically a new buffer caste in between the westerners and rest of India. The
westerners living in India though stayed socially detached from Indians there was limited
social mixing with the elites of India. Exposed to the British management, the westernized
Indian elites thought of actively participating in the British administration. In 1885 with the
help of a Scottish zoologist, Alan Octavian Hume a group of select Indians formed the All
India Congress Party. Its goal was to seek opportunities for the English educated Indians in
the British bureaucratic government. In 1908, Bal Gangadhar Tilak introduced the radical
concept of “Swaraj” or Independent India in the mandate of the All India Congress Party.
He was credited for the notion of self rule for India through nonviolence even before
Mahatma Gandhi embarked on well recognized Satyagraha.

Mahatma Gandhi in the pursuit of independence of India proposed Satyagraha, the non-
cooperation nonviolent movement, as a means for achieving freedom from the British
rulers. The strategy was to pressure the British ruling machine with noncooperation and
disobedience within the restraint of nonviolence. It was a complicated course to practice
and was never carried out successfully in the past. Even Mr. Gandhi thought that the
nonviolence movement would be difficult to pursue in such a large nation with such
diverse ethnicities and opinions. He explained the nonviolence movement as a faith-based
virtue and is superior to political thinking. The experimental movement was planned with
great political acumen to prevent the British rulers from gaining any kind of victory. The
civil disobedience approach was expected to minimize any form of life threatening violent
aggressions by the sovereign power. Mahatma Gandhi’s oratory fueled by his many caustic
public speeches critical of the alien rulers intrigued Indians from all across the country.
Gandhi’s uncanny ability to communicate with the masses mesmerized the people of India
to the extent that they called him Bapuji, meaning father or conceptually father of the
nation. His suggestion was well accepted by the All India Congress Party and Muslim
League. On February 5, 1922 the movement of Chauri Chaura in Uttara Pradesh got out of
control and quickly turned violent. The agitated protestors set fire on the police station that
killed twenty-three policemen on duty. Gandhi requested the demonstrators to cease the
campaign at once. He had difficulty in coming to terms with the failure of his much-
believed exemplary Satyagraha. However, the Chauri Chaura incident was an indication of
the upcoming widespread campaign against the British Raj.

The next major passage of drive was the Salt Satyagraha (1930-34). The Taxation was
determined by the British Parliament without any concern for the people of India.
Unwarranted onerous taxation was imposed on food supplies, to generate the much-
needed funds for supporting the declining economy of England. The tax on salt was the
major tax component that contributed 9% to the total revenue. The domestic salt

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production by anyone other than the government agencies was a punishable felony. The
Indian National Congress Party along with the Muslim League, as a symbolic gesture of
opposing the British Rule in India, instigated the Salt Satyagraha or “No Tax Movement”.
The people all cross India united to protest the salt tax. The anti-government demonstration
was carried out in many pockets of the nation. The Nadavara community was stung by the
excessive land taxation imposed on the landlords. Mahatma Gandhi, the architect of the Salt
Satyagraha and the adversary of the British rule became their ultimate hero. His campaign
for Swaraj or the Independent India against the British rulers thrilled the entire community.
Nadavaras quickly transformed from the long history of martial behavior to nonviolent
Satyagraha, which was an uncharted domain of engagement for them. Faith in Gandhi
made them feel quite sanguine about the might of Satyagraha. The Nadavara involvement
in Salt Satyagraha quickly became national news.

Nadavara struggle to free India from one hundred and fifty years of British rule is well
documented in the History of Satyagraha. The Nadavara endorsement of the non-violence
movement led by Mahatma Gandhi was unprecedented given their warrior history of many
centuries. Even though the ideology of Satyagraha was not built into their combative
heredity, it was viewed as a long-waited opportunity that presented itself and they seized it
unreservedly. Just like the Patidars of Bardoli, Gujarat, Nadavaras stood as steadfast as ever
before for the liberation of India. However, Bardoli’s noncooperation movement of 1928
was limited to tax exemption on the draught stricken provincial land whereas in Uttara
Kannada the Nadavara involvement in Satyagraha was not out of necessity but was bound
for a far-reaching cause, the freedom of India. The Salt Satyagraha led by Mahatma Gandhi
was declared on January 26, 1930 by the All India Congress Party. Mr. Hapi Rama Naik,
Basgod, a local activist requested the leaders such as, D.P Karmarkar, R.R Divakar, K.A
Venkataramaih, and V.S Narayanrao to Surve, a village near Ankola, to participate in the
Salt Satyagraha. Rama’s enthusiasm was infectious. The campaign orchestrated by him
fascinated many Nadavara men and women. Surve became the local center for the self-
assured Satyagraha campaigners.

The movement in Surve began in March 1930. Many fervent men and women from the
surrounding Nadavara villages flocked to Surve for the covert meetings. On April 13, 1930,
they fearlessly marched to Belambar, Uttara Kannada, a fishing village on the seashore, and
produced salt as a token of disobedience to the British rulers. They entered the forest and
cut the branches of the forbidden trees. They boycotted foreign clothes and burned them in
public. The police forces arrested many participants of Satyagraha, while Hapi Ram in the
thick forest of Ankola remained at large. The spirited Satyagaraha in Ankola captivated the
nation’s curiosity. Rama, the ultimate schemer was the most wanted man. The British knew
that he was the main organizer of the Satyagraha in Ankola. In 1930s when Rama was

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hiding in the jungle, his toddler son accidentally died of pneumonia. The police waited at
his residence in Basgod, expecting Rama’s return from exile for the funeral of his son. Rama
refrained from going back home or even for the cremation, although he was immensely
saddened by his young son’s demise. He twice came very close to being caught. Rama
couldn’t afford to be detained by police. His leadership was indispensible.

In 1930, over two hundred Nadavara participants, including a few women, were arrested
and jailed in unknown remote prisons. An anonymous press reporter described the women
participants as “…not very literate, but incredibly active campaigners.” A woman of
Hichgad, Laxmi boldly standing on the podium, delivered alarming speech to a group of
people gathered. The next day, same reporter overturned his report to read, “Educated
speech of Laxmi was talk of the town.” Kani Bommakka of Kanigal, the leader of the
women’s demonstration held in front of the collector’s office, Karwar, was imprisoned for
waving black flag. Along with her many other women protesters from Hichgad, Kanigal,
Shatgeri, Surve, and Maskeri were jailed. Manudevi of Kanigal was fatally beaten for
obstructing the police from arresting women. Satamma Nayak, Jamagod was secretly
catering food in jungles to the absconding activists. For scheming underground operation,
she was imprisoned for two years. Activities signifying peaceful disobedience were
intentionally carried out by the Nadavara men and women in support of the Satyagraha
until they were arrested. Mr. Dinakar Desai, a famous Kannada poet in his Kannada poetic
flair wrote,” The brave Nadavaras, who once fought the wars of Vijayanagara, are now
fighting the war of Satyagraha for the independence of India. They are the authentic
patriots.”

The callous handling encountered by the political detainees of Salt Satyagraha was a
common topic of discussion among Nadavara families. Under the umbrella of Salt
Satyagraha, the campaign was further stretched to reject the commodities imported from
England and moreover to oppose the export of locally harvested timber and other crops. In
1932, the scope of the expanded measures of Salt Satyagraha was accentuated with yet
another local brand name, “Karabandhi” (tax denial), which was perhaps to rejuvenate
vigor among the tired campaigners. The first formal Karabandhi Satyagraha meeting in
Uttara Kannada was held in the courtyard of the Kalasha Temple, Surve in March 1932. The
British government resolutely repudiated the assault accusations made by the imprisoned
freedom fighters. The inevitable predicaments of Satyagraha involving confrontation with
the police forces, followed by imprisonment, losing family properties had already dispirited
many attendants of the meeting. Going back to prison was also perceived by many as an
onerous task that would extend stress on their children. Their resolve was tinted with
resignation. The assembly of freedom fighters was almost on the verge of emotional
capitulation.

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When the whispers of hesitation began to spread across the gathering, Surve Bommayya
Nayaka walked up to the podium and proclaimed, "Most of you are in favor of India’s
independence, yet some are beginning to deprecate Satyagraha.” and convincingly
announced “I may lose everything and may inconvenience my family, still I will
undividedly dedicate myself to the lofty resolve of Satyagraha and if some of you pull out, I
will try hard to fill the void.” His brave words of candor resonated all over the courtyard.
The attendees were provoked by the speech. Nadavara martial spirit was so provoked, even
they were getting drunk on it. The collective conviction of the assembly rose above its fear.
With unwavering determination one by one slowly rose to their feet in absolute silence. The
meeting was concluded with a clamor to continue the protest British Raj in full force. At
that critical juncture the lesser known Bommayya turned out to be a sensational motivation
speaker. That moment and that pristine scene remained as one of the most remembered
events of the Satyagrahis of Ankola. They frequently spoke nostalgically of the incident for
years to come. After the death of Bommayya in 1952, he was honored with a hero’s tribute
for revitalizing the freedom movement. The Salt Satyagraha lasted for four years.
Hundreds of Nadavaras spent time in detention centers. In some villages hardly, a few old
men were left to take care of the women and children. The women had to deal with the
financials of their families. Many borrowed monies from the moneylenders and many sold
their lands. The children could not attend the remote schools without adult escorts. Their
attendance in schools declined and many dropped out. The community faced severe
hardships during the freedom movement. It was the martial attribute of Nadavara men and
women that carried them through the apprehension caused by Satyagraha.

Mahatama Gandhi personally acknowledged the people’s enthusiasm and dedication with
which the Satyagraha was carried out in Surve. However, the non-violence movement
drained even a little bit of oxygen that was left in the Nadavara financial situation. Once
again, for the non-payment of taxes on land, many lost most of the little pieces of ancestral
property and some lost even their homes. Many became so destitute that they could not
afford good education for their children. Since the eighteenth century, persistently
declining Nadavaras socioeconomic conditions deteriorated to an extent, that one could
hardly imagine the status of their past as rulers of realms. Even though the financial
hardship was severe, the struggle for independence did not pause. A handful of local
people just by paying the pending or unpaid taxes purchased lands lost by the Nadavaras
for incredibly low prices. In Karnataka, Nadavaras were the major sufferers during the
period of the non-tax movement. However, this earned North Kanara a distinguished place
in the history of the Freedom Movement of India. The British Raj introduced the British
India Act of 1935 that led to the recognition of the Congress Party.

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Misfortunes of various forms, starting from the defeat at the battle of Talikote to losing of
their inherited properties during the Freedom Movement of India, had resolutely stalled the
progress of the Nadavara community for an extended period, but Nadavaras somehow
continued to live with dignity. After returning from prison, it was the time for adjusting to
the normal routine of everyday life. A few years of absence had brought down their
families to standstill and in some cases even worse. Back at home the life wasn’t as
expected; it was the time to pay the piper. They were overwhelmed by the harsh reality. In
order to survive they were forced to sell their lands for trivial worth. It was almost like
burning home furniture to stay warm during the nuclear winter. In mid 1930s, many
Nadavaras returning from prison suffered from the emotional stress caused by the Freedom
Movement, which was similar to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). The western
countries recognize PTSD as one of the ills of wars and treat their soldiers returning from
wars for the disease. Many Nadavara men suffered from nervous tension and occasional
mental breakdowns. Obviously, the English rulers were not concerned about the
psychological impairments caused by the non-violence movement. The depressive disorder
was so severe that they existed for no reason or purpose and it even adversely affected their
families. Under the duress, they lost the motivation for livelihood. Nadavaras became so
dysfunctional, without an external stimulus, it became difficult to get them out of the ditch
of depression. The community as a whole was in need of urgent help to relieve its men and
women from the convoluted problems that were caused by the adverse economic and social
environment.

The question “How to begin the repair of damaged mind of the community?” had to be
answered internally and immediately. One of the earliest educators of Uttar Kannada
Ramachandra K. Naik, Torke, along with other leaders decided to revive the dormant
Nadavara Sangha (Association), which was founded in 1904. As a symbolic gesture of the
association’s existence, the Ramakrishna Mandira (Sangad Mane), a community hall, was
built in 1934 in Torke, Uttar Kannada. The Sanghad Mane was built as the memorial of
Ramakrishna Kavari, Torke who was a Sanskrit scholar, prominent reformer and educator
of the community in the Nineteenth century. The purpose of the Sangad Mane was to
promote the social and political activities to invigorate the Nadavara community. Even
more than losing properties, Nadavaras lost critically valuable time, which was rightly
subverted for an honorable cause. Paucity of funds became the main obstacle for the
children’s education which obviously lagged behind. The sacrifice of the Satyagrahis
(participants of Satyagraha) was immense, but significantly disrupted their family lives.
The after-effects of Satygraha crushingly disturbed the financial equilibrium of households
and needed a new solution to alleviate the unanticipated new dilemma. The Sangad Mane
was an essential foundation of all the organizations needed for the promotion of education.
Many political leaders, scholars were invited to preside over the communal functions. A

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few Nadavara writers and artists wrote, directed, and recited Yakshagana plays to inspire
the people. At social gatherings, the history of the past and the hopes of the future
converged giving out the sparks of new outlook on the life ahead.

The implementation of the “Sangad Mane” concept was barely in time remedy to bring
order to the disorderliness caused by the Freedom Movement of India. It became the beacon
of hope to the dispirited families. True to their communal attribute, once again Nadavaras
were dedicated for a cause. Despite the unfavorable socioeconomic conditions, collectively
they regained aspirations for better living. The foremost priority was focused on education
and they went out on a limb to educate their children. The enrollment of Nadavara students
in the schools grew rapidly. In 1945, at Sangad Mane the Nadavara Sangha celebrated
belated silver jubilee, which was actually 41 years after founding the association, as a mark
of its accomplishment. The Bombay Tenancy and Land Reforms Act of 1956 forced to
relinquish much of the land that they owned to their farmers or tenants. The effect on their
living condition was not as sever since the community as a whole had already taken a step
forward in diverting their means of livelihood to education by mass-producing teachers.
The Sangad Mane was instrumental in planting a seedling of education that swelled up into
an educated ethnicity based on worthy traditions. The well thought out petite concept of
Sangad Mane to uplift the depressed Nadavara community was proven to be a brilliant
idea. Although the Sangad Mane played an important role of a catalyst, the community’s
self-realization process that helped the self-promotion was rather intrinsic. Sangad Mane
still stands as the legendary hallmark of the community’s character and integrity.

The armed forces of India in support of the United Kingdom joined Allies to combat Axis in
WW II. The Indian Military was made up of 2.3 million recruits including the reserve forces.
India suffered heavy casualties, especially losing 100,000 soldiers in Burma in a violent
fighting against Japanese army. The U.K parliament led by the Prime Minister Winston
Churchill hesitated to give the credit that India deserved for the active participation in WW
II. The demeanor of the British Raj in India is well portrayed in the Madhushree
Mukhrjee’s 2012 book, “Churchill's Secret War: The British Empire and the Ravaging of
India during World War II”. The Great Famine of Bengal of 1943-44 according to Mukherjee
was a manmade famine. During the famine the British Raj was still exporting rice from
India. But Britain held back the dispatch of wheat which was expected to feed specifically
the famine struck people of Bengal. The Prime Minister, Winston Churchill literally hated
the people of India. Mukherjee in her book quoted his racist remark, “I hate Indians. They
are a beastly people with a beastly religion” to his view of Bengalis that “they breed like
rabbits”. He did everything in his power to stop the wheat shipment reaching the Indian
Shores. Australia wanted to ship wheat to India, but they didn’t have enough ships.
Churchill deliberately took no initiative to help Australia for transporting wheat to India.

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 March of Patriots

The merchants in India were hoarding grains to inflate prices. Approximately 3-4 million
people died in Bengal and Bihar. The famine was called, the WW II Bengali Holocaust for
which Churchill was held responsible. Churchill’s mental illness of racism was a fact well
known to the Indian leaders. After the WW II, he was tried in the International Court for
war crimes. The British Government quietly erased his misdeeds against the Bengali
peasants. Churchill became the famous war prime minister. The dark-side of Churchill,
devoid of remorse for the lives lost in the Bengal famine was discounted. After the WW II
the British Raj struggled to gain foothold over the “Quit India Movement”.

The Quit India Movement which began with the famous speech from Mahatma Gandhi on
August 8, 1942 was well timed when England was weakened by the constant German
bombardment in the thick of WW II. In November 1942 AD, the Nadavara community,
including many women, participated in the Quit India Movement (Non-violence Freedom
Movement) headed by Mahatma Gandhi, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel and Jawaharlal Nehru.
Initially the Quit India movement led to riots in some pockets of India. The participants
burnt post offices, railway stations. The British held Mr. Gandhi accountable for the
outburst of violence. Even the Muslim league blamed Gandhi for the violence, but Gandhi
denied all charges, ignoring the intimidation of the law enforcement, Nadavaras, to their
credit, sanctimoniously participated in the protest rally. As they marched swiftly on their
way to the prison wearing a Gandhi Topi (cap) and Khadi (Hand spun and hand woven)
shirt, the people standing by the roadside watched them; cheered them; adored them; songs
were sung, and stories were told of the heroic deeds of the patriotic Nadavaras. They did
not cross the guidelines of nonviolent protest set by Gandhi. Many Nadavara men were
imprisoned for the rebellion against the British Raj. The Nadavara women also took a keen
interest in the demonstrations. The former, and presently controversial national anthem of
India, “Vande Mataram” (I salute thee, Mother) became the evening prayer in many
Nadavara homes. Their loyal commitment to Satyagraha encapsulates the Kshatriyan
history of Nadavaras and reflects on how they might have fought as soldiers in the past to
protect their regarded territories.

India gained independence at 12 AM on August 15, 1947. Pandit Jawaharalal Nehru was
crowned as the prime minister of India, but Mahatma Gandhi did not attend the ceremony
because the independent India was not the same unified secular India that he dreamt all
through his campaign. Jawaharlal Nehru, a young man first met Gandhi at the Indian
National Congress Party meeting held at Lucknow in 1916. Nehru was captivated by the
imposing personality of Gandhi. Gradually strong bonds were woven between them.
Gandhi began to treat Nehru like his own son. Possibly Nehru becoming the prime minister
of India was what Gandhi intended. Nadavaras followed Gandhism without questioning
Gandhi’s choice of Nehru over Vallabhbhai Patel for the job to lead the nation. Nadavara

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 March of Patriots

homes in villages were widely awake for the celebration of the eagerly awaited historic
event. At midnight on Friday, August 15, 1947 when the Indian flag was hoisted on the
parapet of the Red Fort in New Delhi, they cheered in sheer ecstasy, ran around in joy, and
distributed sugar to their neighbors. Nadavara men and women went in style to help free
the largest secular nation in the world and their sacrifice towards the coveted Independent
India was fully gratifying. At the zenith of the British Empire, a quarter of the world
population was under its control. The empire was spread around the globe in such a way
that the sun was shining at any given time in at least one of its outposts. The contemporary
proud English saying was, “The sun never sets on the British Empire.” The illustrious
phrase was originally coined by the Scottish writer, John Wilson. The humbling satire was
“The British Empire ended after the independence of India.” Mr. Hapi Rama Naik with the
help of his old acquaintance, Mr. Murarji Desai, the former prime minister of India, initiated
the “Rama Naik GR” also known as the “Hillur Scheme” in 1950 AD, under which some
destitute political sufferers were partially compensated for their losses.

It was the dream of naïve common people that freedom from the British would set them
free from all worries, but the freedom wasn’t meant to be end-all problems of assorted
India. All along the struggle for independence, there were more than two opinions
regarding the territory of Independent India. The Congress Party and the Muslim League
rejected Gandhi’s plea for one nation. Under the guidance of Lord Mount Batten, the
political leaders of the two parties decided to partition India to create a separate Islamic
country. The ambiguous intricacies concerning partition of India entangled Hindus and
Muslims into social anxiety. Sir Cyril Radcliffe, a respected barrister from England arrived
in New Delhi on July 8, 1947 to establish the border line between India and Pakistan. After a
brief study of India’s demography and geography of religious affiliations, the blueprint of
the Radcliffe Line was completed two weeks prior to the independence of India. Nehru and
Jinnah actively participated in carving up Pakistan from India. The Indo-Pak border was
publicly announced on August 17, 1947, two days after independence. Radcliffe’s report
clearly mentioned that because of the time limitations the prominence was given to railway
lines and water supply systems in defining the border. The British Government was
noticeably disgruntled by the loss of two hundred-year-old Indian Colony. Irritated
Winston Churchill in grumpy tone on the partition of India and Pakistan said, “I’d rather
see them have a good civil war”. According to BBC, within two weeks after the exposure of
maps of India and Pakistan, 15 million refugees stampeded across the Indo-Pak border and
about a million-people lost their lives to communal violence triggered by the angry mobs.
Throughout the entire partitioning process Mahatma Gandhi was pushed aside by Lord
Mount Batten, Jinnah and Nehru. Gandhi felt abandoned and supposedly went into
depression. Gandhi openly expressed his sadness over the partition of India. After
witnessing the communal violence, he thought of his lifelong struggle for nonviolence a

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 March of Patriots

total failure. The partition of such an enormous country with diverse ethnicities was
handled insensitively ignoring the social environment and after effects on masses.

Partitioning of British India in a hurry under unjustified guidelines was the biggest Indian
political blunder of the twentieth century. Even though Pakistan labeled itself as the land of
Muslims, India with 85% Hindu population was branded as a secular country but was
naturally slanted towards Hinduism. The religion based politics and communal hatred
continued both sides of Radcliffe Line. Being a believer of Gandhi, the Nadavara Sangha
was vocally against the partition of India. In response to the request from Mahatma Gandhi
within a month after the partition, rioting was brought to a complete halt in India but
murders and rapes of Hindus on the other side of the border did not stop. The outraged
Hindu fundamentalist, Nathuram Godse, with built up vengeance over the killings of
Hindus in Pakistan assassinated Mahatma Ghandhi on January 30, 1948. It is needless to
say that Mahatma Gandhi loved the people of India as strongly as they worshipped him in
return. The entire country was struck by the sudden shocking news. The Nadavara families
were swept by the grief as if the head of the family had died unexpectedly. The loud
mourning wails of the Nadavara villages sounded like a lamenting chorus. The Nadavara
families went through the motions of the traditional Hindu mourning rituals for twelve
days. The Nadavara Sangha requested for the ashes of Mahatma Gandhi, but their request
was not fulfilled. The Congress Party of Ankola built Gandhi Katti in the memory of their
beloved leader. A framed picture of Mahatma Gandhi adorned the walls of many Nadavara
homes. The picture of Gandhi was a poignant memento of his murder. According to
many, Mr. Godse was a polite man but became exceedingly eccentric after the partition led
religious uprising. He was sentenced to be executed by the judiciary of India on November
8, 1949.

The Nadavara pride was rewarded for having earnestly participated in the process as
directed by Satyagraha, the apparatus that expelled the English out of India. It quenched
their long-held revenge against English for treating them harshly just because they
belonged to a Kshatriya clan. The Nadavaras became fanatically loyal to the Congress
Party and almost religiously wore Gandhi cap, like the orthodox Jews wearing Yamaka.
Nadavaras did not perceive Mahatma Gandhi as a politician, but as a messiah, who led
them through the struggle for independence and relieved India from the British oppressors.
It can be compared to Prophet Moses coming to the rescue of the Jewish slaves and guiding
the “Jewish Exodus” out of Egypt to Mount Sinai. Nadavara men, women and children
were idealistically consumed by the political activities of Congress and the virtuous
ideology of Mahatma Gandhi. They celebrated Independence Day of India, Gandhi Jayanti
(birthday) and Gandhi Memorial Day with ceremonial pitch, like any other religious
festival. For the Nadavara Satyagrahis, their community was primarily a part of the All

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 March of Patriots

India Congress Party and secondly belonged to the Hindu religion. Living in a land of
orthodoxy, it was a remarkable outlook of life where the political values were favored over
the religious faith. Time and time again, the secular expression of placing country prior to
religion was demonstrated in the deeds and actions of Nadavaras, all along their history of
thirteen centuries.

Independent India began its first parliament under the Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru,
in the midst of communal riots. “After Mahatma Gandhi, Nehru was the political prodigy
to lead the All India Congress Party,” was a naive belief of Indians. As expected, Nehru
became the Congress Lama after Gandhi. Merely to resolve the political dichotomy between
Jinnah and Nehru, British India was split to create a new Islamic country, Pakistan without
a national referendum. It is mind boggling to think that to accommodate the greedy needs
of two individuals, the country with population of four hundred and forty million (India:
355 million, Pakistan: 85 million in 1947) people was split. India inherited 81% of the
population and 75% of the land after partition. Under the mandate of independent India,
the Congress Party was chosen to uphold democratic values. Nehru settled for the short
end of the stick as he eagerly wanted to secure the job of India’s prime minister. He was an
idealist without much pragmatic concern for the nation’s health. Always being under the
shadow of Mahatma Gandhi, Nehru did not have the opportunity to expand his own realm
of political thinking until Gandhi’s demise. He was an admirer of the Gandhian means of
frugal living but being educated in England, obviously he was enticed by the western
lifestyle. Nehru in 1930s discarded the western clothes and wore kurta and dhoti to
conform to Gandhi’s call for Swadeshi (indigenous) clothes. Nehru after independence
wore a mini collared knee length silk jacket garnished with a red rose stuck in the third
buttonhole. Nehru’s well fit chic jacket became a new fashion and was named after him,
Nehru Jacket. He was an elegantly dressed enthusiastic prime minister. The new
constitution of India, which was implemented on January 26, 1950, was based on the British
and the U.S democratic philosophies. But the Congress Party of India sided with the
communist bloc led by Soviet Union of Russia. Did India discount its democratic
constitution or else was it a self-serving motivation of India’s leadership?

Certain wrong choices made during the Nehru’s administration preoccupied India for a
long time and their specters are still lingering on like pests to the solidarity of India. Mr.
Valabhbhai Patel authoritatively invited Nehru to change his novice foreign policy. Nehru
was afraid to deal directly with Patel and appointed Rajagopalachari as the intermediary
between himself and Patel. Nehru’s diplomacy failed India with its neighboring countries.
The border issues of Kashmir with Pakistan and Arunachal Pradesh, Nepha and Ladakh
with China remain unresolved. The independent decision taken by Valabhbhai Patel to
merge all princely states into the Union of India prevented Hyderabad and Telangana from

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merging with Pakistan. Mr. Patel died in December 1950. His successor as the Home
Minister Rajagopalachari in 1951 cautioned Nehru of the looming expansionist plot of
China. He was against Nehru’s alliance with the Soviet Block. In October 1951,
Rajagopalachari was forced to resign from the Nehru’s cabinet. Under Nehru, India’s
national security and foreign policy were disjointed. The national safety was threatened and
consequently made it difficult to safeguard India’s borders. Nehru’s elitist nonalignment
policy without a discreet agenda discouraged the advanced countries such as, the United
States, United Kingdom and France, and Nehru’s government couldn’t seek assistance
when India was in dire need of it. Simultaneously India was aligned with the marginally
surviving communist country, the Soviet Union. The India-China war of 1962 was total
disaster for India. China successfully encroached Ladakh and NEFA, the eastern region of
Kashmir bordering Tibet. India did not get any kind of support from the Soviet Union,
during the war while countries such as Taiwan, Japan and Korea were advancing with the
help of the U.S.

The Congress Party in order to boost the indigenous manufacturing, discouraged

operations of foreign establishments in India. The government controlled “Five Year Plan”
concept was launched for the country’s economic expansion. The concept was a replication
of the five-year plans implemented by the Soviet Union. It was an acute error of the
Congress Party, which was caught up in red tapes and corruption. Boycotting the finished
products from England was one of the dictums of Satyagraha and should have ended with
the end of British Raj. India, a deprived country without any foreign aid could not gain
much-needed initial momentum for the industrial development. The industrialization
process of India was languid partially due to scanty infra structure. The country had to
dwell on the poor farmers till the fourth quarter of the twentieth century. The ruling
Congress party selectively curbed freedom of the press which was utterly unconstitutional.
The real voices of common people hardly reached New Delhi, the capital of India. Nehru
became nearly a dictator. The Congress Party’s propaganda machine became awfully
manipulative. Nehru seldom took responsibility for his mistakes. His associates such as C.
Rajagopalachari, V.K. Krishna Menon became scapegoats for bearing the burden of blames.
According to Nadavaras, Nehru couldn’t do anything wrong. The mainstream of Nadavara
community mistook the political agenda of Nehru’s congress party for the Gandhian
philosophy. Some literate Nadavaras often quoted excerpts from his famous speech, “Tryst
with Destiny” delivered on the eve of India’s independence. At informal gatherings “What
next after Nehru?” was a fancied subject of conversation among the politically savvy
Nadavaras. His photographs were hung in Nadavara homes, along with that of Gandhi.
The Nadavara teen agers who were not even eligible to vote went door-to-door begging for
support for the Congress Party during elections. Nadavaras hero-worshipped Nehru.

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Gandhi’s teachings influenced many legendary activists such as Romain Rolland, Martin
Luther King and Nelson Mandela and they effectively used the Gandhian code, “nonviolent
protest, the antidote for injustice”, to achieve their desired objectives. However, in Uttara
Kannada, after Gandhi’s demise, the enthusiasm and vigor induced by Gandhism was on
decline. Following the independence of India, even though the Kannada poet and activist
Sapa Gaonkar preached the Gandhian teachings through series of lectures and writings, his
earnest efforts did not reach beyond the local platforms. In 1950s, the mountainous region
of thinly populated Uttara Kannada did not have the political clout to draw any one’s
serious interest. Even the Member of the Parliament of Uttara Kannada, Joachim Alva was
imported from Mumbai. Ram Gopal Naik, a 27-year-old young man brought Joachim Alva,
a Congress Party member to North Kanara from Mumbai. Rama Gopal cleverly introduced
Jochim to Nadavara community as a Tulu Nadavara man of South Kanara who recently
accepted Christianity. Possibly it was a political ploy to draw Nadavara votes. Nadavaras,
conditioned by the Congress Party slogans treated the Congress Party M.P candidate,
Joachim like one of their relatives. He frequently visited Nadvara homes with his wife
during the election stretch and relished Nadavara cuisine. Sadly, they went all out to
support Jochim against the highly regarded local candidate, Mr. Dinakar Desai. Joachim
was elected in 1952 and was reelected in 1957 and 1962. Intoxicated by the Congress Party,
the thinking of Nadavaras swung away from much needed pragmatism to cope with the
changing times.

After the independence of India, the political turf had changed considerably. The moral
compass set by the principles of secular Satyagraha was broken. The discretion of people’s
government was vulnerable to the meandering and deceitful policies practiced by the new
wave of politicians. Gandhi’s humble request to dissolve the All India Congress Party after
the independence of India was disregarded. The Congress Party continued to exist as the
ruling political party with Mahatma Gandhi’s highly regarded image, even years after his
death. The Congress party monopolized Indian politics under Jawaharlal Nehru for two
decades after independence. Nehru had groomed his only daughter Indira Gandhi to
inherit the helm of the Congress Party. As planned by Nehru, Mrs. Gandhi became the
prime minister of India in January 1966. However, in 1967, the differences of opinions
within the Congress Party triggered by the power struggle between the Deputy Prime
Minister, Morarji Desai and Indira Gandhi challenged the integrity of the party. Mrs.
Gandhi formed her own political party in 1969 that split the Congress Party in two factions,
Indira Congress and Old Congress. The conservative Nadavaras decided to go along the
Old Congress Party.

The differences in fundamentals with the veteran Congress leaders of Karnataka, forced the
nonconformist politician, Rama Gopal Naik to leave the Congress party in 1966. Mr. Deve

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Gauda, former prime minister of India when he was a member of the Legislative Assembly
of Karnataka, was an advisor of Rama Gopal. Deve Gauda began his political career as an
independent candidate in 1962. The farmers of Hassan District, Karnataka, supported him
in the state assembly election. Like Deve Gauda, Rama Gopal embarked on a regional
political party, Ryota Sangha in 1967 AD but he did not receive support from the Nadavara
Congress leaders who backed the Old Congress Party. Unfortunately, to the conservative
Congress he was an eccentric without a brand. Rama Gopal’s Ryota Sangha did not
flourish beyond the support of the local farmers and fishermen. In 1981 AD, the
Government of India’s decision to build a naval base in Binaga, Uttara Kannada entailed
land acquisition of farmland from Binaga to Bhavikeri, stretching approximately fourteen
miles along the west coast of India. The project was named Sea Bird. The initial
compensation offered to the farmers was little over Rs. 50,000 per acre. Thousands of
panicked farmers were unable to complain to the government, since the ruling Congress
Party of Karnataka was liable for the land sanction to the Sea Bird project. Rama Gopal
called the naval project a “midday robbery”. After extended protests of the Ryota Sangha,
the Government of India boosted the compensation; in fact, the payment was quadrupled
from the initial offering. The ramifications due to Sea Bird would have been a disaster to the
farmers of Ankola and Karwar, without timely interference of Ryota Sangha.

Even the experienced savvy politicians were unable to challenge the shrewd dealings of
Mrs. Indira Gandhi. The old Congress Party couldn’t run against her popularity and just for
survive merged with other minority parties. Balakrishna Venkanna Naik, known to people
as Balasaheb, a coveted bureaucrat, quit his job in 1970 and joined the Indira Congress
Party. In 1971 he was the elected Member of the Parliament from Uttara Kannada. He was
stunned by the unruly internal affairs of Indian politics. Even though he belonged to Indira
Congress, he wrote a revealing book, “Long Long Way to Go”, which basically addressed
the dreadful practices of corruption ingrained in his own party. The book disparaged the
virtuous doctrines of Congress, which was constantly rehearsed propaganda since the
administration of Jawaharlal Nehru. At the age of forty-one, Balasaheb was one of the
youngest seated MPs with great ability and qualifications. Undoubtedly, he had a
promising future ahead of him to serve the people of India. At the onset, he was well liked
by Indira Gandhi, but his impatient tackling of the monstrous problem was premature.
Idealism mixed with egotism was not a good formula for tackling corruption imbedded in
the Indian politics. His honest but obstinate activist thinking annoyed the guarded
establishment of Congress. Soon Balasaheb’s tenure in Indira Congress came to an end. The
blend of liberal thinking and naivety failed him in the Indian political arena.

Nadavaras participated in the Indian politics since the early 1930s. SaPa Gaonkar became a
deputy minister in the Bombay state cabinet in 1947 and Ramakrishna B. Naik became the

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speaker of the Karnataka State Council in 1968 but both were not elected by the popular
votes. Over all, the Nadavara accomplishments in the Indian politics were anemic. Their
genetically deep-rooted, dogmatic behavior combined with short temper proved to be
caustic in the political arena of India. The size of ethnic group is a critical factor in the
Indian politics; usually larger ethnic groups control the policy making process. For a tiny
community such as Nadavara to climb the national stage of politics is a proposal of tall
order.

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Kane Bommakka Kanagil (1898-1989)

Photo: 1987

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Hapi Ram Nayaka, Basgod (1894-1974)

Photo: 1950

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Barrister Venkanna H. Naik, Gati Sahib (1879-1929)

Photo: 1907

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Ramachandra K. Naik (1886-1969)

&
Gauri R. Naik (1907-1983)

Photo: 1930

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Sapa Gaonkar (1887-1972)

&
Venkamma Sapa Gaonkar (1897- 1983)

Photo : 1970

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