Karnataka - Belgaum   

Rani Chennamma's home exists only in folklore

Alladi Jayasri

Rani Chennamma's descendants want the Government to take over the land Her descendants want the Government to take over the land and build a memorial

IN NEGLECT: The birthplace of Kittur Rani Chennamma at Kakati near Belgaum. — Photo: K. Bhagya Prakash

BELGAUM: Kakati, the place where Kittur Rani Chennamma was born and grew up, may soon become nothing more than a name from the past if it continues to face callous neglect.

There will be nothing left but ruins of the fortress where Chennamma's forefathers stored arms and evolved strategies against their enemies.

The palace where little Chennamma must have led a privileged childhood has been taken over by the present owners, who bought the crumbling edifice in an auction about 50 years ago. They never lived in Kakati, and today the one-and-a-half-acre plot is covered by overgrowth and some trees.

The majestic arches and pillars, the meeting hall and the massive yard where a couple of elephants could amble into can only be imagined.

Nearly 20 families belonging to the Desai clan live in the village and they all have one wish — that the Government should take over the land, build a memorial for Chennamma at her birthplace, and organise an annual Kakati Utsav to coincide with the Kittur Utsav every year. Leelavathi Desai, whose husband took great deal of interest in keeping the hoary history of the family and its legendary queen alive, says: "The Chief Minister promised that he would visit the village and spend some time with us."

As it happens, Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy has been dashing up and down the highway several times in the past week, just a stone's throw away from the village street of Kakati, but has not been able to find time to visit the place, much to the chagrin of the Desais.

S.D. Patil, who runs a clinic at Kakati and is president of Veer Rani Kittur Chennamma Samiti, relates a string of interesting facts about the village. It is dominated by Marathi-speaking people. Only 40 per cent of the 20,000 residents are Kannadigas. The gram panchayat has an equal number of Marathis and Kannadigas, and it took a 25-year struggle before the gram panchayat sanctioned a statue of Chennamma for the village, which was unveiled last year by Governor T.N. Chaturvedi. Ms. Leelavathi's brother-in-law, Sadanand Desai, who lives in the U.S., maintains a website dedicated to Chennamma and the clan. But with the last bit of the palace having disappeared 20 years ago, they have to rely on history passed down in the oral tradition.

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