The Hindu : Karnataka News : Mundappa’s case holds out hope

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Tuesday, Apr 08, 2008
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Karnataka

Karnataka

Mundappa’s case holds out hope

Sudipto Mondal

He says education is an issue that cannot be looked at in isolation

— Photo: R. Eswarraj

A man from Koraga community weaves a basket for a livelihood, in Dakshina Kannada.

KALAMANJE VILLAGE/BELTHANGADY: Whenever he appears in public Mundappa can be seen wearing a spotless white cotton shirt and totting his camera phone, while another less expensive phone peeps out of his shirt pocket.

It is the kind of fashion statement that is often made by the political class. His attire is the most visible symbol of this 35-year-old Koraga leader’s emancipation.

Against the backdrop of many shirt-less Koragas his case not only provides an antithesis but also hope.

Mundappa along with his three brothers owns a little more than 20 acres of prime agricultural land in the Madimalakatte area of Kalamanje village. Mundappa’s elder brother Babu is a research scholar and a professor of Chemistry in the Mahatma Gandhi Memorial College in Udupi. Babu is the most educated Koraga in the entire taluk.

Tough start

Mundappa’s father came to Madimalakatte in 1940 from the forests near Vittala. For 34 years he worked as an agricultural labourer in the farm of a local landlord here. Mundappa’s mother Chomu (85) reminisces that in those days the family was not allowed anywhere close to the landlord’s house. Today their land adjoins that of their erstwhile “Dhani” (landlord) who now owns less land than they do.

Turnaround

When the Government began to give land to the tiller, the landlord fearing that his land would also be distributed, gave Mundappa’s father Rs. 150 and asked him to leave the farm. With this money the family bought its first acre of land, says Chomu.

“May be we would have squandered all that our father made if he hadn’t educated us,” says Mundappa.

But his message finds very little currency with the Koragas here. And Mundappa understands only too well. According to him, education is an issue that cannot be looked at in isolation.

“It is difficult to study when your family is starving back home,” he says.

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