Bengaluru: The Union government has given its nod for naming the city central railway station near Majestic after Sangolli Rayanna, who fought the British forces, as the army chief of Kittur Rani Chennamma. Very soon, this prominent hub will be known as Krantiveera Sangolli Rayanna railway station.
The city railway station
A request made by the state government long ago has finally been approved by Delhi. The demand is more than two decades old. The Sangolli Rayanna Foundation and the Sangolli Rayanna Hitarakshana Vedike had made several appeals to the Brihat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (The Greater Bengaluru Metropolitan Corporation – BBMP) and the state government in this matter.
The BBMP on its part had passed a resolution to name the station after the freedom fighter and had also installed a bronze statue in front of the station. Further, the then-CM, Yeddyurappa, had urged the Union government through a letter. A BBMP delegation led by the mayor had met the railway minister with the plea in 2013.
On November 13, 2013, the state cabinet had resolved to send a recommendation to the Union government and soon thereafter a proposal was sent. Together with it, a proposal to change the English spellings of the names of 12 cities in the state, in conformity with history and ethnic relevance, had also been sent.
While the approval for the change of names of cities was given in 2014, the naming of the railway station was hanging fire. Finally the Union government has now given its nod, clearing the way for the naming.
Darshan Toogudeepa as Sangolli Rayanna in the 2012 movie
About Sangolli Rayanna
Sangolli Rayanna (August 15, 1798 – January 26, 1831) was a brave warrior who served as the army chief of Rani Chennamma of Kittur, who ruled the territory currently under Belagavi district. As an interesting coincidence, his date of birth is India’s Independence Day and the date of death is being observed as the Republic Day.
Queen Chennamma’s forces bravely fought the East India Company’s forces right till the end. Two Kannada movies have been made, based on Rayanna’s valour and bravery. The recent one starred Darshan Toogudeepa, Jaya Prada and Nikita Thukral.
New names
The mouthful of names like Bharat Ratna Dr Babasaheb R Ambedkar circle or Swatantrya Veer Vinayak Damodar Savarkar may not easily get committed to the memory or roll on the tongues of the general public. For convenience, the people might still use the old, shorter and convenient names for quick identification.
A few years hence, the places could be identified only by the initials like CST for Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus and the later generations could remain totally unaware of the full form.
What better example than that of our own K S Rao Road in Mangaluru, named after Karnad Sadashiva Rao, the great freedom fighter, social reformer and a luminary of the cooperative sector? Most of the present generation may not know the full form of K S Rao Road.
Incidentally, a large number of people staying in Sadashivanagar – formerly known as Palace Orchards – in the state capital here, are not aware that it has been named after Karnad Sadashiva Rao.
So much for awareness of history and heritage!
The Indian politiciains do not do any work for the people, who have elected them and keep fooling them by changing the existing names of roads, heritage and monumental buildings, edifices and institiutions to those of personalities that have just local or regional stature (and have no national or international stature at all). I have not heard the name of Sangolli Rayanna and after sometime, I will forget that. You ask any child outside Karnataka, if they have heard the name of this personality and they will say, “NO”. Well, everyone knows Mahatma Gandhi, Lokmanya Tilak, Jawaharlal Nehru, Motilal Nehru and personalities of similar stature, but not this person. During the course of my work day, I meet a lot of people who introduce themselves as Peter, Suresh, Balbir, Dorabji, Abdul, Mohammed and if I have not documented their names with a brief biography, I will forget them and I will not have a trace of them at all.
If you wish to honour an Indian personality, build a new road, building, etc. and give it that name. In Bombay, there were many buildings, streets, areas, etc. that had British names and due to netas total dislike of British rulers, they have changed their names. Though, we are a democracy, they decision-makers are the netas and people have no say. I believe many big statues of various British personalities have, over the years, been removed and kept in the Munipality premises. You just cannot say all British were bad. There were some who did good for the people they ruled and introduced many systems that has helped us a lot, say education, hospitals, bridges, roads, etc., which have stood the test of time. I am quite confident that British rulers were no where as corrupt as the present day netas, who may go to temples and do all sorts of rituals, but at the end of the day they are rotten and corrupt. However, we Indian are very patient and tolerate them and some go to defend their icons, whom they consider as Gods and vehemently oppose any criticism of them in scandals and other irregularities.