Kittur Utsav celebrations in Karnataka

Published
26th Oct, 2022

Context

The two-day State-level Kittur Utsav is celebrated in Karnataka which has significance related to initial phase of Freedom struggle of India against the British in 1824.

About

About Kittur Utsav

Kittur Utsav is a state-level festival, celebrated in memory of Kittur Rani Channamma, who had fought the British 30 years before the First War of Independence in 1857 but had not got any recognition at the national level.
Kittur Chennamma was the Indian Queen of Kittur, a former princely state in present-day Karnataka.
Kittur Chennamma was born on 23 October 1778, in Kakati, a small village in the present Belagavi District of Karnataka, India.
She belonged to the Lingayat community and received training in horse riding, sword fighting, and archery from a young age.

Lingayat Community

The Lingayat/Veerashaiva community, a politically dominant group in Karnataka, are devotees of Shiva.
The Lingayats follow 12th-century saint-philosopher Basavanna who had rejected ritualistic worship and pre-eminence of the Vedas.

She married Raja Mallasarja of the Desai family at the age of 15.
She led an armed resistance against the British East India Company in 1824, in defiance of the Paramountancy, in an attempt to retain control over her dominion.
She defeated the Company in the first revolt but died as a prisoner of war after the second rebellion.
As one of the first and few female rulers to lead rebel forces against British colonization, she continues to be remembered as a folk hero in Karnataka, she is also an important symbol of the Indian independence movement.

Doctrine of Lapse

The Doctrine of Lapse was imposed on native states by the British.
Under this declaration, native rulers were not allowed to adopt a child if they had no children of their own.
Their territory formed part of the British Empire automatically.