Various women’s organisations have come together to celebrate the 200th year of Rani Channamma’s victory over the East India Company forces in the first Kittur war of 1824.
The event titled “Nanoo Rani Chennamma” (I too am Rani Chennamma) will be held in Kittur in Belagavi district on February 21.
Women delegates from various States are expected to participate, organising committee member and social activist Dilip Kamat told reporters in Belagavi on Tuesday.
Activists will on the occasion read out the Kittur Declaration, promising to safeguard the Constitution, democracy and the need to defeat divisive forces.
This is an effort to take forward the legacy of the struggle against tyranny, injustice and repression to safeguard the Constitution, secularism and democracy, he said.
A special 34 panel exhibition with the theme, “When women rise”, will be displayed in Kittur to highlight the contribution of women freedom fighters.
Similar programmes will be organised in various State capitals and district headquarters. The plan is to reach out to over 50 lakh women across the country, Mr. Kamat said.
“Several people, especially, the youth, do not realise the importance of the Kittur war. It is one of the earliest freedom struggles in the country, successfully organised 30 years before the First War of Independence in 1857,” women’s rights activist Susheela Spandana said.
Rani Channamma’s lieutenants Amatur Balappa and Sangolli Rayanna led the army that defeated the company army. East India Company officer John Thackeray was killed in battle. An obelisk in his memory has been installed in Dharwad.
Founder-trustee of ANHAD Shabnam Hashmi, S.R. Hiremath of Samaj Parivarthana Samudaya, Leena Dabiru of ANHAD, Linnet D’silva, writer Malathi Pattanashetti, Shankar Halagatti and members of National Federation of Indian Women (NFIW), Karnataka Rajya Mahila Dourjanya Virodhi Okkuta and others will participate.
