Why is North Karnataka demanding separate statehood? Here's all you need to know

HD Kumaraswamy

Leaders of the Separate State Agitation Committee for North Karnataka announced on July 30 that they would be unveiling a separate North Karnataka flag in Belagavi city, in the run-up to a bandh called by several organisations on August 2.

The leaders said they would also be pushing for the 13 districts included in North Karnataka to be carved out into a separate state.

This is not the first time that a demand for a separate North Karnataka has been raised.

What is North Karnataka?

North Karnataka, or Uttar Karnataka, is a region comprising 13 districts. Some of these fall within the Bombay Karnataka region, named so because it came under the Bombay Presidency before Independence.

Hyderabad-Karnataka, meanwhile, was included within the region under the Nizam of Hyderabad’s control.

The call for unification of all the Kannada-speaking regions into one state had come from North Karnataka first. It was led by Alur Venkat Rao, a historian, writer and journalist who used his writing for the purpose of bringing together the Kannada-speaking population in a bid to establish Karnataka. He also started a newspaper called ‘Jaya Karnataka’ with the purpose of writing solely about Karnataka’s statehood.

Why is the region demanding a separate state?

The demand for North Karnataka is decades-old, but its reasons have varied over time. At the heart of this demand is the feeling that North Karnataka has been neglected by the state’s leaders, who have generally been from the south. Moreover, before Independence, all the power was concentrated in North Karnataka’s Mysuru region. That changed after Independence and the power centre shifted to Bengaluru.

In the early 2000s, Vaijanth Patil, a social worker, demanded that Hyderabad-Karnataka be made a separate state. The demand stemmed out of similar concerns as today: successive leaders were accused of being apathetical towards North Karnataka. Patil urged his followers and comrades to consider the state formation day of Karnataka — November 1— as a “black day” and hoisted a separate Hyderabad-Karnataka flag.

The UPA-led central government granted special status to Hyderabad-Karnataka in 2012, which reserved 70 percent seats in institutes for local students. The status also granted 75-85 percent reservation in jobs for local population, and further provided Rs 2,500 crore for development of the region.

In a bid to usher development in the northern part of the state, the Karnataka government had, in 2006, built Suvarna Vidhana Soudha in Belagavi. Separatists, however, said that is of no use, since there are no government offices in it.

How did the recent demand flare up?

The demand flared up again after organisations representing North Karnataka accused the newly-elected Janata Dal (Secular)-Congress government of ignoring the northern regions in its budget.

Moreover, Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy, speaking on the issue of bias towards south Karnataka, had said that farmers in North Karnataka remember only their "caste and money" while voting, and said "now they want me to work for them".

Following Kumaraswamy's remarks, organisations across North Karnataka stirred up the demand for separate statehood again.

Not all organisations representing North Karnataka’s interests have demanded separate statehood. For instance, Bheemappa Gadad, president of North Karnataka Agitation Committee, told Hindustan Times that their demand was for “historical injustice” to be rectified.

Organisations like Karnataka Rakshana Vedike, Mahadayi Kalasa Banduri Horata Samanvaya Samiti, Karnataka Chamber of Commerce and Industry among others are also opposing the bandh and the larger demand for a separate state, calling instead for equal attention to be given to districts in North Karnataka.