T Chennaiah, Kolar leader who rose to national fame, lies largely forgotten

On that day, T Chennaiah, a member of the Constituent Assembly, and a Dalit freedom fighter from Kolar, startled the other members when he presented his argument, on a discussion of legislative powers of the Parliament, in Kannada.

The official language used in the Constituent Assembly until then was English and Hindi. But, he had the President Rajendra Prasad’s permission to talk in Kannada and he continued though he was told that talking in Kannada may not serve the purpose of his intervention since others did not understand him.

However, Chennaiah felt it was more vital to assert his linguistic identity and the quintessential character of the federal structure of India as an Union of States.

Nearly two-decades after Chennaiah spoke in Kannada in the Constituent Assembly, JH Patel, another Kannadiga, created history of sorts by speaking in Kannada in Parliament. He was the first leader to do so.

Subsequently, many Lok Sabha members spoke in Kannada but it was T Chennaiah and J H Patel, who are remembered by Kannadigas for creating awareness about Kannada at the national level for the first time and uplifting the pride of Kannada speaking people.

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Sidelined

Today, few remember T Chennaiah, the prominent Dalit leader of pre-Independence era and one of the heroes of the Vidurashwattha (the Jallianwala Bagh of south India) incident, who was arrested by the British after the tragedy.

Kannada activists, especially, the ones who struggled hard for Unification of Karnataka (Karnataka Ekikarana, which refers to the formation of the Indian state of Karnataka, then named Mysore State) in 1956, are disheartened by the way Chennaiah is being sidelined in the ongoing Karnataka Golden Jubilee celebrations.

Originally known as the State of Mysore, the Kannada speaking region was renamed as Karnataka on November 1, 1973.

Ra. Nam Chandrashekar, writer and Kannada activist, who is associated with various Kannada related movements for the past five decades, said Chennaiah, who was born on October 12, 1912, had worked hard and rose to become a member of Constituent Assembly of Independent India.

“He was a minister in the Kengal Hanumanthiah’s government in the then Mysore and a member of the Rajya Sabha. It is a tragedy, people, who are celebrating the 50th year of renaming the region as Karnataka with pomp and show, completely forgot Chennaiah’s contribution. He made Kannadigas proud seven decades ago during the discussion on the legislative powers of Parliament by insisting on speaking in Kannada,” pointed out Chandrashekar.

President allowed Chennaiah to speak in Kannada

Born to a poor Dalit family in Kolar, Chennaiah’s rise was meteoric though his contributions to the state are not well known these days outside his hometown.

In his column, Articles of Faith, in the Deccan Herald, Alok Prasanna Kumar, co-founder, Vidhi Legal Policy, recounts how on August 25, 1947, during a discussion on the legislative powers of Parliament, C hennaiah "somewhat out of the blue" delivered his intervention in the debate in Kannada.

"This startled the other members, since the official language of the Constituent Assembly were English and Hindi. However, members were allowed with the permission of the President (Babu Rajendra Prasad) to speak in a language of their choice. Some members insisted that Chennaiah switch over to English, (which he knew sufficiently based on his other speeches in Assembly). But, Chennaiah refused to do so.”

“Rajendra Prasad said he would not stop Chennaiah only pointing out that, if he continued to speak in Kannada, he wouldn’t be understood and the point of the intervention would be lost. Chennaiah nevertheless chose to continue in Kannada.”

According to Kumar, no one knows what Chennaiah said in his speech since the Constituent Assembly debates did not record his speech in Kannada and neither did they have a translation of it.

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Patel spoke in Kannada

After nearly 20 years in 1967, Jayadevappa Halappa Patel, popular as J H Patel, a socialist and the ninth chief minister of Karnataka, who represented Shivamogga Lok Sabha constituency, spoke in Kannada during a Parliament session.

He created history of sorts in Lok Sabha by speaking in Kannada – his mother tongue. The then Lok Sabha Speaker, Neelam Sanjiva Reddy allowed and encouraged Patel to go ahead with his speech. The House heard him with rapt attention.

Patel spoke in Kannada to drive home the point of the eighth schedule of Indian Constitution, in which all the languages of India have been given a pride of place. This prompted Sanjiva Reddy to decree in his famous ruling that henceforth any member of Lok Sabha, who was inclined to exercise his/her inherent right to speak in their mother tongue should do so without any hindrance.

Senior journalist Arakere Jayaram in his article in a book on JH Patel published recently observed, "Patel’s speech in Kannada has much to teach our MPs. It could be said that Kannada came of age only when our former chief minister Jayadevappa Halappa Patel spoke in Kannada in the Lok Sabha on March 30, 1967”.

“As a student of public affairs I wonder why no Member of Parliament from Karnataka or the erstwhile State of Mysore had asserted his right to speak in Kannada, though the Constitution had declared it one of the national languages in its Eighth Schedule,” said Jayaram.

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Breaking the rule

The rule Patel broke that day was that he had not furnished in advance to the House a translation of his Kannada speech in English or Hindi.

The rule till March 30, 1967, was that any member who addressed the House in a language other than Hindi and English, had to furnish to the Lok Sabha secretariat the translation of his speech to be delivered in one of these two languages.

Also, there was a practice that if a member was in a position to express himself in Hindi or English, the Speaker could refuse permission to speak in any other language (one of the scheduled languages to be precise). Also, if no prior translation was allowed, the remarks or speeches of the member would not go on record.

According to Jayaram, four days after Patel’s Kannada address, the then Speaker Neelam Sanjiva Reddy convened a meeting of leaders of various groups in the House.

Key decision

It was decided at that meeting that members could speak in any of the scheduled languages without furnishing in advance a translation of their speeches in Hindi or English.

It was thus JH Patel who opened the doors for non-Hindi/English speaking members.

The credit for permitting Patel to speak in Kannada without providing a translation should also go to Neelam Sanjiva Reddy and his deputy R K Khadilkar.

Jnanpith recipient writer Chandrashekara Kambara said, “Patel spoke in Parliament on the growth of languages and drew the attention of the people, who loved it and responded across India. For nearly a month, Patel’s speech resonated across India.”

Though, many MPs spoke in Kannada in Parliament after J H Patel, it is Chennaiah and Patel, who are recognised and remembered as the first flagbearers of Kannada, who took the language into Parliament and emphasised the federal structure of India.