Kannada Rajyotsava: A day of unity

Nov 1 signifies a day of unity for the people of karnataka, a day of remembering that the individual regions which spoke the same language were united irrespective of the nuances like caste/creed/race. It is a nice ring to have after the day of unity for the entire nation and that followed by the unity for a state.

On the same date, November 1^st, back in 1956, all the Kannada language-speaking regions of South India were merged to form the state of Karnataka. After 1950, when India became republic, we saw the formation of several provinces into a state of their own and that’s how the then Mysore kingdom became Mysore state and later on to get a name Karnataka.

To commemorate this special day of formation of this state, we celebrate the legacy of its rich culture and heritage with much pride and respect. And today is the 59^th Kannada Rajyotsava.

What the colors in the flag signify?

You see the two vibrant colors on the Karnataka flag, yellow representing turmeric and the red representing vermilion which signifies auspiciousness and well-being.

Yellow and red also symbolize peace and courage respectively.

The beauty of a celebration

The thing I like the most about this day is the way people celebrate it, without considering religion as a factor. I think as a nation, we do have a lot of things and differences to differentiate us and separate us. But there is something beyond that which makes it a happier moment – it is the ability of blending these things together, blending the differences and identifying the common factors within us and uniting in that front. After all, when it comes to people skills or leading a nation, we build only on our similarities and never on the differences, don’t we?

The passionate activists

I have seen a lot of people or rather activists claim that they are very passionate about the language and go to the next step of actually hurting the ones who do not follow the same ethos. But that was never the reason why unification happened right? I am strictly against a separation if it segregates people based on their individual differences. If that is the case we have a reason to hate everyone in this world apart from ourselves since there will be something or the other different about them.

The pledge

A few days ago, we saw a case of a Manipuri student attacked by a local kannada speaking person because he did not speak the language. A region or a language never promoted those ethos. Just because some people are very limited in their view point towards life and are completely dissatisfied with their own, it never gives them the right to push their individual ideas and intolerance as that of a whole region. On this day, let us try and make a pledge that we try to promote the language not because it is has the rich history and significance attached to it, because we just love the language. And we do not win this world with hatred or intolerance, we can only win with love and the pledge today is that I will try and promote the language for it is a beautiful one and has such a depth of richness to it. I will not go on crossing the words written in English, nor will I make fun of people who speak a different language. Instead I would rather try and understand them and try to explain what this language means instead of pushing it down their throat. It is already the pledge week of unity, why not focus on that instead?

Do join us for more such updates,