The Origins of The Belagavi Border Dispute: A Pre-Independence Perspective
The Belagavi Border Dispute is a dispute between the Indian states of Karnataka and Maharashtra over the Belagavi administration.
During the British rule in India, Belagavi was a part of the Bombay Presidency together with Gujarat, Maharashtra and certain areas of the state of Karnataka. Currently, Belagavi is a district in the state of Karnataka, India.
In the year 1881, the census recorded a population of 8,64,014 residents in the Belagavi district, from which 64.39 % of the population were Kannada Speakers and 26.04 % of the population spoke Marathi.
With the Independence of India in 1947, the Belagavi district of the Former Bombay Presidency became a part of Bombay State. In the year 1956, the State Recognization Act incorporated the Belagavi district into the newly formed Mysore (Now Karnataka).
Historically, Belagavi has been a part of the Kannada region and has seen many Kannadiga dynasties ruling over it.
In the 18th century, the demographics of the region has changed drastically as the period saw the expansion of the Maratha empire, under the Peshwa. Meanwhile, a large chunk of the region of Karnataka became a part of the empire and was mistakenly called the “Southern Maratha Country“.
In the year 1894, the language of the land essentially remained Kannada, prevailing the situation to be summed up by John Faithfull Fleet in “The Dynasties of the Kanarese Districts of the Bombay Presidency, which forms a part of the Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency.
Additionally, Maharashtra didn’t include the Maratha-ruled areas of Baroda, Indore or Gwalior except for Kolhapur, as the Commission considered the historical changes in the region and not just current changes in demography.
On 23rd June,1957 a memorandum was followed from the Maharashtra Government, the government of India constituted the Mahajan Committee on 5th June 1960 to decide on the reorganization of Belagavi.
The 4-member committee consisted of two representatives from the Maharashtra government and two from the Mysore Government. Eventually, it failed to reach an agreement.
The following principles were adopted considered to be adopted by the Maharashtra and agreed to hand over Kannada majority villages to Mysore.
1. Villages as a unit
2. Geographical proximity/integrity
3. Marathi or Kannada speakers “relative majority”; villages with no population should be merged with that state where the owners of that land reside
4. The wish of the residents
On the other hand, The Mysore government wanted status quo to be maintained.
Senapati Bapat, the leader of Maharashtra resorted to a hunger strike demanding that the government forms a commission to address the border dispute. At the insistence of Maharashtra, the Government of India constituted the Mahajan Commission on 25th October,1966. V.P. Naik, the former Chief Minister of Maharashtra made an announcement on 9th November 1967 that Maharashtra will adhere to the reports of the Mahajan Commission regardless of the following outcome.
The Commission was headed by the third Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of India, Meher Chand Mahajan. Upon the reviews of the claimed by the Maharashtra to the Commission, it recommended the exchange of several villages in the district of Belagavi between the two states, but rejected the claims of Maharashtra on Belagavi City.
However, The Mahajan Commission received 2,240 memoranda and successfully interviewed 7,572 individuals before submitting the required report. Beside Belagavi, 814 other villages were asked by the Maharashtra. Meanwhile 262 villages, which includes Nippani, Khanapur and Nandgad. It is further stated that, Mysore has claimed 516 villages out of which Maharashtra admitted that 260 of them were the speaker of Kannada. The state was awarded with 247 villages including claims to Solapur.
It is summarized by the Mahajan Commission reports through its recommendations that:
1. Belgaum to continue in Karnataka
2. Around 247 villages including Jatta, Akkalakote and Sholapur to be part of Karnataka
3. Around 264 regions including Nandagad, Nippani and Khanapur to be part of Maharashtra
4. Kasaragod of Kerala, to be part of Karnataka.
Furthermore, the recommendation was rejected by the Maharashtra and Kerala Government.
The Maharashtra government termed the findings of the reports biased and self-contradictory because the formula applied for Kasargod wasn’t applied for Belagavi.
However, it insisted that the report is against the wish of the public of Belagavi. On the other hand, Kerala refused to hand over Kasargod to Karnataka.
The Government of Karnataka continued to press either for the implementation of the report or the maintenance of status quo.
On the census of 1951, Maharashtra was insisted being used to resolve the dispute as it had arisen due to the State Recognization Act of 1956.
According to the 1951 census the percentage of Marathi speakers along with Kannada Speakers were as follows: Belagavi City with 60%and 18.8%, Shahapura with 57%and 33.2%, Belagavi Cantonment with 33.6%and 20.6% and Belagavi suburbs with 50.9% and 21.8%.
However, the Mahajan Commission is used in the census of 1961, according to which Belagavi was surrounded by Kannada speaking areas on all the regions. It is further stated by the Commission that the decision on birder dispute was not based on the number of Marathi schools and Students in the city of Belagavi. The political leaders insisted that the Mahajan Commission report wasn’t the final word on the dispute and Shiv Sena leader Ramdas Kadam claimed that the decision was biased and illogical. He said that it was against the wishes of the common people.
In the year 1948, the Maharashtra Ekikaran Samiti was founded with the sole objective of ensuring that Belagavi becomes part of Maharashtra.
In the year 1983, the first Belagavi City Corporation (BCC) election was held in December and the MES-dominated BCC made demand for the transfer of Belagavi to Maharashtra in the year 1990,1996, and 2001. More than 250 MES dominated gram and taluk Panchayat and some other municipalities passed similar resolutions. The dispute led to violence and large-scale arson, resulting in nine deaths in the year 1986 in Belagavi.
During H.D. Deve Gowda’s tenure as a Chief Minister of Karnataka, the Karnataka Organisation, Kannada Cheluvarigara Sangha, submitted a memorandum to the Karnataka Government, asking it to set up large industries in the region to provide employment to 20000 to 30000 people in the state. Pro-Marathi group of people protested against the government notices and records not being available in Marathi.
The Official Language Act 1963 and 1981 stated that areas where the linguistic minorities constitute 15 percent or more of the local population, arrangements have to be made to translate government circulars, orders, extracts and land records into the minority language.
On 27th October 2005, the MES Controlled BCC, amidst strong opposition by the Indian National Congress, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and few independents passed a resolution requesting the Karnataka State Government and the Supreme Court of India to merge the disputed border areas in the district of Belagavi which includes Khanapur and Belagavi City, Uttara Kannada which includes Karwar and Haliyal, and Bidar which includes Bhalki, Aurad and Basavakalyan with Maharashtra.
The entire opposition party including the Congress, BJP, and a few independents, boycotted the meeting. The meeting witnessed intense verbal clashes between the MES and the Opposition.
N.D. Achanur, Assistant Executive Officer, advised MES members not to pass a resolution against the interest of the state. While the MES members denied to heed his advice, the officer walked out of the office. The officials of various departments present to provide details of their department also walked out.
On 10th November, the Mayor was served with a showcase noticed by the government of Karnataka asking the resolution should not be cancelled under Section 98 and Section 99 of the KMC Act. On 17th November the government cancelled the resolution that is made without waiting for the Mayor’s reply. It served another notice that sought an explanation from the Mayor as to why the BCC should not be dissolved under Section 99 of the KMC Act.
On 19th November, T N Chaturvedi, the Governor of Karnataka, critised BCC during a public function. On 21st November ,2005 the government of Karnataka dissolved the council under pressure from Kannada Activists, citing the violation of Section 18 of the KMC Act. A group of Kannada organisations set 22 November as the deadline for dissolving BCC and threatened to call a statewide bandh on 24th November.
Maloji Astekar, the MES Secretary insisted that the BCC Resolution was in accordance with the provisions of the KMC Act 1976 and the Fundamental Rights enshrined under Article 19 (1) of the Constitution of India. He accused the Karnataka Government of “Step Motherly Treatment”. The cancellation of the resolution and the dissolution of the council were done without giving 15 days’ time as was stipulated
In the notice to enable the Mayor to submit his explanations, MES called a Bandh in the protest. A delegation of MES Leaders visited Mumbai and met Maharashtra leaders including Chief Minister Vilosrao Deshmukh. Deshmukh wrote letters to Karnataka Chief Minister N. Dharam Singh and Prime Minister N. Dharam Singh and Former Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh. He expressed his displeasure over the action taken against the BCC.
Vijay More, a Dalit, the former mayor of Belagavi broke down in front of Media in Mumbai while describing the atrocities perpetrated on him by 30 Kannada fanatics in front of the Vidhana Soudha in Bengaluru. The former MLA of Belagavi, Vasant Patil, claimed that for the past several decades the Marathi Speaking population of Belagavi with a population of 5 lakh. He had endured a host of atrocities by successive governments of Karnataka.
In December 2005, several attempts were made by the Congress Led government at the center to reinitiate discussions on the discussions on the dispute between the Chief Ministers of Maharashtra and Karnataka and the former prime minister of India Late Dr. Manmohan Singh.
Finally on 15th March 2006, the Maharashtra government filed a petition in the Supreme Court of India, by staking a claim over Belagavi City. Belagavi District along with Belagavi City continues to be a part of Karnataka’s state while Maharashtra awaits the verdict of Supreme Court. Maharashtra asked that the 865 disputed villages including Belagavi to be placed under the Central governments rule until the Supreme Courts Final decision.
On 25th September 2006, amidst vociferous protests by MES, the Karnataka State Government convened a 5-day Assembly Session for the first time outside the capital Bengaluru, in Belagavi to assert its hold over the city. On the same day the Karnataka Assembly Session convened in Belagavi, the MES organized a Maha mela which was “The Great Meet-up”, which received a huge response. The Maha mela was attended by the Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister R.R Patil, and many leaders from Shiv Sena, NCP and MES.
The convention was intended to send a strong message to all the concerned that the 10-crore people of Maharashtra were with the Marathi Speaker population of the border areas in their struggle. Furthermore, the leaders ridiculed the Karnataka Governments Assembly Session and vowed to merge Belagavi and adjoin the regions into Maharashtra. Addressing the Condemn of R R Patil by the Karnataka Government, it was announced that Belgaum, also known as Belgaon in Marathi will be renamed to Belagavi.
In October 2006, Karnataka Border Agitation Committee, an umbrella body of Pro Kannada outfits called a statewide bandh in Karnataka to press for the implementation of the Mahajan Commission report and to protest what the organisers called step motherly treatment of the state by the center.
H D Kumaraswamys, the Chief Minister of Karnataka, appealed to call off the bandh was turned down by the organizers. The ruling coalition partners of Karnataka, BJP and JD(S) extended their support to the Bandh and it affected the normal life in Bengaluru and other parts of Karnataka. The Bandh was total in almost parts of Karnataka except coastal districts and Tumakuru. In Bangalore, the bandh was total and incident free.
On 26th October 2006 the Maharashtra Ekikaran Samiti organised a youth convention at Khanapura. The convention was well received and attended by Maharashtra’s leader of opposition, Ramdas Kadam and State Minister, Hassan Mushrif.
In December 2022 Union Minister of Home Affairs, Amit Shah, held a meeting with both state’s Chief minister and both of them agreed to form joint panel to set the issue. The joint panel included 6 observing ministers with 3 from each state. While a separate committee headed by an IAS Officer will monitor law and order in the district of Belagavi.
On 27th December 2022, Maharashtra Legislative Assembly passed a unanimous resolution over Border Dispute with the state of Karnataka. The resolution included the following regions; Belgaum, Nippani, Karwar, Bidar, and Bhalki cities with 865 Marathi speaking villages of Karnataka to be a part of Maharashtra and for this purpose the Maharashtra Government will pursuit legal proceedings in Supreme Court.
Follow For More: nammabelagavinews.com