Karnataka - Bangalore

A harbinger of harmony

By Our Staff Reporter

The scene at Russell Market Square in Bangalore during the Rajyotsava celebration by the Muslim community on Monday. — Photo: K. Bhagya Prakash

BANGALORE, NOV. 29. The Muslim fraternity of Russell Market had their very own Rajyotsava celebration today, combining it with Id Milan, courtesy former Minister R. Roshan Baig, and it was a day to remember the great Muslim sons of Karnataka, right from Tipu Sultan and celebrated poet K.S. Nissar Ahmed, who wrote the unforgettable Jogada siri belakinalli tungeya tene balukinalli... that worships Karnataka.

While people waited for the Chief Minister, N. Dharam Singh (he arrived nearly two hours late), Russell Market Square, which was alight with twinkling bulbs, reverberated with lustily rendered Kailasam's verses and the songs made famous by the popular singer of yore Kalinga Rao. Interspersed with them were several songs in Urdu and those from the Quran that hundreds who work and live in the neighbourhood could relate to.

Several speakers referred to the Russell Market as a place where a bit of the freedom struggle was staged. In his address, Mr. Dharam Singh praised Muslims, who, he said, had blended with the rest of the people of the State to form a seamless society. Not only were they celebrating Rajyotsava with verve, this time, the coming of Deepavali and Id within days of each other was the harbinger of future communal harmony, he said.

Vatal Nagaraj, MLA, who was one of the chief guests, said this was a time for Kannada and the great culture of Karnataka to assert themselves, and all people, regardless of their religion, had spontaneously joined the movement to secure primacy for Kannada in the State. Bargur Ramachandrappa, writer and former Chairman of the Kannada Development Authority, and Ramanna H. Kodihosahalli, Kannada Sangharsha Samiti president, attended the function.

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