Political Parties in India (with special reference to Karnataka)

Updated data - 2013

What is a Political party ? (introduction)

Political parties are an integral and indispensable part of democracy. They take an active part in mobilising the mood and opinion of the people to the desired maximum advantage in order to achieve the chief objective of forming the government. It is known that which ever party gets the majority vote forms the government and hence political parties and democracy are interlinked. Thus political parties constitutes the life blood of a representative government.

Political parties at regional level:

The presence of a large number of regional parties is another outstanding feature of the Indian party system. A political party which is restricted to a particular state, its culture, customs, and interests is called a regional party.  In the early stages of independence, regional parties had virtually no pressence. But in the early 1980’s the regional parties started asserting themselves on the theme of prefferential treatment of the central government and consolidated their hold on states and started controlling the successive central governments. They have emerged so strong that they help create, control and pull down the government at the centre.

Example: Telgu Desam Party (TDP) -  Andra Pradesh

                  Dravida Munnetra Kazagham (DMK)- Tamil Nadu

                  Trinamool Congress (TC)- West Bengal

                  Shiv Sena- Maharashtra

KARNATAKA:

Karnataka was no less in experiencing the freedom struggles. It is this series of events which led to the emergence of national conciousness in tern to the formation of small groups. Later these groups winged out as political parties.

Early leaders:

Pre Gandhian Era (1885-1920): Gangadhar Rao Deshpande, Alur Venkata Rao, Govinda Roa Yalagi, Anna charya Hoskere and Shrinivasa Rao Koujalagi.

Later : Karnad Sadashiva Rao, Hardekar Manjappa, T.Siddalingayya, K.Hanumanthayya, S. Nijalingappa, KC Reddy.

The desire for a linguistic state which led to the movement of Unification of Karnataka was another cricial event that contributed for the formation of regional level parties. Like:

Karnataka Sabha (1917): It was the first political organisation which was in the forefront. It was led by Kadapa Raghavendra Roa. Slowly it began to develop close contact with the Indian National congress. 

 “A Forgotten Empire (Vijayanagara) A Contribution to the History of INDIA” 

It is written by the famous historian Robert Sewell. Robert Sewell (1845-1925) was a civil servant in colonial India. He did extensive work on the history of Vijayanagara empire particularly of Hampi (empire’s capital).

         This book covers wide range of information about Vijayanagara empire through its 17 chapters, all in chronological order like, origin of the empire, founder kings, different dynasties, expansion of the empire, the intruder rulers, the wars fought (special focus: battle of Talikote), cultural and architectural contributions etc.. The book doesn’t only focus on these political areas, but also a real picture of social setup, culture of people, the grand ceremonies practiced, temples etc..

        The description given about the different dynasties gives us clear view of this empire. These information has been enriched and made crystal clear through maps, flow charts which are really appreciable and necessary aspects. But the only sad thing was that the everlasting confusion about the empire’s origin is not made clear in this book also. But anyways, as this book also reflects our cultural self sufficiency and heritage, gives us a feel of proud and patriotism.

        The most fascinating fact about this book is that it has been translated as seen by Domingo Paes and Fernao Nuniz which is honored as an eyewitness account of Portugese travelers to India in 16^th century report. This is why even today this book still serves as one of the important source about Vijayanagara empire. Hence it proved the title “A Contribution to the History of India”.