Kengal Hanumanthaiah (14 February 1908 – 1 December 1980), also spelt as Kengal Hanumanthaiya, was the second

Chief Minister A chief minister is an elected or appointed head of government of – in most instances – a sub-national entity, for instance an administrative subdivision or federal constituent entity. Examples include a state (and sometimes a union terri ...

Karnataka Karnataka (; ISO: , , also known as Karunāḍu) is a state in the southwestern region of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, with the passage of the States Reorganisation Act. Originally known as Mysore State , it was renamed ''Karnat ...

(then,

Mysore State Mysore State, colloquially Old Mysore, was a state within the Dominion of India and the later India, Republic of India from 1947 until 1956. The state was formed by renaming the Kingdom of Mysore, and Bangalore replaced Mysore as the state's c ...

) from 30 March 1952 to 19 August 1956. He contributed to the construction of Vidhana Soudha, the seat of the state legislature.

Early life

Hanumanthaiah was born on 14 February 1908, in a

Vokkaliga Vokkaliga (also transliterated as Vokkaligar, Vakkaliga, Wakkaliga, Okkaligar, Okkiliyan) is a community, or a group of closely-related castes, from the Indian state of Karnataka. They are also present in the neighbouring state of Tamil Nadu. As ...

family in a Lakkappanahalli, a small village near

Ramanagara Ramanagara is a city in the Indian state of Karnataka. It is also the headquarters of Ramanagara district. It is approximately 50 kilometres from Bangalore. There are buses and trains as public transportations which approximately takes 90 minute ...

Ramanagara District Ramanagara district, is one of the 31 districts of Karnataka state in southern India. Ramanagara City is the administrative headquarters of this district. The district is part of Bengaluru Division. History Ramanagara district was carved out ...

. He graduated in Arts from the Maharaja College in

Mysore Mysore (), officially Mysuru (), is a city in the southern part of the state of Karnataka, India. Mysore city is geographically located between 12° 18′ 26″ north latitude and 76° 38′ 59″ east longitude. It is located at an altitude of ...

in 1930 and later earned a degree in Law from Poona Law College in 1932. During his college days, he was elected as the Secretary of the Students Union and the Karnataka Sangha. After his graduation, he joined the bar council in the same year.

Political career

At that time, the independence movement was steadily growing and at the center stage of the movement was the

Indian National Congress The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party but often simply the Congress, is a political party in India with widespread roots. Founded in 1885, it was the first modern nationalist movement to emerge in the British E ...

led by

Mahatma Gandhi Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (; ; 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948), popularly known as Mahatma Gandhi, was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist Quote: "... marks Gandhi as a hybrid cosmopolitan figure who transformed ... anti- ...

. Dr. P. Tandon, the then President of

, advised Hanumanthaiah to give up his active practice at the bar and to devote himself to the freedom struggle. With the inspiration of Gandhiji and the persuasion of Tandon, Hanumanthaiah joined the freedom movement and became active in the then Mysore Congress. During the movement, he was jailed more than 7 times. He was unanimously elected as the leader of the Parliamentary Party wing of the Congress Party in Mysore Assembly in the year 1948. Also, he was a member of the

Constituent Assembly of India The Constituent Assembly of India was elected to frame the Constitution of India. It was elected by the 'Provincial Assembly'. Following India's independence from the British rule in 1947, its members served as the nation's first Parliament as ...

. He became the second Chief minister of Mysore state in 1952, following the victory of the Congress party in the 1st general elections. His tenure as Chief Minister was marked by activities aimed at uplifting the rural population of the state and promoting economic growth. Hanumanthaiah's major achievement was the construction of the "Vidhana Soudha", the largest legislature-cum-office building in India at that time. His other key achievement was the Unification of Karnataka. He played a role in uniting the Kannada speaking areas within the boundaries of a single state.

Role in Constituent Assembly

He was part of the Committee for the Drafting of a Model Constitution for the Indian States and made interventions on the issue of federalism. In the Constituent Assembly, he argued for greater autonomy for states.

Vidhana Soudha

During an interview, Kengal Hanumanthaiah explained the reasoning behind the construction of a grand legislature building. A Russian cultural delegation was visiting

Bangalore Bangalore (), List of renamed places in India, officially Bengaluru (), is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the Indian state of Karnataka. It has a population of more than and a metropolitan area, metropolitan population of a ...

and Hanumanthaiah took them around to show the city. Stung by their comments, Hanumanthaiah vowed to create a monument so magnificent that it would showcase the best of Karnataka's indigenous architectural style. This resulted in the Vidhana Soudha, the seat of Legislature in

Later life

After resigning as

shortly before the Unification of

in 1956, he moved on to national politics. He was continuously elected as a member of parliament representing

city from 1962 to 1977. He was member of the 3rd (1962), 4th (1967) and 5th (1971) Loksabha. During this period he served as minister in the Union cabinet handling a number of portfolios such as Railways, Industries etc. In the 1971 elections, he defeated the poet Gopalkrishna Adiga, who was a candidate of the Jana Sangh. However, he lost to Justice

K. S. Hegde Kowdoor Sadananda Hegde (11 June 1909 – 24 May 1990) was an Indian jurist and politician who served as a judge in the Supreme Court of India and later as the Speaker of the Lok Sabha. Hegde founded the Nitte Education Trust. He is the father o ...

of the

Janata party The Janata Party ( JP, lit. ''People's Party'') was a political party that was founded as an amalgam of Indian political parties opposed to the Emergency that was imposed between 1975 and 1977 by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi of the Indian Nati ...

in 1977. He died on 1 December 1980.

Legacy

The Kengal Hanumanthaiya Memorial Trust celebrated his 104th birthday in 2012 which had the Chief Guest, the 13th President (then Finance Minister), Pranab Mukherjee. A major road in Bangalore called Double Road near Lalbagh is renamed as Kengal Hanumanthiah Road. A statue of Hanumanthaiah has been installed in front of the Vidhana Soudha. His centenary celebrations were held in the year 2008. The

Kengeri Kengeri is a suburb in Bangalore city. It is located on the western corridor along Mysore Road, bordered by Nagarbhavi to the north and Rajarajeshwari Nagar to the east. History The name Kengeri comes from the Kannada words Tengu coconut and K ...

TTMC junction in Bangalore is named as "Shri Kengal Hanumanthaiah Transport Junction."

References

External links

A short video on the life and times of Kengal Hanumanthiah by Department of Information and Broadcasting, Karnataka
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hanumanthaiah, Kengal 1908 births 1980 deaths Politicians from Bangalore Kannada people India MPs 1962–1967 Maharaja's College, Mysore alumni Members of the Constituent Assembly of India India MPs 1967–1970 India MPs 1971–1977 Lok Sabha members from Karnataka Chief ministers from Indian National Congress Indian National Congress politicians Chief Ministers of Karnataka Chief ministers of Indian states Railway Ministers of India Law Ministers of India Members of the Cabinet of India