Cultural Ties

“The organisation initially worked only for migrant Kannadigas who came to Pune in search of a livelihood or to pursue their studies. We would help them settle down in the city and socialise with the other members,” informs Ramdas Acharya,public relations officer of the Sangha. Later on,the founder members realised that another major problem was that of education. “Most of the people who came from Karnataka were labourers or worked as vegetable or fruit vendors. Since they were poor,they couldn’t send their children to school or even have decent houses. Noticing these problems,our founder members G M Shetty and Shamrao Kalmadi started the Karnataka High School that is located on Ketkar road,” Acharya adds.

Set up in 1962,the school has been imparting education to underprivileged children free of cost. While the primary section has both Kannada and English medium,the secondary section is only Kannada Medium. The Kannada Sangh now has a full-fledged school,a day-care centre,junior and senior colleges in the city. “We are also planning to start a management college by 2013 in Lohegaon. In fact,we will be one of the few organisations in the city to have schools,right from the pre-primary section to a management college,” says Kushal Hegde,president of the Sangha.

Even though education has been the mainstay,the organisation also celebrates festivals like Dussehra and Rajyotsav,which is the foundation day of Karnataka. “We want to get the local people involved in all our activities. In fact,even in our schools and colleges,almost 98 per cent of the people are not Kannadigas. We want to get everyone involved in our organisation,” says Hegde.

In addition to opening new institutes,the Sangha will also speak to railway authorities to start trains to Udipi and other important stations in Karnataka. “We have recently inaugurated a state-of-the-art auditorium at our campus in Ganesh Nagar. We hold all our cultural programmes there and also rent out the place for people who wish to organise their events,” says Acharya.