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Journalism of Courage
Addressing an event to mark the golden jubilee of a cooperative in Puttur, Dakshin Kannada, Union Home Minister Amit Shah Saturday said that while the Congress and JD(S), “who believed in 18th-century Mysuru ruler Tipu Sultan”, cannot do any good for Karnataka, the BJP took its inspiration from “16th-century Tuluva queen of Ullal Rani Abbakka Chowta”, to give the state a prosperous rule.
“Should people vote for the JD(S) and Congress who believe in Tipu, or the BJP which has faith in Rani Abbakka?” he asked.
In September 2022, addressing a rally in Karnataka, Prime Minister Narendra Modi mentioned Abakka along with Rani Chennabhaira Devi as one of the two local women warriors who had contributed to the freedom struggle. “They helped rescue the soil of the country from slavery,” the PM said.
An article on her on the website of the IGNCA (Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts), calls the queen, locally known as Abbakka Mahadevi, “one of the earliest freedom fighters of India who resisted the Portuguese”.
Belonging to the Chowta dynasty, which ruled Tulu Nadu, comprising several strategic regions of coastal Karnataka, Abakka was the queen of a little-known and small princely state, Ullal (located just a few kilometres from Mangaluru).
The article describes her as “a magnetic woman of indomitable courage and patriotism”. “While Rani Jhansi has become a symbol of courage, Abbakka, nearly 300 years her predecessor, has been largely forgotten by history. Her furious wars with Portuguese are not well recorded. But whatever is available speaks of a luminous personality of awesome valour and bravery,” the article reads.
According to the writer, Kailash Kr Mishra, who has worked on a documentary project on Abbakka, archival records, accounts of Portuguese travellers and historical analysis say there were three Abbakkas: “mother and two daughters, who fought against the Portuguese Army between 1530 and 1599”.
While the second daughter was believed to have been the most courageous, all three Abbakkas are in folklore treated as one great Queen. The Ullal fort still survives, on the shores of the Arabian Sea, and has a Shiva Temple built by the Queen.
As per the IGNCA article, trained in military science and warfare, mainly archery and sword-fighting, Abakka had a short-lived marriage with the neighbouring local king of Bangher. When she broke off the marriage, her husband is said to have joined the Portuguese to fight her. The Chowta dynasty followed the system of matrilineal inheritance of the Digambara Jains, which means the crown had passed to Abakka.
Having conquered Goa, the Portuguese made several attempts to capture the strategically located Ullal, but were repulsed by Abbakka, the story of her fightback passing down into folk songs and folk theatre yakshagana. As per one such folklore, Abbakka was “the last known person to have the Agnivana (fire-arrow)”.
There was another side to Abbakka that perhaps doesn’t fit as easily with the Hindutva narrative seeking to pit her against “Muslim” ruler Tipu Sultan. A Jain by faith, her administration had a strong representation of Hindus and Muslims, while her army was known to include people from all sects and castes, as per the IGNCA article.
