Kengal Hanumanthaiah (10 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 ter ...

Karnataka Karnataka ( ) is a States and union territories of India, state in the southwestern region of India. It was Unification of Karnataka, formed as Mysore State on 1 November 1956, with the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, 1956, States Re ...

(then, Mysore State) 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 10 February 1908, in a

Vokkaliga Vokkaliga (also transliterated as Vokkaligar, Vakkaliga, Wakkaliga, Okkaligar, Okkiliyan) is a community of closely related castes, from the Indian states of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. As a community of warriors and cultivators they have historical ...

family in a Lakkappanahalli, a small village near Ramanagara,

Ramanagara District Bengaluru South ( 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 Bangalore Division. History Ramanagara dist ...

. He graduated in Arts from the Maharaja College in

Mysore Mysore ( ), officially Mysuru (), is a city in the southern Indian state of Karnataka. It is the headquarters of Mysore district and Mysore division. As the traditional seat of the Wadiyar dynasty, the city functioned as the capital of the ...

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, or simply the Congress, is a political parties in India, political party in India with deep roots in most regions of India. Founded on 28 December 1885, it was the first mo ...

led by

Mahatma Gandhi Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (2October 186930January 1948) was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalism, anti-colonial nationalist, and political ethics, political ethicist who employed nonviolent resistance to lead the successful Indian ...

. 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 Constituent Assembly of India was partly elected and partly nominated body to frame the Constitution of India. It was elected by the Provincial assemblies of British India following the Provincial Assembly elections held in 1946 and nominated ...

. 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 Bengaluru, also known as Bangalore (List of renamed places in India#Karnataka, its official name until 1 November 2014), is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the southern States and union territories of India, Indian state of Kar ...

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 Bangalore city from 1962 to 1967 and represented

from 1967 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 The Akhil Bharatiya Jana Sangh ( BJS or JS, short name: Jan Sangh) was a Hindutva political party active in India. It was established on 21 October 1951 in Delhi by three founding members: Shyama Prasad Mukherjee, Balraj Madhok and Deendayal ...

. However, he lost to Justice K. S. Hegde of the

Janata party The Janata Party (JP, ) is an unrecognised political party in India. Navneet Chaturvedi is the current president of the party since November 2021, replacing Jaiprakash Bandhu. The JP was established as an amalgam of Indian political partie ...

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 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 Bengaluru 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 from Karnataka Chief ministers of Karnataka Chief ministers of Indian states Railway ministers of India Law ministers of India Members of the Cabinet of India Mysore MLAs 1952–1957