South Canara (South Kannada) was a district of the

Madras Presidency The Madras Presidency or Madras Province, officially called the Presidency of Fort St. George until 1937, was an administrative subdivision (province) of British India and later the Dominion of India. At its greatest extent, the presidency i ...

British Raj The British Raj ( ; from Hindustani language, Hindustani , 'reign', 'rule' or 'government') was the colonial rule of the British The Crown, Crown on the Indian subcontinent, * * lasting from 1858 to 1947. * * It is also called Crown rule ...

, located at . It comprised the towns of Kassergode and Udipi and adjacent villages, with the administration at Mangalore city. South Canara was one of the most heterogeneous areas of

, with Tulu,

Malayalam Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian languages, Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry (union territory), Puducherry (Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of ...

Kannada Kannada () is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly in the state of Karnataka in southwestern India, and spoken by a minority of the population in all neighbouring states. It has 44 million native speakers, and is additionally a ...

Konkani __NOTOC__ Konkani may refer to: Language * Konkani language is an Indo-Aryan language spoken in the Konkan region of India. * Konkani alphabets, different scripts used to write the language **Konkani in the Roman script, one of the scripts used to ...

, Marathi, Hindustani, and Beary languages being spoken. It was succeeded by the Tulu-speaking areas of Dakshina Kannada district, the

-speaking area of Kasaragod district and the Amindivi islands sub-division of the Laccadives, in the year 1956.

Geography

Mangalore Mangaluru (), formerly called Mangalore ( ), is a major industrial port city in the Indian state of Karnataka and on the west coast of India. It is located between the Laccadive Sea and the Western Ghats about west of Bengaluru, the st ...

was the administrative headquarters of the district. The district covered an area of . South Canara District was bordered by North Canara to north, the princely state of

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 ...

to east, Coorg state to southeast, Malabar District to south, and

Arabian Sea The Arabian Sea () is a region of sea in the northern Indian Ocean, bounded on the west by the Arabian Peninsula, Gulf of Aden and Guardafui Channel, on the northwest by Gulf of Oman and Iran, on the north by Pakistan, on the east by India, and ...

to west. South Canara was one of the two districts on the western coast (

Malabar coast The Malabar Coast () is the southwestern region of the Indian subcontinent. It generally refers to the West Coast of India, western coastline of India stretching from Konkan to Kanyakumari. Geographically, it comprises one of the wettest regio ...

) of

along with Malabar District (otherwise known as ''Malayalam District'').

History

South Canara was annexed by the

British East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company that was founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to Indian Ocean trade, trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (South A ...

following the defeat of

Tipu Sultan Tipu Sultan (, , ''Sultan Fateh Ali Sahab Tipu''; 1 December 1751 – 4 May 1799) commonly referred to as Sher-e-Mysore or "Tiger of Mysore", was a ruler of the Kingdom of Mysore based in South India. He was a pioneer of rocket artillery ...

in the Fourth Mysore War in 1799 and along with North Kanara formed the district of

Kanara Kanara or Canara, also known as Karāvali, is the historically significant stretch of land situated by the southwestern Konkan coast of India, alongside the Arabian Sea in the present-day Indian state of Karnataka. The subregion comprises thr ...

in the Madras Presidency. In 1859, Kanara was split into two districts, North and South. North Kanara was transferred to the Bombay Presidency, and South was retained by Madras.

Taluks

The district was divided into six

taluk A tehsil (, also known as tahsil, taluk, or taluka () is a local unit of administrative division in India and Pakistan. It is a subdistrict of the area within a district including the designated populated place that serves as its administrative ...

s: * Amindivi Islands ( Laccadives) (Area:) * Coondapoor (Area:; Headquarters: Coondapoor) * Kasaragod (Area:; Headquarters: Kasaragod) *

(Area:; Headquarters: Mangalore) *

Udupi Udupi () also known as 'Odipu' () is a city in the Indian state of Karnataka. It is the administrative headquarters of Udupi district, and one of the fastest-growing cities in Karnataka. Udupi is one of the top tourist attractions in Karnataka an ...

(Area:; Headquarters: Udupi) * Uppinangady (Area:; Headquarters: Puttur)

Administration

The district was administered by a

District Collector The district magistrate, also known as the district collector or deputy commissioner, is a career civil servant who serves as the executive head of a district's administration in India. The specific name depends on the state or union territo ...

. For purpose of convenience, the district was divided into three sub-divisions: * Coondapoor sub-division: Coondapoor and Udupi taluks * Mangalore sub-division: Mangalore, and the Amindivi islands * Puttur sub-division: Uppinangady and Kasaragod taluks. The district had two municipalities, those of Mangalore and Udupi.

Demographics

South Kanara had a total population of 1,748,991 in 1951, of whom 66.58% were Hindu, 24.31% Muslim and 8.85% Christian. The most widely spoken language was Tulu, which was the mother tongue of 40% of the population, followed by Malayalam for 24%, Kannada for 17%, and 13% for

. In 1901, South Kanara had a density of . The 1908 '' Imperial Gazetteer of India'' lists South Canara, along with the Thanjavur and Ganjam districts, as the three districts of the

where

Brahmins Brahmin (; ) is a ''Varna (Hinduism), varna'' (theoretical social classes) within Hindu society. The other three varnas are the ''Kshatriya'' (rulers and warriors), ''Vaishya'' (traders, merchants, and farmers), and ''Shudra'' (labourers). Th ...

, one of the four main castes in Hinduism, were most numerous. The majority of the people were Billavas and Bunts. There were more

(12% of the population) in South Kanara than any other district of the Madras Presidency making South Kanara, along with

Tanjore Thanjavur (), also known as Thanjai, previously known as Tanjore,#Pletcher, Pletcher 2010, p. 195 is a city in the India, Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is the 12th biggest city in Tamil Nadu. Thanjavur is an important center of South Indian c ...

and Ganjam, as one of the three districts of the province where Brahmins were most numerous. The original

indigenous people There is no generally accepted definition of Indigenous peoples, although in the 21st century the focus has been on self-identification, cultural difference from other groups in a state, a special relationship with their traditional territ ...

of the region are

Tuluvas The Tulu people or Tuluvas are an ethno-linguistic and ethno-cultural group from Southern India. They are native speakers of the Tulu language and the region they traditionally inhabit is known as Tulu Nadu. This region comprises the districts ...

( Bunts, Billavas, Mogaveeras, Tulu gowda, Kulalas, Devadigas, Bearys, Jogis) and

Malayali The Malayali people (; also spelt Malayalee and sometimes known by the demonym Keralite) are a Dravidian ethnolinguistic group originating from the present-day state of Kerala and Union Territory of Lakshadweep in India, occupying its south ...

s in the Kasaragod Taluk ( Nambudiris, Nairs, Thiyyas, Mappilas etc). The Brahmins who settled first belonged chiefly to the Sthanika and thus they were called as Tulu Brahmins. Others were Shivalli, Saraswat, Havyaka, Kotaha sub-sections, Mahars, the hill-tribes ('' Koragas'').

References

External links

South Canara
by Vikas Kamat from ''Kamat.com'' {{Wiktionary, South Canara Regions of Karnataka History of Mangalore Districts of the Madras Presidency South Kanara District Regions of Kerala