Residential schools to be set up in towns that Dr. B.R. Ambedkar visited in north Karnataka

The government of Karnataka will set up residential schools with CBSE curriculum in all the towns that Dr. B. R. Ambedkar visited. This is part of an initiative towards educational development of northern Karnataka.

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah made the announcement in his budget speech on March 6.

According to Shivarudra Kallolikar, former professor of history in Karnatak University Dharwad, Dr. Ambedkar visited Bidar, Dharwad, Hubballi, Kalaburagi, Vijayapura, Bijjaragi in Vijayapura district, and five towns in Belagavi district — Aigali, Belagavi, Chikkodi, Gavanal, and Nippani.

In north Karnataka, his first visit was to Nippani in 1925 to chair a meeting of Bahiskrat Hitakarini Sabha (BHS). A BHS meeting was held in Belagavi in 1925, and in Gavanal in 1927.

Dr. Ambedkar chaired the Samajik Parishad Sabha in Belagavi in 1929. He addressed meetings of the Depressed Classes Conference in Hubballi in 1937. He visited Dharwad in 1932, to supervise the work of the hostel started by his wife Ramabai Ambedkar on Belgaum Road. He addressed a meeting of the Belgaum municipal council and the Belgaum Bar Association in 1939.

As a practising advocate, he fought cases in Nippani, Chikkodi and Vijayapura courts. In Vijayapura, he fought a criminal case and successfully argued that Somanagouda Bilagi, a farmer, was falsely accused of murder. He fought civil cases in Nippani and Chikkodi in the 1930s.

Dr. Ambedkar also visited several towns in southern Karnataka, as a leader of the depressed classes and as the country’s law minister. Most of the visits are well-documented. Further research is needed to document his visits to northern Karnataka districts, Prof. Kallolikar said.