Once migrants, they now call themselves Kannadigas

Sculptors, masons who came from T.N. to Karnataka in the 50s have made Tumakuru their home

Students of the government school at Indiragrama include children of migrant sculptors and masons, in Madhugiri taluk of Tumakuru district.

In the 1950s, around 40 families of sculptors and stonemasons migrated from a village in Karikudi taluk of Sivaganga district in Tamil Nadu to build the Vidhana Soudha in Bengaluru.

Today, the families have embraced Kannada culture as their own, while calling Indiragrama in Madhugiri taluk of Tumakuru district their home.

After the construction of the Vidhana Soudha, they got the job of building the Kannika Parameshwari temple in Badavanahalli in Madhugiri taluk. So, the Karnataka government allotted Ashraya houses to them and gave them land.

For Rangapura Gram Panchayat member Muthanna, it is indeed home. “My father Mahalingappa came to Bengaluru to help build the Vidhana Soudha. I was born and brought up in the State and now my age is 57,” he said. “We have become Kannadigas.”

Though their mother tongue is Tamil, they are fluent in Kannada. Their children participated in the Rajyotsava celebrations along with their friends in school.

“We sang ‘Naada Geethe’ and other songs on Kannada and Karnataka today,” said P .Pooja, a class 4 student from one of the families.

Pitching in

Teachers at the government school have also done their bit to help the children learn the local language. Headmistress D. Hemalatha, told The Hindu , “We teachers have learnt a little Tamil so that we can communicate better with students from lower classes, and help them learn Kannada properly.”