173 Years of History
The State of Karnataka was formed on November 1, 1956 as a result of implementation of States Reorganization Act 1956 on linguistic basis. The State earlier known as Mysore was the princely state ruled by Wadeyar dynasty – the Kings of Mysore, and it became one of the Indian States after India gained Independence as the Wadeyars of Mysore acceded the State into the Republic of India on August 9, 1947 consequent to unification of princely states of India. The mother tongue of the people, Kannada was recognized as the official language of the State and linguistic harmony required for balanced growth of the state. The geographical parts of, Nizam’s Hyderabad, Bombay Presidency, Madras Presidency and the Kodagu were integrated into the State of Mysore in 1956 to unify Kannada speaking people.
The Mysore state was renamed as Karnataka State on November 1, 1973. The new state initially had 8 districts of erstwhile Mysore state (Mysore, Mandya, Bangalore, Kolar, Tumkur, Chitradurga, Chickmagalur and Hassan), 4 districts of Bombay-Karnataka region (Dharwad, Belgaum, Bijapur and Uttara Kannada), 3 districts of Hyderabad-Karnataka (Bidar, Gulbarga and Raichur), 2 districts of Madras-Karnataka (Bellary and Dakshina Kannada) and Coorg district.
The new state was formed in 1956 with 18 districts. Interestingly, by 2014 the state had 30 districts to reduce regional imbalances in development. Kannada press has a history of 173 years for which foundation was laid by Christian missionaries who established printing press and learnt the language with the sole intention of publishing religious literature for propagation of Christianity. These Christian missionaries have contributed to the growth of Kannada literature and journalism because the establishment of printing press by them paved the way for the publication of literature and newspapers in Kannada. Therefore, the religious preachers who migrated to propagate religion were instrumental in the birth of Kannada journalism.