Venkata Rao Kolachalam belonged to an illustrious family in Ballari. His father served as the Dewan of Anagundi Samsthana of the Vijayanagara Empire. Venkata Rao was a lawyer by profession. He practised primarily in the courts of Ballari and Madras and was revered as “Nyayavadi Kesari” (lion of the bar).
After almost a century of British rule in India, the government, under the viceroyalty of Lord Ripon, wanted to extend local self-governance to tier 2 cities and Ballari was not under consideration. Aggrieved by this, Venkata Rao took a delegation to meet Ripon and proposed to declare Ballari a municipality. In 1884, Ballari was declared a municipality and the first elections to the local council took place. Venkata Rao’s efforts to persuade people to question the British gained popularity when he was elected to council.
The following year, he was invited by the Theosophical Society to attend the informal meeting being planned in Bombay, called the “first session of the Indian National Congress”. On December 28, 1885, 72 people representing various regions of India came together. Of these, Venkata Rao was the only one who was fluent in Kannada.
In 1902, when Ballari was hit by the plague, Venkata Rao took over as chairman of Ballari Municipality. At the cost of his own health and expenses, he was successful in stamping out the disease. Honoring his services, the British conferred him the Right Honourable title.
Most of southern India was governed under the Madras Presidency, which had an upper house called the Legislative Council, comprising eight to 12 seats for Indians as non-executives. In 1903, the Eastern districts were given one seat in the council. The Eastern districts constitute some part of today’s Karnataka and the whole of Andhra Pradesh. Venkata Rao Kolachalam contested against Kruthiventi Perraju of Kakinada and won, serving in that position until 1904.
Learning that British administrators in India were mere public servants working under the orders of their rulers, Venkata Rao Kolachalam shifted his focus to London. He became a patron of the British Committee of the Indian National Congress. The British Committee had an office in London, which primarily worked to create awareness among the public about the atrocities committed by British authorities in India. Venkata Rao frequently travelled to London. He proposed a resolution in the 21st session of Congress in 1905, held in Kashi, to support the candidature of Dadabhai Naoroji to the British parliament.
When Congress began to squabble in 1907, Venkata Rao gradually limited his involvement. He returned his Right Honourable title in 1916 in response to the oppressive treatment of the British of Bal Gangadhar Tilak in prison.
He was known for his dauntlessness. One example often quoted is when Judge W W Phillips asked not to waste his time on trivial cases, Venkata Rao replied, “You are paid by months, I am paid by minutes, my time is more precious than yours.”
Venkata Rao was a social reformer. It was under his presidency that the 1904 Indian (National) Social Conference took place in Madras. Press coverage of that time indicates the conference outnumbered the Congress session.
Venkata Rao Kolachalam, along with Rao Bahadur Kanekal Nettakallappa, Sabapathy Mudaliar and others, got elected to the first municipal council of Ballari.