Before the East India Company, it was the Portuguese who tried to infiltrate India through Goa. In the 1500s, Abbakka Chowta, the first woman freedom fighter, fought against the Portuguese, who tried to capture Ullal, for over 40 years. In Ullal, there is a statue of Abbakka Devi and a circle named after her.
Later, there was Kittur Chennamma, her trusted aide Krantiveera Sangolli Rayanna and Hyder Ali and Tipu Sultan who fought the British.
In the 19th Century, we had Gangadhar Rao Deshpande, a lawyer by profession who worked closely with Mahatma Gandhi and other leaders of those days— writer and scholar N S Rajpurohit; professor and journalist R S Hukkerikar, who gave importance to the linguistic unity of Kannadigas; Muduvidu Krishna Rao, who united the people of Karnataka through his articles and criticised the British Raj.
K G Gokhale, Umabai Kundapur from Hubli, Karnad Sadashiv Rao, who worked for the welfare of widows, women and children; and Dr N S Hardikar, who was a close associate of Lala Lajpat Rai, are a few other notable leaders from our state.
We also had Yashodhara Dasappa, who was an active member of the Congress party and later served as a minister of Mysore state under 2 different chief ministers. V N Okey was a painter who used his art to inspire people, Kamaladevi Chattopadya, the wife of the famous old-time actor and writer Harindranath Chaottopadya, who penned the Rajesh Khanna-starrer Bawarchi, participated in the Salt Satyagraha. She went on to inspire women to be self-reliant by learning handicrafts. Gandhian Ranganath Diwakar, who carried forward the legacy and teachings of the great Saint Aurobindo; T Subramanyam, who worked as secretary of various organisations and edited the newspaper Karnataka Kesari, was active during Civil Disobedience Movement. Bellary Sidamma played an active role in the Quit India Movement, raised her voice against the British for passing the death sentence to many of our freedom fighters and was also a prominent figure who unfurled the National Flag in Dharwad. Another dynamic lady Nagamma Patil also fought the British and worked towards providing education to the girl child. Last but not least is Nittur Srinivasa Rao, whom I happened to meet at one of the Lions Club functions about 25 years ago, where he was felicitated. He was an active Congress worker and was instrumental in the growth of the Mysore State Congress Party.
Of the many names mentioned, there are many women, which means Naari Shakti is nothing new. There may be many more such unsung, unheard heroes closer to home. The history of our freedom struggle is way beyond what one gets to read in the 100-200 pages of school textbooks. If one reads more about it, one will learn to value our independence.