India, Oct. 27 -- Never mind how fraught the world seems at the moment, come November and Kannadiga thoughts turn inevitably to Kannada Rajyotsava, the emotionally charged anniversary of the creation of a Kannada homeland carved out of the former Madras Presidency, Bombay Presidency and the princely state of Hyderabad, and incorporated, along with other smaller princely states, into the glorious Kingdom of Mysore, the custodian of Kannada culture since the 13th century. The ekikarana, which came to pass on November 1, 1956, was the culmination of a decades-long struggle for unification pioneered by Kannada litterateurs.

It is no wonder, then, that even as far back as the early 20th century, when the idea of a culturally and linguisticall...