Kotiganahalli Ramaiah, a Kannada poet and cultural activist who co-founded the Dalit Sangharsha Samiti in Karnataka, translated several Telugu resistance songs by Gaddar into Kannada and gave them to singers, who then passed them on orally. In his Kannada version of the song known in English as “Lachumamma under the Jasmine Tree,” he replaced the jasmine with a kanigele tree, because that tree was bound to his own mother’s experience. He presents the change as personal and situated rather than a botanical substitution. His account appeared as a first-person essay in Scroll on August 13, 2023.
Who translated the songs, and why
Ramaiah says he was at first distant from Gaddar’s songs. He was then drawn to the ones that challenged feudal relations, and he began translating them for singers in Karnataka. He does not claim to have translated all of Gaddar’s work, and the Kannada versions he describes are adaptations rather than word-for-word renderings. On his own pull toward the songs, he writes: “Why these songs called out to me to translate them is hardly a matter of wonder.”
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The Times of India gives Gaddar’s birth name as Gummadi Vittal Rao. The Scroll essay refers to him only as Gaddar, so the birth name is useful background rather than something Ramaiah’s account depends on.
The tree that changed: from sirimallige to kanigele
The Telugu song’s line, which Ramaiah cites as “sirimalle cettukinda laccumammo,” names the sirimallige, or jasmine, tree. Ramaiah keeps the Telugu image as the reference point and changes the tree in his Kannada rendering. The table below sets out the elements he describes.
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| Element | Telugu original (as cited in the essay) | Ramaiah’s Kannada rendering | Basis for the choice, per Ramaiah |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tree | Sirimallige (jasmine) | Kanigele | The tree was bound to his mother’s experience |
| Central figure | Lachumamma | Lachumamma | He understood her through the lives of his mother and other working-class and Dalit women |
| Nature of the change | Source wording | Deliberate adaptation, not a word-for-word rendering | Chosen for personal and social resonance with his listeners |
The sharpest statement in the essay concerns the figure itself. Ramaiah writes that the Lachumamma Gaddar placed before himself while composing the song “was none other than the portrait of my mother.” This is Ramaiah’s reading of the song, not a claim about Gaddar’s intent that can be checked independently. It explains why the translation carries a personal memory into the Kannada song, and why he treats the tree substitution as meaningful rather than incidental.
The choice should not be read as a contest over which version is more authentic. The Telugu and Kannada songs are two situated versions of the same image, and the essay’s argument is that the image travels best when it is rooted in a listener’s own world.
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The songs Ramaiah names
Ramaiah names four songs whose Kannada versions he says he translated and passed to singers. Each title below is an English gloss:
- “Darkness in Every House”
- “What caste are you, Man?”
- “Lachumamma under the Jasmine Tree,” the song discussed above
- “Boy from a Village”
He does not present this as a complete list of his translations, and the essay does not establish how many of Gaddar’s songs were rendered into Kannada in total.
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How the songs reached listeners
The singers and the circuit
Ramaiah places the translations within an ecology of protest singing. He names the Dalit Sangharsha Samiti, the Dalit Kala Mandalis, and singers in Kolar and Raichur. The songs circulated by ear, which is how Ramaiah describes their spread from the translator’s page into performance.
His account of reach
Ramaiah recalls the songs reaching listeners across Karnataka and contributing to Dalit movement consciousness. These are his recollections, not measured outcomes. He also estimates that there were “at least five or six singers” of resistance songs in each district. That figure is his personal recollection and should be read as such; no organization in the essay reports it as a count.
The Kannada songwriters he places alongside them
Ramaiah also describes Kannada songwriters and performers, including Siddalingaiah, Janardhana (known as Janni), and Basavalingaiah. He offers a comparison between the Telugu and Kannada traditions, but it is his own assessment. It is not a settled ranking, and it should be read as one participant’s view.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Horatada Hadugalu, the first Samiti collection
Ramaiah recounts that the Dalit Sangharsha Samiti’s first collection was titled Horatada Hadugalu (Songs of Resistance). He describes how it was made, what its cover looked like, and its role for singers, and he calls it a primary source for many of them. The essay is the only account of the collection available here. It does not establish whether the collection is still in print, who publishes it now, or whether it has an ISBN, so readers looking for a copy should treat its current availability as unconfirmed.
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What the evidence supports, and what it does not
- The core account is a 2023 first-person essay. Its claims about translation choices, the tree substitution, and the songs’ reception are Ramaiah’s own testimony.
- No independent study measuring the reach or effects of these Kannada translations was found. The claims about movement impact are not independently corroborated.
- The Gaddar birth name comes from a Times of India report, which is cited here only as biographical context.
- The article does not claim that any listening, testing, or personal experience of the performances took place beyond what Ramaiah describes.
Further reading
Buffalo Nationalism: A Critique of Spiritual Fascism by Kancha Ilaiah Shepherd is related supplementary reading. Google Books lists a 2018 print edition from SAGE, and that edition includes translated lines from “Lachumamma.” It is not a Kannada collection of Gaddar’s songs or a complete Gaddar songbook, so it does not replace the Kannada sources discussed above.
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