Codava National Council’s 14th Annual Gun Carnival- Thok Namme on 18th Dec

File Photo of the Annual Gun Carnival- Thok Namme held last year.

Napoklu: On the day of United Nations World Minorities Rights Day, 18 December, Codava National Council(CNC) will celebrate its 14th Annual Public Gun Carnival or Thok Namme in a folkloric manner with much enthusiasm at Appachira Rammy Nanaiah and Reena Nanaiah's Cauvery Estate Resort in the Banks of River Cauvery, Kolkeri.

The unique festival will be celebrated under the leadership of CNC President, N U Nachappa. “At the carnival, guns will be decorated with flowers and worshiped. Thereafter, shooting competitions will be held for children, women and men alike. Large numbers of Guns will be displayed. We request Kodava and Kodavathi participants to bring as many guns as possible for worship and performing rituals,” Mr Nachappa said.

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A large number of Kodavathis are expected to participate in the event. “We Kodavas take pride in our strong women, who do not shy away from firing guns and have been doing so for centuries. Gun is a Religio-Racial Sacrament of the Codava Race. To showcase, demonstrate and display our aboriginal pride and ancient customary practices as well as our folkloric legal system,” he added.

Mr Nachappa further explained that the Kodava Racial trait, Mother Earth, Mother nature, the Divine spring Cauvery, our tribal ancestry and our hereditary communal lands, our unwritten oral folk-legal systems and gun culture have been a rich repository of our collective past as Kodavas and continues to be so in the present, and will continue in the future as well.

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“Since the Disarmament Act, the Codava Race has been exempted from needing a licence to possess weapons/guns. All the rulers ratified it from time to time. After India attained freedom, Codava Gun exemption privilege continued to exist under Indian Arms act, section 3 and 4. But after the amalgamation of our dear Homeland, Coorg State in 1956 under State re- organization Act, the ruling classes started to jeopardise our Religious Sacramental Gun rights. Systematically, the Governemnt snatched away all our rights and disenfranchised our self determination rights, which is a grave Constitutional breach and a criminal breach of trust in every way. Eventually, they even took away our peace while comprehensively destroying our cultural heritage,” Mr Nachappa added.

At the Gun festival CNC to pass important resolutions and adopt them and also on occasion of the Gun Carnival, CNC will confer the "Codava Vibhushan" award to eight persons for their outstanding contribution in various fields like, sculpting, art, Kodava literature, Journalism, Social Work, Culture, Education, Agriculture, entrepreneurship, and so on.

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