About Kittur Rani Channamma:
- She was born in Kakati, a small village in today’s Belagavi district of Karnataka.
- She became queen of Kitturu (now in Karnataka) when she married Raja Mallasarja of the Desai family.
- After Mallasarja’s death in 1816, his eldest son, Shivalingarudra Sarja, ascended the throne.
- Before his death in 1824, Shivalingarudra adopted a child, Shivalingappa, as the successor.
- However, the British East India Company refused to recognise Shivalingappa as the successor of the kingdom under the ‘doctrine of lapse’.
- Key facts about the Kittur Rebellion
- John Thackery, the British official at Dharwad, launched an attack on Kittur in October 1824.
- In this first battle British forces lost heavily and the Collector and political agent, St. John Thackeray was killed by the Kitturu forces.
- Two British officers, Sir Walter Elliot and Mr. Stevenson, were also taken as hostages.
- However, the British army again attacked the Kittur Fort and captured it.
- Rani Chennamma and her family were imprisoned and jailed at the fort in Bailhongal, where she died in 1829.
