HARWADA (ANKOLA): It’s been a decade since the family of Bunt Venku Gouda, who belongs to the Halakki Vokkaliga community, was banished from their village, Harwada. Their crime: They did not invite the village head, Anand Siddagouda, who also happens to be Venku’s cousin, for the wedding of his son, Sanjay Bunt Gouda.
The social boycott was imposed on February 15, 2012 and since then the family has been paying a very heavy price. Harwada is a tiny village in Ankola, with 200 houses and a population of about 1,000 people, inhabited by Halakki Vokkaliga community members.
Groceries, water denied to family
“My father was deeply affected mentally by the boycott and died in 2014. Even after his death, Siddagouda has shown no remorse and refuses to budge”, says Vijay Gouda, son of Venku Gouda.
“They are all our own community members. But now since we have been ostracised, they have told the villagers not to talk to us. Another person from our village, Nagappa Nagu Gouda has also been banished,” said Gange Banta Gouda, mother of Vijay.
No shop in the village sells groceries to this family and even drinking water is not made available to them. The family brings groceries from Avarsa village. Vijay said the family has lodged police complaints twice but the complaints have only fallen on deaf ears.
Siddegouda, the chief of Harvada village community, refuted the allegations saying that his cousin has not been banished from the village. “We only told them that they have shown disrespect to us,” he said.