India Issues ₹200 Coin Honouring Rani Chennamma’s 200-Year Legacy

The Government of India issued a ₹200 commemorative coin to mark 200 years of Rani Chennamma’s historic victory (1824) at Kittur.

• The Government of India issued a ₹200 commemorative coin to mark 200 years of Rani Chennamma’s historic victory (1824) at Kittur, highlighting her courage and leadership against British rule.
• Rani Chennamma was born on 23 October 1778 in Kagati village (Belagavi district, Karnataka) in a Lingayat family. She was trained in horse riding, sword fighting, and archery from childhood.
• She married Raja Mallasarja of Kittur and became queen after his death in 1816. The Kittur Rebellion (1824) began after the deaths of her husband and son when she adopted Shivalingappa as the heir to the throne of Kittur.
• However, the British East India Company refused to recognize Shivalingappa as the successor under the “Doctrine of Lapse” and tried to annex Kittur, which later became one of the earliest examples of the event known as the “Doctrine of Lapse.”
• Rani Chennamma refused to surrender and led an armed rebellion against British officer John Thackeray, defeating him in the first battle.
• However, the British retaliated with a larger army under Colonel Deacon, captured the fort, and imprisoned her in Bailhongal Fort, where she died in 1829.
• Legacy: She was one of India’s first freedom fighters, who actively resisted British rule three decades before the Revolt of 1857.
• Rani Chennamma is remembered with reverence not only in Karnataka but throughout India as a symbol of courage, justice, and women-led resistance against colonial rule.
• Her story continues to live through folk songs, legends, and theatre, and she is commemorated annually through the Kittur Rani Chennamma Festival.

Doctrine of Lapse

• The Doctrine of Lapse was a policy implemented by Governor-General Lord Dalhousie, under which the British East India Company had the right to annex any princely state under its control if the ruler was deemed incompetent or died without a male heir.
• According to it, no adopted son of an Indian ruler could be declared the heir to the throne.
• Dalhousie applied this doctrine to annex the following states — Satara (1848), Jaitpur and Sambalpur (1849), Baghat (1850), Udaipur (1852), Jhansi (1853), and Nagpur (1854).