India’s Switzerland, where Everyone has a Right to Arms

AmmoLand ^ | December 14, 2022 | Dean Weingarten

[marktwain]

In a district of about a half million people in southwest India, not far from the West coast, the residents have the right to keep and bear arms.  Kodagu (earlier Coorg) is about 20% larger than the smallest American state, Rhode Island, with about half as many residents.

The Kodavas have a longstanding martial tradition similar to Switzerland. From the quint.com:

“When it comes to the issue of kovi (gun), in Kodagu, it is an integral part of the identity of a Coorg. It has become a part of our culture. The right to own guns came in the 1800s from the British Raj, when they gave this right not just to the Kodavas, but also those with ancestral land living in Kodagu.” Harry Thammaiah, Resident, Kodagu

According to Colonel (Retd) CP Muthanna, the Kodavas have been keeping weapons from the time of the Lingayat Rajas, who ruled the lands way before the British or the Muslim rulers.

“The Kodavas and certain other communities were keeping weapons and ammunition in their house. And as and when the king called them to battle, they would take their weapons and go to battle at the behest fo the king. It is similar to what is being practiced in Israel by the reserves. Then came British rule. When the Disarming Act came, they exempted the Kodavas by race and Jumma holders from this regulation under the Disarming act,” he said.

The disarming act is what the British rulers used to impose gun control on the peoples of India after the Mutiny/uprising which occurred in 1857. Much the same philosophy was extended to England and Wales in the 1920’s after World War I. The Kodavas were loyal to the British regime. The British rewarded them by allowing them

[marktwain]

Kogadu, a district in India, has maintained the right of its people to keep and bear arms.

[marktwain]

[Cronos]

The coffee there is great. But the bus ride up can be terrifying

[jamaksin]

Add Goa (near Panaji) on India's west coast.

Today it is Daman and Diu - Union Territory of India.

It was a colony of Portugal in years past.

[AlaskaErik]

So did the Supreme Court of India uphold their right to keep and bear arms?

[marktwain]

They agreed to hear the case, on March 29. I do not know if they have heard it yet.