to give a European education. On 30 June she was baptised, Queen Victoria being one of her godmothers; she afterwards married a British officer who, after her death in 1864, mysteriously disappeared together with their child. Vira Raja himself died in 1863 and was buried in Kensal Green Cemetery. The Amara Sulya Freedom Movement of 1837 began when the British bifurcated Amara Sulya from Kodagu Samsthaana and demanded agricultural tax to be paid in the form of money by Sulya residents. The British had also deposed the Raja. The freedom movement to reinstate tradition over English Hegemony was led Sri Kedambadi Ramè Gowda, Subedar Sri Guddemane Appaiah Gowda, Koojugodu Mallayya Gowda and Chetty Kudiya among others. After the rebellion the British presented Coorg chiefs who had remained loyal with gifts including horses, while a special Coorg Medal was awarded to chiefs, local leaders and those Kodavas who had supported the British during the conflict. Coorg (Kodagu) was the smallest province in India, with an area of only 1,582 square miles (4,100 km²). As a province of British India, it was administered by a commissioner, subordinate to the Governor-General of India through the resident of Mysore, who was also officially chief commissioner of Coorg. Later freedom fighters from Kodagu supported the National Independence Movement. One of them, Pandyanda Belliappa was known as Kodagu's Gandhi. Independent India After India's independence in 1947, Coorg became a province, and in 1950 a state by name of Coorg State of Republic of India. In 1952 elections to the Coorg Legislative Assembly were held. In 1956, when India's state boundaries were reorganized along linguistic lines, it became a district of the then Mysore state. The Chief commissioners of Coorg were; 1947 - 1949 Dewan Bahadur Ketolira Chengappa 1949 - 1950 C.T. Mudaliar 1950 - 1956 Kanwar Daya Singh Bedi The Chief minister 1952-1956 was C.M. Poonacha. Mysore state later became the modern state of Karnataka, and the formal name of the district returned to the original, Kodagu. Many Coorgs joined the Indian army, the Indian hockey team and other sports. Prominent among them were Field Marshal K. M.Cariappa, General K.S.Thimayya, Lt. Gen. Iyappa (BEL chairman Aiyappa), Sqdn Leader Ajjamada B. Devaiah (war martyr), hockey captain M P Ganesh, tennis player Rohan Bopanna, CAG C. G. Somiah, etc., Kodagu district#Notable people See also Haleri Kingdom Kodagu Kodava References Further reading External links Kodagu (Coorg) History COORG /Kodagu