HISTORY OF KGF:
KGF stands for Kolar Gold Fields. We need to know the history of KGF to know about it. Back then people called Karnataka as Mysore kingdom. In 1799 Mysore kingdom was ruled by Tipu Sultan. Many rulers of kingdoms were under Britishers including Nizams at those times. But, the Tipu sultan was not agreed to work under the British. Many battles took place between the Tipu sultan and Britishers Tipu sultan won all the times. But in the fourth war in between them Tipu sultan lost as Hyderabad Navab helped Britishers. Tipu Sultan lost his life in this battle and the Mysore kingdom came under the command of the British. Britishers are ruling Mysore and kept a person who is loyal to them as a king for Mysore. British officers started dings surveys on a place, Kolar, in the 1850s which is in the Mysore Kingdom. An officer Warren heard that there is gold in Kolar. Then he gave an official announcement that he will reward the one who will take gold from the soil in Kolar. Then many people from nearby areas came with soil in bullock carts and refined them using old procedures. 1 gram of gold came after refining 57 kgs of soil. After watching this immediately Warren visited those gold mines and after visiting he wrote a letter to his higher officials as there is gold in Kolar and we may get profits if we extract gold from here. Then his higher officials conducted a survey and found that there will be no profits if we extract gold from here and left it.
Michael Lavelle is a British soldier and he worked as a soldier in Newzealand conflict. After his retirement, he settled in Bangalore. He loved to read books and one day while he was reading a book he found an article about Kolar Gold Fields written by Warren. He got interested after seeing that article and visited Kolar from Bangalore which 100 km away in a bullock cart. He found many gold mines on his way to Kolar and he did the research for more than two years. Finally, in 1971 he wrote a letter to Mysore King and asked them to give him a licence to mine gold in Kolar and if he succeeds you will get a lot of profits and if he fails even though you will not have a loss as he only asking for permission. After reading this letter king of Mysore gave a reply that "If you mine gold there you will not have any profits because the cost of extracting will be more than the gold extracted. So that is not profitable. You can mine coal instead of gold." Lavelle agreed to this and he took permission to mining coal for 20 years. But instead of coal, he mined gold in 1875 and he gave employment to nearby people for digging soil. But the cost of labours was more than the cost of gold extracted. He continued mining for two years and all the money he had was completed. He became very popular in these two years. After knowing about him a company named Colar Concessionaires purchased these gold mines from Lavelle and started mining using technology and they imported the machinery from England for mining and slowly they gained profits as the cost of labours was reduced.
In the year 1900, they constructed a big township near gold mines and named as KGF (Kolar Gold Fields). Many Britishers, foreigners and engineers settled in KGF. It has become like a mini England. This KGF is 100 km away from Bangalore and many workers from Tamilnadu and Andhra Pradesh started coming for KGF for work. Till 1900 they ran KGF with kerosene lamps and Britishers in KGF felt uncomfortable with these lamps as they used electric bulbs in England. They need electricity for bulbs but there is no powerplant. So they took the permission of the Mysore king and started building a hydroelectric powerplant near Kaveri River which is 150 km away from KGF. They imported machinery from America, Britain and Germany. They kept transmission wires from the powerplant to KGF which is 150km away. KGF is the first place from India for arranging very long transmission wires. The power plant was completed and it was the second power plant in Asia and the first powerplant was Japan. Electric bulbs replaced kerosene lamps. There is no current in India before this. Gold mines are the reason for electricity in KGF. There is an uninterrupted power supply in KGF during 1902. After few years gold reserves has decreased in KGF and gold reserves were found in Africa. Now the interest of all business people was on African gold mines.
AFTER INDEPENDENCE:
After independence, the Indian government took all the gold mines under their control till 1957. Once Nehru wanted to take from the world bank and he kept KGF as surety to take a loan. Coming to 2001 tunnels was dig in KGF for 3 km and there is no use for digging more. Keeping the employment of people working in KGF government has continued to mine in KGF even with no profits till 2001. After 2001 government wanted to close KGF as the loss was increasing day by day. The workers conducted many protests but even though the government closed KGF.
Once KGF produced 95% of gold from India but in 2001 it became 0%. There is a lot more gold in KGF but it is very deep so there will be no profits even if we extracted it. 125 years of ming was finally stopped in 2001.
Gold ming in KGF was started 200th year and the people extracted them using old methods but the gold extracted will be very less in grams. In the year 1000 Mysore was ruled by Cholas and the gold extraction was increased under them. After KGF had come under the control of the British gold protection increased. At present gold is extracting from other mines of Karnataka. Still, now Karnataka is the largest gold producer of India. Back then India is the largest producer of Gold in the world but now it is producing only 0.75% gold.
So the story which is shown in the KGF movie is not real it is only a fictional story. They did not treat the workers very violently as shown in the film. I am not telling this was said by movie makers. So, this is the real story of KGF. I hope this helped you.
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