Don’t judge this book by the cover – unless Kannada language is outside your scope

The Lambeth Basaveshwara Statue will be the rallying point for a book launch about ancient parliaments of the world – written by a politician from Karnataka state in India.

The event is aimed specifically at the Kannada-speaking community and is seen as an important addition to the body of Kannada literature as a whole. There are an estimated 57 million speakers of the southern Indian language so there is a potential market to be found.

The book is called Praacheena Parlimentgala Pradakshinegalu and been written by Adagur H Vishwanath.

The event takes place on Saturday at the Basaveshwara Statue in the Albert Embankment.

The celebratory ceremony will be led by Labour politician Neeraj Patil and Nataraj Rajaratnam.

Adagur H Vishwanath is a leader of Indian National Congress. He is a nominated member of Karnataka Legislative Council. He is also the author of Halli Hakkiya Haadu.

Neeraj Patil is a British politician from The Labour Party. A doctor of Indian origin who has served as A&E consultant in the National Health Service for 15 years, he served as the Mayor of Lambeth from 2010 to 2011. He was the borough’s first mayor of Asian origin.

He is a member of FIRD Forum for International Relations Development and is engaged in promoting community cohesion between Indian and Pakistani communities in the UK. He received Pope Benedict XVI during his official visit to London in September 2010.

Pictured top: The book cover of the tome being launched (Picture: Pallavi Prassad)