City gets a ‘hotelopaedia’

City gets a ‘hotelopaedia’
Deccan HErald

Which was Bangalore’s first boarding and lodging hotel? Which hotel first served idlis and rava upma in the City? In which non-cantonment hotel were spoons first introduced?

Which was Bangalore’s first boarding and lodging hotel? Which hotel first served idlis and rava upma in the City? In which non-cantonment hotel were spoons first introduced?

If you need to know the answers to these questions and many more, the 45th death anniversary of K T Appanah on November 12 is a good day to remember the father of the hotel industry in the State.

His chain of hotels under the name ‘The Modern Hindu Hotel’ was set up in 1898 at Chikpet after the big attack of plague had wiped out over 3,000 residents and affected many commercial establishments in the City.


Historian Vemagal Somashekhar, who has intensely studied the growth of the hotel industry in Bangalore over the last 15 years, will come out with a 60-page book on Sunday, sponsored by Appanah’s 85-year-old son B A Rama Murthy.

The theme of the book is The Modern Hindu Hotel at Anand Rao Circle which functioned from 1916 to 1994 on the premises of the then councillor on rent basis. The building, taken back by its owner’s family, was demolished in 1994 and a commercial complex has now come up in its place.

The West End Hotel established by I&M Bronson in 1887 is the first hotel to be set up in Bangalore. But being in the High Grounds area, it was considered to be a part of Cantonment, which had a strict demarcation with the then Bangalore City.

Says Vemagal: “Food was sold first in the Cantonment area where Europeans resided in large numbers. In Bangalore City, the customs did not allow the sale of food, which, the Hindus believed, could only be given on charity.” The distinction of opening the first hotel in a Hindu area (Bangalore City) by a Hindu goes to Appanah.

Other than beginning an era of clean and responsible serving, Appanah has to his credit many firsts – he began the hotel associations of the Bangalore and Karnataka chapter; is the founder-member of institutions like Seshadripuram High School, Gandhinagar High School, Vijaya College and Acharya Patashala; served Mahatma Gandhi in Nandi Hills in 1927; supplied for the dining cars of the Railways for the first time in 1916; built hotels in Mysore, Madras, Ooty and Lalbagh; removed the caste and other barriers for leprosy and leukoderma patients in hotels.

The Modern Hindu Hotel was patronised by eminent personalities like C Rajagopalachari, A Rangaswamiyengar (then editor of The Hindu), Wellington D Jones from the University of Chicago, John Fuller, Hotel expert from London, and K Chandy, the then excise commissioner of Bangalore.

Reads a testimonial of Sir M Visvesvaraya: “You have build up a fine business for yourself, created facilities for travellers and added to the attraction of the City. The public of Bangalore have every reason to congratulate both themselves and you on your enterprise.”

If you want a copy of the book, a mine of information on the early food habits of Bangaloreans, call 23460738.

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*The first two hotels to have all-electric gadgets in Bangalore were Udupi Krishna Bhavan and MTR

*The Malabar Hotel in Balepet was the first to host a self-service wing in South India on account of labour problems

*The first non-Brahim hotel was started in 1920 by a Vokkaliga, BT Ramaiah, on Avenue Road

*First Veerashaiva hotel was started under Manam Shivappa and Brothers’ banner in 1921 next to Vijayalakshmi theatre