THE recent communal violence in Mangalore is
part of the larger process of communalisation
that the Sangh Parivar is engaged in throughout
the country, and more particularly in the states
where it holds the government, on its own or
in partnership. Karnataka has seen considerable
amount of Sangh Parivar activism in the last
decade. This activism is well thought out and
well planned, and does not depend on chance
happenings that can be utilised by the Hindutva
forces. On the contrary, incidents that appear
as spontaneous outbursts are a result of systematic
propaganda on issues related to the larger political
agenda of the Sangh Parivar, with the issues
themselves being cleverly and very deliberately
introduced. To say there is an 'incident' almost
every day is not an exaggeration (G Rajashekhar
and K Phaniraj, Communalism Combat, September
2006), small enough not to get reported in the
national press or the parliament, but significant
enough to raise
temperatures and tensions in the area concerned.
In this context, not just Mangalore but almost
any city of Karnataka can, given a small provocation,
erupt in communal violence, provoked and organised
by the Hindutva forces, which have mastered
the art of provocation as well as shown considerable
ingenuity in finding issues which are varied
in their detail, but retain a unified core in
purpose.
STEADY GROWTH
The Sangh Parivar has been steadily growing
in strength in this state, a fact that has gone
unnoticed in the national media, and which continues
to be under estimated also by the mainstream
political leadership of this country. It is
only the focused citizens groups, which have
recognised this reality. While the JD (S) continues
to maintain that it remains secular (!), even
as it partners the BJP, the Sangh Parivar has
been carrying on as if it alone decides the
political agenda in the state.
The Sangh Parivar's ride to political strength
has paralleled the rise of the Sangh Parivar
in the rest of the country, with the LK Advani's
rath yatra and the subsequent campaign for the
Ayodhya temple culminating in the demolition
of the Babri masjid and communal killings as
decisive markers in its growth. The BJP's vote
share in the state was just 4.7 per cent in
1984, and 2.55 per cent in 1989. In 1991 this
rose to 28.78 per cent, and in the 2004 elections
the BJP became the single largest party in Karnataka,
winning 79 assembly seats and 18 Lok Sabha seats
in the state. (G Rajashekhar and K Phaniraj).
The result is there to see in the form of support
that Hindutva forces receive from the state
of course, but also from what is today neutrally
called as civil society. The Sangh Parivar has
managed, as elsewhere in the country, to infiltrate
its people in the media and the governing institutions
and also to communalise popular consciousness.
While thousands of people may still respond
to a call for a rally in support of secularism
and for taking action against the criminal acts
of the Sangh Parivar organisations, there is
a pervasive acceptance of the myths constructed
and proliferating as a consequence of the sustained
campaigns of the Hindutva organisations.
FEEDING ON COMMUNAL ISSUES
Anything can be an excuse as long as it lends
itself to the saffron agenda, and feeds into
the main planks of the Hindutva campaigns: places
of worship; cow slaughter; conversions; population
myths; Pakistan and anti-nationalism of minorities.
In recent years, a place of common, syncretic
worship has been transformed into a site for
an Ayodhya like campaign. Every year since 1992
the Sangh Parivar has been invading Chikmagalur,
a town in central Karnataka, with a view to
"liberating" the cave shrine on Bababudangiri,
named after a sufi saint revered across religions.
They have constructed a new 'tradition', sectarian,
and which claims the place only for Hindus.
Much like in Ayodhya, the media, and the middle
class intelligentsia has adopted the name given
by the Sangh Parivar: just as the Babri masjid
area is now referred to as Ramjanambhoomi, and
the dispute as the Ramjanambhoomi dispute, so
also the Bababudangiri site is being called
"Dattareya Peeta". Hate speeches abound
in the region, the district administration turns
a blind eye, and the government provides sanction
by providing buses for darshan just as it does
in the case of Ayodhya, and in another parallel,
"the illegal and unconstitutional ritual
called Datta Jayanti inside the cave shrine
was blessed by none other than the then law
minister of the Congress government who even
participated in Brahminical rituals such as
yagna and Homa." Tension prevails every
year as the days of the "jayanti"
approach. In 2003, while secular activists were
not allowed a peace rally, and were beaten up
and arrested, the then Congress government allowed
the sangh parivar activities to proceed unhindered
around the site. (VS Sreedhara, Communalism
Combat).
Conversions are attributed to Christian organisations
as well. The Hindutva forces have used this
plank in Udupi and other districts of Dakshin
Kannada. Udupi has been not just a Hindu pilgrimage
centre, but is also home to very old mosques
and churches. Members of the Hindu Yuva Sena
and the Bajrang Dal have been disrupting gatherings
and meetings of Protestant sects here on grounds
of 'forced conversions', and the local newspapers
have been erroneously reporting in support of
them. The RSS on its part has been trying out
its reconversion and 'purification' programmes
in these areas, and continuously intimidating
dalit christians.
The law allowing for transportation of cows
is being misused to accuse Muslims of large
scale cow slaughter, and inciting violence against
them, thus hitting out at the livelihood of
Muslims, and further marginalising them. In
Karnataka, beef is consumed not only by Muslims
and Christians but also by Adivasis and dalits.
Yet the BJP holds only the Muslims and Christians
responsible for "offending Hindu religious
sentiments" (G Rajashekhar and K Phaniraj).
It also acts unconstitutionally because under
Karnataka's Prevention of Cow Slaughter and
Cattle Preservation Act any cow that is twelve
years or older, does not yield milk or is infertile
can be slaughtered with due permission from
the gram panchayat or the city municipality.
Any transportation of cows becomes an occasion
for deliberate wild rumours and for taking away
licences of Muslim butchers, not just with regard
to cows, but for carrying out their livelihood
occupation altogether. Communalism Combat, September
2006, has reported on how one such campaign
resulted in communal tensions, some violence
and denial of right to livelihood to Muslims
in some villages in the Udupi district. Bajrang
Dal members also killed a Hindu priest whose
job was to mediate in a general sale of cows,
not for slaughter at all.
There are numerous reports of Muslims being
targeted, publicly stripped of their clothes,
paraded naked, and assaulted for 'offending
the Hindu view of life'. The Bajrang Dal and
the Hindu Yuva Sena function in some districts
as a law unto themselves, unchallenged by the
local administrative machinery. Offenders are
in some cases nominated for local posts by the
BJP. Some Kannada language newspapers in the
state have been getting away with publishing
false stories, baseless theories and imagined
facts as scoop stories. Vijaya Karnataka, the
largest selling Kannada daily actually carried
a four column article on September 8, 2006,
alleging links between the Mumbai underworld
and the Muslims of coastal Karnataka, and concocting
'facts' on seizure of explosives and AK 47s
from the Muslim areas. This paper was launched
in 1999 by Vijay Sankeshwar Rao, who was then
a sitting BJP MP. Udayavani is another paper
known for its communalised news 'reports', presentation
of engineered rumours as facts, editorials,
and opinion pieces. (Gauri Lankesh, Communalism
Combat, September 2006). On the Bababudangiri
issue, the media has made considerable contribution
in communalising it, and made grounds for controversy
where there were none, in a manner similar to
Babri masjid, which became a 'disputed structure'
and finally Ramjanmbhoomi, almost entirely due
to the media adopting the favoured Sangh Parivar
nomenclature for the masjid.
TARGETING SECULAR STRONGHOLDS
Although Dakshin Karnataka and Udipi district,
not to speak of the Mangalore where 'riots'
were recently engineered, are strong bases of
the Sangh Parivar, their activities are widely
spread over the entire state. All the areas
targeted by the Hindutva forces have historically
been home to syncretic cultures. In terms of
religions there is a history of interactions
between Islam and the various cults broadly
termed as Hinduism, and the influence of Christianity
and even Buddhism and Jainism. Kannada language
and literature have imbibed influences from
Persian and Urdu traditions along with the strong
component of the entire south Indian literary
and language heritage. The same can be said
of the architecture in the state, including
that of the Vijayanagar Empire, ruled by Hindu
kings. The Hindu, Buddhist, Jain and Islamic
architectural patterns are found cheek by jowl
all over the state. The Bible in Kannada is
centuries old, the Christian missionaries have
contributed significantly to the spread of literacy
in the state, and there are old churches that
are part of the architectural and religious
tradition of Karnataka. Food flavours are varied
and specific to regions, with caste and religious
variations, and cannot be strictly demarcated
only along religious lines though the Sangh
Parivar would have us believe that only Muslims
eat beef, or that Hindus are not naturally meat
eaters etc.
The Sangh Parivar is out to deliberately subvert
this entire composite cultural heritage, through
the creation of a concocted Kannada tradition,
which is sectarian, chauvinistic and Hindu in
character. This it is doing not just through
the textbooks in the schools run by the Parivar
and through influencing changes in the books
used in the state school system, but also through
utilising all other public channels of communication,
and taking advantage of the right to free speech
and dissemination of ideas that a democracy
entails. It is using democracy to subvert all
democratic gains, not just in the cultural but
also the political sphere of life. It is doing
this through sharing political power in the
state, and political clout in the administration
and muscle power on the streets.
There is a need to challenge it on all these
fronts. Allowing the Sangh Parivar to get away
with much that is unconstitutional, not only
gives it greater confidence and contributes
to its muscle power on the streets, but is also
gradually transforming the Indian State itself,
by making much that constitutes unconstitutionality
a part of our regular political life. The UPA
government obviously has no problems with this.
People's democracy
November 12, 2006
