Communal Karnataka explained

The widespread anti-Islam rhetoric in the southern state is fuelled by a well-oiled propaganda machine that has little regard for the region’s cultural and historical legacy, say experts

Journalist Greeshma Kuthar is no stranger to communal and hate politics. She has seen it unfold in her backyard. Hailing from Tulunadu, a region in the South-western coast of India, which comprises Dakshina Karnataka—notoriously known as Hindutva’s laboratory in South India—Kuthar is not surprised by the anti-Islam rhetoric that’s spreading there. “This has been brewing for a while; at times, rapidly,” she shares over a phone call, about the recent call for banning the hijab and halal meat.

This is visible in data gathered by Suresh Bhat B, member of the Karnataka Communal Harmony Forum and People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), Mangaluru. Earlier this year, barely weeks before the ban on hijab in educational institutions, Bhat in a news report had revealed that Coastal Karnataka had witnessed 120 communal incidents in 2021, the highest in four years. During 2020, when the pandemic had brought the country to a grinding halt, the total number of communal incidents was at 110, with incidents of cattle vigilantism at 25, and incidents of hate speech at 47. Six years earlier, in 2014, Bhat had reported grimmer statistics, with 174 communal incidents in the region. Bhat’s data only includes available local media reports. “It is likely that there could be unreported cases, too,” he states in the annually published document titled, A Chronicle of Communal Incidents in the Coastal Districts of Karnataka, available for free access.

In this file picture from January 24, 2009, members of Sri Ram Sena attack customers at the Amnesia pub in Mangaluru. Pic/Getty Images

It’s these cyclical patterns of violence that Kuthar sought to make sense of. Three years ago, following extensive research, Kuthar had published an 18-part series on the contemporary history of Hindutva in coastal Karnataka, for the Firstpost. The series featured interviews, videos, archival material and oral histories gathered over a period of four months. “You have to see everything in context... nothing happens in isolation,” she tells us. “In the Tulu region, these kind of activities have been going on for nearly a century. In fact, one of the earliest Gauraksha sammelans started in Udupi.” Kuthar is referring to the National Cow Weekly organised by the RSS in Udupi under the leadership of Kiriyaswamy of Kikkanur Mutt and Vishva Teertha of Pejavar Mutt in October-November 1952, as reported in her article. 

Gauraksha, she says, was popularised from a movement in the Punjab-Sindh region led by Arya Samaj founder Dayanand Saraswati, who published a book on the protection of cows called Gaukarunanidhi (1881). “But, it did not receive popular support in the beginning. This was because a group of Brahmins preaching ‘save the cow’ to a predominantly agrarian community, which included the indigenous Beary Muslims [for whom cattle is integrated into farm production], made little sense. Secondly, there was nobody they were really pitting this rhetoric against. The messaging was ‘we should not kill cows’. 

Hijab wearing schoolgirls arrive to attend their classes as a police woman stands guard outside a government girls school after the recent hijab ban, in Udupi, Karnataka. Udupi, says journalist Greeshma Kuthar, “is like Nagpur of Maharashtra [where the RSS headquarters is based]”. Pic/Getty Images

Even though they may have suggested that it’s the Muslims who were eating beef, the vocabulary they were using—from whatever I gathered in the archives—didn’t make it known. So, the hatred didn’t get through,” Kuthar says, adding that at the time, there were also different barriers for conversations like this to become mainstream. “Brahmins didn’t mix with non-Brahmins. They only spoke to some members of the Tulu community. It didn’t trickle down.” The RSS meetings also initially took place only in Konkani. “Linguistically as well, they were not able to engage with the rest of the Tulu community”. 

It was only over a period of time, as they began integrating the local language into their activities, and occupying their religious spaces, that their ideas started taking root. For starters, they were able to convince people that the Beary—a merchant community that has thrived in coastal Karnataka for over fifteen centuries—was the outsider. “Spinning this new narrative helped. That’s when gaurakasha really started working here. And it all happened as recently as the last 20-30 years.” Udupi, she says, is where it all began. “It’s like Nagpur of Maharashtra [where the RSS headquarters is based].” This, Kuthar says, was only possible through consistent propaganda. For the community, which has a rich, oral historical legacy, there was no written history to fall back on to prove who the real outsider here was. That only added to the problem. “It’s easy when there is an identity crisis. You can manipulate people.” Fringe groups that emerged over a period of time, became more powerful due to 
political backing.

The BJP has had to rely on fringe elements to consolidate power, says Pooja Prasanna. While ex-CM Yediyurappa managed to contain them, CM Bommai has had to turn to communal politics to generate mass support. Pic/Getty Images

Filmmaker Ramchandra PN, a Tuluva based in Mumbai, says the assumption is that coastal Karnataka is the current hotbed of communal violence. “But attacks on minorities and dissenters have been picking up steam for quite some time. Thirty years ago, when I was starting out as a filmmaker, the seeds were being sown. While in FTII, I remember doing this diploma film, Ghotala, which was centred around rising fundamentalism. I travelled to [the region] for my research and faced hostile reactions when I narrated the theme to them.”

In the recent years, controversial historical figures have become easy baits for Karnataka’s politicians. One such is 18th century King of Mysore, Tipu Sultan. Controversies around the leader gained steam when the K Siddaramaiah-led Congress government gave its stamp of approval to celebrate his birth anniversary in 2015—Hazrat Tipu Sultan Jayanti was officially celebrated on November 10. The celebrations were strongly opposed and boycotted by the BJP, which called the leader a religious bigot and tyrant. The BS Yediyurappa-led BJP government finally put an end to the affair when it came to power in 2019. The issue resurfaced in March this year, when education minister BC Nagesh said that while the government had no plans of removing Tipu Sultan from textbooks, all references about the leader “based on imagination” would be removed.

Author and historian Manu S Pillai, whose most recent book is False Allies: India’s Maharajahs in the Age of Ravi Varma, says “understanding history in general and learning to look at it with maturity and sobriety would allow us to spot political mischief and call out the weaponisation of history”.

Greeshma Kuthar, Manu S Pillai, Pooja Prasanna and Ramchandra PN

Tipu Sultan, he says, like all historical figures, needs to be understood in context. “We need to rise above the annual political football and theatrics around him. The fact is that Tipu Sultan was an 18th century king. Was he an autocrat? Yes, because that was quite standard at the time. Was he somebody who fought the British? Yes again, and very valiantly too. Was he a brutal conqueror? Yes to this also, in that when he invaded Malabar and other parts of South India, he was ruthless. The same man encapsulates many behaviours and qualities that to us seem contradictory, but for kings of that period, it was perfectly normal conduct. In his own territories in Mysore, he employed Brahmin ministers and sent Shiva lingas to Sringeri Matha, while in territories he attempted to conquer, he used jihadist rhetoric to justify aggression and break temples.”

Pillai says that if we are to understand Tipu Sultan properly, “we cannot pick and choose aspects. We must, on the contrary, comprehend the contexts in which his actions occurred”. “But politics seems to be precisely about picking and choosing selectively, so to some, Tipu is a hero, and to others, a villain. But the whole point of history is to look at the past from more than just such prisms. If a man sponsors temples in one place and breaks them elsewhere, and if we find this odd, perhaps it is the lens through which we are approaching him in the first place that is faulty.”

Pooja Prasanna, editorial head (reporting), of the Bengaluru-based digital news platform, The News Minute, discusses how the complicated politics of the current regime has led to chaos in the region. “Things have become worse since 2008. The present government had to rely on fringe elements [to consolidate power], and after they did that, it was hard to restrain them,” says Prasanna.  

One of the more infamous incidents from back then, was the 2009 pub attack, when Sri Ram Sena, a right-wing group, attacked young women in a pub in Mangaluru. This was followed by claims of love-jihad. Yediyurappa’s government, she says, managed to contain these fringe groups. “And honestly, he could only do that because he is a mass leader. In fact, he is BJP’s only mass leader in the South. He is a Lingayat, and comes more from the caste politics background, rather than communal.” Last week, amidst a continuous campaign by a few Hindu groups to boycott Muslim merchants and businessmen, the ex-CM had called for peace: “Hindus and Muslims should live like brothers... let everyone, including Muslims, live with respect and honour.”

Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, says Prasanna, is not from the Sangh. “His father’s [ex-CM Somappa Rayappa Bommai] background is in Janata Parivar. For the longest time, Bommai was in his father’s shadow. When an opportunity arose, he joined the BJP. But he didn’t have ideological roots anywhere... he was more like a drifter. Even when he was home minister [before he became CM], he jumped the gun and announced that Karnataka would implement the NRC [National Register of Citizens]. Yediyurappa had to contradict him on record. Bommai is just trying to please the high command and he thinks this will help. His ability to influence elections is less than satisfactory, so much so that when bye-elections were held after he became CM [in 2021], he could not influence a constituency in his home district too. And he has found communal politics to be a way to overcome all this. Everyone in the party is doing their own thing.”

Professor YJ Rajendra, national secretary, PUCL, agrees. “What is happening in Karnataka is purely political. But, this is an attack on our Constitution, more than anything.” Prasanna says that from the indications that they are getting, these communal incidents may tone down for a bit, and pick up again ahead of the elections in 2023. “Right now, they want to consolidate the Hindu vote bank. But, while people are calling Karnataka the next UP, my take away from this— and I could be wrong—is that it’s looking scarier than it really is, possibly because of the frequency with which it is occurring. I don’t see complete support on all the issues. There is some pushback. And it may not be enough to win the elections.”

120
No. of communal incidents Coastal Karnataka witnessed in 2021, the highest in four years

"Exciting news! Mid-day is now on WhatsApp Channels Subscribe today by clicking the link and stay updated with the latest news!" Click here!