Hindutva As a Sacred Form : a Case Study of Karnataka

Hindutva as a ‘sacred form’: A Case Study of Karnataka

Abstract

Contrary to the expectations of the advocates of secularization thesis, similar to other modernizing societies, economic development and democratic governance have not been a deterrent to the rise of religion in the public sphere in India. The stupendous victory of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the 2014 parliamentary elections in India under the leadership of Narendra Modi and successive wins in several state assembly elections are testimony to this. While a considerable amount of academic and media attention has been bestowed upon the BJP and towards analyzing its political fortune in different states, there has been a paucity of literature that situates the contribution of the RSS and the SanghParivar in strengthening the foundations of its political affiliate in different regions of India. This paper responds to this surprising gap by examining the emergence and consolidation of Hindutva in the state of Karnataka. It is focused in particular on the ways in which it has negotiated regional specificities in the region while subscribing to its core ideology of building a strong organic ‘Hindu Rashtra’. This analysis becomes particularly pertinent at a time when Karnataka is headed for state assembly elections in mid- 2018.

Perhaps one of the most spectacular phenomenon in Indian politics since the past decade has been the meteoric rise of the Bharatiya Janata Party. After its successful win in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, the party now has managed to form governments either individually or in partnership with a regional party in twenty one states across the country. Hindutva’s advancement from periphery to the center of Indian politics explains its remarkable adaptability to the changing socio- political landscape of India. Apart from the political outfit, the SanghParivar now has its presence in almost every possible region in the country. This is an interesting fact, considering the SanghParivar’s rigid adherence to the idea of building a corporate and unified ‘Hindu Rashtra’, as envisaged by Savarkar, Hedgewar, Golwalkar and the other builders of the RashtriyaSwayamsevakSangh (RSS). As in any form of ethnic nationalism, Hindu nationalism, in its formative phase at least, looked at the society as an organic, harmonious whole.[1] K.B. Hedgewar, the founder of the RSS claims India as a Hindu Rashtra. Savarkar’s Hindu Mahasabha pleaded that Hindustan is one homogeneous country and States are mere administrative units. Golwalkar also clearly spelt out: “We are one country, one society, and one nation…; and hence, it is natural that the affairs of the nation are governed through a single state of the unitary type.”[2]DeendayalUpadhyaya, also, favours an ‘integrated Bharat’ which is based on his idea of ‘national soul’(chiti) that has to be ‘awakened’ to its destiny and its virat (‘life force’).[3] The Bharatiya Jana Sangh (BJS), Hindutva’s first affiliate, in its first election manifesto in 1951 stated: “The whole of Bharatvarsha, from Himalayas to Kanyakumari, is and has been, through the ages, a living organic whole—geographically, culturally and historically.”[4]

The BJS, soon after its formation in 1951, echoing Golwalkar’s enunciation, adopted ‘One country, One People, One Culture, One Nation and One ideal’ as its Fundamentals. Hindutva’s uncompromising agenda of a unitary India also logically compelled it to search for an all-encompassing National Language in the post-independence period. As language constituted an integral part of Hindutva’s concept of nationhood, it propagated rhetorics like ‘Hindi, Hindu, Hindusthan’. In Hindutva’s understanding, political unity could be maintained only by making Hindi as the sole lingua franca, not only between the centre and the states but between one state and another as well. Rigid adherence to the concept of an organic state however, has not stopped Hindutva from making a dent in regional politics.

In a country like India with innumerable diversities, myriad combinations of language, religion, caste, tribe and class often juxtapose themselves into interesting combinations within its different regions. The Parivar realizes this, and therefore intelligently and strategically expands itself by embarking upon certain region specific mobilization campaigns. Political compulsions have also necessitated Hindutva to change its stance on regions. Regionalization of Indian politics became a permanent feature since 1996 when regional parties and few independent candidates captured 171 seats in the eleventh Lok Sabha elections. The failure of the BJP to garner support from regional parties to win a confidence vote and formation of the United Front Ministry called for an introspection. Still the BJP was not prepared to come to terms with this new political reality; the 1998 Election Manifesto echoed the old Jana Sangh commitment to ‘one nation, one people and one culture’. However, the BJP quickly did course correction by shrewdly forging an alliance with regional parties to control New Delhi in 1998. Besides ensuring power at the Centre, this alliance provided Hindutva a great opportunity to transcend geographical barriers in spreading its social and political tentacles into the vast tracts of the nation. This paper is focused on the ways in which Hindutva has negotiated regional specificities in Karnataka while subscribing to its core ideology of building a strong organic ‘Hindu Rashtra’. This analysis becomes particularly pertinent at a time when Karnataka is headed for state assembly elections in mid- 2018.

Karnataka: Brief Overview of the State and Demography

The territory of Karnataka (originally known as the state of Mysore) was formed in 1956 when the Kannada speaking districts of the states of Bombay, Andhra, Madras, Hyderabad and Coorg were integrated. The state of Mysore was officially christened as Karnataka on November 1, 1973, which is celebrated as Kannada Rajyotsava day. Currently the state consists of thirty districts which are spread across four administrative divisions which are Belagavi, Bengaluru, Kalburagi and Mysuru.

In terms of its religious demography, as per the Census of 2011, Hindus constitute 84%, Muslims consist of 12.92% and Christians constitute 1.87% of the state’s population. Sikhs, Buddhists and Jains consist of less than 1% of the population each.

Amongst the southern states in India, Karnataka has the second largest population of Muslims after Kerala. While Muslims are spread across all districts of the state, the northern districts of Bidar, Gulbarga and Bijapur, the central districts of Dharwad and Haveri and the coastal districts of Dakshin Kannada and Kodagu have considerably large concentrations of Muslim population. The presence of Muslims is particularly high in the towns of Gargeshwari (Mysore district), Allipura (Chikkaballapura), Manjanady (Dakshin Kannada) and Bhatkal (Uttar Kannada).

Christians are mostly concentrated in the coastal districts of Dakshin Kannada, Udupi and Bengaluru Urban.

Major Religious Traditions

It is interesting to note that while Hindus constitute an overwhelming majority in the state, they are far from being a homogenous community. Since ancient times, this region has been a confluence of myriad Hindu sects such as Saivism, Saktism and Vaisnavism.

Saivism assumed its most popular form in theVirasaiva/ Lingayat movement led by Basaveshwara in the twelfth century (Aerthayil 1989). Virasaivism which became immensely popular in the region now identified as Karnataka, was essentially a reformist movement which sought to oppose ritualism and casteism in Hinduism. The followers of this movement popularly known as Lingayats became an important political power in the subsequent years. Vaisnavism, more precisely, the Vishisthadvaita branch of Vedanta Hinduism, was popularized by Ramanuja Acharya around the eleventh and twelfth centuries.Ramanuja, who hailed from Tamil Nadu, was given patronage by the Hoysala king Vishnuvardhana who enabled him to propagate Vaisnavism in the region that now comprises Karnataka. The Dvaita philosophy advocated by Madhavacharyaalso helped in popularizing Vaisnavism during the thirteenth century in Karnataka.Saktism is represented in the Chamundeshwari temple in Mysore.

Both Mahayana and Theravada sects of Buddhism also flourished in the region since first millennium. Jainism gained popularity in the medieval period in this region and its most popular shrine in Shravanabelagola continues to attract large number of people from across the country till today.

Islam entered the region through Arab traders who visited coastal Karnataka from the eighth century onward and several Muslim communities such as the Moplahs, Byaris and Navayaths in coastal Karnataka are mostly descendants of these traders. Islam however, found a solid footing in the region only from the fourteenth century onward after dynasties such as the Bahamani and Adilshahi established the sultanates of Bidar and Bijapur respectively. It was further consolidated after the entry of the Mughal rule through Aurangzeb in the seventeenth century and the installation of Hyder Ali and his son Tipu Sultan subsequently in Mysore.

Christianity entered the region through the Portugese in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and found a substantive following amongst the local people.

Political Scenario:

The Congress held sway in Karnataka from 1956 to 1983. Even after the imposition of National Emergency in 1975, the party did not lose its popularity, and contrary to its fate in several other states, it was returned to power after the Emergency. However, the party lost power in 1983 to the Janata Party which formed the government under the leadership of Ramakrishna Hegde with the support of the BJP which had won 18 seats. The Congress however regained power in the 1989 state assembly elections. After the Janata Party started disintegrating from the end of 1980s, Janata Dal started gaining ground, especially since the 1994 elections. The BJP also made strident progress from the 1994 elections onward when it managed to capture 40 seats and has since been a major force in the state. The BJP’s first major breakthrough occurred in the 2004 elections when it emerged as the single largest party by winning 79 of the 224 seats.However, it could not immediately form the government because the Congress Party which had secured 65 seats and the Janata Dal (S) (JD (S) )who won58 seats entered into a coalition and formed the government. This alliance however did not last for long; in early 2006, JD (S) withdrew its support from the coalition and entered into a new alliance with BJP. H.D. Kumaraswamy from JD (S) became the Chief Minister and B.S. Yedyurappa became the Deputy Chief Minister with an understanding that after 20 months, the former would relinquish his position to the latter. However, this arrangement did not last long due to disagreements regarding power sharing between the two parties. Finally, fresh elections were called for in 2008 when the BJP emerged as the single largest party again winning 110 out of 224 seats. BJP was able to form the government with the support of 6 independent MLAs and Yedyurappa became the Chief Minister. In 2013, Congress again returned to power winning 122 seats and formed the government under Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, while BJP won only 40 seats.

Evolutionof Hindutva in Karnataka

The origin of Hindutva in Karnataka can be traced to pre-Independence times when the first RSS shakha was started by DadaraoParamarth, a Sanghpracharak, in Chikkodi, a small town in Belgavi district of Karnataka in 1935.DadaraoParamarth was one of the three pracharaks handpicked by Hedgewar to initiate Sangh work in Karnataka. The other two pracharaks were Bhavoo Rao Deoras and Yadav Rao Joshi. Two years later, on January 16th, 1937, sarsanghchalakHedgewar visited Chikkodi.[5]It was however the relentless efforts of Yadav Rao Joshi, that led to the strengthening of Sangh activities in Karnataka. He began working in this region as a PrantPracharak from 1941 and organized the work of the RSS in the region by dividing Karnataka prant (province) into four Vibhagsand appointed Vibhagpracharaks for each Vibhag.[6]He also took the lead in starting publications such as JagaranaPrakashan (1971), PungavaJagarana newspaper (1979), Balgokulam of Kerala (1974) amongst others. In 1949, sarasanghchalak Golwalkar visited Bangalore and Hubli in 1949 along with Yadav Rao Joshi after the ban on RSS was lifted.

Yadav Rao Joshi also became instrumental in establishing several Sangh affiliates dedicated to seva(service) and cultural activities such as the RashtrotthanaParishat(1965), Hindu SevaPratishthana (1980), Jana SevaVidya Kendra (1972) and Hindu Munnani (1980) and Hindu Samajotsavs.Seva activities of the SanghParivar continue to be carried out by these organizations even today. According to a report[7] published by the RashtriyaSewaBharati, in 2014, there were 7646 seva projects operational in Karnataka that consisted of welfare activities in the realm of health, education, ‘samajik’ (social) and economic.

Apart from the work of the RSS, other affiliates simultaneously acquired footing in this region.In 1944, V.D. Savarkar, accompanied by NathuramGodsevisited Shimoga to address a state level Hindu Mahasabha conference which was organized to instill ‘love’ and ‘pride’ amongst Hindus.[8]Savarkar appealed to the people to continue organizing the Ganesha festival every year under the banner of the Veer Savarkar Hindu SanghatanMahamandali.Shimoga was deliberately chosen as the venue for the conference as it was considered favorable to the Hindutva cause.[9] The conference was considered a big success as over 50,000 people attended it. Meanwhile the political affiliate of the SanghParivar also started building base from the early 1960s onward. In 1968, Bharatiya Jan Sangh won the civic body elections in Udupi, apparently, the first occasion when the party came to power in an elected body in South India.[10] Several leaders like KesariJagannatha Rao Joshi, A.K.Subbaiah, Dr. K.S.Dattaatri, Varadaraja Shetty, Mallikarjunaiah, KarmaballiSanjeeva Shetty, Dr.V.S.Acharya, and D.H. Shakaramurthy played an important role in popularizing the ideology of Bharatiya Jana Sangh.

When Vishwa Hindu Parishad was formed in 1964, DadasahebApte found an ally in Mysore Maharaja Sri JayachamarajaWadeyar who agreed to lead the Parishadas one of its Conveners.[11]The VHP held its third national executive meeting on May 27-28, 1965 in the royal palace of the Mysore Maharaja. The head of the Pejavurmatha in Udupi, Teertha Swami, a disciple of the second RSS sarsanghchalak Golwalkar, was another founder member of the VHP from this region who had an influential role to play in promoting Hindutva in coastal Karnataka in the early years.[12]Teertha Swami was associated with the Ramjanambhoomi movement right from the beginning. In 1969, Teertha Swami also organised the first state-level conference of the VHP and invited Golwalkar to be the chief guest in the event. According to RSS veteran leader M.G. Vaidya, the approval for allowing re-conversion (popularly known as ‘gharwapsi’) in Hinduism was first given in Sri Krishna Math, Udupi, Karnataka in 1969, when shankaracharyas, mahants and several Hindu saints held a gathering.[13]Teertha Swami was particularly strong in his advocacy for ‘gharwapsi’ and he questioned those leaders who had kept silent when large scale conversions of Hindus into other religions had taken place.[14]

As an ardent supporter of the VHP, his matha collaborated on several social welfare activities with the VHP especially in the realm of education and health for poor tribals. However, the most important activity towards which the VHP directed itself was the prevention of cow slaughter. Police records in this region from the 1960s onward reveal that several Muslim cattle traders were attacked.[15]The VHP grew in popularity during the years of the Emergency; it attracted several Congress and even Left wing leaders within its fold and gradually expanded to other regions of the state such as such as Hubli, Dharwad, Raichur and Bagalkot. [16] From the end of the 1970s, however, more extremist and militant groups such as the Hindu YuvaSene, and at a later stage (in the 1990s), the Hindu JagaranaVedike and the Bajrang Dal (particularly after the Godhra riots in 2002) took on the task of cow protection and unleashed a more virulent form of Hindutva in the state.[17] Over a period of time, these groups started attacking Churches, forming vigilante groups that sought to enforce dress codes and ‘appropriate behaviour’ for women and condemning and attacking young couples who were engaged in inter-religious relationships under the pretext of countering ‘Love Jihad’. Another fringe group to join this club was the emergence of Sri Rama Sene under the leadership of PramodMuthalik in the mid-2000s, following a split in the Bajrang Dal in Karnataka. Sri Rama Sene drew enormous negative attention when its members attacked young men and women in a Mangalore pub in January 2009, on the pretext of ‘teaching them a lesson’ for inappropriate behaviour.

Hindutva in Coastal Karnataka

The ideology of Hindutva found popular support in the state, especially the coastal districts, even before BJP captured state power in the year 2008 for the first time. As Assadi notes[18], Hindutva had established its presence in several districts of coastal Karnataka by adopting a multipronged strategy. He draws attention to the ways in which Hindutva forces benefitted from the changing socio-economic conditions in this region from the 1970s onward following the breakdown of erstwhile feudal structures such as the ‘Guttenar system’ (through land reforms), the Gulf boom and the sense of displacement that the dominant castes suffered from. While one section of the dominant castes migrated to Mumbai and other metropolitan cities, a small percentage who stayed back entered into banking and education sectors. The former group tried to overcome their sense of loss of identity by reproducing local festivals such as ‘Nagamandala’, ‘Bhoot Kolas’ or ‘Kambalas’. The latter group were disgruntled to see that they now had to contend with hitherto marginalized groups such as the Baerys (Muslims) in small businesses and jobs.