April  2003 
Year 9    No.86

Special Report


Unholy plot

While avowedly secular political parties have been largely inactive, a civil society initiative cobbles together an unprecedented spectrum of people — from intellectuals to farmers, cobblers, auto–rickshaw drivers to challenge the sangh parivar’s insidious bid to re–enact the Ayodhya script in Karnataka

BY K PHANIRAJ

Since the 1990s, the district is the focus of two influential (for some controversial)
people’s movements: the ‘Kuduremukha Ganigaarike Virodhi Chaluvali’ (Movement against mining at a place in Chikkamagalur district called Kuduremukh) and the ‘Kuduremukha Rashtriya Udyana Virodhi Chaluvali’ (Movement against the Kuduremukh National Park, three quarters of which encompasses forest regions of Chikkamagalur district).

The first protests the mining activity undertaken by public sector KIOCL, which, according to the movement, is ruining the ecologically sensitive Western Ghats and is detrimental to rivers originating from the Ghat ranges. This movement has taken into its fold people from eight districts of Karnataka who are dependent on the rivers flowing from the Western Ghats and has initiated a powerful discourse on people–centred environmentalism and the adverse effects of neo–global commercial profiteering.

The second is spearheaded by adivasis of the region and is aimed at securing the right of livelihood of adivasis against draconian laws governing National Parks.

Of course, it is nobody’s claim that these two movements have forged a large consensus. There are reservations and dissenting views on both movements. But the entire debate has generated fresh discourse on livelihood issues. Whether one supports the two movements or has reservations about them, the arguments are focussed on people’s ‘this worldly’ miseries and natural rights. This is the background in which the sangh parivar set up its theatre, to enact their classical opera of communal hatred latter part of 1990s.

Bababudangiri Guru Dattatreya Dargah, located at distance of 23 km from Chikkamagalur, is a unique dargah. Dargah — a place where the tomb of a Sufi and his disciples lies — is a term that most South Asians are familiar with. Many people, transcending the barriers of caste, creed and religion, visit dargahs and offer their prayers. It is also well known that the Sufi tradition is deeply interwoven with many of the Lokayata sects like Natha, Sidda and Avadhoota.

The Dattatreya sect, which had its origin and influence in southern Maharashtra and northern Karnataka, is a unique confluence of Natha, Siddha, Maanubhaava and Sufi sects. It is the popular belief of his followers that Guru Datta, the foremost Guru of the sect, reveals himself to commoners through a Sufi. Dada Hayat Kalandar or Bababudan is one such Sufi.

Popular belief has it that he travelled from north Karnataka and stayed for some time in the caves of one of the horseshoe shaped hills in the Western Ghats, and, through the never–endinsg tunnel of the cave, Guru Datta came riding a tiger, to teach Baba. The horseshoe shaped hill, where the cave is located is popularly known as Bababudangiri (the hill that was Bababudan’s abode). It is believed that Baba continued on his journey, leaving behind a legacy and set of disciples through whom commoners can communicate with Datta. It is worth noting that there are three other Datta shrines of some repute in Karnataka, where brahminical rituals are observed; but devotees still come to Bababudangiri in large numbers, to offer prayers to Datta who reveals himself through a Sufi.

Today, at the Bababudangiri caves, there are four tombs of Baba’s disciples and beside them, the padukas of Guru Datta. Devotees who visit the dargah offer prayers to the tombs as well as the padukas. A mujavar is in charge of the place for its upkeep and for the facilitation of prayers.

As in most dargahs, the post of mujavar is held by a Muslim and is restricted to descendants of designated family. This tradition, assumed to be in vogue for hundreds of years, came into dispute in 1976, when the Wakf Board laid claim to the dargah property. This move was challenged in the Karnataka High Court. The petitioner argued that it was the place of worship for both Hindus and Muslims and hence could not be acquired by a Wakf Board.

The High Court upheld the petitioner’s contention, commended the syncretic tradition of the place and ruled that the pre–1975 status be maintained there.

Subsequently, the then state government referred the matter to the state’s Religious Endowments Board. The Board, after due consultation with all concerned, formulated the procedures for worship, which maintained the authority of the major and offered scope to Hindus to worship Datta padukas with due consent and facilitation by the major.

It is important to note that all this legal wrangling in no way affected the popular perception of common people, according to which neither the identity of the place nor the form of worship was strictly Hindu or Muslim. Why should the social brilliance of common people, whose offerings are for the Datta who reveals himself only through a Sufi, be disturbed by anyone? Devotees continued to visit Bababudangiri in the belief that their problems would be solved at that place alone. They continued to offer prayers in the tradition and style unique to that dargah.

But the sangh parivar sticks to the communal classic scripted a century before. It knows the basics of the performing arts. Rehearse, whether the show be at hand or not. The acts and the scenes are quite familiar: Target the social spaces where inter–community ties are intact (Ayodhya, Bhojshala, the dargah of Wali Gujarati, Bababudangiri…), manufacture a pseudo–history of "aggressive invasion by minorities and standing monuments of shame", invent pseudo–religious methods of community mobilisation, engineer riots, challenge and flout all constitutional norms and institutions, terrorise the people who do not fall in line, and finally destroy the sites and monuments of pluralist existence.

Each of these acts has been repeated with perfection in the Bababudangiri case. First, a pseudo-history portraying the Bababudan-giri dargah as an ancient temple invaded and turned into a graveyard by Muslims was propagated. Then, a low–key campaign to ‘liberate’ the temple was initiated. Next, a pseudo–religious event in the form of ‘Datta Jayanti’ was invented to prime communal hatred.

For the last four years, the sangh parivar has been organising huge congregations in the third week of December on the pretext of celebrating ‘Datta Jayanti’ and effectively using the occasion to drive a wedge between the two communities. Patented hate speeches are delivered on that day to keep the communal cauldron boiling for the coming year.

"We will make Bababudangiri another Ayodhya and Karnataka another Gujarat," Praveen Togadia, the ‘Doctor of Gujarat Genocide 2002’ fulminated in his speech during the ‘Daata Jayanti’ a few months ago. The previous year, Pramod Mutalik, the chief of Karnataka’s Bajrang Dal, issued an edict to newspapers: "Henceforth the hill on which Dattatreya Peeta is situated must only be referred to as Chandradrona Parvata. Anyone who refers to the place as Bababudangiri to will have to face dire consequences!"

As Assembly elections in Karnataka draw near, BJP leaders who have been waiting in the sidelines for the situation to ripen, have started issuing statements demanding that the state government permit the "peaceful installation of a Dattatreya statue at the place", failing which they will be "forced to articulate the discontent of majority community."

The result is there for all to see. Since 2000, sangh parivar outfits have trained their guns on Muslims and engineered communal skirmishes on one pretext or another throughout Chikkamagalur district. A riot broke out in 2000, another was cooked up just a few weeks ago.

As to the complacency and ineptitude of the Congress party and the state government headed by it in Karnataka, the less said the better. (Chikkamagalur district has special significance for the party. Mrs Indira Gandhi’s winning from the Chikkamagalur Lok Sabha constituency in a by–election marked the beginning of her return to power.)

Three ministers in SM Krishna’s cabinet — DB Chandre Gouda, Sageer Ahmad and Smt. Mottamma — hail from this district. Since the last assembly elections, the voters of Karnataka have given the BJP a drubbing and displayed overwhelming support for the Congress in all elections — from local bodies to an Assembly by–election.

Is this not a popular mandate for the Congress party and its government to act firmly and hold the communal politics of the sangh parivar at bay? That however has not proved to be the case. For a long time, the party simply kept mum on the subject. The state government and the district administration it commands have continued to play to the tunes of the sangh parivar. A district level committee, supposedly consisting of respected persons from Hindu and Muslim communities, to supervise the affairs at Bababudangiri Dargah was formed. But this proved to be a total farce since the committee was filled with sangh parivar leaders — the very ones who are the chief source of unrest — who claimed to be representatives of Hindus! But that is not all. The district in-charge minister, DB Chandre Gouda and the district commissioner were active participants in the brahminical rituals at the dargah, organised by the sangh parivar under the garb of the supervisory committee, on the day of ‘Datta Jayanti.’ As mentioned earlier, the Datta Jayanti is nothing but a pseudo–religious strategy invented by the sangh parivar to further its communal agenda and entirely out of sync with the dargah tradition nurtured by common people transcending communal barriers.

It has taken the genocide in Gujarat, the Congress party’s defeat in the Assembly elections that followed and the rabid speeches of Togadia at Chikkamagalur to finally stir the party to some action. Senior Congressman and MP Jaffer Sharif reportedly lodged a strong complaint with the party high command while cabinet minister, Smt. Motamma issued a public warning to Togadia, that she "will break his bones if he dared to enter her home district any time in future." But that was where Congress resistance ended. A few days later, at the swearing–in ceremony of the new PCC chief, where all who mattered in Congress party were present, she complained that "not a single creature of any worth in the party" supported her when she "took the communal bull by it’s horns."

All the avowedly secular political parties in Karnataka have been looking at the Bababudangiri issue as a local event limited to a dispute over the control of a place of worship. They hope that it gets over today or tomorrow, like a one–day match, when the record books will be closed.

Only the CPI — which had quite an influential presence in Chikkamagalur district until a decade ago, but other than that, has a very limited presence in the state – has mobilised it’s organisational resources and showed some resistance of late. In such an environment, any sound response from institutions of civil society, however limited, command a lot of respect from the public.

The first qualitative response, in the early days of the sangh parivar’s Bababudangiri campaign came from a solidarity forum consisting of a few responsible intellectuals and a handful of mass organisations. The intellectuals effectively countered the sangh parivar’s pseudo–history by putting before the public facts dug out after painstaking research into the authoritative sources of cultural history, at some personal risk. Not content with merely discharging their academic responsibility, they joined hands with some activist groups and organised a convention on the Bababudangiri dispute at Chikkamagalur in 1999. This effort helped shape public opinion.

From 2000 onwards, the sangh parivar has deployed more and more resources for the campaign. It started targeting unemployed youth, mostly from the lower rungs of society, recruited them as storm troopers and grew alarmingly aggressive. Sensing the situation, the Karnataka Vimochana Ranga (KVR), a leftist mass organisation, took the initiative in bringing together some 125 civil society institutions, a large section of intellectuals, hundreds of citizens who are willing to do their bit and leaders of political parties acting in their individual capacities. A broad–based committee was formed to organise the ‘Bababudangiri Souharda Samavesha’ at Chikkamagalur.

The event, which took place on December 29, 2002, just 10 days after the sangh parivar’s communal congregation, may be counted as historic in many respects. Among those who attended were Swami Agnivesh and Gaddar, well–known activists, intellectuals, activist-intellectuals of Karnataka, members of numerous civil society institutions, representatives of the Mobile Vegetable Vendors Association, Ladies Welfare Forum, mass organisations representing farmers, Dalits, workers and women. Muslims were present in large numbers and so were leaders of the different Janata Dal factions, the CPI and the CPM.

The most remarkable thing about the convention was a practical demonstration that civil society, with its tiny pockets of energy, could stand up to the sangh parivar’s hate campaign. That an ordinary farmer, a rickshaw or taxi or lorry driver, a construction worker, a head load worker, a teacher, a lawyer, a clerk, a doctor, a mobile chai or a vegetable vendor, a nurse, an actress, a sportswoman, a cricketer, a milkman, a cobbler could all be mobilised to stand together to challenge the sangh parivar, is immensely significant. 

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