Safeguarding our shrines
Karnataka’s secular groups continue to foil the state’s veiled attempts
to saffronise Bababudangiri shrine
BY GAURI LANKESH
The winter is never cold at Bababudangiri shrine in Karanataka’s Chikmagalur
district. Blame not the weather, which is freezing almost throughout the year.
It is the hate campaign of the saffron forces that raises the mercury of the
political barometer. But as CC readers know, after secular forces in the
state took up the challenge to restore peace and a non-communal people’s culture
at Bababudangiri and facing determined efforts from the Karnataka Communal
Harmony Forum (Karnataka Komu Souharda Vedike), communal forces were put on the
defensive. It was concerted efforts by the Forum and other secular forces in the
state that foiled the sangh parivar’s attempts to make Bababudangiri into
another Ayodhya. Due to mounting pressure and protests by secular forces, which
outmatched the pressure exerted by the sangh parivar, the state government –
whose coalition is attributed to secularism – had to enforce strict prohibitory
orders against the parivar and ban the Shobha Yatra, a communal congregation
organised in the name of Dattatreya at Chikmagalur in December 2004.
Although secular forces in the state had won the battle, it was soon realised
that the restoration of people’s culture and revamping of communalised practices
was no easy task. And this time it was the state government that was speaking in
a saffron voice. In the name of banning ‘both saffron and green’, Rajendra
Katharia, the district commissioner of Chikmagalur who had played such an
important role in enforcing the government order against the sangh parivar in
December 2004, began subsequently to implement unilateral measures that violated
the spirit of the court orders. In the process, the district administration with
the tacit approval of the state government initiated some so-called
developmental and non-religious activities intended to destroy the very Sufi
nature of the shrine.
During the last Datta Jayanti period itself in December last, the district
administration had invited three seers of avowed anti-Muslim theology to perform
inside the shrine. The Muzavar, who is traditionally entitled to offer prayers,
was moved out of Bababudangiri. The khalichaas or green covers laid over
the tombs were removed and the tombs were left bare, something that has not been
restored to date. Under the guise of developing the area into a tourist centre,
old religious structures were razed to the ground, showing less than scant
respect for the religious sentiments of devotees. The Langarkhana, which
provided food to devotees who come from as far as Ajmer and elsewhere, was
stopped and the Fakirkhana, which provided shelter, was closed down. Hotel rates
were hiked to prohibitive levels ostensibly to raise institutional revenues. For
the first time in Bababudangiri’s history, fees were fixed for many services
provided to devotees. Also for the first time, the eating of non-vegetarian food
was prohibited at the shrine. Keeping in mind the poor, Dalit, Muslim and
Backward Caste background of Bababudangiri devotees, one can only imagine the
enormous difficulties that the new measures caused. But more than the physical
inconveniences, it is the assault on their religious beliefs and food practices
as well as the administration’s attempts to convert this historic Sufi shrine
into a commercial tourist centre that has enraged people in the state.
The Forum was the first to raise its voice against these measures. The steps
taken by the administration are in complete violation of the court order, which
directs the government unambiguously to maintain pre-’75 status at the shrine
and thus pre-empts measures such as those taken by the government recently. The
Vedike also believed that the administration would attempt to fulfil the saffron
agenda in disguise thereby disrespecting the hitherto multi-religious culture
and practices of the shrine. The Vedike sent two fact-finding teams to
Bababudangiri and also held negotiations with representatives of the district
administration, attempting to explain how its measures contravened court orders;
the authorities were regrettably uncooperative. When all else failed, the Vedike
launched protest activities at Chikmagalur and elsewhere until the government
was finally forced to heed the protests and all steps taken by the
administration were temporarily suspended.
Meanwhile, this year too sangh parivar forces have declared that they will
continue with the Dattamala and Datta Jayanti programmes and have reiterated
their resolve to liberate the shrine from the hold of Muslims and convert it
into a full-fledged Dattatreya temple. In October 2005 the sangh parivar
conducted a two-week long Dattamala Abhiyan, but this time their strength was
considerably reduced. There are many reasons for this. Consistent activities by
the Vedike have exposed the communal and political designs of parivar forces
behind these so-called religious activities. Secondly, the parivar’s strength
has dwindled. The falling out of firebrand Pramod Mutalik, former South India
convener and state leader of the Bajrang Dal who now heads the state unit of the
Shiv Sena, is but a reflection of this process, as the parivar’s wider communal
appeal begins to wane. And by and large, the state government and district
administration seem inclined to curb activities that are overtly defiant.
Nevertheless, last December it was the district administration that had itself
countered the court order to invite its choice of seers to the shrine, a fact
that is especially alarming.
The Karnataka Komu Souharda Vedike has taken note of all these developments
and has called upon all its state units to be extremely vigilant and not get
complacent about the steps taken by the ‘secular’ coalition government in
Karnataka. The Vedike, with the help of other secular forces, is launching a
campaign to liberate Bababudangiri from the sangh parivar. It has already come
out with several books, pamphlets and other literature to expose both the state
government and the sangh parivar’s designs. It is only concerted and vigilant
peoples’ actions that can be the sole guarantee for secularism in this country
and not state policies. This is once again being proved in the case of
Bababudangiri.
(Gauri Lankesh is editor of the Kannada tabloid, Lankesh, and member
of the Karnataka Communal Harmony Forum.) |
Christians under attack
The following is the text of the press statement issued by Dr John Dayal,
President of the All India Catholic Union and member, National Integration
Council, Government of India, at his press conference in Guwahati on November 2,
2005. Other Catholic lay leaders present on the occasion were AICU national
secretary, Barbara Choudhury, North-eastern Catholic Council general secretary,
MR Brooks and Guwahati archdiocese Catholic Association vice-president, Anand
Condapan.
November 3, 2005:
The All India Catholic Union, which represents the 1.60 crore strong Catholic
laity in India, has alerted Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the central
government that the number of attacks this year on the Christian community, its
priests, nuns and institutions, specially in states ruled by the Bharatiya
Janata Party, may well cross 200 recorded cases - close to the figure when the
BJP ruled at the Centre too.
The Catholic Union has in recent months written repeatedly to the prime
minister pointing to very disturbing trends in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and
Gujarat where the state machinery is indicted in the violence. This seems to be
part of a well planned conspiracy to divert the community's energies away from
their major advocacy campaign across the country seeking for Dalit Christians
the same rights and protection of law given to Dalits professing the Buddhist,
Sikh and Hindu faiths. These rights were taken away in 1950 by the communal
presidential order.
The anti-Christian violence is being closely monitored by the All India
Catholic Union, which is also an important member, together with the CBCI, All
India Christian Council and NCCI, in Dalit advocacy. Dr John Dayal publishes in
November-December every year the unofficial White Paper of violence against
Christians, demanding that the government publish an official White Paper on
violence against minorities, tribals and Dalits. So far the BJP and Congress
governments have not done so and neither have institutions such as the National
Commission for Minorities.
In the case of violence, Rajasthan is specially vulnerable. The sangh parivar
had threatened to make the Banswara district in Udaipur division "free of all
Christians". This threat has been followed up by large-scale coercion and
violence in the tribal Udaipur division which adjoins Madhya Pradesh. The state
government, instead of checking the violence, is now itself threatening the
community and has announced it is bringing forward an anti-conversion bill.
The union government must urgently call upon state governments - which
control law and order and education - to ensure the safety of the minorities,
protection of churches and arrest of the culprits.
The National Minorities Commission has violated its charter and become privy
to the alienation of the community by siding blatantly with fundamentalist
thought and action.
The AICU had welcomed the UDF government's decision to set up several new
commissions, including the Justice Ranganath Mishra Commission, now hearing the
Dalit case apart from issues of backward groups, and the Justice Rajinder Sachar
Commission investigating the economic status of the Muslims. The AICU had
demanded that the government study the economic backwardness of Christians, most
of whom are Dalits or tribals, including tribals of the North-east, and devise
economic and development packages for them.
Our own studies have shown an absence of entrepreneurship and
self-employment, largely because of an absence of government support and funding
despite the so-called National Minorities Development Fund. Incidentally, the
fund has a special component for the North-east, which lies unused. The Dalit
Christians are mostly landless peasants. In central India, education is yet to
reach all people, and tribal Christian women are an especially neglected lot.
The AICU is also demanding an early introduction of central legislation
giving the community the right to adopt children - which is denied them at
present - and a revised marriage act, which has been pending for seven years.
(Please feel free to contact Dr John Dayal at 09811021072 or
[email protected] for further
information.)
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