November 2005 
Year 12    No.112

Saffronwatch


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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