A timely uproar in the Rajya Sabha against the VHP’s plans to "liberate" the Sufi shrine at Chikmangalur, Karnataka, "from Muslim control", helped scotch what seemed like a fresh attempt to re–enact the Ayodhya drama in south India. The VHP, which had planned to place a Ganesh idol inside the shrine – revered equally by Hindus and Muslims – on December 3, settled for the hoisting of a saffron flag atop the Baba Budangiri hills instead. A green flag that had been on the spot until two days earlier was removed following the district administration’s request for its removal during the Dattatreya Peetha festival, in view of the rising tension.

The triumphant Bajrang Dal activists, said after the flag was hoisted, "Our main demand was that the saffron flag should fly at Baba Budangiri. We have achieved this". They warned the police and district administration that if they removed the flag, "we will cut off your hands".

A dharma sabha was held near the shrine, where it was announced that, henceforth, a Hindu archaka (priest) would offer prayers at the shrine on Thursdays and full moon days, and a maha yagna would be held next year. The sabha also issued a "last warning" to the government to remove Syed Peer Mohammed Shakhadri, who is presently the administrator of the shrine, and to "demolish the tombs of Sakhadri’s relatives", that have come up in the area. The leaders made it clear that the shrine would continue to be a pilgrim centre for both the Muslims and the Hindus, but demanded that Hindus be allowed to offer prayers at the shrine throughout the year.

Impassioned cries of "We will shed blood to save the Datta Peetha", were raised. Their anger was directed mainly against the Muslim administrator, who, the activists alleged, had destroyed all symbols of Hinduism inside the shrine. The leaders asserted that if the issue was not settled in a year, they would take the law into their own hands. "Even if you bring the military, you cannot stop us", one leader warned.

Though the VHP and the Bajrang Dal have raked up the issue since the last couple of years, the open support this time of Karwar BJP MP, Ananthkumar Hegde, gave a fillip to the Hindutva forces.

According to historians, a few hundred years back, a Sufi saint called Hazrath Sheik Abdul Azeez Mecci climbed the scenic hill and made it his home. Then, some 300 years back his disciple, Baba Budan, arrived in the hills. He is credited with having introduced coffee in the region. Gradually, the ranges came to be called Baba Budangiri.

According to another version, Dattatreya (an avatar of Vishnu) prayed in that cave for a few years before suddenly vanishing. Hindus believe he will return one day to ‘correct’ the world.

The agitation to liberate the shrine came close on the heels of the targeting of Christians in another corner of the state. On November 22, about 40-armed men, suspected to be Sangh parivar activists, attacked a Christian prayer service at Kulai, a small town near Mangalore. All present at the service, mainly women and children, were attacked. The priest conducting the service was so severely beaten up that he had to hospitalised. The assailants also desecrated the church and destroyed all records.

In the past six months, Christian–run educational institutions in the state have been frequently threatened with ‘dire consequences’ if they did not ‘Hinduise’ their schools and colleges. Threats have ranged from the distribution of handbills enumerating their ‘demands’, obstruction of a school assembly, breaking into a school and forcibly applying ‘kum-kum’ to the foreheads of adolescent school girls in July this year. The demands of the Bajrang Dal include the invocation of Hindu prayers along with Christian prayers in the schools, a ban on western songs, dance and dress in cultural programmes, compulsory and prominent exhibition of photographs of national leaders as also Goddess Saraswati, and only a one–day holiday for Christmas.

Back to the Vedas

"The time has come to get people interested in the Vedas and their teachings", says the VHP, which has started a number of government-backed programmes to bring back "social recognition" to the Vedas. Though they failed to get the Vedas included in the school syllabus, the government has promised grants for the establishment of Veda Pathshalas in districts all over the country.

The VHP plans to urge trustees of temples to open these pathshalas on the lines of the gurukuls of old. Other interested people are also invited to help set up such pathshalas in every district in the country. Besides setting up gurukuls, the VHP plan includes holding of seminars, exhibitions, yagnas, sale of Vedic literature as well as recordings of recitations. The programme will be set off at the Vishwa Veda Sammelan — December 9–13 — being organised jointly by the VHP and the Vishwa Veda Sansthan trust.

The conference aims to revive the study of the Vedas, especially in northern India, including Jammu and Kashmir. While Veda studies "can still be found in the Southern parts of the country, it has disappeared from Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Bihar, West Bengal and other parts of Northern India", one VHP member said. It remains to be seen whether the rekindling of Vedic studies will bring forth the true, varied richness of interpretation and philosophy of the Vedas, or whether it will conveniently serve to promote Hindutva’s cause.

However, it may turn out that more than just the minority educational institutions need monitoring. In Delhi, the BJP government’s education directorate has distributed calendars to all students, which enumerate a list of ‘great men’. The parents’ help has been solicited to ensure that children are ‘informed’ about the list. The list of ‘great men’ includes most of the RSS leaders, a few Hindu scientists, poets and freedom fighters. The list contains only one Muslim name.

In BJP–ruled Rajasthan (until the recent rout), a Std. IX textbook contains articles by RSS chief Rajendra Singh, his deputy K.C. Sudarshan, Vijay Tarun, editor of RSS mouthpiece, Panchjanya and J S Rawlot, leader of the Sangh Parivar’s Swadeshi Jagran Manch. Jana Sangh’s late president, D. D. Upadhyay finds place in the Std. XI text.

Who is more ‘Hindu’ of us all? Bal Thackeray, the self–styled Hinduhridaysamrat (Emperor of Hindu hearts), obviously believes he is the tallest of them all. In a desperate bid to prop up the sagging image of his party, Thackeray recently exhorted his followers ‘to live like staunch Hindus’ and not allow the Pakistani cricket team to set foot ‘on the sacred soil of your motherland’ to protest against Pak–sponsored terrorism in Kashmir. When Prime Minister, A.B. Vajpayee declared that, "Nobody will be allowed to obstruct the tour", Thackeray threatened to pullout of its alliance with the BJP in Maharashtra. Unfortunately for him, the BJP decided to call his bluff.

In the midst of the cricket match between the two parties, the drama was intensified with Thackeray espousing the Vande Mataram issue. Even as the controversy over the singing of the Vande Mataram and the Saraswati Vandana raged in Uttar Pradesh, with the Muslim clerics in UP threatening to withdraw all Muslim wards from schools, if the singing was made compulsory, Thackeray remained silent. However, once Advani declared that he was against making the singing of Vande Mataram compulsory, Thackeray denounced him.

On November 25, at a rally Juhu beach, Sena activists used strong words were used against Vajpayee and Advani for succumbing to pressure from a minority community on the Vande Mataram issue. The state BJP president, Suryabhan Wahadane, was quick to point to the Sena’s political "opportunism", asking why chief minister, Manohar Joshi, had not made the singing of Vande Mataram compulsory in Maharashtra in the past three–and–a–half years.