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'Soft saffron' and
electioneering
By Sudha Ramachandran
BANGALORE - In a bid to garner support for its
Hindutva (Hindu supremacist ideology) cause and to make
electoral inroads into southern India, members of the
Sangh Parivar (a fraternity of Hindu right-wing
organizations) are stoking communal passions over the
Baba Budan Giri/Dattatreya shrine.
Nestling in
the Baba Budan hills in the southern Indian state of
Karnataka, the Baba Budan Giri Dargah/Dattatreya Peeta
is venerated by Hindus and Muslims alike. Hindus revere
it as Dattatreya Peeta - the abode of Dattatreya,
believed to be an incarnation of the Hindu god Vishnu.
Muslims believe that the Sufi saint Dada Hayat Mir
Qalandhar, who migrated from Arabia to South India some
13 centuries ago, lived there. Baba Budan, after whom
the hill range is named, was one of the disciples of
Dada Qalandhar.
The Sufic and Hindu traditions
of the shrine peacefully coexisted for centuries until a
legal dispute over control of the shrine arose in the
1960s. And over the past decade, the Parivar has sought
to convert this legal dispute into a communal one.
Last month, at a public meeting during the Datta
Jayanti, an annual Hindu festival at this shrine, Pravin
Togadia, general secretary of the Vishva Hindu Parishad
(VHP - World Hindu Forum) declared that the shrine is
the "Ayodhya of Karnataka".
Secular sections in
India are concerned that the Parivar will replicate the
strategy it has adopted with regard to the disputed
Ramjanmabhoomi/Babri Masjid in Ayodhya. On December 6,
1992, Sangh Parivar activists destroyed a 16th century
mosque, the Babri Masjid. Many Hindus believe that this
site is the birthplace of the Hindu deity Ram, and that
a temple existed there before Muslim invaders destroyed
it to build a mosque.
Since 1992, the Parivar
has worked steadily on "Hinduizing" the Baba Budan
Giri/Dattatreya shrine. Despite a court order that
traditional rituals should not be tampered with, the VHP
and the Bajrang Dal have done so.
While Hindus
have worshipped at the shrine for centuries, it was only
a decade ago that the celebration of Datta Jayanti -
when Brahmin priests conduct a puja (a worship
ritual) in the shrine - began. This one-day festival was
extended to three days in 1998 and is now preceded by
two weeks of ritual observances and meetings. Parivar
activists are also said to have made and enforced new
rules: The dargah's flag is allowed only on three days
in March when the annual urs (a pilgrimage for
Muslims) is celebrated. During the Datta Jayanti, only
saffron flags can be hoisted around the shrine, and for
the rest of the year no flags are allowed in the area.
The speech Togadia made on December 19 at Baba
Budan Giri was inflammatory and aimed at inciting
communal passions. Speeches by VHP and Bajrang Dal
leaders and slogans raised by the assembled activists at
the public meeting were abusive of Muslims.
The
Parivar’s belligerence on the issue has mounted
dramatically over the years. It is believed that this
aggressiveness is driven by its determination to get the
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) – one of the Parivar
constituents – to make electoral inroads in Karnataka.
It appears to be (as in the state of Gujarat) choosing
the strategy of communal polarization to achieve this
goal. Elections to the state assembly are two years
away. It has started its election campaign already.
Secular activists point out that the BJP sees
the possibility of electoral gain through communal
polarization along Hindu-Muslim lines on the Baba Budan
Giri/Dattatreya shrine issue. According to informed
opinion, with Ayodhya becoming "a dead issue" with
regard to garnering support, the Parivar is creating a
controversy over the shrine at Baba Budan Giri to keep
the communal cauldron bubbling in southern India. The
Parivar has identified 30 other shrines in Karnataka for
"liberation" after the Baba Budan Giri shrine is "freed"
from the Sufi Muslims.
But if the BJP/Parivar is
charting out its strategy on the Baba Budan
Giri/Dattatreya shrine with an eye on elections, so is
the Congress Party. Secular activists who were present
at the Datta Jayanti last month have drawn attention to
the Congress-led state government’s "appeasement of the
Hindu communal forces".
Secular sections point
out that the district administration, with sanction from
the state government, had made elaborate arrangements
for transport, food and accommodation for the thousands
who converged at the shrine for the Datta Jayanti. They
insist that nothing was done to stop the Parivar
activists from making incendiary speeches.
While
the district administration cannot be faulted for making
travel and other arrangements for those who arrived at
the site – it can be argued that they were pilgrims and
similar arrangements are made for the Muslims during the
annual urs – it is a fact that the administration
cracked down more firmly on secular activists who met in
the town 10 days after the Datta Jayanti to protest the
Parivar’s communal campaign. The activists were denied
permission to stage a procession on the specious ground
that they posed a threat to peace in the area.
A
few Congress leaders did come out in sharp criticism of
the Parivar's provocation of Muslims. However, it is
significant that some of the Congress Party’s elected
representatives from the area remained silent.
It is not just the present Congress government
in the state that is guilty of not confronting the
Parivar's communal strategy. Over the past decade,
successive governments have refrained from cracking down
on Parivar activists guilty of violating court orders
relating to the shrine. In 1998, for instance, although
the Janata Dal government did stop the VHP-Bajrang Dal
from "liberating the shrine from the Sufi saints", it,
nevertheless, allowed them to conduct a puja in
the shrine.
The government no longer questions
the violation of the court order through the performance
of a puja at the shrine, but seems bothered only
about maintaining law and order in the area during the
festival. This means keeping Muslims away from the
shrine during the Datta Jayanti – which they do
voluntarily anyway – and beefing up the police presence
there.
While the Congress attacks the BJP for
its anti-Muslim positions, it is itself reluctant to
take a genuinely secular position for fear of losing out
on the Hindu vote. Consequently, it is adopting a "soft
saffron" strategy.
(©2003 Asia Times Online Co,
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