BANGALORE, 27 November 2003 — Leading citizens of Karnataka are mobilizing against Sangh Parivar’s bid to raise communal temperature in the state by threatening to organize a huge demonstration at the shrine of Bababudangiri in Kemmangundi Hills, 250 km from here.
The Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and the Bajrang Dal, both militant wings of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), have threatened to “liberate the Ayodhya of the south” from Muslim control and are gearing up for a massive conclave of militant workers on Dec. 8. Several organizations have expressed concern that the demonstration will unleash communal frenzy in the state.
The regional chief of India’s ruling BJP, H.N. Ananth Kumar, who until recently was a minister in the federal Cabinet led by Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, has vowed to make it the event “another Ayodhya.”
Leading Kannada artists, writers and intellectuals have formed an organization called Bababudangiri Social Amity Forum which is pressuring the state government against permitting any additional religious ceremony by the Sangh Parivar at the spot, which is revered by both Hindus and Muslims.
Leading the resistance movement is playwright and dramatist Girish Karnad, a former Rhodes scholar and winner of the prestigious Gyanpeeth Literary Award. The Janata Dal and the two communist parties have pledged their support.
The cave shrine of Baba Budangiri in Chikamagalur district is said to be the convent of Dada Hayat Khalandar, a 12th century preacher said to have arrived from the Arabian peninsula. He was locally called Baba Budan and settled on the scenic Kemmangundi Hills. Khalandar is said to have mysteriously disappeared from the hills.
The shrine draws hundreds of thousands of visitors annually. Close by is the platform where the Hindu saint Dattatreya is said to have done penance, and for centuries both Hindus and Muslims have been performing prayers at the site. The Sangh Parivar has picked the shrine to stoke communal embers in the state, which it identifies as the most vulnerable to its influence in relatively peaceful south India. For nearly a decade, the Parivar has been bringing busloads of activists to the shrine from outside, though so far without success.
The shrine became a center of litigation some three decades ago when the claim of the Waqf Board over the institution was rejected and its management was entrusted to the State Muzrai Department which looks after Hindu temples and endowments. The Supreme Court later rejected the counter claim of the Waqf Board and wanted the status quo to be maintained, with no additional Hindu and Muslim religious rituals.
But the Sangh Parivar has for a decade been trying to add a variety of celebrations at the shrine and wants it turned into a purely Hindu site. The group of writers and poets is now urging the state government strictly to maintain the status quo.
Meanwhile, the Social Amity Forum intends to mobilize huge numbers of people for a counter demonstration against the Sangh Parivar on Dec. 7 at the same spot.
