In Karnataka’s Mandya, JD(S) is Hindutva’s force multiplier

As we approached Keragodu, a village around 12 kms off the Bengaluru-Mysuru highway, the number of saffron flags lining the road increased sharply. This is the village where a huge row broke out on January 27 when a saffron flag at a public spot was replaced with the national tricolour. Keragodu is now witnessing unprecedented activity: round the clock police watch, top politicians making multiple visits, and constant media spotlight. Traditionally, these parts have seen political contests on caste lines, but there is a visible shift in that now. The Hindutva ideology is breaking fresh ground and is being amplified by the BJP’s new ally, Janata Dal (Secular)’s ground network..In Keragodu, a misunderstanding started the flagpole controversy. The Gowri Shankar Trust that has been managing temple land sought to replace a rusted 35-year-old flagpole with a taller one for the Ayodhya Ram temple consecration. For years, a saffron flag with a picture of Anjaneya – commonly known as a Hanuma Dhwaja or Anjaneya Bhavuta – had been hoisted from the pole. Only on days of national importance and on the Karnataka Rajyotsava celebrated on November 1, the flag was replaced with the national flag or the Karnataka flag. The trust took the request for a new flag pole to the gram panchayat in October 2023. The panchayat resolved to replace the old flagpole with a new and taller one measuring 108 feet and collected Rs 3.5 lakh through donations. They also wrote to the district administration to inform them of their decision. .Confusion arose due to two separate letters sent. The first one stated that the Hanuma Dhwaja would be hoisted. An officer asked the trust to add that the national flag would be hoisted on days of national importance. A second letter was sent, but remained silent about the Hanuma Dhwaja continuing to be hoisted on other days.On January 22, a saffron flag was hoisted on the flagpole. It was lowered three days later and on January 26, the national flag was hoisted in its place for Republic Day. On January 27, the national flag was brought down and the saffron Hanuma Dhwaja was back in place. A few government officials objected to the national flag being lowered and replaced with a saffron flag. On January 28, as a team of district officials reached to remove the saffron flag, many youngsters assembled to protest against this. Residents say that even if the rest of the district was relatively insulated from Hindutva politics, the Sri Madhava Vidyalaya, a school run by an RSS affiliate just outside Keragodu, has been instrumental in spreading the ideology through its students. And many who passed out from here went on to join the ABVP, and later the Bajrang Dal and Vishwa Hindu Parishad.The school which was started in 2006 was the first educational institute started by RSS in the district. Over time, the school became a channel for RSS’s outreach programmes. Keragodu village has a significant number of Brahmins and through them, the local RSS leaders have been engaging the villagers in many religious and political activities. For women, they have been conducting harikathe (traditional storytelling) and bhajane classes, which too were used to spread the Sangh ideology. For children and youth, summer camps are conducted where Hindu religious scriptures are taught. The school building was also used by Sangh leaders for their speeches and to conduct RSS shakha meets on many occasions. .Generations of youngsters who have studied in the school became ambassadors of Hindutva in the district. Their WhatsApp groups were also instrumental in mobilising youngsters in the early hours of January 28 when the district administration lowered the saffron flag. “We got messages on WhatsApp and we spread the word, asking for other youngsters to join. Since this was an issue of not just Hindutva but the pride of our village, a large crowd assembled,” said Balakrishna, one of the protesters. He is an alumnus of Madhava Vidyalaya. On January 28, the police tried to use their muscle against the protesters and this incensed residents even more. It was no longer about the gram panchayat taking on the district administration. It had instead intensified into a battle between the Congress ruled state government and the residents of Keragodu. By extension, the local Congress MLA Ravikumar Gowda Ganiga and CM Siddaramaiah became the prime targets of the angry residents.Karthik, who is a Bajrang Dal member, sustained injuries when he was lathi charged. He runs a pani puri shop in the village which draws a significant crowd every evening. For the last one week, he has been distributing Hanuma Dhwaja to his customers and also helping spread the Sangh’s narrative. .Villagers talk about how Siddaramaiah had visited the village around 35 years ago, when he was a junior minister in the Ramakrishna Hegde government. While most people do not remember the exact year, they recall that he had come to lay the foundation for a metal flag post in the same spot and later had even unfurled the Karnataka flag there. “Siddaramaiah did not have a problem with our Hanuma Dhwaja so many years ago but now suddenly he wants only the national flag here? This is all just his politics,” alleged Sankeeranna, a vendor in front of the Anjaneya temple. He admitted to being a JD(S) supporter and voter. Gram panchayat member Mahesha alleged that MLA Ganiga was well aware of the plans for the new flag post, and had held discussions with the panchayat members many months ago. Mahesha blamed Ganiga for creating trouble because he was not invited for the inauguration of the flag post.The gram panchayat has 10 Congress, 10 JD(S), and two BJP members. Barring three or four, all the Congress members spoke in favour of continuing the tradition of hoisting the Hanuma Dhwaja. For many, the Hanuma Dhwaja was a familiar sight, placed in a central location of their village, and is closely associated with their personal faith. Radha, a flower vendor who has set up shop in front of the flagpole, said that for people in Keragodu, the saffron flag was a symbol of their faith in Anjaneya. “All Hindus came together to contribute for a new pole because we always wanted to see Anjaneya there. This was not politics, we hardly have time to make ends meet and have no time for politics,” she said. Radha belongs to the Vokkaliga community and has been selling flowers since she was a teenager. .At the bus stand in front of the temple, Sulochana and her teenage daughter were waiting for a bus and were amused by the police presence. Sulochana grew up in Keragodu and moved to the neighbouring village when she got married 16 years ago. She says her entire family is angry that the district administration is not even allowing them to practise their religion when it was not troubling anybody else. “Who was getting troubled by the flag? We have not stopped others from practising their faith, why should the government interfere in ours? We have been voting for JD(S) for many generations, my grandfather used to take us to dodda gowdru (Devegowda)’s rallies. But now my brothers who live here are distributing saffron flags in town (Mandya),” she says. Most vehicles passing by Keragodu, two wheelers, autorickshaws, and tractors too have saffron flags of varying sizes. Many in the village insisted saffron flags are part of their religion. While the initial flagpole replacement in Keragodu was a localised row, it exploded into an issue of regional significance after senior political leaders got involved. The dispute also presented an opportunity for the recently formed alliance between the BJP and JD(S) to demonstrate their combined influence and garner political support..Ground reports take time and effort. Become a subscriber and support TNM .As the protests raged in Keragodu and other parts of Mandya district, a visit on January 29 by R Ashoka, the Leader of Opposition in the Karnataka Assembly, galvanised the BJP workers and members of other Sangh Parivar outfits. Ashoka is a Vokkaliga leader of the BJP and has been trying to create a base for himself in the region as the BJP’s answer to the Vokkaliga leaders of the JD(S). Not to be outdone by Ashoka’s visit, JD(S) leader HD Kumaraswamy too joined the protest, which in turn brought in thousands of their grassroot workers into the fold. Visuals of Kumaraswamy giving up the green JD(S) shawl and wearing a saffron shawl changed the dynamics, and many party workers too did not hesitate from joining hands with the Sangh Parivar, echoing their language. .And now, when a call has been given for a ‘Mandya bandh’ on February 9, not just Hindutva groups but even the district autorickshaw drivers association and a few local farmer groups too have lent their support. Members of groups such as Srirama Sene and Bajrang Dal are being mobilised from other districts including Mysuru, Bengaluru, and Ramanagara to Mandya as well. There have been attempts to communalise the region many times before. Tipu Sultan, the former ruler of Srirangapatna, has been used by the BJP several times to drive a wedge between Hindus and Muslims. Tipu’s complicated engagement with religion gave the Sangh Parivar ample fodder. Take for example the row surrounding two fictional characters Uri and Nanje Gowda, presented to the voters as Vokkaliga chieftains who killed Tipu. The BJP alleged that Tipu was not a freedom fighter slain by the British army but a bigoted tyrant who was killed by Vokkaligas. As the trope caught on, it raised hopes in Hindutva circles of an electoral consolidation of Vokkaligas in favour of the BJP. In 2022, a group called the Narendra Modi Vichar Manch had asked for prayers to be allowed at the Jamia Masjid in Srirangapatna. The group claimed that there was a Hanuman temple at the spot centuries ago and that Tipu destroyed it to build a mosque. They had cited examples of the Babri Masjid and the Gyanvapi mosque row in Varanasi. Permission was denied by the district administration. In February 2022, students affiliated with the ABVP, the students’ wing of the RSS, heckled a young woman student, Muskan Khan, for wearing a hijab. The video showing her responding with Allahu Akbar to the hecklers who were chanting Jai Sri Ram had gone viral. But at the time, this could not become a rallying issue for the Hindu students, despite the ABVP’s efforts. This did not entirely sway the voters of Mandya or the Old Mysore region during the last assembly elections, but the efforts to polarise voters here have continued. In 2023, the Congress won 43 of the 64 seats in the region with the JD(S) winning only 14. Congress’s vote share increased to 42% which is more than the 37% they had in 2018. Just last month, RSS leader from coastal Karnataka, Kalladka Prabhakar Bhat, sought to revive the hijab controversy. Speaking at the Moodalabagilu Anjaneya Temple in Srirangapatna, he alleged that Muskan had connections with Al-Qaeda. He went as far as to claim that terrorists will visit Mandya because they had provided financial and material support to Muskan. Of course, he provided no proof to back these claims and has been booked for his defamatory comments.The attempts to introduce hardline Hindutva in the region did not percolate deep because of the counterbalance provided by the JD(S), which not only took secular positions on many divisive issues but also had a considerable following among minorities. Though the party allied with the BJP in the past, it had retained its secular stance until now. But this time, things looked different with Kumaraswamy wearing a saffron shawl and leading the agitation in Keragodu. The JD(S) has the largest cadre base in the region. Many of the cadre, although religious and devout Hindus, had stayed clear of communal politics so far. The Old Mysore region, like many other parts of Karnataka, had voted primarily along caste lines. But Kumaraswamy’s new strategy may flip things around.Another JD(S) leader from the Vokkaliga community said that most of the tier two and three leaders in the party don’t look at this issue ideologically, even if they supported the Hanuma Dhwaja. “Only the seniors in the party are looking at portraying themselves as supporters of Hindutva. For others, it is a local issue and a matter of teaching the Congress government a lesson,” the leader told TNM. With around 64 Assembly seats and 10 Parliamentary seats at stake in the region, BJP and Hindutva groups are leaving little to chance. The grassroots connect of the JD(S), the BJP’s spending power, and the capacity of rightwing groups to spark polarising narratives is combining to greater effect and the region is seeing a steady acceptance of Hindutva. JD(S) witnessed an exodus of party workers in 2018 when the Congress and JD(S), who were coalition partners, parted ways. A senior JD(S) leader told TNM that when the alliance was strong, Kumaraswamy allowed Congress leader DK Shivakumar and his brother Suresh to manage the JD(S) cadre in Mandya’s neighbouring district of Ramanagara. And later when the coalition collapsed, party workers joined the Congress and greatly weakened JD(S) hold in the district.Professor Muzzafar Assadi, a political theorist who is a close observer of politics in the region, said that the JD(S) is handing over the Vokkaliga vote bank to the BJP. “So far, Vokkaligas were divided between the JD(S) and the Congress. They had not supported the BJP much,” Prof Assadi said. The situation can also be compared to how former Karnataka Chief Minister S Bangarappa brought OBC voters to the BJP. Bangarappa was from the Deevaru Idiga community and over years, became a popular leader who brought Backward Classes together. Between 1994 and 2004, Bangarappa switched to several parties including the Congress and Karnataka Vikas Party. In 2004, he joined the BJP for a brief period of two years. And he brought along his vote base, mostly consisting of BC communities, to the BJP too. But when he left the party, many of these communities stayed back and continued to vote for the BJP. Kumaraswamy now embracing Hindutva for his own personal gains could result in the transfer of Vokkaliga votes to the BJP, perhaps even at the cost of the JD(S). .While the Keragodu incident has been the flashpoint that BJP and the Sangh Parivar had been looking for in the district, the Muslims have so far not reacted. A Muslim JD(S) leader who was in the Mandya district committee till recently said that many of their local leaders who have fought against the Congress for generations find it easier to accept BJP and Hindutva, if it means it will add strength to their fight against the Congress. “Although we are Janata Dal Secular, the party was more aligned to caste politics than secularism. It was primarily a Vokkaliga party with a few Muslim leaders. Traditionally we have seen Vokkaligas fighting with Kurubas and other Backward Classes for supremacy. In the last assembly elections when Muslims consolidated behind the Congress, we realised that now the party leaders will lean towards BJP,” he said. What is playing out in Keragodu is a case of liberal nationalism versus religious nationalism, said Prof Assadi. The hoisting of the national flag at that flag post represents liberal nationalism. The Hanuma Dhwaja has become a symbol of religious nationalism, much like the Ram temple in Ayodhya. He added that although Muslims are absent in this equation at the moment, this has the potential to become a communal conflict if liberal nationalism is seen as appeasement of Muslims. But now, riding on the back of the JD(S), the BJP is leveraging the capacity of Vokkaligas to consolidate and mobilise. The Rajya Vokkaligara Sangha is a century-old, powerful caste-based association with politically and financially influential members that include top politicians, businessmen, and religious leaders. The group has a strong presence in at least 11 districts of Karnataka, most of them in the Old Mysore region. They run premium educational institutions such as the Kempegowda Institute of Medical Sciences (KIMS) and Bangalore Institute of Technology (BIT), and also have the backing of dominant seers of Vokkaliga mutts including Nirmalanandanatha Swamy, Nanjavadhoota Swamy, and Hanumanthnath Swamy. If an association like this can be polarised, it could prove to be a force multiplier for Hindutva for generations. With JD(S) facing internal conflict and an identity crisis, Kumaraswamy has repeatedly claimed that the alliance with the BJP is to save his party from being consumed by the Congress. But in the last decade, the BJP has shown the ability to decimate their own alliance partners and grow its numbers based on their strength. For example, in Maharashtra, they broke the Shiv Sena and fortified themselves. The JD(S) now faces a similar situation, their existence potentially threatened while their numbers help the spread of Hindutva.This story is part of our series called ‘Hindutva’s South Push’. Read our other stories here..Ground reports take time and effort. Become a subscriber and support TNM