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The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) worked aggressively to make electoral gains in the state of Telangana. But the primary contest in the state is between the ruling Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) and the Congress, the BJP remains a distant third in the political discourse. However, it would be naive to undermine the impact of the Hindu right-wing party that has mobilised various communities in Telangana under the Hindu identity, one of their methods of consolidation being the use of Shivaji statues to whip up communal passions.
Right-wing forces position Chatrapati Shivaji as a Hindu king who ‘fought against Muslim rulers’, while historic accounts testify that he was a lowered caste king who held secular values. In the past few years, there were several communal tensions in the state around the erection of Shivaji statues – which are now part of the Hindu right wing’s iconography. Though Shivaji’s legacy lies in bordering Maharashtra and has little to do with the history of Telangana, the BJP has been erecting statues of the late king as a “Hindu icon” in many parts of the state to assert their dominance and mark their presence. This is significantly visible in the regions like Adilabad, Nizamabad, Nirmal, and Bhainsa, which border the state of Maharashtra. Parts of Nizamabad, Nirmal, and Bhainsa are also communally sensitive due to constant flare-ups between Muslims and Hindus.
However, in the BJP’s elaborate plan to unify various communities under the Hindu identity by erecting Shivaji statues, the Dalits seem to have emerged as a problem. A recent incident in Vikarabad district, approximately 75 kilometers from Hyderabad, reflects this tension between the Dalits and Backward Class communities who are rallying behind the BJP.
Earlier in January, a Dalit youth named Mettli Naresh from the Devanoor village in Yalal Mandal of Vikarabad was almost lynched to death by an angry mob after the conflict over the installation of the Ambedkar statue vis-a-vis the Shivaji statue near the village entrance culminated in communal tension. Among the many villages in Yalal Mandal that have committees of Hindu Yuva Vahini (HYV), a militant organisation, Devanoor too has active members. In Devanoor, HVY’s members are mostly from Mudiraj, Yadav, and Goud communities, which are classified as Backward Classes. When Dalits wanted to erect the statue of Ambedkar in the village, members of the HVY protested demanding a Shivaji’s statue instead. The Ambedkar statue was gifted by BRS Tandur MLA Pilot Rohith Reddy.
An argument took place between Naresh and Bodka Narender, a member of the HYV from the Yadav community, and Narender alleged that Naresh abused him. At that time, Narender was observing Shiva deeksha by wearing a sacred chain (devotees at this time observe abstinence, walk barefoot, and give up meat). Naresh was then arrested for allegedly abusing Narender. However, a large mob of Shiva devotees lay siege to the police station and attacked Naresh until he collapsed. A few police personnel were also injured in the incident. A local BJP leader named Murali Goud had allegedly instigated the mob to carry out the violence, the police said. He was also arrested later on.
Before this incident, Bairi Naresh, a rationalist, had stoked communal tensions with his alleged derogatory speech against Lord Ayappa at a gathering in Kodangal of the Vikarabad district.
There have been other incidents of clashes between Dalits and BCs over the installation of the Ambedkar statue versus the Shivaji statue. When the conflict between Dalits and BCs erupted over the Ambedkar statue, Tandur legislator Rohith Reddy promised to give a Shivaji statue to appease the other group. These incidents are indicative of the BJP’s victory in bringing together Hindus through the politics of iconography.
While these undercurrent tensions may not pay immediate dividends to the BJP in this election, they will remain an electoral bait in the years to come.
Read: How BJP and its affiliates are using Shivaji statues to mobilise BCs in Telangana