By Syed Ali Mujtaba

A heartwarming news of communal harmony has come from Hirebidanur village in Saudatti taluk at Belagavi district formerly known as Belgaum district in Karnataka. Here Hindus observe Muharram with all its pomp and glory even though the village does not have a single Muslim family.

This year the month of Muharram in India began on Sunday, July 31, 2022, and its related rituals closed on August 9, 2022, a national holiday.

The Hindu members of the village Hirebidanur have been observing Muharram from day one every year. A very bright and colorful procession adorn the streets and the people hold torches and walk along with the procession with vibrant folk music playing in the background.

“We celebrate Muharram on par with our village fair. Several art forms are showcased in those eight days which also gives an opportunity for folklore to exhibit their talent. The entire village has been happily celebrating the festival for over a century now,” said Prakash Kumar, a resident of Hirebidanur while talking to the media.

Hirebidanur village is some 51 kilometers from Belagavi district headquarters. It is home to around 3000 people but does not have a single Muslim family. The majority of the population of the village belongs to Hindu Valmiki and Kuruba communities.

During the Muharram observance, a Maulvi from a neighboring village is called for a week to offer prayers inside the mosque of Hirebidanur village, while the locals celebrate the festival outside the mosque.

The residents of Kasanadu Pudu, in Thanjavur district of Tamil Nadu who are predominantly Hindus except for a handful of Muslims, also start preparation for the mourning ten days in advance. They clean the vicinity of the temple (Koil) near the public square of the village. They paint and decorate the Koil with new green flags, flowers and decorative lights.

On the eve of Muharram, the Hindu women of the village take out a procession from each street and that ends at Koil temple.’  They carry a large pot filled with sweetened water atop their heads with a small pot over the larger pot that has puffed rice and jiggery inside.  Members of the Muslim families also conduct some rituals and offer puffed rice and jaggery to the Koil.

While women take out the procession with pots, the men of the village take out another procession with hand symbol with five fingers, tied to a pole and call it “Five finger Allah.” This is followed some caring four, three, two and single finger symbols. This procession wades through the entire village and reaches the Koil in the end.

Muharram is observed as a period of mourning and extreme grief for the Muslim community world over. It is on these days the battle of Karbala in Iraq took place. It saw the martyrdom of Hazrat Imam Hussain, the grandson of the Prophet of Islam. As a mark of his martyrdom, Muharram is observed.

The Shia sect of Muslims observes Muharram with extreme grief and act of piety. They fast and indulge in prayers during the ten days of extended rituals. On the last day, a procession is taken out where the faithful inflicts self-injury on their body as an act of mourning and grief. Whereas the Sunni sect of Muslims observes it differently; they also fast and indulge in prayers and take out a colorful procession with Tazia and Sipals that culminates in the burial ground.

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Source: The India Observer, Counter Currents

The post Hindus observe Muharram in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu states of India first appeared on Sindh Courier.

Sudipto Mondal

At a time when even non-BJP parties are looking to increase their appeal among Hindus, the Karnataka unit of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) is gearing up for a Muslim convention in communally polarized coastal Karnataka. The event, which features some of the state’s top intellectuals as speakers, is scheduled for the last weekend of May at Mangalore. Nearly 2,000 Muslim delegates selected from different districts will attend the event, organizers said.

This is a new kind of politics for the party which has traditionally sought to organize around issues of labor and economic policy. It holds particularly true for the CPI (M) in Karnataka where it has never had a significant electoral impact but still managed to consistently organize lakhs of workers for collective bargaining and demonstrations through its trade and farmer’s unions.

More broadly, the country’s largest communist party has also had a checkered history with the Muslim community as well as with other discriminated social groups such as Dalits, Adivasis and also women. The CPI(M) continues to be wary of what it describes as ‘identity politics’ even as it is often pilloried for the lack of diversity in its top leadership which continues to be overwhelmingly Hindu, upper-caste and male.

Muneer Katipalla, the main organizer of the upcoming Muslim conference and state committee member of the CPI (M), believes he is an example of change in the party and maintains that the question of identity is not immaterial to the communist style of organizing.

In this interview to TNM, he insists that the party is committed to questions of caste, gender and religious identity but at the same time wary of building people’s movements on the basis of identity alone. Excerpts:

The project to typecast Muslims as a homogenous group threatens to erase from public view the great diversity within the community. It is clear that in the eyes of an Islamophobe, there is only kind of Muslim. But there are also voices within the Muslim community who have spoken out against Muslim organizations for similarly reducing the community’s concerns to unitary narratives. How does your party see the community?

So everybody knows that Muslims face extreme persecution in coastal Karnataka, right? Do we know that two of the largest malls in Karnataka, which are located in Mangalore, are also owned by Muslims? Eight medical colleges and nearly 40 per cent of all hospitals here are owned by Muslim tycoons. This small business class has interests spread across education, construction, timber, fisheries, shipping. You name an industry in this entire coastal belt and you will find that there are Muslim capitalists in the mix.

At the same time it is also a fact that a majority of the people who roll Bidis for living or work as labor in the fishing boats and in the ports are also Muslim. The overall socio-economic indices of Muslims in coastal Karnataka are abysmal compared to other religious groups. They are behind on education, employment, health and land holding. These are the people who are vulnerable when a fascist regime takes over. You will not see stories about millionaire Muslim businessmen attacked by rightwing goons on the street or fixed in false police cases.

Who are these two types of Muslims is a question that has to form the basis of any intervention that we make in these times of Hindutva fascism. It is clear that a micro-minority of Muslims is able to negotiate with the regime and their life doesn’t hang in the balance like the majority of Muslims who live on a daily wage.

A small group of wealthy and influential Muslims who have generations of privilege behind them are exploiting the present political situation by speaking as community representatives.

We contest the narrow definition of religious and political life that the Muslim elite want to impose on the Muslim working class.

This coastal region has seen many successful attempts by the communist movement to forge class struggles across religions. Take for example the Ganjimutt area near Mangalore where Beary Muslim peasants and Hindu peasants from the Kumbhar community jointly fought for land rights in the early years of independence. Their resistance under the communist flag was met with brutal reprisals from landlords who formed small militias like the Ranveer Sena to attack the agitating farm workers.

In the same village today, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad has managed to mobilize some Hindus to agitate for a temple in the place of the Malali mosque. The 700-year-old mosque has some structures inside which are designed according to Tulu-Dravidian style. This is a symbol of the syncretic culture of Tulunadu. But the VHP claims this as proof of a Hindu temple.

Now, it is understandable that the Hindu rightwing will try to erase this syncretic memory. But the interesting thing is that the Islamist political groups too are averse to this culture which developed organically by centuries of mixing. The role of a secular progressive force becomes crucial in this tinderbox situation.

With what message have you been going into the Muslim community and how have your efforts been received? At a time when religion-based organizations such as the Jamaat-e-Islami, Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) and the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) are becoming increasingly influential in the community, can an atheistic approach work?

It is wrong to say that we shun religious philosophies altogether. We are directly involved in a contest of ideas on the question of religion with groups such as the SDPI, Jamat and AIMIM. In a state like Karnataka, large sections of Sunni Muslims are part of the Sufi-Dargah faith system and do not subscribe to the narrow ideology of Muslim parties.

This is particularly true of coastal Karnataka where liberal Islam is not just a loose cultural phenomenon but a central part of the faith because of the Sufi tradition. There are progressive principles here that the CPI (M) and all its mass movements have been associated with for decades. There is no contradiction here.

Now, if the question is on Wahhabi-style Islam which promotes illiberal concepts about women, science, modernity and social relations, there is no question that our party will oppose it as vehemently as Hindutva.

In the course of organizing this conference, for instance, we have been welcomed by Sunni neighborhood-level groups. They represent a larger cross section of the Muslim population than the politico-religious organizations that seem to be the focus of media attention. Local mosque committees, units of the Sunni Students Federation (SSF), the Muslim Central Committee (MCC), which are liberal formations, have helped us at the panchayat and municipality level in the organizing.

They responded enthusiastically to our call to address Muslim marginality by building larger coalitions based on basic questions of livelihood, education, infrastructure and economic policy.

If you are suggesting that groups such as the SDPI, Jamaat and AIMIM are irrelevant, then there is enough evidence to the contrary. Religion is one just one dimension of their ideology, their influence also reflects the genuine yearning within the community for autonomous Muslim leadership. There is a large section of politically conscious Muslims that is particularly resentful of Indian communists over the question of political representation for the community.

In the course of organizing for this conference, we held a large meeting in Chokkabettu, a place with a large Muslim population, represented by a councilor from the SDPI. Why do you think there was such a large turnout in an SDPI stronghold? Muslims in Chokkabettu have political representation, right? Why did they turn up to listen to a communist like Muneer Katipalla or Imtiaz BK?

Our message to the community has been that the sum total of the impact of Islamophobia and Hindutva is ‘economic’; it hits people in the stomach. And the political resistance to this has to be built on the basis of a fight for the equitable distribution of resources, a fight for employment, a fight against neoliberal policies that favor the Ambanis and the Adanis.

In the ideology of these parties which are focused only on the politico-religious aspect of Muslim lives, where is the focus on the most crucial questions concerning Muslims today? Importantly, when we speak about the leadership of Muslims that has been created by these organizations, what is the composition of their leadership? Who are the leaders, what is their social and economic background, which are the powerful families and clans they are associated with? Are they only Muslim or are they working class or lowered caste Muslims who are the majority in the community?

Which Muslim gets to represent all Muslims is a central question. It is a question that will embarrass all these Muslim political parties. My parents were daily wage workers and I studied only till Class 8. For me to emerge as a state-level communist leader means that I had to first spend years understanding the party program for which I had to study hard economic theories, history and about ideologies and international relations. To build leaders from the bottom takes time, I have been with the movement for close to 30 years.

When it comes to the CPI (M), there is genuine reflection on our failures to create leadership among Muslims. But our approach has always been to build leaders from genuine working class backgrounds. We want to build Muslim leaders who can represent the interests of all communities. If a person from the Bunt or Brahmin community can provide leadership to all communities, why should Muslim leaders be restricted to minority wings of parties or indeed to minority based parties?

These are the fundamental questions over which our party is focused. If we had to simply get readymade Muslim leaders, we would have had to do what other parties do — share power with the Muslim elite. Look at the Muslim leaders in the State such UT Khader, Zameer Ahmed, NA Harris or Roshan Baig, do they represent the interest of the toiling Muslims? For us, the fight is not for short-term electoral gain but a fight for a change in the human condition.

But your statements itself beg the question, why then have a Muslim conference and not a workers conference? Why has the party, not just in Karnataka but also nationally, started organizing with vigor among Muslims, Dalits, Adivasis?

Firstly, we see this as a conference ‘about’ Muslims and not a conference ‘of’ Muslims. Yes, because the focus is on the problems being faced by the community, a large section of the gathering will be made up of Muslims. But there are others too. In our campaigning, we have also been visiting Hindus and other communities saying, ‘Attend this conference to discover how your issues and the issues of Muslims are the same in this post-pandemic apocalypse created by the BJP government.’

This is an attempt to invite Muslims to participate in larger coalitions by exposing them to fresh perspectives and new social coalitions. And this is not just empty rhetoric, you will find many Hindus and other communities at the event. Our panel of speakers is also not just Muslim but a diverse mix.

But I am not going to avoid your question, yes, it is a special conference where there is a special focus on Muslims. This is because of the extraordinary circumstances that have developed in the country since the BJP government came to power. Earlier, they were under attack only from rightwing extremists. Now, these extremists have taken control of the state machinery. All the democratic institutions are being manipulated to target one community. Things in Karnataka have become only worse with the political instability in the state and there is a massive campaign to economically boycott Muslims.

This is forcing the community towards political organizations that promote militant ideologies based on religion. We saw this in the controversy over the question of the Hijab in coastal Karnataka. The mobilization against the garment by Hindutva groups was met equally by Muslim extremist groups.

The fact is that a majority of Muslim girls do not see the Hijab as an essential article of faith but wearing it now has become a symbol of resistance against Hindu fundamentalism. The real victims of this are the women who do not wear the Hijab. Those Muslim women who are against it, because they see it as restrictive or as a symbol of patriarchy, are now coming under social pressure to observe the Hijab.

This is where we believe that a progressive party can play a crucial role within these communities. We are working among Dalit, Adivasi and other lowered caste groups for precisely this reason. On one hand these communities are as much under attack from the present regime as Muslims. At the same time, just like Muslims, they too are getting weakened because of identity politics.

For instance, compare the organizing capacity of pan-Dalit organizations such as the Dalit Sangharsh Samiti or the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) with the capacity of organizations that represent individual communities such as the Madiga Dandora or the Bhovi Sangha.

The organizations which we mistake as representing smaller, individual communities are in fact more influential and have more bargaining power than the pan Dalit organizations. People speak rhetorically about Bahujan mobilization or Shudra politics but the so-called Bahujans are organized as Kuruba, Vokkaliga, Mogaveera or Billava. That is the problem with identity politics, it has no end, and it prevents us from building larger people’s movements.

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Courtesy: The News Minute

The post Why CPI (M) is planning a Muslim convention in coastal Karnataka first appeared on Sindh Courier.

Monitoring Desk

The hijab row in Karnataka affected high schools on Tuesday when the students of Government Composite Urdu High School in Mallar, Kaup in Karnataka’s Udupi district found themselves being separated from their classmates on Monday, February 14. While the hijab row has been rocking many various educational institutions in Karnataka, this is a first where the girls, all from classes 8, 9, and 10, were asked to remove their hijab in a minority Urdu school.

Almost all the 51 students at the school are Muslim, and of the 22 girls, nine are from class 10, and wanted to enter the school on Tuesday to write their preparatory exam. They were sent to a separate classroom as the school authorities discussed the issue. The tehsildar, Srinivas Murthy, also told the media that they would have a meeting with the parents and teachers and give further instruction on the matter. In the afternoon, it was decided that students who turned up for the preparatory exams on Tuesday would be allowed to wear the hijab and complete their examinations.

However, most of the girls from classes 8 and 9, did not turn up for school on Tuesday. Their parents say that the students were not taught lessons and asked to remove their hijab on the school campus on Monday. Their parents staged a protest outside the school on Tuesday morning calling for the school to allow the students to wear the hijab again. “We have come to the school to protest against the decision to bar students wearing the hijab. Some of the parents have held the students back at home, others had to come because it’s a preparatory exam today for class 10. There was no issue till this week but the school is now insisting that girls should not wear hijab,” Haseena Adil, the parent of one of the students, told.

The principal of the school, Joyce, said that the students were segregated based on the state government’s order and given that the issue is pending before the high court. The government order in question is one issued on February 5, where the state government directed colleges under the Pre-university Department’s jurisdiction to ensure that uniforms mandated by the College Development Committee or board of management should be worn. The order also said that if there is no mandate for a uniform, students should wear attire that is in the interest of unity, equality and public order.

B Haider, a ward level BJP leader and a member of the School Development Monitoring Committee (SDMC), said that the issue was not discussed by the SDMC before it was decided that hijab-wearing students would be restricted. “They should not have said this before the SDMC meeting was conducted. Till now, there was no problem created over this. But why did they decide now without discussing what happens in minority schools?” Haider told.

It should be noted, however, that students wearing the hijab were using the college uniform’s olive green colored dupatta on their heads as the hijab, and not a separate garment. The students enter the school in a burqa (as shown in the picture) and then change in the school washroom, using the college uniform dupatta as the hijab. The students had been doing so even before the hijab row erupted in Karnataka, at the 165-year-old school. However, this is the first time that they were singled out and segregated for the practice.

Alongside the government-run Urdu school, the students at the Maulana Azad English Medium School, which is located next to the government school, faced similar problems with the school restricting the use of hijab in the campus. Police officials were posted on the school campus as a large number of parents had gathered at the school.

Meanwhile, BJP leaders insist that the hijab issue was not a part of their Hindutva project in the state and was not started by them, but they are looking at capitalizing on it.

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Courtesy: The News Minute

The post Hijab row reaches Urdu school in Karnataka, students face classroom segregation first appeared on Sindh Courier.

Nazarul Islam

A disturbing viral video of a burqa-clad girl at a college in South Indian state of Karnataka, trying to hold her own amidst a swarm of saffron-wearing youths shouting ‘Jai Shri Ram’ and closing in upon her, has signified different things to different people. To some, it is a picture of a lone girl’s courage in the face of a bunch of rowdies heckling her for her choice of attire. To others, it is an ugly exhibition of majoritarian bullying of a Muslim girl and the attempt to stifle her right to religious expression as guaranteed by the Constitution. To many, it is both.

There is, however, a separate dimension to the video clip: In response to the youths’ chants of ‘Jai Shri Ram’ — recognized as the ubiquitous battle cry of militant Hindutva — the burqa- clad  girl retaliates by raising her arm and shouting Allaho Akbar (God is great) several times. Obviously, this was an unpleasant scene – An unequal face-off….Yes, but then it was a face-off — angry, belligerent, and purely combative. This is what religious polarization looks like. And, this is the bitter harvest of a sustained campaign to promote divisiveness and communal strife.

Since independence, India has claimed itself to be in the precincts of an institution of secular learning. Unnoticed though, the communal fault lines run so deep now that young people feel compelled to yell out their religion’s war cry loudly — either to bully and smother, or to fight back and cling to their identity.

Therefore, the question arises….who profits from such polarization? Who gains when the youth of this vast country expend their energies on competing or provoking stance of communalism? What purpose is being served by students when, instead of getting busy with their education and building their future, young men and women are busy tripping on the opiate of religion and symbols of faith?

India’s southern state of Karnataka has been roiled by the so-called hijab row since last month, when six female students were denied entry into their college in Udupi for wearing the hijab, (the Muslim headscarf). The college said that the head or face cover, worn by many Muslim women and girls, went against the college dress code. When the girls stood their ground, several other colleges in the state came out with the same argument.

The Center’s ruling political party -the right-wing BJP government of Karnataka, backed the colleges’ stand, and since then, there have been widespread protests in the state for and against Muslim girls’ right to wear the hijab in educational institutions. Anti-hijab demonstrators bedecked in saffron scarves, the mark of their own Hindu religious identity, have come out in thousands, and their saffronised machismo is now focused on just one goal – prevent Muslim girls from accessing education if they cover their heads in deference to their religion.

The state government’s argument before the Karnataka High Court, which is hearing petitions to uphold the Udupi girls’ right to wear the hijab in the classroom, is that it cannot be allowed in an educational institution since it is not an essential part of Islam.

This logic and fallacious reading is absurd. First, a woman’s choice of attire in an institution of higher education is deemed to be her own business. It needs to be understood that Schools have uniforms, colleges rarely do, because adult citizens or those at the borderline of adulthood are supposed to have freedom of choice in such matters.

Whether a female wants to cover her head or bare her legs — it’s purely her personal choice. And, her personal space needs to be respected. Second, it is not for the state to determine if the hijab is or is not an integral part of Muslim women’s practice of their religion. That is the obvious job of religious scholars. Third, in a country where political leaders representing a secular state make a habit of flaunting religion and religious symbols — the prime minister’s participation in extravagant Hindu rituals and his many eye-popping, saffron-hued ensembles come to mind — it is stunningly discriminatory to argue that Muslim girls cannot wear a headscarf to college because the garment has a religious ‘reference’.

Will it be out of context to state that there has never been an outcry over Sikhs wearing a turban or a married Hindu woman sporting a mangal sutra in a college-classroom?

I cannot deny that for some, the hijab may be regressive practice, but if a woman chooses to adopt it, you can scarcely deny her right to do the same. There however exists a general consensus that the six Udupi girls’ demand for exercising that right in the classroom must be seen in the context of a body politic where the minority community and its religious and cultural identity have been under severe and sustained attack.

It needs to be highlighted that since the acts of  lynching of Muslims on suspicion of possessing beef—to the ferocious tirade against the fanciful ‘love jihad’, from the cancelling of multiple namaz sites in Gurgaon to the nefarious Sulli Deal-Bulli Bai apps that sought to humiliate Muslim women online, there has been an incessant attempt to ‘isolate’ the Muslim community, marginalize it or demonize it. Again, the absurd creation of toxicity over actor Shah Rukh Khan’s dua (prayers) before the mortal remains of Bharat Raina, Lata Mangeshkar, and the ridiculous allegation that he had spat on her, could well be the creation of the stuff meant for black comedy.

In truth, it is one more example of the stream of bile that is kept flowing in the direction of Muslims.

The ‘othering’ of Muslims is, of course, the cornerstone of the ruling party’s Hindu nationalist agenda. But it brings electoral rewards too — the greater the divisiveness, the more intense the hostility between Hindus and Muslims, the more likely is the majority community to vote for a party that signals its intent to fight against its “common enemy”.

In the case of the youth, the gains are even more substantive and long-term. Keeping them in a ferment over religious identities — their own and their perceived antagonists — is a neat strategy to get India’s much-touted ‘demographic dividend’ to deliver electoral dividends for the ruling party.

Besides, it has also taken their minds off such matters as jobs or the lack of it, in a country if 1.30 billion people. According to the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE), India’s unemployment rate stood at a high of 6.57 per cent in January 2022, while unemployment in urban India was even higher at 8.16 per cent.

The chances of the educated youth finding white-collar jobs in the country’s tiny formal sector — the informal economy employs 90 per cent of the country’s workforce — have been getting bleaker in recent years. In such a scenario, it pays to keep them preoccupied with non-issues like which religious symbols may or may not be worn to college.

Will the fruits of Hindu-Muslim identity politics may eventually be allowed to run out?

Last month protesters in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh set fire to trains because they did not get jobs in the Indian Railways. It’s a signal that economic disaffection will eventually outweigh the opiate of religion.

Until then, the discourse in this country will continue to be dominated by mandir and masjid, hijab and bhagwa, and the strutting of majoritarian might before all other communities.

Nazarul Islam

The Bengal-born writer Nazarul Islam is a senior educationist based in USA. He writes for Sindh Courier and the newspapers of Bangladesh, India and America. He is author of a recently published book ‘Chasing Hope’ – a compilation of his articles.

The post Diversity, not divisiveness is the goal for secular India first appeared on Sindh Courier.

By Pooja Prasanna

The stage has been set for the latest right-wing project in BJP-ruled Karnataka — the ‘free temples from government control’ campaign. For years now, the right-wing, backed by the BJP has been alleging that money that Hindus donate to temples is being given away to mosques and churches in the state. And riding on this false rhetoric, the BJP government has announced that in the upcoming Budget session of the Assembly, they will bring in a law to remove Hindu temples from state control.

After the anti-conversion Bill, this pet project of Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai is one that has captured the imagination of Hindu believers. But there is one big issue with this Hindu victimization narrative: it is cloaked in falsehood. While it is true that the Karnataka Hindu Religious Institutions and Charitable Endowments Department, or the Muzrai department, does regulate a significant number of temples in the state, the funds collected from them are not used for any other purpose, certainly not to fund any minority organization. In fact, the state government gives funds from the state exchequer’s tax money for development and maintenance of Hindu temples.

Here’s how Karnataka’s temples are currently running

Contrary to the narrative pushed by the right-wing, not all temples in Karnataka are controlled by the state. Karnataka has around 180,000 temples, of which only 35,500 temples come under the Muzrai department. These temples are put in three categories based on their annual income. Grade A has 205 temples that earn more than Rs.25 lakh annually; Grade B has 139 temples earning between Rs.5 and Rs.10 lakh per annum; Grade C has 34,219 temples that earn less than Rs.5 lakh per annum.

Only temples under Grade A and B contribute to the Muzrai department — an amount of 10% and 5% of their annual income respectively. This money goes into a common pool administered by the Commissioner of the Hindu Religious Institutions and Charitable Endowments department. Between 2012-13 and 2017-18, a period of six years, a total of Rs.65.24 crore have been collected from these temples according to an RTI reply to India Facts.

What is the money in the common pool used for – Mainly to pay for the maintenance of the smaller Hindu temples that don’t make enough money? This includes payment of the archakas (priests), payment of electricity and water bills, maintaining the cleanliness of the temple premises, expenses incurred for provisions for pooja like flowers, coconuts etc. Only the temple employees are paid salaries drawn from the temple funds. The salaries of the Muzrai department employees who are involved in activities like audit of temple ledgers, distribution of funds to low-income temples, organizing facilities including food and lodging for pilgrims, is paid for by the state government.

Essentially, ‘Hindu money’ isn’t being used for ‘other communities’ or purposes. Grants for development and maintenance of temples are disbursed from this pool of money, after temple authorities submit a plan and estimate, signed by an executive engineer. This request is sent to the Deputy Commissioner (DC). After scrutiny of the proposal, grants are released.

For temples where the income is too low to even meet expenditures like the daily pooja, a request for grants is submitted to the DC; and after the proposal is verified, grants are disbursed annually through the local Tehsildar.

The government decides if the request for funds by temples is legitimate and accordingly releases funds. If there are any surplus funds remaining in the common pool after renovation and development works, the savings are deposited in the name of the temples and the department decides what is to be done with the funds.

The department also has a say in the appointment of archakas (priests) as well as trustees for temples. In case of any dispute between the trustees of a particular temple, or disputes between temples, regarding issues like processional routes, role of each priest (in case of multiple priests in a temple), the department acts as a mediator and a judge to resolve conflicts.

But those pushing for ‘freeing of temples’ have been, for long, claiming that the money collected from temples are used to fund other government activities as well as to fund activities related to other religions. Here’s another fact to consider: the Hindu Religious Endowments Law currently in place clearly prohibits this. Chapter IV, Section 19(2) clearly states that the funds collected cannot be used for another purpose: “(ii) contribution and donation made to institution, or institution of any religious denomination or any section thereof shall be utilized for the benefit of that particular class or denomination or section only.”

Why does government give grants to Hindu institutions?

The state government earmarks funds in the annual budgets to be given to Hindu temples and other religious institutions like mutts. These funds are used for development/renovation of religious institutions, grants for pilgrimage and Tasdik grants.

Tasdik is the compensation the state government gives in return for the lands taken over by the state government, after the Karnataka Inam Abolition Act 1955 section 21. In lieu of the state government taking over the land that was given to the temples, the state government gives an annual, fixed compensation. Like this compensation is given to temples, the state government also provides tasdik to mosques where land has been taken over by the government. But the funds for this do not come from the temple coffers but are a separate allocation in the annual budget, a senior official of the endowments department confirmed.

The state government also provides financial assistance of Rs.20,000 per person to pilgrims who complete the Chardham Yatra (Badrinath, Dwarka, Puri and Rameswaram) and Rs.30,000 to pilgrims who travel on the Manasa Sarovara Yatra.

In addition to this, special grants to religious mutts and temples, too, are budgeted by the state government.

According to a reply given by the office of the Muzrai Minister Shashikala Jolle, during the period of 2020-21, the state government allotted Rs 465 crore for Hindu temples and religious institutions. The previous year, in 2019-20, the then government led by BS Yediyurappa had granted Rs.294 crore. Under the coalition government led by HD Kumaraswamy, in the year 2018-19, the government had granted Rs.248 crore. Under Siddaramaiah’s government, in 2017-18, the state government had allotted Rs.447 crore.

What the government plans to do

A source in BJP confirms to TNM that the push for the Bill in Karnataka has come after a ‘spiritual guru’ based in Tamil Nadu convinced certain RSS leaders that in Karnataka, where the BJP is in power, temples should have complete autonomy. He used two prominent BJP leaders, both with links in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, to do his bidding.

While grand announcements have been made on ‘freeing temples’, the Karnataka government currently is still clueless about how to frame the Bill – CM Bommai has declared that his government will table the Bill in the upcoming Assembly session but the meetings are still in preliminary stages and the Minister for Muzrai in Karnataka, Shashikala Jolle, tells that discussions have just started on who the temples should be handed over to.

“This will be a long process and there will be multiple consultations with stakeholders, temple authorities, as well as legal experts,” Jolle says. “The idea is to make it similar to how other religious organizations are functioning independently. We are discussing guidelines with the CM. There was a representation to the CM that pointed out that the religious organizations of other faiths are functioning well, so why only regulate temples,” she adds.

BJP National General Secretary CT Ravi, who has been vocal in support of ‘freeing temples’ from the state government, says that the BJP government plans to give the temples ‘back to the society’. “Each temple will be handed over to a self-governed committee, and then handed over to the society. A government representative may or may not be there in the committee, but there will be no government interference in how temples will be governed,” CT Ravi tells. Will the government continue to give funds to temples though, without any administrative control? CT Ravi says this will have to be figured out in the coming days.

The Congress has been opposing this move and has accused the BJP of destroying the social fabric of Karnataka with this proposed Bill. In addition, the Congress says this will lead to rampant corruption in temple administration and financial transactions. The Congress leaders describe the move aimed to privatize Hindu temples, just like airports are being privatized by the BJP.

Similar demands elsewhere in India

The ‘free temples from government control’ narrative and demand is not new but in the recent past, has gotten traction in neighboring Tamil Nadu after Jaggi Vasudev who runs Isha Foundation has been vocally campaigning for Tamil Nadu’s temples to be freed from state control.

The argument was made by BJP leaders, supporters and other right-wing leaders even when the Supreme Court had allowed entry of women into the Sabarimala temple in 2019. BJP MP Subramanian Swamy had also moved the SC asking for several prominent temples in Andhra Pradesh including the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) to be taken away from state control.

In April 2021, the Uttarakhand government removed 51 temples and shrines including Badrinath, Kedarnath and Gangotri from the state government’s control.

Political gains for BJP

Though Basavaraj Bommai is not seen as a mass leader, he was Yediyurappa’s go-to man for floor management in the Assembly. But the fact that he could not get the Karnataka Right to Freedom of Religion Bill, 2021 passed in the Legislative Council came as a huge loss of face for him.

The announcement of a law in Karnataka to ‘free temples’ came close on the heels of this loss. In a bid to gain the political ground he lost, Bommai is believed to have made the announcement, even before it was discussed with his Cabinet. He has repeatedly been speaking about it to distract attention from his inability to get the Anti-Conversion Bill passed, despite all the grandstanding.

While Karnataka would not have been the first state in the country to frame laws against conversion, in the case of the ‘free temples’ campaign, Karnataka, under Bommai would be the first state to remove all temples from the Muzrai department. “The CM hopes to capture the imagination of the rest of the country with this law. It is the first time in the country that such a move has been made and Bommai will get brownie points for that, both within the party and the sangh. And make national headlines too,” a source close to CM Bommai tells.

Congress leader Ugrappa says that with this Bill, the BJP government hopes to hand over some temples to the RSS or their affiliates to financially strengthen them. “More importantly, this will also serve as a distraction tactic to divert the attention of the common man from the failures of the state and Union government,” Ugrappa says.

History of state administration of temples in south India

State administration of temples dates back to the period of colonial rule with the Madras Regulation VII of 1817, under which temples were brought under government control. With this, the state took over administration of not just the temples but even the land attached to them. But in 1840, this was reversed. The Board of Revenue was created to supervise the administration of large, wealthy temples.

The Religious Endowments Act 1863 was passed where the colonial government completely divested itself from administration or management of Religious Endowments and handed control to trustees. Section 22 of the law said, “Government not to hold charge henceforth of property for support of any mosque, temple, etc to undertake or resume the superintendence of any land or other property granted for the support of, or otherwise belonging to, any mosque, temple or other religious establishment, or to take any part in the management or appropriation of any endowment made for the maintenance of any such mosque, temple or other establishment, or to nominate or appoint any trustee, manager or superintendent thereof, or to be in any way concerned therewith.”

Under the Madras Religious and Charitable Endowments Act 1925, the British colonial government, once again sought to gain control over all religious institutions in the country but faced stiff resistance from Muslims and Christians. After widespread protests, the law dropped mosques and churches from its ambit and only included Hindu temples as well as religious education institutes under state control. In 1935, the Hindu Religious Endowment Board was created to take control over all Hindu religious activities.

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Courtesy: The News Minute

The post Karnataka govt. wants to ‘free temples’ from State control first appeared on Sindh Courier.

By Pooja Prasanna

On October 17, members of the Bajrang Dal and Vishwa Hindu Parishad gathered inside a makeshift church in Hubbali district of Karnataka and started singing bhajans. They alleged that Pastor Somu Avaradhi was forcefully converting people, and a man named Vishwanath Budur, who belongs to a Scheduled Caste community, had filed a complaint alleging forced conversion. Pastor Somu has been arrested, after right wing groups along with BJP MLA Arvind Bellad — a business management graduate from INSEAD in France who was touted to take over from BS Yediyurappa as Karnataka CM — blocked roads demanding the arrest.

On September 10, Members of Hindu Jagrana Vedike (HJV), a Hindutva group, barged into Pragathi Church in Udupi, Karnataka, alleging that 35 people were being illegally converted to Christianity by Pastor Benedict. During the scuffle, HJV members allegedly misbehaved with a few women and a case was registered against them.

In the past few weeks, right wing groups have attacked at least seven Christian prayer halls, including the two incidents quoted above. Attacks have been reported from Kodagu, Belagavi, Chikballapur, Kanakapura and Arsikere. To a lay observer, these attacks may seem random or even sporadic, but that is not the truth. TNM’s investigation has revealed that these attacks and the high pitch narrative against churches — supported by the BJP — are part of a well thought out plan for achieving two goals: introduce a stringent anti-conversion law in Karnataka, and prevent Scheduled Caste persons who convert to Christianity from availing reservation benefits.

TNM spoke to members of several right wing organizations who admitted openly that the reason behind the increasing ‘raids’ on Christian prayer halls is to highlight the issue of conversion in the state. The intent is to create an atmosphere against conversions and capitalize on it to push for an anti-conversion law on the same lines as those in the states of Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat. In fact, a memorandum with key demands has been drafted, and the Chief Minister has reportedly granted an appointment.

Speaking to TNM, Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) zonal secretary Sharan Pumpwell says that several right wing organizations together have been drafting a memorandum with key points on what the anti-conversion law should entail. “We have an appointment with the CM Bommai before the end of this week. We are going to demand that the Bill should be immediately passed through an Ordinance, the government should not wait till the Assembly session,” Pumpwell tells TNM.

But even before the meeting with the CM, they intend to step up pressure on the government. With several Hindu mutts already on their side, this group of Hindutva organizations plans to petition District Collectors to push for an anti-conversion law at the earliest. “On October 21, through religious heads across the state, cutting across caste lines, we plan to give our demand in writing to DCs in all districts. We have already spoken to the head of the Puttur mutt, Pejawar Sri and Balagangadhara Swamy to join us. The government also is drafting a Bill but we have our own demands,” Pumpwell adds.

Their demand is that the Cabinet passes an Ordinance against conversion, and then get it passed in the Assembly during the next session.

Why the sudden rush to bring in an Ordinance against conversion

Right-wing activists say that an atmosphere has been created over the last few weeks and the sentiments of the general public has been carefully crafted against conversions. They want to strike when the iron is hot. “Despite so many cases of ‘love jihad’ and conversions, people have been silent for so long. Now because of our campaigns, people are coming out and speaking more openly,” says Sharan Pumpwell. “There is an atmosphere created against conversions. So we do not want to waste any time which is why we are pushing for an Ordinance at the earliest. We are worried that the government will not bring in a law if we wait. We have already seen Christian groups objecting to the survey,” he adds.

The key demands of Hindutva forces

TNM has exclusively accessed the draft memorandum to be submitted to the CM later this week. The letter alleges that in several places in Karnataka, people are being converted by luring them with money, education, and on health grounds, and that this is being “portrayed as voluntary conversions.” The letter urges the government to bring in a law immediately, with these points included:

— Preaching except for religious reasons should be banned. For example, religious preaching with promises of education, healthcare and financial motivations should be banned.

— Preaching by foreigners or those with support of funds from abroad should be regulated. Any such activity should have prior permission.

— Those who preach saying a particular religion is better than other religions so one should convert, or that scriptures of one religion are better than others and that any religion is higher than others, should be banned.

— The religion of every single citizen should be easily identifiable in documents. To facilitate this, a religion certificate should be given to everybody and birth certificate should also reflect if there is any religious conversion. Documentation after religious conversion should be made mandatory.

— A very strong “freedom of religion” law to ban conversion should be brought in immediately.

Jagadish Shenava, an advocate earlier with the VHP and currently with the BJP, says that their demand is that the anti-conversion law should stipulate that once a person gets converted, then whatever reservation and other benefits they would get previously should cease to exist. “For example, if you belong to an SC or OBC community, then once you become a Christian, you do not get any benefits,” Shenava tells TNM.

He says that another issue they will take up with the government is that of conversion of children. “We are demanding that minors should not be allowed to be converted. After they turn 18, they can decide what religion they want,” he says.

“Anyone from the group of people being converted can file a complaint that they are all being forcibly converted. This apart, the immediate family members, like parents, can file complaints. In case the person being converted is an adult, then it cannot be considered a forced conversion,” Shenava adds.

What set the ball rolling?

In March 2021, Kannada news channel Suvarna News, run by the Asianet News Network, ran a series of stories on Goolihatti Shekar, the Hosadurga MLA. The headlines screamed: “How Christian Missionaries Converted MLA Goolihatti Shekar’s Mother Puttamma”; “MLA Goolihatti Shekar Helpless Over His Mother Puttama’s Conversion To Christianity.” These stories explored how the MLA was shocked that his mother would not step into his house as it had Hindu idols.

The mother meanwhile tells the channel that she is happy she converted and that she chose to convert when she was feeling helpless after one of her sons died. Other channels, too, covered the story of how the MLA was “helpless” as the evangelists influenced his (adult) mother.

Cut to September 21, and Goolihatti Shekar makes an emotional speech in the Karnataka Assembly informing his colleagues that his mother converted to Christianity. Less than a month later, on October 11, Suvarna news did a story claiming that Goolihatti Shekar’s mother has done a ‘Ghar Wapsi’ and has re-converted to Hinduism. A triumphant MLA is heard telling the channel that his mother is back home and four other families too have re-converted.

Two days later, on October 13, Goolihatti Shekar chaired a meeting of the Legislative committee on Backward Classes and Minorities Welfare in the absence of the committee chairperson and BJP MLA Dinakar Keshav Shetty. The Committee took a few important decisions. It decided to recommend to the government to enact a tough anti-conversion law.

It also decided to order a survey on Christian missionary work in the state and to identify “unauthorized” people. Shekhar told the media that churches, prayer halls and Bible societies were mushrooming in the state and they were being used as centers for conversion.

The third important decision by the committee was to look into persons from Scheduled Caste communities being converted to Christianity. The MLA cited the example of a woman from the Bovi community who has converted to Christianity and contested in a reserved ticket in the panchayat polls. “You cannot avail the benefit of SC and also a minority. You can have only one,” Shekhar said.

Though members of the opposition did point out that the Indian Constitution does give the right to every citizen to profess any religion of their choice, the committee went ahead and told administrators of Yadgir, Chitradurga and Vijayapura districts to be “cautious” as they had “information that more conversions were happening in these regions.”

Christian community concerned

Rev Peter Machado, Archbishop of Bengaluru, in a statement issued on Friday, expressed concern over the survey ordered by the committee. “In the background of the conversion bogey and anti-religious feelings that are being whipped up, it is dangerous to make such surveys. With this, our community places of worship as also pastors and sisters will be identified and may be unfairly targeted. We are already hearing of such sporadic incidents in Karnataka….Further laws will only be tools in the hands of a few to hound and persecute the innocent,” he said.

Reminding that the Constitution had guaranteed rights to profess, propagate and practice any religion, he questioned the need of an anti-conversion law given enough safeguards have been enshrined in the Constitution.

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Courtesy: The News Minute (TNM), India (Received through e-mail)   

The post Controversy over Anti-Conversion Law in Karnataka India first appeared on Sindh Courier.

By Pooja Prasanna

“It was my son’s birthday and we wanted to offer our prayers at the Anjaneya temple in front of our house. It started raining then and my son entered the temple. That is all that happened,” says Chandru, father of a two-year-old child who was penalized by the ‘village elders’ for entering a temple. Chandru and his family are Dalits and are not allowed entry into the Anjaneya Temple in Miyapura of Koppal, much like in several other temples in the region.

“This incident happened on September 4 but for the next few days they discussed and told us what penalty we should pay. We told them that we cannot afford to pay Rs 23,000 as fine so they initiated action against us. I’m a laborer and my wife does not work. How can they do this?” Chandru told. The temple priest and others who opposed the toddler’s entry into the temple belong to the Ganiga community, a Lingayat sub-caste.

After the incident came to light, a few from the Chennadasar community that Chandru belongs to held protests. A police complaint was filed and the local authorities held mediation.

A few elders from the village had gotten upset that Chandru’s son went inside the temple and told the family that they should pay for the purification of the temple as a penalty. The priest who conducts these rituals told the family that the process will cost around Rs.23000, a sum that is more than Chandru’s two months’ salary. “After the police called for a peace meeting, they apologized to us. We are new to this place and have been here for just two years. These incidents have happened many times before here,” Chandru adds.

Members from the Chennadasar community intervened in this case and tried to reason with the dominant caste leaders of the village, which only antagonized them further. Finally, a complaint was filed by Balachandra Sanganal, the Assistant Director of the Social Welfare Department, and action was initiated. As of Wednesday, September 22, five people have been arrested by the police. A few reports say that all the Lingayats in the village were not of the opinion that the family needs to be fined.

A precarious truce has been struck between the communities and the police even held public meetings to urge people not to continue caste practices. A ceremony was held in the village where people from all communities participated. But a government official who was present during the ‘peace meeting’ spoke to TNM anonymously and said that the issue seems far from over. “Because this issue became a police case, the supposed elders pretended to let go of it. But there have been threats to the family for raising their voice against this. Our fear is that there will be no issues for a while but the upper caste people will find a way to trouble the family and those from the community again very soon.”

Dalit Swabhimani Sangharsha Samiti state convener R Mohanraj says this is not an isolated incident and that there have been several incidents of discrimination against Dalits in these areas in the recent past. “These issues are never-ending. From untouchability to ostracization, there are incidents reported from all over. There have been at least four such incidents reported from Yadagiri in the last six months,” Mohanraj tells.

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Courtesy: The News Minute (TNM)

The post Dalit family fined Rs.23000 for entering Karnataka temple first appeared on Sindh Courier.