This week,when Carnatic has meant anything but music,when images from Karnatakas assembly on Monday nearly rivalled the ones from UP in 1998 flying microphones it is difficult to try and construct an image of Karnataka as a state ahead of its times. But both socially and politically,Karnataka has been the trendsetter in most things that other states find even hard to imagine.
Situated where it is,Karnataka has historically been the recipient of several cultural traditions,which both cohabited and competed the Bhakti tradition,strong Vaishnavite and Shaivite sentiment (which often erupted),a strong Sufi tradition,and at Baba Budangiri,a flashpoint for the more fractious Hindutva wars of the 90s. But essentially there exists a tradition of shared sacred spaces between Hindus and Muslims. Linguistically too,there has not been much to fight about,and Hindi,Urdu,and even Tamil and Telugu,find a place auto-rickshaw drivers are ever ready to cheerfully burst into stockphrases in Tamil or Telugu upon seeing a potential passenger.
Of course,Karnataka has had its flashpoints when organisations like Kannada Cheluvi have emerged and asserted a Kannadiga identity,or other disruptions: when the doyen of the silver screen,Rajkumar died,the city of Bangalore shut down for several days.
Bangalore,the states major city,may have lost some of its earlier edge as the city of the new and glorious India. Jeb Brugmann,in his fascinating account,Welcome to the Urban Revolution: How Cities are Changing the World,says the fact that Bangalore became such a massive generator of opportunity was not only a story locked up in steel,concrete and glass and thousands of busy people; but the story was one built on centuries old foundation of developed urban advantage,where old industrial activity clustered together and then,finally,vital layers like scientific and research institutes,colleges and imaginative use of living space were added on slowly,powering its final growth to a high-tech city. Its founder,Visvesvarayya,brought ideas that many in India had not even started debating engineering,reservoirs,energy and science but all necessary to power the future.
The engineering has not just been confined to brick and mortar,but has also been social,with Karnataka setting the stage for job reservations for backward sections. Stories from Karnataka may not have yielded the high-power punch that the Dravida movement did nextdoor,but in terms of backward caste uplift,reservations for backward Muslims and integrating measures of affirmative action in policy and politics,Karnataka has always shown the way.
When the politics of the Janata Dal opened up a third way of approaching politics,however chimeric it proved nationally,the idea held sway in Karnataka for longer than it did in any other state. H.D. Deve Gowda and Ramakrishna Hegde,by virtue of being able to hold on to their base in Karnataka played a national role,and impacted politics in Delhi through crucial and turbulent decades. The Rath Yatra of L.K. Advani too had more impact here than in other parts of the south and showed the BJP possibilities that had eluded them until then.
The recent capture of coastal Karnataka and parts of the Mumbai-Karnataka region (a part of north Karnataka) by the BJP must be seen in this context. The BJP has used Karnataka to break out of its image of a cow-belt party. The states politics has been dominated by the Vokkaligas and Lingayats (both backward castes). But while the Vokkaligas dominated the Congress and then the Janata Dal (S),Lingayats and the northern parts of the state were a little left out. They now form the core of support for the BJP.
That the battle for Karnataka is also very vital for the Congress is clear if you look at the number of cabinet members from the state,far out of proportion with the seats the party won in 2009.
Cynics would argue that it is Karnatakas riches in the form of mining licences and impressive industrial activity that allow money generation that makes it central to political calculations. But its more than just the calculator at work. For the BJP,the stability of its first government in a non-Hindi-speaking state is intended to send out a sign that Yes it can. For the Congress,it is an important harbour,as despite being much better off than the BJP in the south as a whole,it is still not very comfortable. Telangana and YSRs troubled legacy have the Congress in an uneasy position in Andhra Pradesh. In Kerala,it hopes to capture power but is not in power at the moment. And in Tamil Nadu,it has to deal with a formidable ally and things are anything but easy as it prepares for the polls. To be seen battling the BJP and pointing fingers at a BJP being supported by miner-barons at this point,works for the Congress. For the JD(S),decimated by the hand dealt out by voters the last time round,the opportunity to strike common cause with the Congress and be shrill while attacking the BJP is a good way to reassert its importance and wash off the accusations that the party is around for the highest bidder,never mind if its the BJP.
For the average independent MLA,there has been no better time to lose his independence,as they all pull out their scales to weigh the odds. The odds have only got more uncertain with the roles of the speaker,the governor and the courts all becoming critical.
Those who knew author R.K. Narayan,swear that the magical town of his stories,Malgudi,is actually his hometown,Mysore,referred to by another name. And what the residents of Malgudi,sorry Mysore,or Hubli,Chamrajnagar,Raichur or even Bellary,make of the tug of war once its over,will be more important than who emerges as the victor right now. At the moment,its a little difficult to say if Karnataka is still ahead of its times,or if the times have gotten a little behind themselves.
seema.chishti@expressindia.com
