The monolithic statue of Gomateswara at Sravanbelagola, which stands 57 feet high, is among the great tourist attractions of Karnataka. Today, it is increasingly dwarfed by the competitive zeal with which new statues are being installed by the Karnataka government. To be fair, the installation of colossi has not been the preoccupation of the BJP alone. Many had previously recognised the importance of the politics of gigantism, both to commemorate historical heroes and to eclipse, quite literally, other claimants to the region’s memory.
But perhaps it is only in Karnataka that statues have been imbued with such importance and weight — once again literally — as a means of winning the hearts and minds of communities with which the petrified figures are linked. A 108-foot bronze and steel statue of the legendary founder of Bengaluru, Kempegowda, now graces the sweeping drive up to the city’s airport at Devanahalli. To posthumously extend the Vokkaliga chieftain’s principality, soil was ostentatiously brought from different historical locations of present-day Karnataka for consecration at his feet. He will further be honoured with a 23-acre theme park, perhaps for those who, being outside the charmed circle of frequent fliers, may not otherwise chance upon the city’s founder.
The Kempegowda statue successfully snuffs out the memory of Tipu Sultan, the 18th-century ruler whose birthplace was Devanahalli, the site of Bengaluru’s airport. But Kempegowda, like his Lingayat predecessor, Basaveshwara, is simultaneously being cohered to another post-16th century history, that of the linguistic state’s formation as part of the federal democratic Indian union. Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai has promised his inclusion in the clutch of statues that surround the state legislature, Vidhana Soudha. This is not just a rewrite of the “history of democracy” — with which mythology his political masters in Delhi are currently preoccupied — but an acknowledgement of the “second coming” of the dominant castes to the centre of Karnataka’s politics. That is why (the Lingayat) Basaveshwara too has been promised a home on the lawns of Vidhana Soudha.
If only the political balance of power remained as simple as installing a few statues. Basaveshwara has already taken top place with a 108-foot statue at Basavakalyan, the region associated with the origin and rise of the Lingayat movement. He is promised another 218-foot presence in the environs of the beautiful, serene, 18th-century Chitradurga matha, although its mathadisha now languishes in jail on sexual harassment charges. The Chief Minister promises yet another 108-foot one in Belagavi, while a 58-foot concrete statue to Akka Mahadevi in Uduthadi, Shikaripur, honours the lineage of 12th century women poets.
But it is not enough to secure the past in stone; politicians must gesture to the future as well. In Karnataka today, temples and statues are being heralded as the harbingers of “good times ahead”. The CM made just such a promise when announcing the building of a grand Hanuman temple (and statue) at Anjanadri, near Hampi, the world heritage UNESCO site. This has been a bone of contention with neighbouring Andhra Pradesh, which also lays claim to Anjaneya’s janmabhoomi. So AP sent its “scholars” and “Sanskritists” into a deep dive to establish the Tirupati Thirumala Devasthana as the “historical” birthplace of Rama’s “eternal devotee” Hanuman. Thusly, a luxuriant folk memory that associates Hanuman with multiple sites and roles in southern Indian history and popular religion will now be anchored at Anjanadri in official stone: But will it set a cross-border dispute at rest?
The BJP’s constant mantra, invoked with manic fervour as elections draw nearer, is of the virtues of a “double engine” Sarkar. For most of its benighted citizens, this has only meant a “doubling” of the burdens of petty and large-scale corruption, which has periodically been brought to public notice, while the BJP head honchos maintain their stony silence. The long-suffering Karnataka people must find solace in the innumerable farces generated by the colossi or more “human-scale” rivalry. Take the example of the Maratha warrior king Shivaji, which the BJP in Karnataka is enjoined to worship given the Hindu nationalist engine to which it is yoked in Delhi. So a 50-foot statue was unveiled in Belagavi district’s Rajahamsgad Yellur fort by the CM Bommai on March 1 just at the time when its neighbour Maharashtra is braying for a renegotiation of shared borders. Congress’ Lakshmi Hebbalkar, miffed at having been sidelined in this “premature” consecration, decided to “reinaugurate” the statue on March 5. Now the Maharashtra Ekikarana Samiti, determined not to allow such brazen poaching of its linguistic capital, has decided to conduct “shudhikarana” at the site.
Similar quarrels between the Kannada and Marathi speakers of Peeranwadi, a town in Belagavi district have led to innovative spatial resolutions. How can the valiant Sangolli Rayanna, from the early 19th century, now the property of the Kurubas (next only to the Vokkaligas and Lingayats in numerical and political dominance) be accommodated on a road despite objections from Marathi speakers? By allowing his statue to adjoin the nearby circle to be named after Shivaji.
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A 33-foot statue of Parushurama at Karkala (to placate the Brahmins), a 108-foot statue of Mahadeshwara statue at Mahadeshwara Betta (the sacred grove and God commemorated in song and worship by Dalits) and the promise of statues to Koti-Chennaya (the Tulunadu twins worshipped by the Bilavas) — all these and more absorb much attention of the party in power. But one must not mistake this new horizon of heroes as mere symbols that lack substance. The colossi are twinned by the equal fervour with which caste-based corporations are being touted as “Special Purpose Vehicles” for the distribution of state largesse. Thus, the “New Karnataka” that is daily being promised rests firmly on segmented caste “banks”, whose efficacy has long been doubted by political scientists. But it lays to rest Karnataka’s more secular, democratic, citizenship, which was once rooted in an innovative developmentalism.
The writer taught history at JNU
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2023-03-20 01:15:43Z
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