Union Minister, Mr. Anant Kumar Hegdeji,

It is frightening to have to listen to the words you have spoken at Kuknoor in Yelburga Taluk. ‘Those who are unaware of their parentage are the ones who call themselves secularists’ you say deridingly. Now we have to make you aware of your own parentage – It is hatred that is your father, intolerance your mother, illusion your ancestry, falsehood (Mithya) the source of your knowledge. I think this should be enough.

What hurts me even now, whenever I remember it, is AB Vajpayee, BJP’s leader, being in an insensate state. Similarly, George Fernandes, a part of the NDA and who comes from a socialist background, is also in an insensate state. It then seems that precisely because leaders like these are not active in your party today that the present BJP and the NDA has sunk so low, ending up making such senseless and irresponsible statements.

And then another statement of yours – ‘Every human being is an animal when he is born but it is what he does that makes him a human being’. In your case it somewhat feels quite the opposite. Even amidst the din you make, I would request you to pay attention to Kuvempu’s concept of ‘being the universal human at birth itself’.

Furthermore, your knowledge of history is so polluted. You say that the deformity called caste has grown in recent times. Notice, you say ‘in recent times’. In that case which era’s caste would you want to look at? That of the Peshwas? At the time of the Sepoy uprising, if the British were to lose in their war against the Peshwas then Peshwa rule would end up creating hell for marginalised communities. This reality was acutely felt among conscientious members from these marginalised communities including Jyotiba Phule. 

What is this? Why so? If you understand this, you will understand India.

Then, like sounding a battle cry on from a battlefield, you say ‘We will change the constitution…. that is why we are here’. If the task of drafting the constitution had fallen into the hands of the likes of you, your ancestors, the illusionists, would have created hell and called it heaven. Mother India survived precisely because Dr. Ambedkar drafted the constitution. Care should be taken to ensure that constitutional amendments move in the direction of the constitution’s preamble. It would bode well for you to remember this especially as a member of parliament.

Recently, there has been some news that has been circulating widely. In case the BJP comes to power, in Karnataka, the Vibhuti-across-his-forehead-Yeddyurappa would end up with the mark of the Vaishnavite tilak (Urdhva Pundra) and have a shell and gong placed in his hands while Anant kumar Hedge will himself become the chief minister, says this news. If you look at BJP’s Delhi – Nagpur lagaami politics, this could actually happen. And if this were to happen there is utter dread that you will make Karnataka a graveyard. It might then even feel like Yeddyurappa might have just been better. Instead, the wise voter may decide that if this were to happen, with whoever at the helm, they will make sure the BJP lose their electoral deposits. I believe that. Because our Mythology and History has consistently curbed the crossing of limits.

Now, a few words for you – religious fundamentalists who were rattled by Kuvempu’s rationality kept responding abhorrently to him. Kuvempu disregarding all this says – ‘Those who enter the wrestling ring ought to wear a loincloth. I will not battle with those who don’t even wear one.’ I would ask you to keep these words by Kuvempu with you. Maybe then you, and the likes of you, who make the streets your battlefield, could save yourselves some honour.

Once, while Yogendra Yadav, Swaraj India’s president, and I were discussing the word secularism, he said, “There is no proper translation in India’s vernacular languages for the word secularism. Instead of translating, we need to search for a word from amongst us that is its equivalent. In India, Dharma is usually understood to mean duty and words such as Vrittidharma (duties towards one’s profession), Rajadharma (duties of the king), Putradharma (duties of the son) are born from that very meaning. 

“Can you find a word?” he had asked. Just like the way plants absorb muck producing fruits and flowers, the muck of your speech transformed itself birthing a new word for secularism. That word is ‘Sahanadharma’ (‘Religion of Tolerance’). This ‘Sahanadharma’ ought to exist within religion as well as between different religions. Having found this word because of you, Mr. Hegde Sahib, I thank you.

(Devanura Mahadeva is an award-winning novelist and a public intellectual who writes in the Kannada language. The article was authored in Mysuru)
 

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According to Shivsundar, a longtime associate of Gauri Lankesh Patrike sees this as, “normalising the abnormal” and he also remarked that this has been the strategy of BJP and RSS since the beginning. Hegde also says in his speech, “People with decency would agree and trust culture. Those who cannot differentiate between good and bad are those who consider education as culture. I do not intend to talk about such idiots.” Saying caste is just like any other identity that is decided by his/her “occupation or karma”, is akin to saying that caste is an everyday reality that must to be lived with and we must all accept caste and its atrocities happily.

Ignoring the history of caste based discrimination and violence, Hegde, in turn, accused movements and debates that question caste of being casteist. Adding that he was very proud of people who identify with their caste and religious identities, he attacked those who fight for secularism. According to him, “secularists” are those who do not know who their parents are and hence they refuse to identify themselves with any of their identities. Hegde attacked “secularists”, saying that their numbers are negligible. He jokingly added that he hoped there were no “secularists” in the audience, garnering a round of applause from the gathering. 

Hegde is a member of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and the current Union Minister of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, and the Member of Parliament for Uttara Kannada constituency, and grabs at every opportunity he gets to show his immense respect for the Constitution of India, something he is bound to do as a sworn Member of the Parliament. For instance, he referred to the Constitution as Ambedkar Smriti, comparing it to the Manu Smriti, an ancient and appalling regressive legal text written by Manu. 

Talking of Manu and his Smriti, Ambedkar, in his paper titled ‘Castes in India: Their Mechanism, Genesis and Development’, had said: 

Manu, the law-giver of India, if he did exist, was certainly an audacious person. If the story that he gave the law of caste be credited, then Manu must have been a dare-devil fellow and the humanity that accepted his dispensation must be a humanity quite different from the one we are acquainted with. It is unimaginable that the law of caste was given. It is hardly an exaggeration to say that Manu could not have outlived his law, for what is that class that can submit to be degraded to the status of brutes by the pen of a man, and suffer him to raise another class to the pinnacle? … I may seem hard on Manu, but I am sure my force is not strong enough to kill his ghost. He lives like a disembodied spirit and is appealed to, and I am afraid will yet live long. One thing I want to impress upon you is that Manu did not give the law of Caste and that he could not do so. Caste existed long before Manu. He was an upholder of it and therefore philosophised about it, but certainly he did not and could not ordain the present order of Hindu Society. 

Hegde, in the same speech, went on to ridicule those who called “[them]” (him and his party) Manuvadi. As Ambedkar says in the passage quoted above, it is people like Hegde, who urge people to embrace their caste identity, who are the read custodians of Manusmriti. Shivsundar warns us to not make the mistake of reading Hegde’s speech as his personal views. He says, “Pratap Simha, Pejawarashri (the seer of Udupi Pejawar Muth), Mohan Bhagawat, have been making such statements about caste, and hence, this is the view of the BJP, which these people are a part of, or support.” 

While referring to the Constitution of India as  Ambedkar Smriti, Hegde said, “Smriti means laws of the land in that particular time. We had Manu Smriti, similarly we had Parashara Smriti and now we have Ambedkar Smriti”. Continuing his speech on the Constitution, he said, “A few people say the Constitution mentions the word secular, so you have to agree. Because it’s there in the Constitution, we will respect it, but this will change in the near future. The Constitution has changed many times before. We are here and have come to change the Constitution. We will change it.” 

Shivsundar, referring to this in particular, says, “BJP and RSS are trying to test our patience by showing us their fascist agenda time and again. We must be extremely vigilant of what BJP and RSS does and say.” 

This article was first published on Indian Cultural Forum
 

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