Land of Lime

Does Kannada need to be protected by those brave warriors, whose weapon of choice is black paint? Or is Fair & Lovely a better choice? Are the masaladosa eating Kannada writers not radical enough for protecting Kannada? what are we protecting anyway?
Kannada activists celebrated November 24th as victory day, in lieu of their earlier plan for a Karnataka bandh. The Government of Karnataka acceded to their demands and superceded the errant Belgaum corporation, dominated by the Marathi speakers who belong to the Maharashtra Ekikarana Samiti (MES, Maharashtra Unification Committee). What constituted victory here and why should anybody celebrate what happened is beyond me but the episode itself is absurd enough to merit our attention, not only to amuse us with a debate on masaladose and the revolutionary status of Kannada writers but also to ask ourselves: how do we ensure the wellbeing of desi, native, vernacular languages?

Here is what happened. On October 27th, Belgaum Coroporation passed a resolution demanding that Belgaum be united with Maharashtra. Funny, Novermber 1st was the 50th anniversary of the formation of Karnataka, of Belgaum and other Kannada speaking regions brought together to form the new state. Now, the fifty-year old boundary dispute between Karnataka and Maharashtra is STILL being resolved by the Supreme Court. The historian in me wants to do a series of postings on the many absurd tales of inter-state border and river water disputes but that’s for the future. Kannada activists, who were about to celebrate the 50th year of the formation of Karnataka state on November 1st, went ballistic, literally. Even as press statements were released, demonstrations held and demands for the supercession of the Belgaum Corporation were being made, fifty members of Kannada Rakshana Vedike (KVR, Kannada Protection platform) decided to take matters into their own hands and on 11th evening attacked physically Mayor of Belgaum, Vijay P More and his associates, at the Legislative Home in Bangalore, a stone’s throw away from Vidhana Saudha, the seat of government. The KVR members doused More with black paint and blackened his face. The attackers were swiftly arrested, booked under Dacoity act and criminal proceedings were launched against them. All hell broke loose as political parties, including the state unit of Shiv Sena (which we all know is a Marathi party), defended the attackers and demanded that they be released unconditionally. Even the Governor T N Chaturvedi came out openly against the Belgaum Corporation, for interfering in a matter that is sub-judice and for overstepping its authority, while not attending to the developmental activities of the city.

The die was cast. The Government superceded the Corporation on November 21st and appointed the Belgaum District Commissioner as the administrator.

Did the attackers deserve the widespread support that the political parties offered? Should they be described as brave warriors, who are fighting for the self respect of Karnataka?
Well known writers U R Anantamurthy and M Chidanandamurthy were ridiculed when they condemned the attack on More. Should More’s face have been applied with Fair and lovely, asked rhetorically author Purnachandra Tejaswi. Kannada writers condemning the attack on More are fit to eat only Masaladose, mocked Chandrashekar Patil, the president of Kannada Sahitya Parishad. What fair and lovely and masaladose, even black paint have to do with defending Kannada, I am still trying to figure out.

A politics centered in anxiety, it seems to me, is the driving force behind the acts of the attackers and the defence offered by their supporters. The border dispute itself is likely to go on for another fifty years, at least, while status quo will continue to reign. Why overreact to apparently an immature - and illegal act - by the MES Corporators? Shouldn’t fifty million Kannada speakers show a little bit more confidence in their capacity to preserve their language and culture? Moreover, why this knee-jerk reaction, rushing to defend against an MES resolution that can only be called as nuisance at best? What are the Kannada warriors protecting and how?

It is ridiculous to think that the language of Pampa and Kuvempu requires the protection of heroes, who specialize in blackening the faces of other people.

My fear is that this anxiety-centric activism (as well as the professional Kannada warriors it has produced) takes our attention away from the real challenges that we should be facing up to. If faltu (useless) issues and struggles continue to occupy us, then we might as well kiss goodbye to any constructive Kannada work (Kannada kattuva kelasa).

It is time to return to B.M. Srikantaia again and ask ourselves: what does the agenda of improvement of Kannada involve? I will be back with my reading of his lecture to the Mysore Economic Conference entitled: The Improvement of Kanarese.