Thread by @churumuri

🪡 Much of the outrage on the #HijabRow asks the naive question: “Why is it happening in #Karnataka?”

Answer: “Why are you surprised?”

The startup state was an early-stage investor in #Hindutva. Its reputation as a #Hindutva laboratory precedes #Gujarat and #UttarPradesh.

2️⃣ #BJP’s political quest for the Babri Masjid only began in the late 1980s. In #Karnataka, the ground to reclaim Baba Budangiri, a Sufi shrine in #Chikamagalur district, had been laid a decade before #Ayodhya became common parlance, in 1978.

Read: tinyurl.com/49frfruk

3️⃣ In 1990, when L.K. Advani’s ‘Rath Yatra’ passed through #Karnataka, seven people died in Bidar in communal riots. But 600 km away, in and around #Bangalore, at least another 33 people died in clashes in 5 locations. It was not an accident.

Map: courtesy Prof Mushirul Hasan

4️⃣ In the Ram Janmabhoomi movement that resulted in the demolition of the #BabriMasjid in 1992, the head of the #PejawarMutt in #Udupi was a key behind-the-scenes player—and mentor to the likes of Uma Bharati. His successor is a member of the Ram Temple trust.

5️⃣ The temple town of #Udupi has been home to #Hindutva politics for a full 54 years. In 1968, a young doctor called V.S. Acharya was elected president of the town municipality, representing the Bharatiya Jan Sangh, which became #BJP 12 years later.

Read: tinyurl.com/2p8ccuyn

6️⃣ Unlike the East Coast, #RSS and #BJP have been able to gain a foothold more easily on the West. The influx of “Gulf money”—shorthand for Muslim prosperity— in the town of #Bhatkal, resulted in a #BJP MLA’s murder—and the rise of Ananthkumar Hegde.
thequint.com/amp/story/news…

7️⃣ In 1921, the Anjuman-e-Islami got the Idgah Maidan in #Hubli on lease for 999 years. But the Sangh Parivar contested the constructions on it in the 1960s. When #UmaBharati tried to hoist the national flag in 1994, riots claimed five lives.

Read: tinyurl.com/2p8kmfym

8️⃣ Although he was born in #Bangalore, the late #BJP leader and former Union minister Ananth Kumar cut his political teeth in #Hubli, where his mother Girija Sastry was a member of the Jan Sangh and the deputy mayor of the local city corporation.

Read: tinyurl.com/mvrhbh8c

9️⃣#Karnataka’s coastal belt has been a happy hunting ground for #Hindutva. In 2009, the Sri Rama Sene attained national infamy for barging into a pub in #Mangalore and beating up young men and women at lunch. They claimed the women were violating “traditional Indian values”.

🔟 Moral policing is an old story in #Karnataka. In 1998, an eve-teasing incident involving a Muslim boy and a Hindu girl in #Surathkal resulted in riots. 10 died. Hindu Jagran Vedike, a Sangh Parivar outfit, allegedly fanned the communal flames.

Read: tinyurl.com/4ncwu86e

1️⃣1️⃣ From hassling boys and girls holding hands or sitting in a bus or park, it was a short leap to claims of conversion. In 2009, long before @myogiadityanath woke up, sangh outfits in #Karnataka were sharpening their rhetoric on “love jihad”.

Read: tinyurl.com/2p8485u7

1️⃣2️⃣ Hindutva’s thali in #Karnataka isn’t complete without cow protection—and a ban on cow slaughter. Here again the state was first off the blocks with the Ramachandrapur Mutt in central #Shimoga playing a pivotal role in mainstreaming it, in 1998. daijiworld.com/news/newsDispl…

1️⃣3️⃣ Add the demonisation of Tipu Sultan, and the picture is complete. From Hubli in the North, Udupi-Mangalore in the West, and Bangalore-Mysore in the South, the discourse is polarised on issues of food, flag, land, love, livelihood. #HijabRow
churumuri.blog/2018/10/26/onc…

1️⃣4️⃣ Besides Maharashtra, many #RSS honchos like H.V. Seshadri and K.S.Sudarshan have hailed from #Karnataka. Dattatreya Hosabale is said to be next in line to succeed @DrMohanBhagwat. And the link between #BJP and #RSS is another Kannadia, @blsanthosh.

1️⃣5️⃣ Once-progressive #Kannada media is a now an embedded wing. Seven out of nine dailies have sangh links, television is a barefoot soldier, and fake news enjoys deep political patronage. So the #HijabRow is just the latest manifestation of a state in deep rot.

1️⃣6️⃣ With @BSBommai having nothing to show after six months in office, and rumours of his replacement rife, the #HijabRow is the perfect slide to show for a performance appraisal in #Delhi. Especially with #UttarPradesh elections due. End of rant.