BENGALURU: Increasingly rigid positions on caste, customs and cultural references have led to an atmosphere of intolerance towards intellectual freedom in Karnataka.
The murder of activist-journalist Gauri Lankesh is just the latest example of this negative mindset, say culture activists.
From the early 1990s, Karnataka has seen a series of bans on books and films that questioned existing perceptions of caste, community and region, besides religion. If Jnanpith laureate UR Ananthamurthy's novels Samskara and Bharatipura angered the Brahmin community for the portrayal of their customs, Chikkaveera Rajendra by another Jnanpith awardee Masti Venkatesh Iyengar angered the Kodava community for mocking their king.
Playwright HS Shivaprakash's Mahachaitra had the Veerashaiva community up in arms for his interpretation of saint-philosopher Basavanna's thinking. The latest example is the ban on Valmiki Yaaru by KS Narayanacharya, which argues that Ramayana creator Valmiki was a Brahmin and that he was not a hunter by caste.
“All castes now find themselves a unifying cultural hero or invent one and unite because that increases their bargaining power. That kind of thinking develops intolerance as you have to be aggressive against the other to promote your own cause. Earlier, castes and people used to adjust to each other. Those cultural shock absorbers are all disconnecting. The fabric of tolerance is now vulnerable, ultimately leading to this kind of violence,“poet-playwright KY Narayanaswamy told ET.
The increasing intolerance has been decades in making. “A film called Poojari Krishna which made fun of the Brahmin community had even former chief minister Ramakrishna Hegde taking to the streets against it. Several films since have had to change their titles or content because it offended someone or the other,“ he pointed out.
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Even blockbuster Bahubali 2 saw a release in Karnataka only after actor Satyaraj apologised to Kannada groups for making pro-Tamil statements on the Cauvery dispute. This despite the fact that director SS Rajamouli hails from Karnataka and is even a recipient of the state Rajyotsava award.
“Freedom of expression is our most valuable element in a democracy. It is a valuable element in a democracy . It is a fundamental right. The more we limit it, the lesser our democracy is. We end up in a Hitler-Mussolini world where killing a Gauri Lankesh or an MM Kalburgi is ok. We have fumbled because we have not used the vote, our biggest weapon, correctly. We now need to work with the people, get the youth to think where they are going. Social media has celebrated the killing of Gauri. Is this how we educate our children?“ writer Vasundhara Bhupathi asked.
