Understanding south India in the past few decades has been guided by the imagined utopia of its political progressiveness. A comparison with north India withstanding, which is faulty considering how the regions are culturally very different, the argument still pits the north to be a better example of representative government, as the 1990s will show. A coalition of lowered castes steered by Ambedkarite ideology resulted in the first Dalit woman Chief Minister in the country, a feat none of the southern States can boast of yet. A similar feat was accomplished in 2024, when the BJP was ousted in five out of nine Lok Sabha seats in the Ayodhya region of Uttar Pradesh, the very site of the communal theatrics that defines the BJP today. If this has to be read as a rejection of the BJP and its communal politics, then it brings us to the crucial question of what the response of the south has been to the BJP’s methods, primary to which is keeping communal polarisation in the foreground and caste assimilation in the background.
While evaluating the electoral shifts in Telangana, placing Karnataka on a parallel track would be a good exercise.
Many believe the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh has been active in Karnataka for longer than in the other southern States to carry out its experimentation, but this is not completely true. The RSS has been trying to gain a foothold in all regions, a strategy envisioned by its founder, Keshav Baliram Hedgewar. Although people associate Hedgewar with Maharashtra where he grew up, few know that he is actually a Telugu Brahmin. In the archives where one can find the instructions that he gave his cadre working on expanding the RSS, foremost is to learn the language of the region, which includes languages spoken in the south. The RSS workers were sent in all directions with the intention of gaining access to communities—especially the Brahmin communities—who would find quick common ground with the ideas espoused by the RSS founder.
This story was originally published in frontline.thehindu.com. Read the full story here.
