By Taha Amin Mazumder,
Bangalore / New Delhi, 28 Aug 2015: Karnataka’s coastal city Mangalore and its surrounding areas are gradually becoming a hub of communal violence and moral policing mainly because of the saffron brigade, particularly targeting students. The city has seen Hindu-Muslim face-offs about 139 times since January 2015, according to a Hindustan Times report, while the past couple of days also witnessed two significant incidents related to moral policing against inter-religious friendships between youths.
Costly friendships in coastal region
In the latest incident, as reported by The Hindu, on Thursday, 27 August, a pre-university student and his college mate were suspended for 15 days by a college at Sullia, 100 km from Mangalore, in the face of protests by a section of students who alleged that the boy and the girl – belonging to different religious communities – were in a relationship.
This happened within days of the striking event of stripping and beating of a 28-year-old youth in the heart of the Mangalore city. His fault? He was found with a female colleague belonging to another religion.
Sullia college incident
A few days ago, a group of students had submitted a petition to the Sullia college authorities, calling for punishments of two students of different religions for being in an alleged relationship. On Wednesday, 26 August, a large number of students started a protest rally demanding immediate action, which required cops to intervene. Finally the college authorities suspended the boy and the girl. The proof of their relationship was, as revealed by the college’s principal, is a couple of SMSes exchanged between the two. The principal, however, said he had to suspend the duo to alleviate the tense situation.
Communalism and social media
Social media took a toll on Mohammed Riyaz who has to bear the bruise of communalism on his body and mind forever. Per media reports, in February 2015, Riyaz, a student of Mangalore’s Govinda Dasa College, was beaten by a group of men because he and his friend Mohammed Swali, had clicked a couple of photos with their female batch mates inside the class to break the tedium of studies. Incidentally the college restricts mobile phones in classrooms. After a few days, Riyaz was beaten by a group of men for almost three hours, who, per Riyaz’s statement, threatened him not to mix with Hindu girls. As it happened, a photo of Riyaz and Swali shared through WhatsApp went viral among hate-mongers and reached the Facebook page of a Hindutva group, making a section of people angry. The college authority initially suspended six students for bringing mobile phones inside the classroom, but the decision was reversed when a majority of the students of the college showed unity and started demanding for lifting the suspension.
Students turning communal. Why?
Back in February, the students of Govinda Dasa College showed remarkable unity against communalization of their campus. The situation, however, was not the same this time around. This time in Sullia, it was the students themselves who were seen acting as moral police, showing an ugly facet of the region gradually turning communally volatile. A question surfaces is why students, in one incident went against communalization, while in the other, they trudged through the turf of moral policing themselves.
For Mangalore-based social activist Vidya Dinker, there is hardly any difference between the two incidents. Vidya thinks it was mainly the students of the college who stood against communalization, while political student wings were actually behind the stir.
“No, I would say even in the Govinda Dasa College incident, it was the student outfits such as ABVP or religious forces such as Hindu Jagaran Vedike who pushed the matter towards communalization. And these types of communal incidents, moral policing, get encouragement owing to the pressure tactics applied by the Hindutva groups, while voices of the moderate groups are eclipsed by the strident pitch of the violent voices,” elaborated Vidya while talking to IndiaTomorrow.net.
Is moral policing a recent trend in Mangalore?
Vidya Dinker thinks communal incidents have been trendy for a long time in the region. She said, “It’s been happening for a long time. Most of the incidents are not reported, and that’s why they do not make headlines.”
“The Mangalore region has become a Hub of communalism. These moral policing incidents have gained pace since the BJP government’s accession,” said Muhammad Atharullah Shariff, Karnataka president of Jamaat-e-Islami Hind.
Social perspectives
From a social perspective, Dinkar said other parts of Karnataka are not as communalized as the Mangalore region. She said, “Take the case of Northern Karnataka, where Sufism has more influence than the communal forces. Communalism finds its way easier in Mangalore because the social fabric allows it.”
With the currency of communalism and vigilante justice finding a free-flowing route in Mangalore, the question is whether the trend is still in the nascent stage or has it already found a strong root in the state.
The latest data compiled from the police records and media reports by Suresh Bhat Bakrabail of the People’s Union for Civil Liberty (PUCL), one of the country’s oldest human rights organisations, takes us through a grim picture in which about 139 incidents of communal violence have already taken place in Karnataka since the beginning of the year. Incidentally, the recently released National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data for 2014 show only 38 incidents of communal violence in the state.
The big question now is: why this sudden spurt? Maybe an anatomy of communal incidents is an imminent need before friendships turn costlier between the youths like it happened in Thursday’s Sullia College incident.
