Click to play videoKarnataka bandh paralysed life in Bangalore on Monday. The bustling city came to a grinding halt due to the 12-hour long state-wide bandh called by various Kannada groups protesting the Cauvery tribunal verdict.
Schools, colleges and offices remained shut and public transport got disrupted. Most passengers at the airport remained stranded as over ten flights were cancelled due to the bandh.
While the protests remained mostly peaceful, the question that is bothering many is whether the fight for water is doing the man on the street any good? Are local sentiments running too high in India?
To find an answer on CNN-IBN India 360 we called Historian Ramchandra Guha, Madras Institute of Development Studies Professor A R Venkatachalapathy, and Chief Editor of new daily Mahanagar Nikhil Waghle.
Should regional conflicts play out on the streets?
The hub of top-notch IT firms and the world’s best MNCs, Bangalore came to a halt for due to the protests. Loss of work for a day could mean loss of significant amount of business from international clients.
Do regional issues hold more importance than the economy of this country?
We are letting an inconsequential protest cause huge loss to our IT industry—an industry, which is still in its nascent state and perhaps cannot afford to lose international clients at this stage.
Taking a pragmatic stand on the issue, Historian Ram Chandra Guha said, “Suppressing regional sentiments is not going to serve the purpose. The protests must be peaceful and must not violate public order.”
“Suppressing regional sentiments may create a situation like it happened in Pakistan. The country broke up because the Bangladeshi sentiment was suppressed. Another example is that of Sri Lanka where they witnessed civil war,” he added.
Guha said he believes firmly that India still has unity in diversity. “Mahatma Gandhi had given us a vocabulary pf protests which includes bandh, hartal, dharna etc. The important point is that the protests must be peaceful. They must not violate public order,” he said.
Thus some people believe that perhaps regional protests are a necessary evil in a democracy. Though protests need not be violent and disrupt public life.
“If regional sentiments are suppressed too forcefully, the cure will be worst than the disease,” said Guha.
Is Bangalore anymore a Kannadiga city?
Is the protest precisely an assertion of the Kannadiga against the English-speaking ‘outsider’ workforce that has taken over Bangalore?
The day long strike, called by social and cultural organisations and backed by all political parties turned silicon hub into a ghost city on Monday with all IT firms, private offices, banks, shops, markets, theatres, schools and colleges remaining shut.
Is there a sort of perverse pleasure that the community takes in disrupting the fast paced life of the city?
“I don’t think so,” said Historian Ramchandra Guha.
“The protest is intense because water is essential to agriculture, social life and basic survival of these people. You may call the attack on Aamir Khan’s Fanaa in Gujarat a chauvinistic act. But here, it is not so,” he added.
Looking back at the historical background of the Cauvery water sharing issue, Guha said, “In 1991 things went completely out of hands. The political leadership of Karnataka was not able to suppress the violence. It in fact instigated it.”
After a 16-years-long battle, the retaliation “seems much restrained and judicious and may continue to be so. I think we have to compromise. Bangalore is a global city but it is also the Capital of a state that represents the Kannadiga,” said Guha.
Regional chauvinism in other states
From the “me Mumbaikar” campaign to the stoning of udupi restaurants in the city—Shiv Sena has retorted chauvinistic protests in Maharashtra at various instances.
Is it precisely because the Shiv Sena feels Mumbai is not a Maharashtrian city?
“For the past 40-years Shiv Sena has worked on these lines. It has been busy indulging into emotional politics. In the recent corporation election also, Bal Thackeray has done the same thing,” said Chief Editor Mahanagar Nikhil Waghle.
However, it seems that now Shiv Sena has realised that Mumbai city is not just for the Marathi-speaking people of the state. Perhaps the party is known for its extremist views has realised that it cant just go on protecting Marathi culture.
“If Shiv Sena doesn’t changes its agenda, I think that party will be finished,” said Waghle.
“Udhdhav Thackeray is someone who has realised that Shiv Sena has to broaden its base and that only the Marathi agenda cannot help it progress much. Though the party will not give up its Marathi agenda, but it is on the way to become modern in its outlook” he added.
So even the Shiv Sena is realising its limitations and the futility of carrying out a regional campaign in a diverse city like Mumbai.
Shifting focus down south, Tamil Nadu remains a state that has been a site of a frequent regional protest. It was the state where the anti-Hindi campaign took place. In 1967, for the first time, DMK a regional party won the elections.
Is regional sentiment always going to be expressed publicly in Tamil Nadu?
“Perhaps yes,” said Madras Institute of Development Studies Professor A R Venkatachalapathy.
“In a democratic society, there should be place for protests and demonstrations on the streets. That is the place where you demonstrate. One cannot make a distinction between regional protests and protests about issues which interests other people. Tamil Nadu has set an example in a certain sense” he added.
Taking a fierce view on the issue of public protests, Professor Venkatachalapathy said the assertion of regional aspirations on the streets is “a response to the globalisation that is taking place.”
“The steamrollering of the globalisation process puts regional identities in a fix. It corners them,” he said.
Slamming the term “regional chauvinism” as derogatory he said, “such views accentuates the desire of local people to demonstrate on the streets.”
Professor Venkatachalapathy recommended that designated areas must be set out for public protests. He said in Chennai, areas have been designated for protests.
“We need to give space for protests so that they can be expressed in orderly fashion without disturbing tranquility and peace of normal life,” he added.
How to distinguish between different kinds of regional assertions?
Whether it is the ULFA, the Kannadiga or the Shiv Sena—is there a way to bridge the regional disparities reflected in the violent protests by these groups?
“We should be scrupulous about observing non-violence. I think the anti-Hindi protests safeguarded the unity of India. Hindi chauvinism would have steamrolled over all other kinds of regional aspirations otherwise,” said Historian Ramchandra Guha.
He said there is slippery slope between regionalism and chauvinism, non violence and violence which is why leadership is important.
“Those who use Gandhian methods like bandh and hartal should be as scrupulous as Gandhi in observing the rules of non violence,” said Guha
But what about the groups who disrupt city life? Do we need directives that abstain people from disrupting normal life of the citizens of a city?
“I think shutting down economy for a day in a year is not much harm. But, people must know, they can’t go on torching offices and ransacking shops,” he added.
Are regional sentiments are a safety vault?
There are people who share view that regional sentiments should be allowed to erupt from time to time and not be steamrollered into uniformity of the globalisation process.
Does that mean Shiv Sena should be allowed to erupt occasionally in a harmless way? Does that serve any useful purpose?
“Organisations like Shiv Sena that work on regional chauvinism have every right to protest. But the protest should be democratic, non-violent and in Gandhian way. If they don’t do that, there are rules to regulate them,” said Nikhi Waghle.
“If regional conflicts are not resorted amicably, then it my pose danger to our federal structure.” Regional protests are thus good, they should be allowed to express but in a peaceful way.
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