When did Ganesha asked for money? A look at Bangalore’s power politics

By Shilpa Suresh

“This is for god”, giving a moment of thought to this specific statement and the ethics behind it might leave any sensible citizen startled. When did god asked for money? Opening with such a statement, the purpose of this critical piece is to light upon the religious politics that Bangalore, as a metropolitan city showcases. The work is based on an incident happened in Hulimavu, and with factual accounts of people who was affected by it.

Bangalore as a metropolitan city, being the IT hub of India has been the center of multiple developments. But the bitter truth is that, still India is not democratic. The power politics that plays around this city is vigorous and often veiled. Karnataka is going to celebrate Ganeshchathurthi this month. But the religious festival of purity and faith is no purer, instead stained with the corrupted inks of political power. The local political leaders celebrated the grandeur of this religious festival looting the money of poor shopkeepers who sweats blood to make the both ends meet. With a glimpse of a recent issue happened with the shopkeeper of Vismaya Condiments, who is a Kerala Muslim is the best evident to bring the issue up. 

From his narrative it is clear that he struggles his living in the choking politics of Karnataka. He has given an approx. of 2000 rupees as the so called donation fund for the Ganeshchathurthi festival. Each day different people, who seems to be the leaders of local political groups forces him to give a minimum of 500 as donation. A fearful smirk was his answer to the question, what happens if you refuse to donate. These people in power under alcohol breaks their glasses and even destroys the whole shop if refused. Fear and tear filled his eyes when he answered this. No one dare to voice and if voiced it is easily silenced. Being a Muslim he is happy to donate to festivals, even knowing the fact that how non Hindus are treated in Karnataka. But it is the forced act and threatening of these political leaders that disturbs him

The only community to help these poor migrants is the KMCC, Kerala Muslim Cultural Center, a venture opened to help the Muslim community in Bangalore. It was started by a group of league leaders like Muhammed Ismail, Pocker Sahib Bahadur etc. when the same incident happened in a bakery at JP Nagar it was the members of KMCC, who helped the shopkeepers and made the people pay the bills of glasses and products. The truth is that politics and power has already stained the purity and divinity of festivals and god in Karnataka. While we celebrate Ganeshchathurthi with all those grandeur and possessions, every individual should keep in mind that, no god is satisfied with the blood and sweat of deities. Politics is to protect and support citizens right to life and freedom, when the same politics violates humans right to live, in a city like Bangalore it is something to be voiced. The rhetorical question is posed again, what is politics? Is India democratic? This hangs up as a perennial question unanswered when, even in 20^th century, in a multi-cultured city where half of the population is literate, violence against humanity persists in various forms. Infact ironically, human sacrifice in the name of religion still exist in such forms in cities like Bangalore.