Karnataka: A ‘frozen’ cultural policy may fix moral policing, communal menace

Frequent incidents of communal violence and moral policing in Karnataka, mostly in the Dakshina Kannada district, have amplified the demand for the implementation of the recommendations of a cultural policy committee. The committee had been constituted during the previous Congress regime between 2013 and 2018 to protect the pluralistic values of the state.

According to a report published by the Karnataka Communal Harmony Forum (KCHF) and the People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) in January 2023, Dakshina Kannada and Udupi districts in coastal Karnataka have recorded 174 cases of communal violence and 41 incidents of moral policing.

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Recently, the Karnataka government constituted an Anti-Communal Wing (ACW) to crack down on ‘moral policing’ in this region. In June last year, writers, academics and filmmakers including Girish Kasaravalli, SG Vasudev, Ramachandra Guha, and Shashi Deshpande had appealed to then Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai to protect Karnataka’s long history of communal harmony.

A section of critics attribute the rise in communal violence and moral policing in coastal Karnataka to the unbridled attempt of the former BJP government to peddle its favourite Hindutva agenda. But many others, including writers, intellectuals, and theatre personalities, ascribe it to the lackadaisical attitude of the Congress government headed by Siddaramaiah from 2013 to 2018 in implementing 44 recommendations of the Cultural Policy Committee (CPC) in letter and spirit.

Significance of the policy

The question that emanates is – what is the significance of the cultural policy in containing moral policing? One consequential recommendation made by Professor Baraguru Ramachandrappa Committee on cultural policy is: empowering police to apprehend those resorting to moral policing and formulation of a committee of local people to study, report and recommend measures to contain moral policing and communal disturbances. “This important recommendation is aimed at protecting the plural culture of Karnataka,” observes Ramachandrappa, a noted scholar, writer, and filmmaker who helmed the six-member committee constituted by the Congress government in August 2013.

Need for research committee

Referring to the alleged lobbying by ‘powerful’ cultural personalities to occupy ‘plum’ posts of chairmen to various cultural academies, J Lokesh, former chairman of Karnataka Nataka Academy, observed, “Had the previous Congress government implemented the recommendations of the committee in letter and spirit, the present government would have been free from pressure politics by vested interests to appoint personalities with political leanings to various academies and authorities”.

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His argument is: “the cultural policy committee suggested formulation of a research panel to identify the right, eligible and qualified cultural personality for the right academy. The research committee would have assisted the political dispensation in depoliticising cultural appointments. However, political appointments sans a research committee resulted in the saffronisation of cultural institutions such as the Karnataka Chalanachitra Academy and Rangayana state repertory.”

First cultural policy in India

Expressing regret over the lukewarm response of the previous Congress government in implementing all the 44 recommendations of the committee, Ramachandrappa says, “Even now it is not too late. The new Congress government should implement all the recommendations of the committee, at least in phases. Had the policy been implemented in its original form and substance, Karnataka would have got the credit for chiselling the first-ever cultural policy by a state in the federal structure of the country.”

Nevertheless, former presidents of cultural bodies won’t hold the government responsible for not implementing the cultural policy in its entirety. They blame the Department of Kannada and Culture for not allowing the government to act. The officials of this body found another important recommendation — on setting up of regional offices of their department in the four revenue divisions — was detrimental to their interest.

How the cultural policy came into being

With an intention of positioning himself as Kannada-Kannadiga Chief Minister of Karnataka, Siddaramaiah revived the 25-year old idea of formulating the cultural policy and constituted a six-member cultural experts committee headed by Ramachandrappa. In fact, JH Patel was the first one to moot the idea of having a separate cultural policy for Karnataka in 1998. But, it was his successor SM Krishna of the Congress who constituted an expert committee headed by Ramachandrappa to study and submit a report on the need of Karnataka to have a cultural policy of its own.

In 2012-13, the BJP government headed by Jagadish Shettar convened a meeting of representatives of the cultural spectrum to discuss the necessity of the cultural policy.

After becoming the chief minister in June 2013, Siddaramaiah took the issue of formulating Karnataka’s own cultural policy and approached Ramachandrappa, who did spade work on the frame of cultural policy. On June 27, 2014, a six-member committee submitted its 68-page report, comprising 44 recommendations to the government. The government approved the policy on August 8, 2017. On March 31, 2018, the state cabinet issued a gazette notification on implementation of cultural policy according to theatre practitioner C Basavalingaiah, one of the members of the committee.

Major recommendations

The important recommendations of the committee are – developing art galleries in every district, separate Bayalaata (open air theatre), and Sugama Sangeeta (music) and Nritya (dance) academies, Kannada classical language study institute, Karnataka Rangayana authority, Folklore Repertory Centres, Karnataka Kalagrama Authority, Prakrit-Pali study centre, and a Karnataka Heritage Authority  with priority on local cinema. The committee also recommended the setting up of a panel to deal with the issue of ‘banning’ controversial books, sensitively.

After the government’s nod to the report, the Finance Department sanctioned ₹59 crore for the implementation of the policy in the first phase. A cabinet sub-committee headed by HK Patil, then minister for Panchayat Raj, had also given the green signal for the implementation of policy. However, the policy couldn’t be implemented in its entirety, although the then Siddaramaiah government partially implemented some of the recommendations.

Soon after this, the JD(S)-Congress coalition government came to power in the state, and had no time to implement the cultural policy. Understanding that some of the recommendations would be detrimental to its plan of peddling the Hindutva agenda, the BJP government headed by Yediyurappa announced its decision of formulating a new cultural policy.

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“Now, with Congress returning to power, we are hoping for the implementation of all recommendations of our committee,” says an optimistic Ramachandrappa.

When contacted, Shivaraj Tangadagi, the Minister for Kannada and Culture, said he was not aware of the existence of the cultural policy. Wehn told about it, he gave the assurance that he would get reports from the authorities and talk to Ramachandrappa.