Language and the Right to the City
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Language and the Right to the City 235 SIX than life presence within the world of Kannada, his place in a cultural universe that had thus far embraced only a section of people in the city. Not always Language and the Right to the City was this a voluntary recognition of his fame. When roving bands of young men vented their anger and grief on new glass and steel structures that have an insistent presence in commercial areas of the city, vulnerable business R»oo?£3e o/ establishments and car owners quickly declared their allegiance to the Kannada hero by pasting his picture on the glass. Violence against property and people A'" A*x/ was low key—though one perspn was stabbed to death for not complying with those who ruled the streets that day—but there was a menacing threat {Jn" from those who brought the city temporarily under their rule. The unity of silence that was thrust on Bangalore by the roving bands and the police alike, briefly made for a withdrawn and watchful space of the city.3 Industry analysts and others were quick to calculate the economic costs of such disruption,4 while the film industry imposed a bandb on itself, refusing to open theatres^undertake production, or release new films until the star was released.5 Yet throughout Rajkumar's tedious 108 day captivity the fan clubs, Kannada organizations, film institutions, and the 'first family' (as Rajkumar's Kavery neeru kuJiyuv.i munna Kannada kali! wife and children were referred to in the press) retained a focus on the predica- Sign on the back of an autorickshaw, 2002 ment of the star by organizing rallies, bandhs, urulu seves, p'ujas, meetings, and days of prayer.6 In this, they were amply aided by the taped messages and •» or three days between 30 July and 2 August 2000, a pall of silence fell news reports of Rajkumar's life in the jungle at the mercy of his abductor Fupon the city of Bangalore, when its streets were emptied of noise, traffic, Veerappan. The star's eventual release from captivity on 15 November 2000 and frenetic crowds.1 Not even the 'virtual' citv entirely escaped this spell of brought relief to a capital city that had been precariously poised on the edge of silence as many homes lost their cable connections and the busy hum of the full-scale riots.7 Yet, not even Rajkumar's release from captivity, which hap- Internet parlour was stilled. The abrupt shutdown of city life was informally pened only after repeated rebuffs by Veerappan of the Tamil journalist and imposed by a set of forces that had gained increasing visibility in the city for emissary Gopal, and after several reversals in the court, resulted in anything at least two decades. This display of anger was against the kidnapping of the more than a carnival of joy (Fig. 47). leading cultural icon of the Kannadigas, Rajkumar, by the notorious forest The abduction of Rajkumar was not just a criminal act of a forest brigand, brigand Veerappan in the early hours of 30 July 2000. The helpless anger of but was staged as a dramatic encounter between two nationalisms, Kannada a wide range of Rajkumar fan clubs and Kannada associations that spread and Tamil, that had over the past two decades come into violent conflict over across the city and the state was only heightened by the fact that the film star, issues relating to land, jobs, and water in the southern regions of Karnataka who had come to represent pride in the Kannada language itself, was kidnapped and particularly Bangalore city. It was striking then that the Tamils and other by a man who shed his image as a sandalwood and ivory poacher to take up citizens of Bangalore more generally were not exposed to violence that con- the cause of Tamil nationalism. formed to.these established patterns. The restraint was all the more significant Right across the city, the violence took the form of bringing public transport given theT provocations of Rajkumar's captors, who bargained with state to a halt, forcing people to abandon their private vehicles and walk home as authorities in both Karnataka and Tamil Nadu on issues concerning the fate a mark of solidarity with the abducted hero.2 More important, it was a moment of Tamils in Karnataka and of some Tamils in Tamil Nadu itself. In his list of when, by his very absence, the entire city was made aware of Rajkumar's larger ten demands that was handed over at the time of abduction, Veerappan and his new found allies in the forest, the Tamil National Liberation Front (TNLF), 236 The Promise of the Metropolis Language and the Right to the City 237 This mixture of economic and cultural demands blurred the battle lines between the two linguistic groups, and in many ways diffused the tension, producing new loyalties and alliances. Bangalore Tamils were quick to distance themselves from the actions of a forest brigand, refusing to acknowledge that he represented their interests. There was even some bitterness at how readily the state government was prepared to acquiesce to Veerappan's demands: R.S. Maran of the Tamil Sangham said it was an insult that government was heeding Veerappan's demands rather than the petitions of Tamil organizations in Bangalore. Nearly all the issues that were raised in the demands of Karnataka state had left their scars on a city that was deeply divided on the question of language and its implications for a right to the city. Veerappan and his allies chose to address the state on issues that had long slipped out of its grasp, and had become the battleground of groups and associations in Karnataka. Maran's plea was that the state reassert its power and rein in these non-state organizations. For those long involved in the Kannada movement, the predicament of Rajkumar was in fact the predicament of Kannada itself, held hostage to what was perceived as the more robust nationalism of the Tamils. Clearly, the triumphant march of computer languages such as Java and C++ through every neighbourhood of Bangalore, and some other parts of Karnataka, had done nothing to resolve or render irrelevant the crisis within which the Kannada language and the state found itself, and may only have accentuated . it. Indeed, 'When the capitalists give Kannada a sidelong glance [kadegann'tnda noduthiruvaga], Kannada itself becomes capital to some', said the Kannada Development Authority chairman Bargur Ramachandrappa, in his plea for recasting Kannada pride.9 A similar anguish marks the speech of nearly ail these who have been involved in the Kannada movement over the past few FiG. 47 The reigning culiuruihen> of the Kamtadigas; Rafkitmat J ...i.-m dominates the front of the Kapali Theatre at the screening of the film Shabdavedi. decades. (Clare Ami, 2000) This chapter traces some of the ways in which Bangalore has been included several that were previously the cause of violent clashes between the re-territorialized by those who lay increasing claim to the city as a regional, two linguistic groups. Among those that concerned Karnataka in particular, rather than a national or international metropolis. It develops a framework he included: a permanent solution to the Cauvery water dispute, adequate for understanding language issues in the city by tracing the broader contours compensation to all Tamil victims of the Cauvery riots of 1991, the inclusion of the language question as it emerged in pre-Independence and immedi- of Tamil as an administrative language in Karnataka, the installation of the ate post-Independence years. It then traces the successive stages through Thiruvalluvar statue in Bangalore, and a vacation of the stay on the Sadashiva which the Kannada movement has passed, particularly as it has reconfigured committee which investigated atrocities of the Special Task Force in the forest.8 specific domains of life in the city, such as work opportunities, access to The demands included several that addressed both sides of the border at once: land, or governmental power. Finally, there is a consideration of the thus both states were asked to implement minimum daily wages of Rs 150 for prospects of Kannada nationalism in a time of rapid but uneven capitalist plantation workers. development. 238 The Promise of the Metropolis Language and the Right to the City 239 Conceiving the Kannada Nation and welfare.19 B.M. Sri's was among the many voices that argued for a Kannada adequate to the tasks of modern industrial and scientific life.20 Yet From its tentative start during the colonial period, Kannada nationalism he too made the point feebly, acknowledging instead the sphere within which measured itself and its inadequacies not against the overarching triumphs of Kannada was condemned to circulate, envisaging a division of labour where the imperial power, but against the more modest successes of other linguistic English 'our cultural and political language' Sanskrit 'our spiritual and classical 10 nationalisms within India itself. Alura Venkat Rao's anguished response in language', and Kannada 'our native and speaking language' could coexist.21 1917 to the nationalist imperative, 'We don't have a history! We must have a It is striking that the language of the economy did not figure in the division history!!''' recognized that it was only through a recast history of the Kannada of labour envisaged by B.M. Sri, who attached cultural and political rather people that the Indian nation could be imagined. Even more important, he than economic dominance to a language like English. This was to change deplored the fact that his effort came a full 40 or 50 years after his Bengali, dramatically in the post-Independence years, when the international hegemony Marathi, and Telugu counterparts had made their heroes and historic triumphs of English only increased.