Civilization: Karnataka and its importance to India

It is yet another November and here we have one more Kannada Rajyotsava at our doorstep. Although four other states celebrate the State Formation Day today, there is a special intensity in Karnataka. For one, the sense of having a shared cultural past - having been forcibly distributed across regions - was very high among Kannadigas.  The resultant Unification movement lasted long and eventually realized after significant effort and persuasion. Thankfully it was achieved without any blood spilling unlike in a few other states. What is noteworthy though is - this linguistic movement was converted into an inclusive cultural celebration by the stalwarts of Karnataka. The net result - all communities of Karnataka come together to celebrate their common shared identity. Over a period, to their credit, Kannadigas have strived to include every new linguistic community that came into Karnataka and woven a composite identity. This gentle identity - one that is unassumingly worn on the sleeve - lets the common man identify with it without any shyness or apology typically associated with the such identity based movements/celebrations.

For the rest of India though, the state of Karnataka is worthy of looking up for inspiration - over and beyond its rise as the Silicon Valley of India. The History of India - having centred around a few themes around Delhi - has let down its people. It has denied the students of country access to creative elements of other regions outside of Delhi much relevant for the lives that we live. The emergence of Karnataka in the 20th century contains a creative process of great relevance in the present. In this blog post I highlight 2 such aspects of Karnataka.

1. Mysore State and the way it lept into Modernity

Its generally believed that weather and British cosmopolitanism created the modern Bangalore that led to the thriving IT Industry. The reality is different thought. The difference lies in the Mysore State rose to the challenge of British imperialism and the British imported Modernity. In this it was led by a visionary King and a community of cultural stalwarts. The extraordinary intellectual, institutional and cultural response to challenge posed by the travails of the  present created a healthy century for the state and contained seeds that could have created a similar renaissance in the rest of India.

It was unique because it achieved a modernity unique to India without abandoning its tradition thereby achieving cultural continuity along with the transformation - much inline with the philosophical concerns of India. Mysore also enjoyed the absence of certain negatives in this process. It was lucky enough to not suffer an industrial collapse of the type that West Bengal suffered. It was not overly centralized in the way the Bombay Presidency was. It did not encounter the danger of communism that Bengal did, neither was engulfed in the flames of caste hatred let loose in Tamil Nadu by the colonial forces. The British administrated areas were under extreme poverty. The Gangetic Plain was going through the post-Aurangzeb degradation and deterioration. The other Princely states were not as visionary as the Mysore State or were not big enough to make a substantial impact. Apart from this, three positive factors held the state through in this transformation

• The State was under the rule of culturally sensitive Mysore Kings for 70 Years with a 40 years visionary rule of Krishna Raja Wodeyar the 4th for the  most part of early 20th Century - when it really mattered the most. The Diwans of Mysore - Sir. M. Vishweshwaraiah and Sir. Mirza Ismail were exemplary government servants, administrators, institution builders, ambitious but  people oriented. They represented the best that European Modernity expected but were rooted in the life of the land.
• The past of Mysore too was not hoary. As early as 1800 the Mysore State had a literacy level of 33% and standard of life higher than England at that time - this while the state was suffering the waywardness of Tipu Sultan and 4 wars with the British. It had experienced a dynamic resurgence under the Vijayanagar Kings, Kempe Gowda and Wodeyars before that.
• The Stalwarts of Karnataka were highly collaborative apart from being wise, scholarly and intellectual. It is rare to witness this combination. They were rooted in tradition, educated in the European world view, not averse to change and more importantly realized that the good cannot be achieved without working together and keeping their differences aside. To give an instance - Sir. M. Vishweshwaraiah was throughout his tenure at logger heads with the King Krishna Rajendra Wodeyar, yet they ensured that the administration did not suffer. Neither did people perceive the conflict. What more - after remitting his office as Diwan, Sir MV worked for the upliftment of the state for the next 30 years as though there was no conflict at all. This helped them to weaved a unique modernity that was a blend of Indian tradition, the western modernity and strong integration with the cultural movements across the country - essentially realizing a confluence of all creative energies of the time.

The net result - the Mysore State saw modern democratic institutions, industrial progress, modern literature, technology adoption, administrative innovation, across the board education at levels that rest of the country did not see during this period. Mysore lept far ahead of rest of the regions. This earned the state a great Certificate from none other than Gandhiji - not once but twice. When Gandhiji was arguing a case in South Africa in 1895 - on the readiness of the non-whites for Democracy - he referred to democratic reforms in Mysore started as early as in 1882 by the Mysore King. Yet again in 1911, he declared that if all Princely States were like Mysore we would not need to press for Independence.

In summary, Mysore State saw an era of enlightenment that did not look apologetically at the past of India without abandoning the critical eye either. It put a genuine foot forward by blending the rest of the world in its path ahead. Our stalwarts achieved a mind-boggling confluence where stalwarts of other regions failed. If Karnataka is today ahead of the rest of the country and has given rise to a thriving IT Industry it is the result of that enlightened century of 1850 to 1950. I have deliberately not named all the cultural stalwarts. I will have a struggle leaving out people from a collection of at-least 50 who played a critical role. Indian History should have had a special place for this period of Mysore - should have been a guiding light for the rest of the country.

Literally every success of Nehru post independence was already a reality in the Mysore State between 1900 to 1950. The critical ones listed below.

• Democracy (Prajapratinidhi Sabha)
• 5 Year Planning
• Commerce Institutions (Mysore Chamber of Commerce)
• Banks (State Bank of Mysore)
• Higher seats of Learning (IISc, UVCE)
• Public Sector Industry (Mysore Lamps, Bhadravathi Iron and Steel Company) etc., 
• Modern Cultural Institutions (Sahitya Parishat, Oriental Research Institute

On the other hand, a comparison with Nehru's failures post 1947 throws light on the wrong steps taken by India. Nehru's 3 majorly acknowledged failures are Primary Education, Private Industry and Secularism. The first two were unabashed successes in the Mysore State and the third was not forced on the state by the King. It greatly succeeded in Primary Education because it allowed the caste institutions to play a positive role in community development and lead the modernisation process in their respective communities including education. It actively encouraged private industry unlike Nehru who looked down upon it. The Kings and the Diwans encouraged the rich to invest in the state both in industry and philanthropy. The Mysore State never needed to deploy Secularism of the European/Nehruvian variety as that was not needed at all. Being rooted in the Indian Tradition ensured that harmony thrived in Mysore. The great Mysore Dasara was a unifier of every community. Sir. Mirza Ismail was the Diwan of Mysore for 15 years on his own merit and the Ambari for Mysore Dasara is traditionally built and placed by a Muslim family. Communities figured out how to participate in each other religious ceremonies minimally without having to compromise their own identities. In a nut shell, there was no need to abandon the tradition and adopt a so called neutral that was bereft of all creative energies of the community.

This brand of modernity deserved a study and adoption by the rest of the country. The country has lost that opportunity.

2. The ever harmonious Karnataka 

In spite of a strong linguistic movement and identity, it is worth appreciating that Karnataka has never slipped into the space of narrow regionalism and parochialism. The risks have always been very high. A thinly populated region - Karnataka has always seen migration from Telugu, Tamil regions in the past. The regions of Karnataka - when they were part of other British Presidencies - have played a second fiddle to the dominant and suffered immensely thereby. The ground was fertile for victim hood identity politics. To add to it, post independence it has gone through a steady influx from the other South Indian states for decades. In the last 20 years it has accommodated a huge migration from the states of North India and Eastern India with Kannadigas being just one third of Bangalore now. All of this has led to pressures in the spaces of identity, economics, politics and culture. But none of this has led to the creation of a extreme regional identity and parochial politics at logger heads with rest of India.

Make no mistake, we have had our own brands of regional nationalism, linguistic hardline etc., For instance, the Kannadiga identity has collided with an imagined Tamil identity leading to minor and major skirmishes. There have been minor communal disturbances. There have been spiky altercations with the North East. Some Social Media exchanges have led to knock-out consequences. However, none of this has grown to monstrous proportion. The state has never become authoritative or discriminatory. The non-state actors have never mustered courage, energy and organization to make any impact on the socio-political life of Karnataka. Our political parties and society have always had a high national orientation and federal appreciation without letting the regional identity die. They have never made an attempt to stand aside and play a negative role in the country's politics. The hydra of parochialism raises its head once in a while but the gentle apathy shown by the common man discourages the hydra from becoming a monster and quietly withdraws to nothingness.

The harmony that prevails in Karnataka inspite of conflicts requires a greater explanation though. The reality is that the common kannadiga has nurtured a healthy curiosity for everything that is outside of the kannada cultural experience. This inclusiveness does not arise from a liberal intellectual need for being inclusive. It is emerging out of a deeper sensitivity of curiosity for the other leading to a natural inclusiveness. The inclusiveness created through mere intellectual indulgence withers away at the sight of first conflict. The rest of India is a matter of novelty, wonder, love and cultural adjacent for the average Kannadiga. It is different yet the same or related. It is part of the fundamental that has created this diversity. All cultural indulgences of Karnataka bear this in mind. For instance, all the modern songs that were written in the 20th century in praise of Karnataka and the language begin with a bow to Mother India. Every major political, social, cultural stalwart of the country finds himself/herself strongly present in the cultural stream of Karnataka in one way or the other. Just look at the names of roads of Bangalore city - how many stalwarts of other states find their space here. Very easily kannadigas know more about the rest of India than people of other regions know about Karnataka.

This reflects in many places that one can experience and validate. When the North Indian laborers flooded Bangalore, the average Kannadiga learnt Hindi faster than he/she forced them to learn Kannada. 25 years back hardly would anybody speak in Hindi - but today the average kannadiga across the state can manage to speak and understand Hindi. Of course, constant exposure to other languages makes it easy for the average kannadiga. Today our people have fallen in love with Hindi. Another interesting piece of statistics - among people who travel across the country and trek kannadigas form a huge proportion.

Essentially, in its ability to convert conflicts into harmony, not letting conflicts escalate into disasters Karnataka is very unique. It has achieved this while maintaining more than normal dynamism and that is an achievement. One can avoid dynamism thereby suppress conflict, Karnataka has not done that - this is not sustainable either as has been experienced in other regions.

Karnataka Tourism department says "Karnataka - one state many worlds". It knowingly or unknowingly emphasizes an aspect of the state that has implications for the rest of the country and a fundamental strength of Karnataka.