There has been a lot of scorn and semantics surrounding the colour 'saffron' in recent days. Conjoined with the words 'terror' and 'Hindu,' it has unleashed a phrase which nobody wants to patent, but everybody wants to apply. As much as the 'seculars' have found a use for it, the right-wingers too, have allowed its circulation, to send across the clandestine message of majoritarian pride and impatience. To that extent, the phrase has become a neutral political tool. It has helped both ends as well as the middle of the political spectrum. I have no intention here to further pursue the phrase and count its bands of grey, but want to draw your attention to a potentially explosive 'saffron debate' sans the terror element, taking place in a corner of Karnataka and reported in the neglected columns of the Kannada press.
Veerabhadra Chennamalla Swami is the pontiff of the Nidumamidi math (seminary), which is in Gulur of Kolar district. He travelled left from his spiritual seat and then a little up on July 25, to reach Davangere, the geographical middle of Karnataka. There he made a very bold, radical and progressive introspection about his own tribe of the saffron-garbed.
The swami and his math belong to the Veerashaiva Lingayat denomination, that is they are the upholders of the ideals and teachings of the 12th century saint and social reformer Basaveshwara. In short, for the uninitiated, Basaveshwara tried to remove divisiveness in society by forming a new casteless order. He put out his teachings in the form of 'vachanas' which were introspective discourses that did not demand a scholarly exegesis, but lucidly presented the sparkling wisdom of the 'soul' in a refined idiom of the everyday Kannada tongue. For their unique linguistic manoeuvring, the 'vachanas' even became recognised as a literary genre during the last century. Basaveshwara is also credited with creating an open forum or an informal academy ('Anubhava Mantapa') for some of the finest minds, mystics and philosophers of his time to share their 'experiences.' The debates witnessed here had the classical Athenian rigour. To say all this is important as a preamble and a larger context to what Chennamalla Swamiji said on July 25.
It is also important to stress on the denomination of the Swami, because Lingayats are the power-elite of Karnataka. They have been so ever since India became independent and sitting chief minister B S Yeddyurappa belongs to the community. This community, which has the largest population in the state and was most active during the freedom movement, has produced maximum number of chief ministers since Independence (7 out of the 18, some holding more than one term - S Nijalingappa, B D Jatti, S R Kanti, S R Bommai, J H Patel, Veerendra Patil and now, B S Yeddyurappa). Some of the seminaries of the community, especially the Suttur math in Mysore, are among the richest in the state and perhaps even in the country and are known to peddle tremendous political influence. The Yeddyurappa government has also unabashedly, and with utter disregard to constitutional provisions, made budgetary grants for some of these maths to create an electoral edge. Many of these maths even run a clutch of educational institutions, including money-spinning professional colleges, possessing vast tracts of land.
Given this milieu of the maths in Karnataka the Nidumamidi seminary is a little-known exception. Since it is headquartered in an impoverished district of Karnataka (Kolar), with a sizable Dalit population, Chennamalla swami has mostly associated himself with the 'wretched of the earth'. This gives him a moral stature to say what he said on July 25 and thereafter when it stirred a tiny debate. What he says has a resonance for all the saffron-garbed across the nation and not just Karnataka. In my view it throws light on all colours of sainthood, not just saffron. However, the immediate context of his statement are the Veerashaiva Lingayat maths. Think of his statements in the light of all the controversies related to godmen [Nithyananda, Sri Sri Ravishankar etc.] we have been familiar with in the recent days. Here's a long paraphrase in a dozen points: