J u l y 21,1956

Profile of a Southern State—Mysore ( From a Correspondent)

I N the thi r t ies the legend flourished t ha t Mysore was a 'model state',

a n d legends die hard . Sir M i r z a Is­ma i l , who was then the Dewan of Mysore, had a Hair for publici ty which would have done credit to a Hol lywood actress. He was an able adminis t ra tor , and he enjoyed the confidence of Shri Krishnarajendra Wodeyar, the then Mahara ja . He d id not have to he responsible to a vola t i le par ty as Sri Hanumanthayya has to be. Autocracy sometimes makes for efficiency and Sir Mirza was an efficient and benevolent autocrat . It is true that he did a good deal for Mysore, but it is often forgotten that a f irm foundation was la id for Sir Mirza 's achievements f irs t ly, by the efficient admin is t ra t ive structure which the B r i t i s h rulers buil t dur ing the years 1831-1881 when they ruled the State directly, and secondly, by a series of able De-wans l ike Rangacharlu, Seshadri Iye r (under whom the first hydro electric project in India came into existence in 1903). and that grand o ld man of Mysore. Mokshagundam Visweswarayya. A sound foundation is never seen while minarets and cupolas for which Sir Mirza had an inordinate fondness are.

In one respect, however. Sir Mirza was unique he loved gardens and beautiful cities. He contributed a great deal to the beauty of Mysore State, and especially to its two capitals. Bangalore and Mysore. In Kr ishnara jasagar he designed an in­uminated garden w i t h f lowing water and coloured l ights, which is the pride of every Mysorean except n few c ranky souls who prefer the dark and majestic beauty of the vas t man-made lake to the t awdry magnficance of mult i -coloured bulbs. There was another t h i n g which Sir Mirza d id-he sold the idea of Mysore being a 'model state' even to the people of t h a t State. They came to believe t h a t their state was R a m Rajya did not the great Maha tma himself be­stow the t i t le? Good Mysoreans be­lieved t ha t Mysore was the best of a l l places on this ear th. Incompar­able climate, a potent ia l ly r ich State g rea t ly diversified in its beauty, cheap l i v i n g , conditions, and many State-owned industries—not only i r o n and s teel but paper, cement, sugar, sandalwood o i l , soaps, fer­t i l isers and several others. Myso­

reans loved and s t i l l continue to their land so much that they preferr­ed a bare l i v ing wi th in the i r State to affluence outside.

Mysore University Things have changed, however,

over the years. And not for the better. The same people who were so i r r i t a t i n g l y smug about Mysore a few years ago are now b i t t e r l y c r i t i ca l . Such talk is pa r t i cu la r ly common among the teachers in the Univers i ty of Mysore. It should not be interpreted, however, t ha t the quinine in their ta lk is due to a greater a l t ru ism or- insight into the forces w o r k i n g in the Stale today. The Univers i ty is not exactly a nest for b r i l l i an t minds. In fact, it is we l l -known that over1 the last three or four decades the Univers i ty has been systematically t r y i n g to blow its brains out. and has succeeded in its task. Once upon a t ime the Un i ­versity boasted of such scholars as Radhakr ishnan Radhakumud Muk-herji . K T Shah, A B Wadia . M Hir iyanna and several others less we l l -known but s t i l l very able. Today there are only two al l - India names. Prof K V Puttappa. and B R Sesha-char the Zoologist. The former, a distinguished Kannada poet, has just (15th June 1956) been posted as the Vice-Chancellor. That Prof Put tappa is an academic man to his linger tips is not denied by his worst detractors but w h y should he be condemned to run the immensely-complicated affairs of an elephantine un ive r s i ty 0 But then poets are not always content to remain unacknow­ledged legislators. Cleaning the Augean Stables should be child's play, comparat ively speaking. I t is as corrupt as a Chinese Heaven, and what it needs is a man who has a deep sense of academic values as wel l as the adminis t ra t ive ab i l i t y of one of the apler minis ters in the Union Cabine t . A n d . of course, power which a Vice-Chan­cellor in Mysore does not have today. He does not have the power even to appoint on his own a lecturer on Rs 100 per month. Such an appoint­ment, if the vacancy is of more than six months ' durat ion, must be made by the members of the Public Ser­vice Commission. .

Mysore Univers i ty is one hundred percent a l imb of the Government.

There is no difference between it and. for instance, the Public Works Department. Vacancies are classi­fied into 'A' and B' categories and advertised m the Mysore Govern­ment Gazette Brahmins are not eligible to apply for 'B' jobs and Non-Brahmins include besides Non-Brahmins , Jains, Christians. Muslims, Parsis. Only one in five jobs is an 'A' vacancy this does not mean, how­ever, that every f if th job is one for wh ich Brahmins may apply. Tha t is wha t the simple-minded would t h i n k . Mysoreans are subtle. It is enough if the one-in-five ra t io is re­alised over a l l the appointments made dur ing a certain period. This often means that the classification of any par t icular vacancy as ' A ' or 'B' is determined by a clerk especially, if the officer is not alert. It is more l ike ly however. that the clerk in course of t ime coaches the officer to co-operate w i t h h im . Clerks are static whiIe off icers are mobile. A n d clerks can intr igue. A good officer listens to his clerks if he wants to be happy and prosperous.

Falling Standards If a man has enough influence w i th

a high official or influential poli t ician or minister, he tries to get a t h ing done through the latter. But then only a favoured few who belong to the r ight castes and. who are, in ad­di t ion, related to impor tan t people, are able to get things done at t h a t level. The rest have to cul t ivate clerks. Not an easy job as clerks are temperamental as well as poorly paid.

The candidates go before the Pub­lic Service Commission in w h i c h the non-official members are active as they regard themselves to be the watchdogs of the "backward castes". A l l non-Brahmin castes are "back­w a r d " inc luding the powerful L i n -gayats and Okkal igas . Even in an ' A ' vacancy, a better-qualified Bra­hmin may be turned down in favour of a non-Brahmin who has the m i n i ­mum qualifications necessary for the

.post . A t h i r d class pass in the BA Honours gives a -candidate 'm in imum qualif icat ion ' f o f a Univers i ty lec­turer 's post. In brief, the mode of selection has ensured the weeding out of the br ighter in favour of the duller. Yet. recently, a committee of the Univers i ty Council went in to

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the question of f a l l i n g standards, a n d repor ted tha t n o t h i n g was w r o n g w i t h the staff!

The opinions of outside 'experts' are t aken in to considerat ion in the appointment of professors. But in I n d i a in 1956 AD experts are accom-moda t ing people. ( A n d two non-Official members are also included In Selection Committees for profes­sors.! The things w o r k in such a way tha t only local candidates apply fo r professorships. Let me explain. A candidate who has the necessary ' m i n i m u m qual i f ica t ion ' becomes an assistant professor. ( There is con­stant, complaint that senior i ty is overlooked, but very few complain that, ab i l i t y is overlooked.) Assist­an t professors apply for professor­ships and the la t ter ca r ry such low salaries tha t properly qualified non-Mysoreans are not tempted to apply. A professor's salary is Rs 400 p rn and goes up eventual ly to Rs 700. Thus on ly local horse? run for the local Derby,

The Pilgrim's Progress Progress f rom a temporary lect-

urership to a professorship is indeed a. diff icul t journey, though many people, not remarkable for their i n ­te l lec tual a t ta inments , but possessing other qualif ications, have a r r ived at the summi t . Caste is of course the first qual i f icat ion in this journey. I f a, candidate does not belong to the r i g h t caste, his conf i rmat ion may be delayed by several years and this handicaps h i m for ever in the race. Senior i ty dates f rom confirma­t ion and not. f rom appointment . F r o m conf i rmat ion to assistant pro­fessorship is another long journey m a r k e d by visi ts to one's boss who is at best neut ra l except when he th inks he can secure a benefit by supporting an inf luent ial candidate and to one's pol i t ic ian-pat ron who is either a member of the Univers i ty Council , or a Congressman whom the Chief Minis te r has to keep pleas ed because he commands four or five votes which may be crucia l in a periodic vote of no-confidence against the Ch ie f Minis ter from members of his o w n par ty .

The pol i t ic ians who are members of the U n i v e r s i t y Council have to be p rop i t i a ted l i k e the less gentle mem­bers of the H i n d u pantheon. When they v is i t Mysore or Bangalore for, a Council meet ing, candidates (lect­urers, assistant1 professors and occasionally, even professors) meet them at the s ta t ion and accompany them to the i r hotel or friend's house r i d d i n g them of a l l the m i n o r worr ies

o f deal ing w i t h porters and f ind ing t ranspor t . The Counci l Members can never be seen w i t h o u t a l i t t l e bunch of obvious admirers who keep t hem posted on the less publicised affairs of the Univers i ty . Every ma t t e r comes under the scrut iny of this Council appointments, promotions, examinerships, tabulatorships, i n ­crements, scholarships. transfers, leave, deputations, etc. A L i n g a y a t member becomes the self-appointed promoter of L ingaya t interests, a B r a h m i n member of B r a h m i n i n ­terests, and an Okka l iga of O k k a l i -gas. Deals are s truck between mem­bers, and a Vice-Chancellor usually tries to see that he keeps out of trouble and tha t his interests are not affected adversely. If the Council is meet ing at Bangalore. he uses such leisure as he has in seeing minis ­ters, and higher officials in the secretariat . They keep relat ionships oiled. His path is indeed a razor's edge.

Pour man. his lot has become un­enviable af ter the advent of demo­cracy. Mow grea t ly does it contrast w i t h the posi t ion of the leonine and pa t r i a rcha l Sir Bra jendrana th Seal, the only dist inguished Vice-Chancel­lor in the his tory of Mysore Univer ­sity!. But then he had prodigious learning, character and age, and functioned before the era of sma l l ­town poli t icians, and democracy. Nowadays, any depar tmental deci­sion supported by the Vice-Chan-cellor m i g h t have to he reconsidered because a minister" picks up the phone and t a lks to the Vice-Chancellor . A n d they are said to pick up the phone very often. B u t then how can they be blamed? They do want to get re-elected, and possibly have hopes of becoming even Chief Min i s ­ter. When they go to their const i ­tuencies, they w i l l na tu ra l ly be ask­ed, ' D i d you help so-and-so'." Each favour refused means an enemy for l ife. When it comes to election, caste and local area are key factors especially caste.

The Lingayats The L i n g a y a t s are in a special

position their s t r eng th is less t han tha t of the Okka l lgas in the present Mysore State bu t is expected to be greater in the N e w Mysore State. A c c o r d i n g to the States Reorganisa-, t i on Committee Report , in the New Mysore, L ingaya t s w i l l be about 20 per cent of the t o t a l populat ion, Okka l igas about 13-16 per c en t and the Har i j ans , 17-18 per cent- The L i n g a y a t s are better educated than the Okkal igas , and probably quite

close to the Brahmins in the pro­por t ion of the educated to the non-educated. (But both L i n g a y a t s and Okka l igas r a n k as ' b a c k w a r d castes' and w o u l d f ight to the last to re ta in their pr ivi leged position.) B u t whi le B r a h m i n dominance is a t h i n g of the past and the immedia te future for Brahmins is cer ta in ly bleak, L i n -gaya t power and influence are wax­ing s t rong. They seem to have deep­er roots in the soil than Brahmins , and many of them are wea l thy land­lords, traders and officials. They wield a great deal of po l i t i ca l power. They have a reputat ion for great un i ty it is said that no L i n g a y a t w i l l ever vote for a non-Lingaya t . There? is probably more poetic than l i t e ra l t r u t h in tha t statement. But in one respect the Lingaya ts are uni-que: they have a s t rong monastic organizat ion, and the heads of the monastic orders not only look after the welfare of L i n g a y a t souls but also af ter the pol i t i ca l and economic interests of their hock. The head of one par t i cu la r monastic organiza­t ion figures largely in the conversa­t ion of Univers i ty teachers how he sends chits to Principals and Vice-Chancellors recommending L i n g a y a t boys for free-studentships and scho­larships, and about how in every election he whips up L ingaya t votes in favour of L i n g a y a t candidates.

Divisisons among Lingayats Lingayat s may be more united

than the others, but this does not prevent the existence of sub-divi­sions among them. The sub-divi­sions usually occur on the basis of monastic af f i l ia t ion, and there are several L ingaya t monasteries in Mysore. Besides, the L ingaya t s of north-west Mysore belong cu l t u r a l l y more to N o r t h K a r n a t a k than to Mysore unl ike the i r co-sectarians in Nanjanagud and Chamara janagar . The Lingaya t s are also split up in to sub-castes and this has pol i t ica l consequences. Aga in , some pride themselves on earl ier conversion to L i n g a y a t i s m than others. One very intell igent L i n g a y a t teacher to ld your correspondent, " I t i s not every L ingaya t who is in a favoured posi­t ion, but only those who happen to be related to the few powerful f a m i ­lies." He was, however, f r o m n o r t h ­west Mysore, and he seemed to t h i n k tha t power was unduly concen­t r a t ed in a few related famil ies f r o m Nan janagud a n d Chamara ja ­nagar. (One L i n g a y a t Min is te r hai ls f r o m this area whi l e the other comes f r o m Shimoga.) But , by a n d large, L ingaya t s are in a favoured

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posi t ion, t h o u g h the success of any ind iv idua l L i n g a y a t depends, i f he is no t f r o m one of the powerful famil ies, on his securing the pa t ron-ship of a L ingaya t pol i t ic ian . Th i s can be had by persistent flattery a n d helpfulness. Al legat ions of g r a f t are. of course, there, but they cannot be verified.

Supersession of Brahmins To come back to the Univers i ty .

Everyone agrees that there is too much poli t ics in the Univers i ty , find 'poli t ics ' is used in two senses —one. in the sense of intr igue, and an­other, in the sense of the in t rus ion of the polit ics oi' the larger w o r l d in to academic l ife. (That the same people who complain of poli t ies ' resort to i t to fur ther their inter­ests is a widely-recognized t ru th . ) Students divide themselves caste-wise, and a few years ago this be­came so marked d u r i n g elections to the Unions tha t the Univers i ty author i t ies had to ' k i l l ' the la t ter by m a k i n g their membership volun­t a r y . A student is heard occasion­a l l y compla in ing that his low marks are due to the fact that the teacher wishes to favour a student of his (teacher's) own caste. This is very probably a ra t iona l iza t ion of the student's f rus t ra t ion but it is true t h a t teachers are very caste-cons­cious. U n t i l recently the B r a h m i n teachers were probably the worst in this respect: they howled w i t h self-pity at the injustices and h u m i ­l ia t ions they felt had been infl icted upon them.

The supersession of B r a h m i n teachers was common in the past and occurs even today. A young non-Brahmin w i t h not even five years of service frequently super­sedes his B r a h m i n teacher w i t h a teaching experience of 10-15 years. (This does not, however, happen in the other departments of the Gov­ernment . ' The superseded teachers were cut up as bo th their purse as w e l l as their pride were injured. A n d hav ing put in so m a n y years in the Univers i ty they found t h a t they h a d left local roots too deep to be easily uprooted. Also not everyone was wanted outside. Eaeh instance of supersession added to the collective demoralisat ion of the B r a h m i n s . S lowly the group came to be w h a t they are today—em­bi t tered, self-centered a n d negative. The compara t ive success of those B r a h m i n s who had qui t the State fed their pride as a group and em­phasised the i r defeat as Individuals .

Demoralisation among Teachers

Only a few years ago the non-B r a h m i n teachers were pleasanter company than the Brahmins . They were up and coming, and hopeful. Some of them went outside Mysore, and even abroad, to enhance their academic qualifications. But soon troubles came their way also. The Musl ims whose morale was h i g h when Sir M i r z a was Dewan, and the Chris t ians when the late Sir T T h a m b u Chet ty was Pr iva te Secre­t a r y to the Mahara ja of Mysore, begun h a r k i n g back nosta lgical ly to the past in their off-the-record ta lks . The years since Independence have made it abundant ly clear tha t there are only three groups which are going to count d i rect ly in the State and the rest can only hope, at best, to count ind i rec t ly . They are the Lingayats, Okka l igas und Mart ians. As I said before, the L ingaya t s as a group are more educated than the other two. and this means that, more L i n -gayats, arc teachers in the U n i ­versi ty than either Okkal igas or Mari jans , Now Lingayats , O k k a l i -gas and Har i jans have s tar ted superseding everyone else includ­ing the many smal l non-Brah min ica l castes. It is necessary to explain here that there are OkKal i gas and Okkal igas . D u r i n g the th i r t ies , the Kunchat igas , Telugu Reddis and several others were con­sidered as Okkal igas . Nowadays the te rm is used in a purer sense which excludes the Reddis. Fo r ­merly , cer tain T a m i l and Telugu non-Brahmin groups l ike the Muda-l iar and Naidu , Syr ian Chris t ians from Kerala , Catholics f rom M a n -galore and other heterogeneous groups, a l l sought shelter under the hospitable non-Brahmin umbrel la . ( T w o of the leaders of the 'non-B r a h m i n s ' in the twenties and ear ly ' th i r t ies were Hamsa Hussain and Mathan . ) Today, a l l such groups feel lost. Even the indigenous and economical ly backward groups l i ke the Nay inda , Agasa, Bed a and Bes-tha feel t h a t to get on in modern Mysore one should be either a L i n ­gayat o r an O k k a l i g a . In the U n i ­versity especially, the self-pity w h i c h once characterised the Brahmins is now widespread. People who super­seded Brahmins less t h a n a decade ago are now themselves w a i l i n g about supersessions in wh ich they are the v ic t ims and not the bene­ficiaries. The i r sudden concern for f a l l i n g standards is amusing, but wha t is more s ignif icant today is the widespread demoral isa t ion a m o n g

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the teachers. An afternoon sport w i t h t hem can be most depressing.

Selection of Students No account of Mysore Univers i ty ,

however brief, can af ford to leave out the mode of recru i tment of students to the technical colleges and to the more popular courses in arts and science. U n t i l recently, the principals had to be guided in admissions by a council of non-official members and this meant again t h a t candidates were chosen on the basis of caste. (Nowadays, however, the principals are assisted by a committee of senior teachers: a l i t t l e less than a t h i r d of the seats are open to mer i t and the rest are decided on the basis of caste. This mode of recrui tment had certain consequences. F i r s t l y , it led to the founding of pr ivate engineering and medical colleges where seats could be booked by paying an advance of so much per seat. (A newly-s tar ted medical college in Bangalore charged Rs 5000 per sea t ) It meant t ha t the poor people, except f rom certain castes, could not become engineers and doctors if they were not out­standing, whereas the r ich parents of a mediocre hey could buy h i m a scat. The Avadt spir i t is very much in evidence in Mysore,

Caste in Government For tuna te ly , however, the si tua­

t ion outside the Univers i ty is not as bleak. Government officials, in the Secretariat or elsewhere, do not wa l l as much as Univers i ty teachers. Seniori ty does not seem to be dis­regarded there though in the i n i t i a l recrui tment of candidates to the Government posts, the caste of a candidate and his connections are not i r relevant . In an a r t ic le pub­lished sometime ago in the Economic Weekly i t was pointed out t h a t in the Reddy M i n i s t r y each min is te r had a pr iva te secretary f rom his own sub-caste. W h a t is surpr is ing to a Mysorean is t ha t this should be deemed w o r t h y of being com­mented upon. Mysoreans have so completely accepted th is pr inciple tha t when a number of posts are filled they accept cer ta in i m p o r t a n t castes to be represented in t h e m and they are no t disappointed, in the present cabinet, there are t w o Lingayats , t w o Okkal igas , one H a r i -jan , one B r a h m i n and one K u r u b a . The Okkal igas and L i n g a y a t s have two each because they are the " m a j o r i t y " castes. I t is su rpr i s ing t h a t nobody hag as yet g iven a

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theoretical form to this idea tha t the castes should be represented in the var ious departments of the Government in proport ion to the i r number In the State. I t wou ld be a cont r ibu t ion f rom Mysore to I n d i a n pol i t ica l thought .

H o w is i t t ha t the Univers i ty has become such an impor tan t focus for forces of caste? This is a diff icult question to answer. In one sense it is only n a t u r a l t ha t a Univers i ty should give fo rmula t ion to ideas current in the immediate environ­ment . B u t tha t is not the case here. I t i s only in T a m i l n a d t ha t the non -Brahmin movement has an ideology. D u r i n g the 'forties a few young non-Brahmins in the univer­s i ty t a lked of 'social justice' by w h i c h they meant t ha t the castes w h i c h had not had a chance t i l l then because of B r a h m i n dominance, should be given a chance to come up at the expense of the B r a h m i n . But th is idea was not developed

sufficiently to merit being called an ideology. There was no need for i t , however. The inject ion of non-teachers in to academic l i fe in the name of democracy, and the rules of recrui tment , frequently unpub­lished, observed by the Publ ic Ser­vice Commission and by other r ec ru i t ing agencies, bo th ensured t ha t B r a h m i n s quickly lost the i r dominance in the government to the O k k a l i g a and L ingaya t . Some of the younger Brahmins f r o m the middle-class and poor famil ies lef t Mysore of thei r own accord for jobs in Bombay, Delhi , Ca lcu t t a and elsewhere. Th i s also helped.

Those B r a h m i n s who were no t able to leave the State, continue to complain whether they are in gov­ernment service or not. Fo r inst­ance, lawyers complain t h a t clients choose lawyers belonging to their own caste, and doctors (pr iva te pract i t ioners) say the same t h i n g about patients. There is probably

a good deal of exaggerat ion in m i s - i t may again be only a ra t ional iza­t ion of the complainant ' s fa i lure . Success even in modern Mysore is dependent upon such quali t ies as efficiency and honesty, a n d perhaps Brahmins are not yet reconciled to the fact that other groups too pos­sess these virtues. One impressive fact in this connection—impressive because one hears exactly the oppo­site is tha t personal fr iendship cuts across caste. Friends f r o m the same vi l lage often help each other irrespective of caste. In fact, t w o friends f rom different castes exploi t their respective caste connections to help each other. The Old School Tie and the shar ing of common ex­periences b ind together people. I f th is d id not happen, and happen frequently, l ife wou ld be intolerable.

Social Forces in New Mysore Mysore is go ing to enlarge i ts

boundaries p re t ty soon cer ta in parts of Bombay, Hyderabad and

Madras are going to be included, and the entire State of Coorg is go ing to be merged in i t . A n d , n a t u r a l l y enough, Mysoreans are given to frequent speculation on the shape of things to come in the New State. I t may be recalled in this connection t ha t Mysore showed a great reluctance to uni te w i th n o r t h K a r n a t a k . and one of the chief obstacles in the w a y of the union was the fear of the Okkal igas that they wou ld be dominated by L i n g a ­yats . This fear was so prominent t ha t i t finds mention in the SRC Report . Even a l te r the SRC had recommended the union of Mysore, Coorg and parts of Bombay, Hydera ­bad and Madras States, in to a single State, Mysore continued to express its desire to remain sepa­rate. I t was Sh r i Hanuman thayya ' s espousal of the cause of the new State which led to the eventual ac­ceptance of the SRC recommenda­tions. By his espousal Shri H a n u -m a n t h a y y a found new friends inside a n d outside Mysore but w i t h i n his o w n pa r ty there was and s t i l l i s —a h a r d core of people uncompro­mis ing ly opposed to the enlargement of Mysore. Their opposition was so great t h a t as an a l te rnat ive they

„ proposed the creat ion of Daksh ina Pradesh. Here were people who, wh i l e s t r a in ing a t the gna t o f K a r ­na tak , were prepared to swal low the camel of Daksh ina Pradesh, i n ­c luding new Mysore, A n d h r a , Madras and Kera la . The s i tua t ion was in­deed Gi lbe r t i an . Bu t i t is not real ly as absurd as i t seems. In Dak­shina Pradesh the L ingaya t s wou ld be one of the m a n y powerful groups whereas in the new Mysore they would be the largest single group. Stray remarks by people are quoted to 'prove' how L ingaya t s wan t to r u n the new State to their own advantage and to the dis­advantage of everyone else. Poor Lingayats , they are now as un­popular as the B r a h m i n s were for­mer ly . The wielders of power i n ­spire not love but the opposite senti­m e n t .

The Chief Minis ter who a t f i r s t supported the New Mysore l a te r sa id t h a t he was also in favour of Dakshina Pradesh but that, he t h o u g h t i t was a bit immature . He even argued tha t new Mysore w a s * the f irst step in the creat ion of D a k s h i n a pardesh. Charges of on-p o r t u n i s m have been levelled at him f r o t h members o f his own par ty . I t is w e l l - k n o w n t h a t there is a solid g roup in the Congress who wi sh to oust h i m , and newspapers report t h a t there is at present a move to

pass a vote of no confidence against h im. I t looks as though the i r efforts " W i l l succeed. A n d i f they do, Shr i

Hanumanthayya m i g h t not even f i n d a place in the new Mysore Cabinet. H i s chances of being kicked upstairs ' l ike Shr i K C

Reddy, his predecessor, whom he displaced w i t h undue haste, are slender indeed. ( I t is i ronical to recall tha t Shri Hanuman thayya in i t ia ted three no-confuknee moves against Shr i K C Reddy.) Shr i Reddy had tac t fu l ly cul t iva ted friends in h igh places whereas even his best friends do not accuse Shri Hanuman thayya of tact.

E n v y of Lingaya ts is widespread nowadays as many people believe tha t the ra j w i l l be theirs in the new set up. They are the subjects of much m y t h - m a k i n g by the others. They are credited w i t h unbelievable uni ty and deep cunning. They are even said to be t r y i n g to win over the Har i jans to their side in an effort to ensure their dominance. This has na tu ra l l y made the Okka-

July 21, 1956 THE ECONOMIC WEEKLY

ligas j i t tery —in fact , j i t teriness is widespread. I t i s so bad t h a t t o many, even B r a h m i n dominance appears less horr ib le in retrospect. The statement, "The B r a h m i n had 2,000 years of cul ture which made h i m see r igh t and w r o n g , " is of ten heard. I t is indeed surpris ing how quickly the L ingaya t s have roused the fears of everyone. If they do not do something to restore the con­fidence of the other castes, the pat­tern of allegiances to come in the New Mysore seems f a i r ly clear. The Okka l iga w i l l be leading an opposi­tion consisting of a l l non-Linga-yats. An interest ing feature of the recent elections to the Mysore U n i ­versi ty Senate was the a t tempt of a few 'progressive' Okka l iga candi­dates to support a lew 'progressive' B r a h m i n candidates in the hope of defeating L ingaya t s . This is a shrewd move, and shows tha t O k k a ­ligas are also t h i n k i n g ahead. The Brahmins as a group are educated and intel l igent, and an Okka l iga -B n i h m m combinat ion might provide the answer to L ingaya t dominance. But Brahmins w i l l be numerica l ly insignificant in the new Mysore, and unless the O k k a l i g a - B r a h m i n axis can w i n the support of a number of smal l castes, they are doomed to failure. It is very l ike ly then that both Okkal igas and Lingayats w i l l t ry to get the support of the miniority castes. This means that the latter w i l l not. be swamped by the two dominant castes. The cause of 'democracy' w i l l be saved, oven if it be a new concept of demo­cracy the safeguarding of the r ights of beroditary minori t ies .

But neither the Okka l iga nor the Lingrtyat seems to be sufficiently aware that a ' t h i r d force' migh t emerge and that, its emergence m i g h t upset a i l their present calculations. The Har i jans w i l l be numer ica l ly one of the three most powerful groups, and are rap id ly coming up in every way. They w i l l support whoseever w i l l offer them the most advantageous terms though the i r memories of the t rea tment received at the hands of the local ly domi ­nant castes, and the existence of sub-divisions among themselves m i g h t come in the way of the i r ac t ing r a t i ona l ly In the interests of the i r caste. A n y w a y , they w i l l be a power to be reckoned . W i t h , and their emergence will come as a sur-prise because a l l the I m p o r t a n t high caste groups, used as they are to t h i n k in a caste id iom, have been unable to envisage the poss ib i l i ty of H a r i j a n s becoming a power