Aasif Yeliwad, 42, was sipping tea at his usual corner a few feet from his home in the Anandnagar area of Hubballi, the second largest city in Karnataka, on a warm March evening in 2021 when he was arrested. A carpenter by profession, Yeliwad was later booked under the Unlawful Activities and Prevention Act for what was initially a case of rioting on April 16 that year. A police station was mobbed, pelted with stones and vehicles were torched that day. Yeliwad’s 18-year-old daughter, Noor Bano, claims her father is innocent. “He was not even there (at the Old Hubballi police station) at the time of the incident,” she states. Noor, who is pursuing a degree in medical science from a private institute, now weaves lanterns, earning Rs 50 a day after selling around four of them.

“I want to be a doctor, but after my father’s arrest, my siblings and I had to start working,” she states. Her two younger brothers, 15 and 17, quit school and now earn about Rs 400 a day each when they find work. One lays tiles, while the older one welds. 

After spending 10 months in Gulbarga Central Prison, Yeliwad suffered a paralytic attack affecting his right leg when his blood pressure spiked. He was granted bail on humanitarian grounds. Now, both his legs are paralysed, and he cannot stand without assistance. He spends his days parked on a rickety chair in a bare room in Anandnagar, the largest slum in the Hubballi-Dharwad region, which is set to vote on May 7 in the third phase of Lok Sabha elections.

“Elections make me nervous,” he states. “It gets very polarised in these parts.” Yeliwad was one of the 158 men eventually arrested for the Hubballi riots of April 16, 2021, when a mob attacked a nearby police station in Old Hubballi. The incident occurred during the month of Ramzan after a local man named Abhishek Hiremath made a communally offensive caricature of an Islamic religious structure and shared it on social media.

Yeliwad’s family, neighbours, and residents of mixed urban poor neighbourhoods like Anandnagar and Topalgatti (Ramalingeshwarnagar) claim that in the run-up to state elections last year, instances of communal tension were on the rise.

With the Congress coming to power in the state in the 2022 legislative assembly elections in Karnataka, many, like Aasif’s family, have benefited from the party’s guarantees for women, namely Rs 2,000 monthly assistance to women heads of all families under the Gruhalakshmi scheme, 200 units of power to all households under the Gruhajyoti scheme, 10 kg of rice per person per month under the Annabhagya scheme, and free travel for women. The party also offers Rs 3,000 every month for graduate youth and Rs 1,500 for diploma holders under the Yuvanidhi scheme. Despite a communally charged campaign led by the incumbent BJP government, local resident and activist MA Pathan argues that Congress was able to win because it focused on populism instead of polarisation at a time when people in the state were really suffering due to inflation.

Ahead of the Lok Sabha elections in Hubballi, religious polarisation is once again at the forefront with the politicisation of the recent murder of college student Neha Hiremath. Hiremath was stabbed by her former classmate Fayaz Khondunaik on April 18 after an alleged fallout. Her father, Niranajan Hiremath, a Congress collector, has alleged the murder is a case of “love-jihad”. In Fayaz’s village, the situation remains tense. His mother, Mumtaz Khandunaik, a school teacher, has publicly apologised to people at large for what her son did and has called for strict punishment for the accused. “It was not ‘love-jihad’ though. They were friends and had a fallout,” she says. “Fayaz should not have done what he did; Islam does not allow such acts.”

With over four lakh voters, Muslims form the second-largest population group in Dharwad Lok Sabha constituency. The community has come out strongly against the murder. On April 22, Anjuman-e-Islam, the local Muslim body, issued the call for a ‘bandh’ in Dharwad, and Muslim protesters marched in protest, condemning the incident and demanding justice. Hindu organisations like the Jagruta Mahila Vedike (JMV), Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) and Shree Ram Sene also led protests in Belagavi, and they were joined by leaders like Belagavi BJP candidate Jagadish Shettar.

In Dharwad, Muslims kept their shops shut in mourning, with posters seeking “justice for Neha Hiremath” stuck on the shutters. “We do not want to support violence. Neha isn’t just the daughter of Hiremath, woh hum sabki behen beti jaisi hai (she is like a daughter to all of us). But some people are blaming the whole community for one person’s crime,” says Muzammil Dafedar, 29, a shop owner at the Bara Imam Gali near Noorani Masjid in Dharwad who participated in the protests. He feels that politicians are unfairly giving the incident a communal colour. “No crime against women should be tolerated, irrespective of their religion,” Rehana Khanum Gurani, a social worker residing in Koppalkiri area of Dharwad, states. “But we only see such protests when the victim is a Hindu and the perpetrator is a Muslim,” she adds.

On March 31, Karnataka police found the charred remains of Ruksana, who was murdered by her partner Praveen, in Mysuru. “No one made a Hindu-Muslim case out of that, nor were there such protests,” Gurani, a mother of two daughters and a son, states. She claims that in her neighbourhood itself, the effects of polarisation can be felt. “They view us as different. My hijab is also viewed with suspicion, even though it’s my choice to wear it,” she states.

“Gateway to South”

Communal polarisation isn’t new to residents of Hubballi-Dharwad. While Dharwad has been a place of education, agitation and intellectualism, its industrial counterpart, Hubballi, is not just hotter vis a vis its temperature but also in temper. While politics in Karnataka has been dominated by feudal classes and “upper caste” groups like Lingayats and Vokkaligas, Hubballi has been a seat for communal identity politics since the late 1980s, when the Ram Janmabhoomi movement became strong in the north, states Hubballi-based independent journalist and academic Amare Gowda. “Karnataka is often called the BJP’s gateway to the south, and Hubballi is an important seat for the BJP. The Eidgah Maidan issue was a turning point for the party’s fortunes in Karnataka,” he states.

Dubbed at the time as the ‘Ayodhya of the South,’ the Eidgah Maidan (recently renamed the Kittur Rani Chennamma Maidan) is a 1.5-acre piece of land that was once a playground used for playing cricket and hosting jatras and political rallies. The area currently doubles as a diminutive parking lot on mundane days. Twice a year, the Maidan is used for offering namaz by Muslims—on Ramzan and Bakri Eid—as per a 999-year-long lease signed between Anjuman-e-Islam and the city municipal corporation in 1921. The issue gained national spotlight on Republic Day 1992 when some BJP, RSS, and VHP leaders hoisted the national flag at the Eidgah Maidan without permission from Anjuman or the Congress government to do so. Eventually, the flag was removed by the police, leading to further politicisation and criticism of Congress’ myopic handling of the incident.

“We did not give permission for the flag hoisting because it was a disputed property; no one had the right to hoist a flag on it,” Yusuf Savanur, former President of Anjuman, states. Between 1992 and 1995, the BJP made five abortive attempts to hoist the flag in the controversial location, collaborating with Hindu groups like the Rashtriya Dhwaja Gaurav Sanrakshan Samiti. Many leaders of the Ayodhya movement, including Uma Bharti, reached Hubballi and were instrumental in polarising majoritarian sentiment against the Congress.

With the BJP consolidating power in Hubballi and other parts of the state, the socio-political and economic dynamics between Hindus and Muslims in the region have been in flux. In 1998, Hubballi saw major clashes on Holi when Hindu groups took out Rangapanchami processions through Muslim-majority areas. While clashes over Holi have fizzled out over the years, Ganesh Chaturthi has instead become the new arena for communal polarisation. In 2022, the Karnataka High Court granted the Hubballi-Dharwad Municipal Corporation (HDMC) permission to install a Ganesh statue on the Eidgah Maidan premises for three days to celebrate the Hindu festival, despite opposition from Muslim bodies.

While Congress’ coming to power in the state has brought a degree of psychological relief to Muslim voters, many feel let down by the party’s choice to field Vinod Asuti, a candidate from the Kuruba community, in Dharwad. MA Pathan states, “They could have fielded a Muslim candidate since Muslims outnumber Kurubas in this seat, but they went with Siddaharamaiah’s caste.” He faces the BJP heavyweight, four-time MP and Union Minister for Parliamentary Affairs, Coal, and Mines, Prahlad Joshi.

Speaking to Outlook amid his campaign trail in Hubballi, Joshi exuded confidence. “I had never dreamed of joining politics, let alone becoming an MP. I was just a simple social worker with the RSS,” he says. The leader, who rose to prominence during the Eidgah Maidan agitations of the 90s, says that the work done by the BJP in the constituency speaks for itself. “We have a new airport now. New IITs. The roads are better than ever. We have ensured safety and harmony,” he states. He accuses Congress of indulging in appeasement politics, supporting “terrorists,” and “infiltrators”.

Locals, however, point out that last year, the Hazarat Syed Khadri Mohammed Shah Dargah located at Bhairidevarakoppa between Hubballi-Dharwad was relocated as part of the BRTS Road project despite objections from Muslim bodies. Anjuman members allege that temples that line the same road were left untouched. Ahead of elections in Old Hubballi and across Dharwad, streets and homes have been covered with saffron flags to mark Hanuman Jayanti. They do not represent the BJP, but the image of “angry Hanuman,” as Dharwad-based rationalist Ramzan Darga calls it, is hard to assimilate with the soft, devotional image of Hanuman that was worshipped in Karnataka in the past.

He also says communal polarisation is a two-way street. “The Muslim population in urban Hubballi-Dharwad is mostly poor, working class and lives in pockets where Islamic clerics and religious groups govern social norms. The youth have no jobs or education and are often swayed by communal narratives”.

Darga nevertheless highlights that, behind the religious muscle-pumping, deeper caste and class fault lines often dictate electoral moods. “The reason the BJP could enter Karnataka is not solely Hindutva. That’s just one aspect. They remain in power because they enjoy total support from the Lingayats, the dominant landed group in north Karnataka, as well as support from OBCs and sections of non-Ambedkarite SC castes,” Darga posits.

Alienated by Indira Gandhi’s push for land reforms, the powerful and voluminous landed communities like Vokkaligas and Lingayats began to search for political alternatives. While the Gowdas were focused in the north and found political representation in leaders like HD Deve Gowda, the Lingayats in the south found representation with the BJP and BS Yediyurappa emerged as the community’s face among the party. The former CM continues to exert influence in the region and was instrumental in selecting ex-CM Basavaraj Bommai, another Lingayat leader, as the BJP candidate from Haveri for the Lok Sabha polls.

Beyond complex political equations, about 30 kilometres from Hubballi is the village of Lakhmapur, which locals claim is a model of secular unity. Maktoob, whose house is located along the wall of a Hanuman temple in the village, states that communal politics work in cities but not in rural areas where ties of kinship and mutual benefits trump religious identities.

“We are all working-class people here. We live with the Lingayats as well as Madigas (SC) in harmony as we have economic ties with each other,” Maktoob, who earns his daily wage by tilling a Lingayat farmer’s lands, states. “We live in peace in this village. It’s harmonious, and we do not hate or fear each other here,” Kalapps, a Lingayat proselytiser and Maktoob’s neighbour, declares.

But for voters closer to the political nerve centre of Hubballi-Dharwad, like Aasif Yeliwad and his family, identity continues to remain a decisive and divisive factor, shaped by the realities that confront them.

Rakhi Bose in Hubballi-Dharwad.

(This appeared in magazine as Raag Darbari In Dharwad.)