The recent violence in a village in Bijapur district could be a portent of worse to come as the Sri Ram Sene tries to polarise it on communal lines.

Saleema, 45, who runs a shop selling bangles in Balaganur village of Bijapur district (531 km north of Bengaluru), had never expected that her Hindu neighbours would one day bay for the blood of the Muslims. It was 12 April, the day of the Ugadi festival, the New Year’s Day in the Deccan. “A mob led by the gram panchayat president chased and hit us with sticks and stones,” says a scared Saleema, recuperating from her injuries on a hospital bed in Bijapur town, 70 km away.

“I couldn’t believe it at first when I heard that the mob was rushing towards us. The horror set in only when I saw a local Muslim cleric drenched in blood. While my husband and I were hit by stones, we managed to lock ourselves in our house. But the mob damaged Rs 50,000 worth of goods, which I was planning to sell during the festival.” She adds that the panchayat president Kenchappa Satyappa Katwal was exhorting the mob to “teach the Muslims a lesson”.

Eyewitnesses say around 300 Muslim households came under attack. There are 4,000 Muslims among Balaganur’s total population of 15,000. Local Muslims point out that the village has no history of communal clashes, barring a small skirmish in 1990, when LK Advani’s Rath Yatra demanding the construction of a Ram temple in Ayodhya had passed through this region. So what was the trigger for the violence this time? Bijapur SP Ajay Hillori says trouble had been brewing since the Bakrid festival last year when there was a dispute over the slaughter of cows, and the rioting this time started after Katwal slapped two Muslim boys who wanted to compete in a local wresting tournament. “The panchayat president then led a mob of 100 people that attacked the houses of Muslims. Eleven persons were injured and Muslim women were allegedly molested.”

Many of the victims I spoke to at the hospital in Bijapur claim to have seen activists of Hindutva organisations like the Sri Ram Sene in the mob. “Most of those who attacked us came from the lower castes, mostly Kurubas (the shepherd caste), but the leaders were Keshav Rao and Katwal, who are from the upper castes. Katwal even threatened they would turn this village into Modi’s Gujarat,” says Chand Sab, 70, a farmer who was injured in the attack.

For 60-year-old Hanifa Bi and her three granddaughters, it was one hellish experience. Afraid of going back to her village, Hanifa says, “They didn’t spare even children or elderly women. They just attacked whoever came their way.” Tarannum, one of Hanifa’s granddaughters, recalls, “When I saw them hitting my grandmother and mother, I rushed to save them. I too was hit with a stone on my head. One of the men grabbed my breasts and hair, abused me and pulled me out of the house, where some of the men in the mob molested me.”

Ibrahim, a farm labourer, says it was only after the intervention of Circle Inspector of Police Gopal Hallur that the violence stopped. Ibrahim was hit on the head. “I became unconscious because of the bleeding. The police admitted me to the hospital.” His wife Hajira too was hit on her chest and back with sticks and stones. The villagers say at least 20 people, including eight women, were seriously injured and had to be hospitalised in Bijapur. Four of them got fractures in their hands and one woman was still bleeding from internal injuries.

A villager Manzoor points out another incident in 2009, a year after the BJP government came to power, when local BJP leaders and Sri Ram Sene activists had objected to naming the village square after Tipu Sultan. They wanted it to be named after Chhatrapati Shivaji. While the Muslims succeeded in naming the square after Tipu and installed his cut-out there, an image of Shivaji too came up right opposite.

Circle Inspector Hallur says that Sri Ram Sene has been trying to rake up communal tensions in the name of stopping cow slaughter since the past three years. “When they tried doing it last year during Bakrid, the Muslims beat up the activists,” he informs. “They were waiting for an opportunity to hit back and got it during this Ugadi festival.” Six FIRs have been lodged after the 12 April incident and 23 people arrested.

“The charges against the accused are dacoity, attempt to rape and inciting hatred between communities,” says Bijapur SP Hillori. Earlier too, a case under Section 107 (breach of peace and tranquillity) had been filed against the panchayat president Katwal, “who has been lobbying for a BJP ticket in the Assembly polls”, says Hillori.

Speaking to this reporter in Bijapur Central Jail, Katwal dismissed the violence as a “minor incident”. Sri Ram Sene chief Pramod Muthalik, however, was more forthcoming and told Tehelka, “Our boys had been attacked last year when they tried to stop cow slaughter. The recent incident was bound to happen, but it was no pre-planned attack.”

How globalisation and Foreign Direct Investment ( FDI) has resulted in the mushrooming of malls and marts, in result killing off our neighbour hood kirana shops, and the families that depend on them, is the theme of ‘Bharat Stores’ a kannada regional language film which received the 60th National Film award this year. The film which was released in theatres last week in Bengaluru, is directed by seven times consecutive national award winner P Sheshadri. The film which looks at the cascading effects of FDI in retail is at the heart of it, an exploration of ‘human costs of political decisions’, wherein, day in and day out, due to the effects of globalisation, people are becoming commodity of the market economy.

The quintessential quality of Sheshadri-preferring easy narrative without relying too much on images “to reach wider audience” is literally visible in the Bharat Stores. The narration is liner, like his earlier films and refuses to examine a larger picture of the issue. Instead of becoming a strong critique of the FDI, Shehadri leaves the audience be the judge of it. When questioned, Sheshadri says, ‘’the job of art is to be a mirror of the society and not to take any sides’’. However, he aptly portrays the dark side of the development debate and what human costs it involves in it. To some extent he succeeds in transforming a contemporary issue in to an idea, instead of allowing that to remain as a narrative. Sheshadri says, he got the idea of the film when an intense debate on whether to allow the FDI in retail was raging on in September last year. ‘’ my whole experience of growing up in Tumkur district watching the quietly vanishing of Kirana shops there, drew the experience for the film’’, he adds.

The film opens with Bharati who settled in United States after her marriage, returning to Bangalore in search of Govinda Shetty, owner of Bharat Stores-a small grocery shop along with her husband Sharat. She was duty bound to repay debt availed by her father from Shetty. She fails to locate Bharat Stores in the lights of the Silicon city, which transformed from “Bangalore to Bengaluru”, as shop disappears, resultant impact of FDI.
Bharathi comes to know about Govind Shetty through two of the former employees of Bharat Stores. Chandra and Manjunath who used to work in the kirana shop, in a moving narration tell the tragedy that befell on the Govinda Shetty from whom they learnt the tactics of the trade.

Bharati coming in search of Bharat Stores metaphorically suits to the title. Sheshadri uses light as a vehicle to depict degeneration of local economy. Bharat Stores, which has bright light in he beginning will be reduced to candle light before its closure, as Govinda Shetty don’t have funds to foot electricity bill.  Changed economic scenario is being narrated through changed life style of consumers once depending on Shetty.  The attitude of suppliers and consumers of the Kirana Shop is best depicted in characters of farmer Boranna, who used to supply coconuts to Shetty, and daughter in law of military Rajanna, both shifting their allegiance to the consumerist mall culture, instead of their neighbour hood kirana shop.  Shetty tries to argue with his once lost customers, calling the whole pursuit as consumerist culture. Govind Shetty even terms it a ‘card culture’ wherein necessary and unnecessary things can be purchased at the cost of even burdening oneself with debt.  Military Rajanna, however, becoming a silent spectator in the debate takes the film to another level. Sheshadri makes every attempt to communicate the plight of human who could not adjust to the changed circumstances through Shetty’s journey to malls and his attempts to convince Boranna.

Shetty suffers, as he refuses to believe “change is permanent thing in this world”, when all grows in leaps and bounds. Till the end, he believes that, personal relation with the customers, laced with love and affection, will be the only criteria for promoting trade.

Ending the film with “helpless” siren of ambulance carrying ailing Shetty struck in traffic snarl of city conveys what Sheshadri wants to communicate to audience in a subtlemanner.

The film has seen some good performances on the part of artists like Sudharani, Chi. Gurudutt, V. Manohar and Padmalata. But it is the lead actor Dattanna in the role of Govinda Shetty who steals the show. However, Sheshadri could have invested much more effort in making Shetty’s character authentic. V. Manohar as the local cook, who later transforms himself in to a food supply contractor, travelling in a “fully loaded” car performed well and helped in providing different dimension to the film effectively.

Speaking about his role, Dattanna says, “ there were three stages of the character in the film. The first stage was of exuberant, when the character is in his glory. The second is of a beaten down man; and the third of a dementia patient- an emoted phase- no words given. I had lot of sittings with my director over the character. The actual owner of the shop also came in handy to help me in my character’’. Asked about his personal opinionon FDI, he says, it divides people over culturally, socially and economically. ‘’ however, what we are saying is just a fore runner. We are yet to see the full impact of it’’ forewarns Dattanna.

visit Sheshadri’s site for more details : http://www.psheshadri.com/