In the 2023 Karnataka Assembly elections, for the first time in history, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) won’t be fielding candidates in the twin coastal districts of Dakshina Kannada (DK) and Udupi. This is the lowest point for the country’s largest Communist party in a region where it was once a formidable force. The CPI(M)’s ideological co-traveller, the CPI, too failed to put up a candidate in the region and has instead decided to back the Congress in all the constituencies. The steady decline of the Left parties and rise of hardline Hindutva in coastal Karnataka is confounding for many outside observers considering that just across the border, in Kerala, the CPI and CPI(M) are backed by powerful mass movements.
There was a time when the Communist parties in Kerala used to have a fortifying impact on the Left movement in coastal Karnataka. Today, it appears that the Sangh Parivar’s power here is spilling over into Kerala where saffron forces have made significant gains in the former red bastion of north Kerala. Once upon a time, many Communist leaders from Kerala, including icons such as EMS Namboodiripad and AK Gopalan, would visit Mangaluru and the wider coastal Karnataka region. Today, a bevy of Hindutva leaders from coastal Karnataka frequent north Kerala, including hardliners such as Dakshina Kannada BJP MP Nalin Kumar Kateel and Satyajith Surathkal. Satyajit visit the state to build a common platform for Thiyya-Ezhavas and Billavas based on Hindutva and their shared history of being lowered caste toddy tappers with the help of the Sree Narayana Dharma Paripalana (SNDP) Yogam. The tide is truly turning.
Driving into the region from Kasaragod in Kerala, the iconography and colours on NH 66 paint a telling picture. Until Kayyur in Kasaragod you pass through a veritable red corridor with both sides of the highway dotted with thousands of Communist flags and martyrs’ memorials. The colours start changing rapidly once you cross Chandragiri where red makes way for the green flags of the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) and the white and green flags of the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI). The first saffron flags and posters of ‘angry Hanuman’ start appearing near the Kasaragod town area. Incidentally, the ‘angry Hanuman’ motif, which has become a national symbol of militant Hindutva, was designed by Karan Acharya, who migrated from a small village in Kasaragod to Mangaluru in search of work.
After Kasaragod, for the next 30 km, the green flags and saffron flags compete for every inch of vacant space until the Ullal bridge where the green recedes and saffron takes over completely when we enter Mangaluru.
Dakshina Kannada, comprising Moodabidri, Mangaluru City North, Mangaluru City South, Mangaluru, Bantwal, Belthangady, Puttur, and Sullia, and Udupi comprising Karkala, Kaup, and Kundapur have a legacy of Communist movements and militant trade union activity. The coast is the only region in Karnataka that saw successful land reforms in the years following Independence and this was largely due to the pressure exerted by Left-led mass movements on the then Congress dispensation. The region also had strong trade unions representing tile and beedi workers.
The last Communist MLA in coastal Karnataka was the late BV Kakkilaya, who belonged to a renowned Tulu speaking family from across the border, in Kasaragod. A CPI leader, trade unionist, and litterateur, Kakkilaya was elected from Bantwal in 1972 and from Vittal in 1978. He played a key role in drafting the Karnataka Land Reforms Act and worked closely on the issue in the larger Malnad region with socialists such as Shantaveri Gopala Gowda and Kagodu Thimmappa. However, Kakkilaya’s popularity started fading with the rise of Hindutva and he lost the 1983 Assembly elections to the BJP’s A Rukmayya Poojary.
For the next two decades, the Sangh Parivar and its allied organisations went on to capture the imagination of the region’s voters. “In the 1940s and 1950s, Left parties spoke about labour rights, minimum wages, bonus, working hours. They had new things to contribute and the people joined hands with the Communists. In the 1980s and 1990s, they had nothing new to offer. Not even emotional slogans. On the other hand, BJP’s Hindu pride and anti-Muslim projections got wide popularity,” Srinivas Kakkilaya, BV Kakkilaya’s son who is also a member of the CPI, told TNM.
He said younger generations easily forgot the past and the struggles the CPI went through. “The Billavas who benefited from land reforms are the strongest BJP vote bank now,” he said. After the Babri Masjid demolition, many Communist and Congress cadres adopted a soft Hindutva stance, he said, resulting in a setback for secular politics in the region.
As the Hindutva movement grew in coastal Karnataka, its cadres started carrying the ideology across the border into Kerala. The entry of the BJP and militant Hindutva in Kerala saw Muslims consolidating behind the IUML and later the SDPI at the expense of the Left. This changed the complexion of politics in the northernmost part of Kerala and the Communists started becoming a fringe player in the contest between Muslim parties and the BJP.
The changed dynamic also saw pitched street battles, murders, and riots breaking out between supporters of the BJP on one side and the IUML and SDPI on the other. This shift is most visible in Manjeshwar, where the Communists have not won a major election in nearly two decades. CH Kunhambu of the CPI(M) was the last Communist leader to win an Assembly election from Manjeshwar in 2006.
The IUML has been winning in Manjeshwar since 2011, with the BJP coming a close second. In the 2021 Kerala Assembly elections, the constituency witnessed a tight fight between IUML and BJP, with the IUML emerging victorious. IUML’s AKM Ashraf defeated BJP’s K Surendran by a margin of just 745 votes. There are no signs of it today but Manjeshwar was once the stronghold of Dr A Subba Rao, a powerful CPI leader and Rajya Sabha member, who was elected twice to the state legislative Assembly and served as the Irrigation Minister in 1980-81.
CPI’s Kasaragod district committee secretary BV Rajan reminisced that CPI and CPI(M) were equally strong in the Manjeshwar (Kerala) and the Ullal (Karnataka) regions once. While people had an affinity towards the Left parties in these regions, the leadership failed in politically mobilising younger generations. “Even in areas considered to be AITUC or CITU strongholds where workers were deemed close to the union, the support did not turn into votes. The younger generation lost political awareness and got easily influenced by communal forces,” BV Rajan said.
Another major reason for the polarisation and resistance to secular parties is class differences.
Muneer Kattipalla, Karnataka state president of the Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI), said, “Muslim communities in Dakshina Kannada are culturally influenced by northern Kerala. Also, the majority of them are rich Muslims. They own big to small business establishments. On the other hand, most people from Hindu communities are not as well off as Muslims. This class difference was used by the communal forces, they could easily create this Muslim hatred. Hindutva here is just being anti-Muslim,” he said.
At the upper strata, businessmen from all communities and shades of politics stick together, but at lower levels parties use religious politics, said Muneer. “Only laymen will fight and kill for religion and they turn scapegoats of hate politics,” he said.
Krishnappa Konchady, political analyst and human rights activist based in Mangaluru, said many factors contributed to the weakening of the Communist movement in the region. “The separation of Kasaragod from South Canara in 1984, CPI and CPI(M) parting ways in 1964, the collapse of the weaving and tile industry in the 1990s, all were major setbacks to the Communist movement in Dakshina Kannada,” he said.
But the region was also a stronghold of the Sangh Parivar and hence fertile ground for communal polarisation, he pointed out. The first Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) shakha in Mangaluru was set up in 1940 and organisations like Brahmo Samaj and Arya Samaj were active in the region during the late 19th century.
“The RSS received financial support from the Gowda Saraswat Brahmins. Ever since the 1830s there have been seeds of communal disharmony here. Brahmo Samaj was brought to Mangaluru to tackle the conversion of Hindus to Christianity,” he said.
Though the CPI(M) is not fielding any candidates in Dakshina Kannada, it will be active in electoral campaigning, extending support to some secular candidates. “Our aim is to defeat the BJP and fielding candidates will only split the votes,” Muneer said.
While this explains Mangaluru’s shift to Sangh politics, BV Rajan said that the reason the same politics was spreading in northern Kasaragod now was because youngsters from the area most often came to Mangaluru for studies and jobs.
“A majority of the youngsters here depend on Mangaluru for their work. It’s easy to manipulate them by talking about unemployment. The colleges there rarely have a political base, the Students’ Federation of India (SFI) and the All India Students’ Federation (AISF) are not strong in the colleges here unlike in Kerala. On the other hand, Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) is strong there. So the students have little political knowledge,” he said. While SFI and AISF are student bodies linked to the CPI(M) and CPI respectively, ABVP is affiliated to the RSS.
K Madhavan, Dr Subba Rao, Ramappa Master, and BV Kakkilaya were all able to bring mass movement in the region before 1990. But after that, Kerala leaders have had little influence in Dakshina Kannada. “Also intellectual clubs, libraries or classes associated with the Left parties are also not so widespread in the region like in Kerala’s Kannur. Younger generations are not understanding the history and relevance of such movements. The clubs here all are categorised based on religion. Earlier Hindus and Muslims all went to the same clubs, but now they have separate ones. Both the communities are extremely polarised now, which makes it perfect for the growth of communal parties while the secular parties are being sidelined,” Rajan said.
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