The Slow-burning SOUTH

The Ram Janmabhoomi movement has taken its time to seep into the southern states, but undercurrents have always existed

- Shahina K K and Anisha Reddy

‘‘DO you have an idol of Ram in your prayer room?” asks one of the several saffron-clad volunteers who have been knocking on doors in a South Bengaluru pocket. Such groups of five to ten saffron-clad ‘volunteers’, armed with a pamphlet and akshate (turmeric-laced rice) and in their hands, have been regularly fielding this leading question after knocking on doors of homes in the capital and other parts of the state.

Their follow-up request is invariably an imploration to pray in the name of Lord Ram on January 22, the day when an idol dedicated to the deity is scheduled to be installed at the newly constructed Ram temple at Ayodhya.

Sometimes, requests made by such groups even tend to cross the boundaries of personal space, especially when they invite themselves into homes to see the idol with their own eyes.

For Charan Teja (name changed), a resident of South Bengaluru for almost 60 years, this ‘outreach campaign’ ahead of the consecration ceremony of the new Ram Temple in Ayodhya came as a surprise. Neither did he worship Rama nor has he witnessed a door-to-door outreach effort on religious lines at such a scale previously in the state.

The fervour and frenzy of the installation of the Ram idol at Ayodhya on January 22 has also crossed over from Karnataka, considered the gateway to ruling the South for the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, to Kerala, the country’s southernmost sentinel and a state where the BJP has failed to make any electoral dent.

Malayali playback sensation K S Chithra is revered as the ‘Nightingale of Kerala’ with an impressive catalogue of over 25,000 songs across various Indian languages.