‘We are Tamil-speaking people, but Karnataka is like our mother’
BENGALURU: On Monday night, when pro-Kannada activists were running riot in India’s Silicon Valley, a wave of fear swept through the 1,000-odd residents of Sanjay Gandhi Nagar.
Residents of this tin-shed cluster that houses construction workers and those who survive on odd-jobs claim their forefathers were brought from Tamil Nadu to build Bengaluru city.
For many, memories of the first anti-Tamil riots on the Cauvery issue in December 1991 have come back to haunt them. Their colony was razed completely during those dark days, when they spent their nights on pavements in biting cold, scared stiff and clutching their little ones, wanting to escape to the land of their forefathers.
Local MLA S Ramesh, who was close to then chief minister S Bangarappa, persuaded them to stay put and helped them resettle in their lives.
“In comparison, Monday’s attacks by the shouting brigades of youth was less scary, but we are afraid nevertheless. The fear is still there, but we are hopeful that things are different now. Within two days things are returning to normal and we had people coming here to reassure us,” said S Nirmala, who was a victim of the 1991 anti-Tamil riots like several others in this shanty.
She recalled that some women were molested and raped during the 1991 riots. But this time around, volunteers of the Tamil Sangam visited the colony and ensured police protection was provided.
There are 450 shanties here, cheek-by-jowl, a tin sheet separating the 15 x 5 feet metal box they call ‘house’. Located in the Nandini Layout of north Bengaluru, Sanjay Gandhi Nagar nestles between two industrial estates, off the Mysore-Tumkur highway, falling under the Rajagopalanagar police station limits that was a disturbed area placed under curfew.
Bengaluru has 2,350 slums housing six lakh people, out of which 95% are of Tamil origin. Other prominent localities where Tamils are in large numbers are Gandhi Nagar, Lakashmi Narayanpuram, Prakash Nagar, Ramachandra Puram, Sriramapuram, Chikpet, Yelahanka and Binipet in north Bengaluru; Chamrajpet, Shanti Nagar, Basavannagudi in south, and Jayamahal, Mallesawaram, Shivaji Nagar and Bharati Nagar in central Bengaluru.
The Tamil dominated areas that witnessed violence and were declared disturbed included Rajagopalanagar, Peenya, Kamakshipalaya in north Bengaluru and Nyandalli, Kengeri in west and Nice Road in south Bengaluru.
As the city slowly gets back to its daily grind—schools, shops and offices cautiously resume work—Tamil residents of Sanjay Gandhi Nagar slum cluster, idle workers and womenfolk are huddled around wondering where the next meal will come from.
“Our main worry right now is of livelihood as we are out of work and may have to sit idle for a few more days. Please ask the government to help us,” wailed Vijayakumari, a casual labourer.
S Dhanabhagyam, an 80-year-old widow who lives with her four sons, a daughter and 12 grandchildren in two shanties, said: “We have lived through the worst times. We will live through this too. Whatever they (Kannada protesters) do, this is the only place we have and we will not go anywhere else.”Social worker Ramachandran was speaking to the residents at Sanjay Gandhi Nagar, exhorting them to display the courage and good sense and frustrate the efforts of those fomenting trouble.
Others like L Tamiladiyan from the Tamil outfit Naam Tamilar Katchi smell conspiracy of Kannadigas to use the excuse of Cauvery waters to kick out people of Tamil origin. Several of these workers were brought from Tamil Nadu to build the Vidhan Soudha, Kannambadi Dam, ministerial houses and much of the new Bengaluru, he said.
“For generations we have been living here without any problem with Kannadigas and consider Karnataka as our ‘thai’ (mother),” he says, adding,
“This (current violence) is not about Cauvery at all, but a ruse to oust Tamilians.”
However, M Velu Nayakar, a local corporator of the area, rubbishes this theory. “There is a pattern to the violence that occurred on the outskirts but did not touch the central areas. The lumpen elements and the unemployed youth from rural areas joined in the violence, some for fun, others to rob,” he says.
We have lived through worst times... Whatever they (Kannada protesters) do, this is the only place we have and we will not go anywhere else. S DHANABHAGYAM, a widow who lives with her four sons, a daughter and 12 grandchildren