YOGINDER SIKAND
Posted on November 14, 2000

 From the 1990s onwards, as a fall-out of the movement by Hindu fascist groups to destroy the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya, Hindutva forces have become increasingly active and aggressive in south India, a part of the country where they have hitherto had little mass support. n recent years, Hindutva groups have been responsible for a number of attacks on Muslim and Christian groups and institutions in south India.

 Karnataka, in the last one decade, has become a major support-base for the Hindu right. As elsewhere, the strategy of mobilisation of the Hindutva forces has been to pit Hindus against Muslims and Christians and to thereby present themselves as ardent champions of the so-called 'Hindu cause'. It is this sinister game that is being played out in the bid to capture an ancient Sufi shrine, the Baba Budhan Giri dargah in Chikmagalur, and convert it into a Hindu temple.

 The Baba Budhan Giri dargah is one of the few institutions of its kind in all of India. Known in the official records as the Sri Guru Dattatreya Swami Baba Budhan Peetha, the dargah is situated in the coffee- growing belt of the Chikmagalur district, some 270 kilometres north of Bangalore, amidst rolling hills and dense forests. It is said to be one of the oldest centres of Sufism in south India.  Its founding is associated with a Sufi from Arabia, Dada Hayat Qalandar, whose life is shrouded in mystery. Yet, from the available hagiographic works and the legends about him, it is possible to reconstruct the broad contours of the history of this figure and his shrine.

 According to one account, Dada Hayat was the first of the Qalandars or wandering dervishes in India, who arrived here in the early Islamic period. His real name was Shaikh Abdul Aziz Makki, and he was born in the town of Taif in Arabia.  He is said to have been a descendant of the prophet Saleh, and was apparently a Christian earlier before he embraced Islam when Muhammad declared his prophethood in Mecca.   On becoming a Muslim he joined the Ahl-i-Suffa, a group of some four hundred  of the Prophet's special disciples, regarded as the precursors of the Sufis. The Ahl-i-Suffa would spend their time in prayer, meditation and strict austerities, and would gather on a platform outside the mosque in Medina, where the Prophet would give them special esoteric spiritual instruction.

 By remaining in close company of the Prophet and by serving for many years as the guard of his cell, Dada Hayat received the secrets of the shari'at [the Islamic law], the tariqat [the mystical path] and the haqiqat [the Truth]. He is said to have taken the oath of allegiance [bayt], first from the Prophet, and then, after the Prophet's death, from Imam Ali, cousin and son-in-law of Muhammad. In some texts he is said to have taken the oath from each of the four successive khalifas or heads of the Muslim community after the Prophet.  He is believed to have accompanied the Prophet on several of his travels and battles, during which he was given the responsibility of carrying the Prophet's flag [alam]. Because of this, the Prophet bestowed upon him the title of alambardar or 'flag-bearer'.

   The hagiographies of Dada Hayat present his arrival in India as a result of a command issued to him by the Prophet. It is said that at that time the palegars, the local  feudal lords, had 'turned this natural heaven into a veritable hell with their oppression and cruelty'. They would 'play holi with the blood of innocents every day' and would sacrifice them to appease their blood-thirsty goddesses. There was 'no trace of  justice' in the land. Finding no other recourse, the people groaning under the oppression of the palegars turned to God, who listened to their prayers and instructed Muhammad to choose a 'fiery' [jalali] and 'powerful' [ba-wazan] 'elder' [buzurg] to go to India and establish peace there. On receiving this command, the Prophet called Dada Hayat to the mosque in Medina and said to him:

 'O Abdullah alambardar! You are now given the title of 'the living one of the life of the seas' [hayat-ul bahr zinda]. In your 'majesty of dervishood' [jalal-i-qalandari], find out where the Chandradrona hill is. Go and settle there and spread the knowledge of Islam.'

 On being commanded thus by the Prophet, it is said, Dada Hayat left on a long journey to India, accompanied by many of his disciples. According to one version, he travelled from Mecca to Yemen, and from there by ship across the Arabian Sea, landing on the coast of Mangalore. Here he spent some days in solitary meditation, whence he was informed by divine command of the location of the Chandradrona hill where the Prophet had instructed him to settle. He, along with his disciples, then proceeded to the hill, a journey of many days.

 The Chandradrona hill, where the dargah of Dada Hayat stands, has two major peaks, Kalhatgiri and Malaigiri, the latter, at a height if 6214 feet, being the highest peak in Karnataka. It appears that well before Dada Hayat's arrival, the hill was of particular significance in the local religious tradition. This is suggested by the several names by which it was called. In ancient texts it is commonly referred to as the Chandradrona Parbat or 'the hill of the moon', because it is shaped like a crescent. It was also known as Vayuparbat and Marutsaila, and both these names are sought to be traced to the Puranas.

 Because of the many springs that flow down the mountain slope it was known as Jalparbat or 'the mountain of water'. Another name for it was Dadadari or 'the star mountain'. Muslims call this peak as Dada Ka Pahad or 'the hill of Dada [Hayat]'. Asri writes that this name was popularised by the numerous jogis and sanyasis, Hindu mendicants, who flocked there for tapas or meditation.  Today, it is more commonly known as Baba Budhan Giri or 'the hill of Baba Budhan', after another Sufi, Hazrat Jamaluddin Maghribi, popularly known as Baba Budhan, who is buried here.

 Given the significance of the Chandradrona hill in the local religious tradition, it is not surprising that Dada Hayat chose to make it the centre for his Sufi mission. In fact, Sufis all over South Asia settled at key local religious centres, and sought to spread their teachings by operating within pre-existing religious institutions and networks, often resulting in the gradual Islamisation of local religious beliefs, practices and institutions. This is strikingly illustrated in the case of the story of Dada Hayat's missionary endeavours after settling down at Chandradrona hill.

 Asri writes that after a long and arduous journey, Dada Hayat finally reached the mountain where he had been commanded by the Prophet to go to 'purify it of the oppression and cruelties of the savages'.  It is interesting to note here that throughout the narrative, Dada Hayat is seen as fighting not the 'Hindus' as a community, but the local feudal lords or palegars, who are depicted as 'oppressors' [zalim] and 'cannibals' [adam khor], persecutors of not the Muslims as such, but of the 'mendicants' [fuqara], the 'pure ones' [salehin] as well as the local, powerless non-Muslim poor. The deep regard with which many local Hindus looked upon Dada Hayat is repeatedly stressed in the narrative. To see this as a stereotypical 'Hindu' versus 'Muslim' conflict would, therefore, be misleading and completely misplaced.

 The image of Dada Hayat as a crusader against the oppression of the palegars is deeply etched in the minds of his Muslim as well as Hindu followers. His heroic struggle against the palegars is well illustrated in the account of his arrival at Chandradrona hill. It is said that when Dada Hayat and his disciples finally reached their destination,  night had already fallen. His disciples went off to sleep while he entered a cave on the top of the mountain and began preparing for the night prayer. Just then, he saw a group of palegars and their henchmen dragging along with them a man bound up in chains. They were planning to kill him for having intruded into their territory.

 The palegars drew up to the cave where Dada Hayat was sitting, which was used by a Brahmin and a jangam, a Lingayat priest, as a court to try criminal cases. When they saw Dada Hayat inside the cave deep in meditation they were enraged, thinking him to be an intruder. They unsheathed their swords and rushed towards him in a bid to kill him, but legend has it that due to divine intervention the swords fell from their hands and the chains around their captive suddenly snapped loose. Then, realising that Dada Hayat was no ordinary mortal, they begged him for forgiveness. He pardoned them, and they left, leaving behind their captive whom they were planning to offer as a human sacrifice. This man was so grateful to Dada Hayat for saving his life that he became a Muslim and joined the band of Dada Hayat's disciples.

 The next morning, the Brahmin and the jangam, who had witnessed the miraculous events of the night before, came to the cave. They appeared before Dada Hayat, who was inside meditating, and repented for having opposed him. They fell at his feet and 'became his true followers'. It appeared to them that Swami Dattatreya, the much-awaited incarnation of the Hindu Trinity of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva, had appeared to them in the form of Dada Hayat. They spread this news among the local Hindus, who began flocking in large numbers to the cave to pay their respects to Dada Hayat.  So impressed, it is said, were they by his kindness  love, compassion and tolerance, that many of them converted to Islam at his hands. Thousands of others 'who did not wish to leave their ancestral religion' began regarding Dada Hayat as 'the incarnation of Sri Dattatreya'.

Dada Hayat and Dattatreya

 The equation between Dada Hayat and Dattatreya is striking and deserves particular attention here, especially since this is one of the most crucial issues in the present controversy over the dargah. It appears that even before Dada Hayat's arrival, the cult of Dattatreya was fairly popular in this region. Among the several places in the vicinity of the Chandradrona hill that have major Dattatreya shrines several centuries old are Somapura, Inam Bisagnimath and Mutthinapura.  Dattatreya is often identified as an avatar of Vishnu, and is also believed to be the son of Atreya Rishi, one of the sapta rishis or 'seven seers' of ancient times.  It was believed that in the cave where Dada Hayat had taken up residence Dattatreya would appear at the end of time to deliver the world from oppression. Chenni remarks that the fact that it was believed that Dattatreya would be the last incarnation of Vishnu suggests that the Dattatreya tradition in the region was 'a late phenomenon', which is itself illustrated in its being 'a syncretic cult in which Hindu and Islamic practices are blended'. As the Gazetteer of the Belgaum district, an area where the tradition is widely popular, notes , 'Dattatreya represents not only the synthesis of Shaivism and Vaishnavism but also of the Sufi cult'.

 The early Dattatreya tradition seems beyond doubt to have been an anti-Brahminical one, part of the Awadhut tradition that upholds a formless god and sternly condemns caste and the sacrificial religious system of the Brahmin priests. We do know that in the Siva Purana Dattatreya is said to have developed the sanyasa mode' of a world-renouncing mystic. In the Markandeya Purana, Dattatreya appears as an antinomian yogi.   We are told that although he wanted to be alone, the sons of the sages always surrounded him. In order to drive them away, he submerged himself in the waters of a lake and came out with a beautiful woman, with whom he set about sharing a glass of wine, thinking that on seeing this the sons of the sages would leave him alone. The Markandya Purana tells us that once, when the gods were defeated in a battle by the demons, they approached Brihaspati for help, who sent them to Dattatreya. When the gods approached Dattatreya, they found him drinking wine with Lakshmi. The gods prayed to him for help, but he pointed out his own faults: 'drinking, attachment, affection and sexual enjoyment of women'.  'Herein', writes Dange, 'is indication of Tantrism'.

 This antinomian tradition associated with Dattatreya has strong parallels with the sort of Sufism associated even today with the dargah of Dada Hayat, where most of the Qalandar faqirs come from poorer sections of society, and many of whose ecstatic practices, such as mutilation of the body, singing, dancing, consumption of drugs and neglect of ritual prayers are not sanctioned in the Islamic law [shari'at].  This similarity perhaps accounts for the widespread local identification of Dada Hayat with Dattatreya. This hypothesis is further substantiated by the fact that in other parts of the Deccan, other Sufi cults have also been associated with the Dattatreya tradition, on account of the marked similarity in their practices and beliefs. This is most strikingly illustrated in the case of the cult promoted by the fifteenth century Narasimha

 Saraswati of Gangapur, who is said to have revived the worship of Dattatreya, promoting this deity 'in such a manner as to be acceptable not only to various Hindu sects bust also to the Muslims'.  For Muslims, Dattatreya took the form of a malang, or antinomian Sufi, called Shah Faqir. Shah Faqir was widely venerated throughout the Deccan as Shah Datta Alam Prabhu. According to Joshi, this figure was instrumental  'in bringing about a synthesis of devotional thought among various communities of the people of the Deccan, like the Lingayats, the Muslims, the Ananda Sampradayis and the Giri-gosains'. Chand Bhole, a Muslim Sufi who was the spiritual preceptor of one Janardhana Swami, was regarded as an incarnation of Shah Datta Alam Prabhu. In turn, Shah Datta Alam Prabhu has close links with the Lingayat deity, Shah Allama Prabhu. Indeed, there is a very distinct Sufi influence on the Lingayats. We do know, for instance, that many Lingayats hold a Sufi called Ahmad Shah in great reverence, and in the annual urs or celebrations in his honour, a Lingayat jangam or priest is one of the principal participants.

 To come back to the tradition linking Dada Hayat with Dattatreya, it is interesting to note that belief in the coming of a messiah in the form of Dattatreya to deliver the world from strife and oppression was central to the early Dattatreya cult as it evolved in the Deccan. Dada Hayat's battles with the oppressive palegars seem to have been as a confirmation of this belief, and thus it is not surprising that many Hindus saw him as their awaited messianic figure delivering them from servitude. Consequently, Dada Hayat was seen as none other than Dattatreya, which word may itself be, in this context, a corruption of the word 'Dada'.  Whatever might be the case, in this appropriation of a distinctly Hindu name by a Muslim Sufi, Dada Hayat was not alone. In Karnataka itself, there have been several other noted Sufis who were called by Hindu names by their Hindu disciples, such as Khwaja Aminuddin Ala of Bijapur, known to his Hindu followers as Brahmanandayike Swamy, or Moinuddin of Thinthini, also known as Muniappa. This was by no means a phenomenon limited to Karnataka. In the Nizari Ismaili Shia community in Gujarat, for instance, many of the leading da'is or missionaries took on Hindu names. Thus, the first of the Nizari da'is in India, Sayyed Shamsuddin, was also known as Shamas Rishi. The fourth in line of succession to him, Pir Sadruddin, took the Hindu names of Sahadev and Harichand. In Kashmir, the indigenous Rishi Sufi order, which was instrumental in the mass conversion of almost the entire region to Islam, was led by Sufis with such Hindu names as Nund Rishi, Zaina Rishi,  Nuri Rishi, Bikhi Rishi, etc..

 The identification of Dada Hayat with Dattatreya became so complete over time that in the records of the inams or land grants given to his dargah, the Muslim sajjada nashin or custodian is inevitably referred to with the Hindu honorific title of jagadguru or 'preceptor of the whole world'.  According to local tradition, because the Prophet Muhammad blessed him with a long life, Dada Hayat is still alive today and he remains present, though invisible, in the cave around which his dargah is built. Leaving the cave from time to time, Dada Hayat is believed by his followers to continue to travel to various places, helping his followers who are in distress and 'quenching the thirst of the lovers of the truth [ashiqan-i-haqq]'.

 We have established that the equation of Dada Hayat with Dattatreya and the consequent spread of Islam and the Dada Hayat cult in the region represents a successful attempt at Islamisation through the use of local beliefs, institutions and motifs. The crusading role of Dada Hayat against the oppression of the palegars seems to hold the key to the popular perception of his having been the awaited messiah associated with the Dattatreya tradition. Adding to his popularity are the several miraculous stories associated with him, which are related in different ways by his Muslim and Hindu followers. While these served to further popularise his cult in the past, the different tellings of these stories are today of crucial significance in the current controversy over the dargah. To these we now turn.

 Many miraculous events have come to be associated with the life of Dada Hayat. It is said that once when a group of palegars attacked him, they trapped him in the cave by placing massive boulders at its entrance. According to popular lore, Dada Hayat simply glanced to his left and a tunnel suddenly appeared. His Muslim followers believe that this tunnel leads to Medina and they say that Dada Hayat left the cave through this opening for the Muslim holy city. When large numbers of Hindus joined the Dada Hayat cult, this story naturally needed to be explained to them in terms which they would find intelligible. Hence arose the belief that it was through this tunnel that Dattatreya left the cave for the Hindu holy town of Kashi. A similar miraculous story is related about the spring that flows inside the cave. It is said that the palegars once stopped the water supply to the cave so that it became difficult for Dada Hayat to perform his ritual ablutions. Thereupon, Dada Hayat simply scratched the ground with his finger and a spring suddenly gushed forth. The water of this spring is regarded by Dada Hayat's Muslim followers as ab-i-hayat or  the sacred 'water of life', while his Hindu followers consider it as gangajal or the waters of the Ganges. Because of its association with so many miracles, the dargah is known among local Muslims as 'the Ka'aba of south India', while the Hindu followers of Dada Hayat believe it to be 'the second Kashi'.

 As in the case of the miracles associated with Dada Hayat, his shrine itself is seen in different ways by Muslims and some Hindus, in order, once again, to fit into their own traditions and world-views. Thus, the chilla or place of meditation which Muslims believe to be that of Mama Jigni, a Muslim princess rescued by Dada Hayat from the clutches of the palegars,  is known as the seat of Sati Sumikta or Anusiya, mother of Dattatreya, by some Hindus.  The alam or pole carrying the flag of the Prophet that Dada Hayat brought along with him from Arabia seems to have been taken by his Hindu followers as a trishul [trident], a ritual object associated with the Shiva cult. Likewise, the masnads or seats of four Muslim Qalandars, Jan Pak Shahid, Malik Tijar Faruqi, Malik Wazir Isfahani and Abu Turab Shirazi, located to the left of the masnad of Dada Hayat in the inner chamber of the cave, are considered by some Hindus as the seats of four disciples of Dattatreya.

 The different renderings of the stories associated with the shrine by Muslims and some Hindus are mentioned in passing by Asri, the principal hagiographer of Dada Hayat, who does not see this as in any way problematic or controversial. Indeed, it seems to be the case that till recently these were seen as simply different ways of rendering the same stories about Dada Hayat to make them intelligible to their Muslim or Hindu audiences as the case might be. Today, however, these stories are being sought to be projected by Hindutva leaders as divergent and mutually opposed to each other. Thus, they insist, arguing against traditional understandings, that Dada Hayat and Dattatreya are two completely different individuals; that the four seats in the shrine are those of Dattatreya's disciples and not of Muslim Qalandars; that the chillah in the cave is that of Anusiya, mother of Dattatreya, and not the Muslim Mama Jigni, and so on.  This is a complete departure from past tradition that expressed itself in multiple voices, seeing no contradiction between them as they all pointed to the same fundamental reality, however differently expressed, in order to be intelligible to different sets of listeners.

The Custodians of the Dargah:

 Although it is believed that Dada Hayat is still alive and continues to live in his cave, it is said that once he was satisfied with the centre that he had established at Chandradrona hill, he left through the tunnel in the cave for a long visit to Arabia and Central Asia, from where he brought back a group of men to look after the affairs of the centre under his guidance.  From this group of men he appointed  some 'responsible elders' [zimmedar buzurgan] to run the centre according to his directions, each holding the post till his death. Later, it is said, he decided to appoint such a 'capable' [qabil] person to look after the dargah whose descendants would be fit to inherit the responsibility. Accordingly, he chose one Sayyed Shah Jamaluddin Maghribi, a native of Yemen, for this honour.  Maghribi is today more popularly known as Baba Budhan, and it is from this name that the hills around Chandradrona are known as the Baba Budhan range. Maghribi, a renowned Sufi himself, is said to have been accepted by  Sultan Ali Adil Shah of Bijapur [1557-79] as his spiritual preceptor.  He played a major role in reviving the dargah of Dada Hayat. After staying at the shrine for four years, he went on a long journey that took him to the holy places in Iraq, Syria and Arabia. In Yemen,  while on his return to India, he procured some coffee seeds, with which he brought back with him to Chandradrona hill.

 The introduction of coffee into the Chikmagalur area is remembered by Hindus and Muslims as Maghribi's greatest and most lasting contribution, for today the hills around Chandradrona and far beyond are covered with vast coffee plantations, which form the mainstay of the local economy. The first coffee saplings were planted by Maghribi at Takht Bagh at Attigunde, also called Baba Budhan Nagar, some three kilometres from the dargah. Later, Maghribi divided his Sufi disciples into several groups and despatched them to various places to spread Islam as well as the cultivation of coffee so that the people could have a proper source of livelihood. Thus, a group under Miskin Shah was sent to Hosalhallipet, another under Badla Shah to Vastara in Kadur, and a third under Chungi Shah to Belur.  Other groups were also sent to spread Islam and coffee in Coorg and the Nilgiri hills.

 Maghribi died on 22 Shaban, 1125 A.H.  Just before his death, he nominated his nephew, Sayyed Musa Hussain Shah Qadri, as his successor and sajjada nashin of the dargah.  The custodianship of the shrine continues till this day in this family.  The present sajjada nashin, Sayyed Pir Muhammad Shah Qadri Qalandar, is fifteenth in line from Sayyed Musa.

The Roots of the Present Controversy

 Over the centuries, various Muslim as well as Hindu rulers patronised the dargah, endowing it with considerable wealth and land. Thus, during the time of the second sajjada nashin, Sayyed Jamal Shah Qadri Qalandar, Channamaji, the Hindu queen of Nagar, contributed lavishly for the repair of the dargah's aslah khana, the storage-house for weapons for the protection of the faqirs and where the alams of the twelve Imams were also installed.  Haider Ali, ruler of Mysore, donated several villages to the dargah for its upkeep during the time of the eighth sajjada nashin, Sayyed Shah Jamaluddin Qadri Qalandar.  His son, Tipu Sultan, also granted some lands to the shrine. Another great patron of the dargah was Sri Krishnaraja Wodeyar III of Mysore, who would regularly visit the shrine and seek spiritual instruction from the then sajjada nashin, Pir Sayyed Murtaza Shah Qadri Qalandar.   Besides this royal patronage by various Hindu and Muslim rulers, the dargah also emerged over time as a popular pilgrimage centre for hundreds and thousands of ordinary Muslims and Hindus from all over the Deccan as well as from the far south.

 That the specifically 'Hindu' or 'Muslim' character of the dargah was never an issue for the general public in the past is suggested by the very name of the shrine in the land grants made to it by various rulers: Sri Dattatreya Swami Baba Budhan Peetha. While the Muslims saw Dada Hayat as a Muslim saint, some Hindus saw him as an incarnation of their god Dattatreya, but there is no record, till recently, of this having been the source of any communal conflict.

 Indeed, as the narrative accounts in the hagiographies suggest, the Muslim sajjada nashins did not seek to actively counter the story linking Dada Hayat with Dattatreya, possibly because Hindus themselves were a valuable source of patronage and income for the shrine. It is also instructive to note that the custodianship of the shrine as being vested in the family of Muslim sajjada nashins was never challenged  by any Hindu ruler.  Indeed, in the royal documents detailing the grants given to them by various Hindu kings, the sajjada nashins were recognised as the mathadipathis or 'heads of the matha [shrine]'  They were also known by the honorific title of  Sri Dattatreya Swami Baba Budhan Swami Jagadguru.  Accordingly, they were given certain privileges on par with the heads of some leading Hindu shrines. Thus, in the Hindu kingdom of Mysore, the Sajjade Sri Guru Dattathreya Bababudanswami was among the seventeen 'gurus' to be exempted from personal appearance in the civil courts of the state, the only Muslim 'guru' to have had that honour.

  It was only in the mid-1960s that a dispute arose over the control of the shrine, and even then it was not between Hindus and Muslims but, rather, between two administrative bodies. The Karnataka Waqf Board issued a notification claiming the dargah as coming under its own jurisdiction, but this was disputed by the Muzrai Department, the Commissioner of Religious and Charitable Endowments in the state. Interestingly, the sajjada nashin of the dargah supported the Muzrai Department's stand, arguing against the Waqf Board's claims on the grounds that the dargah was not exclusively a Muslim shrine as it was venerated by both Muslims as well as Hindus. In 1975, the state government directed that the dargah be vested with the Waqf Board, but this order was struck down by the Chikmagalur District Court in 1980. The Waqf Board challenged this order and took the matter to the Karnataka High Court. In 1989, the Court of the Commissioner for Religious and Charitable Endowments restored the shrine to the Muzrai Department and upheld the status of the sajjada nashin as its sole administrator. In 1991, the Karnataka High Court dismissed the appeal of the Waqf Board and ordered the restoration of the pre-1975 status quo. This order was later upheld by the Supreme Court. As matters stand today, the courts have ruled that the dargah is under the jurisdiction of the Muzrai Department and not the Waqf Board; that the Muslim sajjada nashin is the sole administrator of the dargah; and that the rituals that have traditionally been carried out at the dargah, consisting essentially of the reciting of the fatiha, the opening verse of the Holy Quran, inside the cave and the breaking of coconuts in its courtyard, be continued and not be tampered with.

 To repeat, then, the dispute was in no sense a communal issue between Muslims and Hindus, but essentially concerned the matter of jurisdiction over the shrine between the Muzrai Department and the Waqf Board. In this dispute, the sajjada nashin was content to let the shrine continue under the jurisdiction of the Muzrai Department, which, in turn, recognised his right as its sole administrator. It is only recently that concerted efforts began being made to communalise the affair, seeking to project it as a Hindu-Muslim dispute
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 From the 1980s onwards, in order to expand their limited base in south India, Hindutva groups began whipping up Hindu sentiments by raising controversies over several Christian and Muslim shrines in Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu. These included a Portuguese-built church near Pondicherry, an idgah at Hubli and the Baba Budhan Giri shrine. This went along with strenuous efforts to expand the activities of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh [RSS], the Vishwa Hindu Parishad [VHP], the Bharatiya Janata Party [BJP] and the Bajrang Dal in the entire region. As a result, the Hindutva forces were able to establish a strong foothold in parts of Karnataka, including the Chikmagalur area.

  In the late 1980s, in the wake of the Hindutva agitation to demolish the Babri Masjid at Ayodhya, the Karnataka unit of the VHP launched a campaign for the 'liberation' of the dargah of Dada Hayat. Accordingly, it set up the Datta Peetha Samrakshana Samiti ['Committee for the Liberation of Data Peetha']. In 1989, for the first time, a puja to Dattatreya was conducted by a group of Brahmins affiliated to the VHP outside the cave on 3 December, which was declared to be his birthday. Following the destruction of the Babri Masjid, the VHP was further emboldened, and the so-called Dattatreya Jayanti Utsav was converted into a three-day affair, from 1-3 December, in which a three-headed figure whom the VHP leaders claimed to be that of Dattatreya  was worshipped in the courtyard outside the cave. This, of course, was a clear violation of the court's order that the traditional rituals associated with the dargah be left unchanged.

 In order to further galvanise support for the capture of the dargah, the VHP and the Bajrang Dal organised a massive mobilisational drive all over Karnataka in the last week of November, 1998. Involved in this campaign were senior leaders of the RSS and the BJP. Prominent among them was Ananth Kumar Hegde, BJP Member of Parliament from the neighbouring Karwar constituency, who, six years before, had personally participated in tearing down the Babri Masjid at Ayodhya. Hegde publicly announced that he would despatch 'suicide squads' to ensure the success of the campaign.

 Various other Hindutva leaders made similar threatening remarks, greatly vitiating inter-communal relations all over the state. Five rath yatras [chariot processions] were launched which criss-crossed the entire state, raising Hindu passions against the Muslims in the name of 'liberating' the dargah from Muslim control. At some places, as in Hubli, violence broke out as the raths passed through. Pleas that the raths be banned for fear of raising communal tension were turned down by the government administration.

 The five raths reached Chikmagalur on 30 November, and the dargah on 1 December, amidst unprecedented police protection. Although the district administration had clamped prohibitory orders in a 10-kilometre radius around the dargah under Section 144 banning the assembly of four or more persons, no ban was placed on the assembly of Hindutva activists at the shrine itself, which, by 3 December, had swelled to more than 10,000. A large rally was then held outside the shrine, in which fiery speeches were delivered against the Muslims. Among the Hindutva leaders present were VHP-affiliated Brahmin priests from Gujarat, the all-India convenor of the Bajrang Dal, Prakash Sharma, Jaya Basavananda Swami of the Basava Peetha, and the secretary of the VHP, Babu Rao Desai. Addressing the rally, Swamy Sadanandji of the Ajjampura Math declared, much to the joy of the mobs gathered there: 'The shrine will be liberated or a blood-bath is certain'.  Impassioned cries of: 'We will shed blood to save the Datta Peetha' were raised.  It was falsely alleged that the sajjada nashin was obstructing Hindus from worshipping at the dargah.

 On 2 December, activists of the Bajrang Dal tore down the green flags fluttering near the dargah and, in their place, hoisted saffron Hindutva flags. The police and the local administration remained mute spectators to this vandalism. The Deputy Commissioner of Chikmagalur, K.S.Manjunath, and the Inspector General of Police [Western Range], B.N.Bhonsale, claimed that this 'could not be stopped' as it would lead to a confrontation.  Emboldened thus, Hindutva activists carried an idol purported to be that of Dattatreya inside the cave and worshipped it. The Muslims protested to the administration, arguing that this was a clear violation of the court's orders., but their plea was turned down on the flimsy grounds that removing the idol then might result in communal violence  As a result, for the first time an idol was worshipped at the dargah, and this continued for three days, till 3 December. A group of Brahmins associated with the VHP also sought to take a two-foot idol of Ganesha inside the shrine, fully aware of the tradition that once an idol of the elephant-headed god is installed at a particular spot it cannot be removed. The administration did not let them take this idol inside, although they were allowed to worship it at the entrance of the cave. After this, the idol was taken by the Deputy Commissioner, K.C.Manjunath, to be handed over to the Muzrai Department. Manjunath told visiting newspersons that at an earlier meeting with VHP leaders he had agreed that any 'offering' that they made to the shrine 'would be accepted'.

 After the puja gave over, a dharma sabha [religious council] was organised outside the dargah, which was addressed by senior VHP and Bajrang Dal leaders. They announced that they were giving the government a year's ultimatum to hand the shrine over to them, failing which they would be forced to 'choose the path of confrontation', promising  a ' blood-bath'  and threatening to send suicide squads for 'liberating' it.  They also demanded the removal of the present sajjada nashin and the appointment of a Hindu [read Brahmin] priest in his place and the offering of Hindu-style puja at the dargah every day.  The state convenor of the Bajrang Dal, Pramod Mutalik, demanded that the annual Sufi urs festival, which has been held for several centuries at the dargah, be discontinued forthwith.  Hindutva leaders insisted that their final aim was to convert the dargah into 'a purely Hindu place of worship'.  The all-India general secretary of the Bajrang Dal, Prakash Sharma, demanded that only Hindu pujas should be allowed at the dargah. While he claimed that Muslims would also be allowed to worship at the shrine, at a rally at Chikmagalur town he thundered: 'If Allah and Christ do not accept Saraswati Vandana, why should our Dattapeetha accept Muslims?'

  A deceptive calm now seems to prevail over the dargah. Although the sajjada nashin still continues in his post and large numbers of ordinary Hindus and Muslims still gather to worship together  at the dargah, the threat of Hindutvawadis again stoking the fires of controversy looms large. The Hindutva forces are well aware of the mobilisational potential of this issue and are unlikely to give it up altogether. The government's own acts of omission and commission-implicitly accepting the VHP as the representative of the Hindus by holding negotiations with it  and allowing it to take out the rath yatras and conduct puja at the shrine--have themselves further complicated matters. In many respects, this seems a repeat performance of the government's policy vis-à-vis the Babri Masjid issue, where inaction and covert support for the Hindutva agenda brought in its trail a storm of destruction and violence on an unprecedented scale. Every effort, then, needs to be made to prevent the Baba Budhan Giri dargah from being made into a second Ayodhya.
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 The annual urs frstival of Dada Hayat is held at the dargah for three days in the Islamic month of Rabi-ul Awwal. It is a major event for the Sufis of the Qalandar and Rifa'i orders, who come here from all over the south in large numbers.

 The Qalandars dress in saffron clothes, while the Rifa'i wear green. Many of their practices are very similar to that of the antinomian jogis and sadhus. Like the sadhus, they keep long, matted hair, wear heavy jewellery, observe strict austerities and many, though not all, smoke ganja. They stress that barring their belief in the prophethood of Muhammad, there is little difference between them and the mystics of other faith traditions.

 During the urs celebrations, the faqirs whip themselves with flails, some of them piercing their heads and tongues with spears. This practice is known as zarb or sultani. On the conclusion of the urs, they gather to sing qawwalis to the accompaniment of tambourines and rhythmic clapping. One can discern a strong strain of social protest against poverty, the oppression of the poor and the meaninglessness of ritualistic religion divorced from true spirituality in the songs that they sing.

 The urs brings together people of different castes and faith traditions, who worship together in complete harmony. A Dalit from Pune who has been attending the urs for the last twenty years says: 'What attracts me most here is the feeling of real brotherhood--being able to eat and stay with pilgrims from other castes and religions in the khanqah [Sufi lodge] run by the sajjada nashin.' Most non-Muslim pilgrims at the dargah come from the so-called 'low' castes, although there is also a significant presence of Marathas, Lingayats, Gowdas, Jains and Reddys.

 Interestingly, the present sajjada nashin of the dargah has a close Brahmin disciple, one Subramaniam Shastri, a retired bank clerk who has taken sannyas and has been living with the sajjada nashin in the khanqah for the last four years. Shastri says that he was instructed by his earlier guru, one Sridharswamy of Wardahally, to live in the khanqah and serve the pilgrims, irrespective of caste and creed, who come there.

  According to Shastri, Sridharswamy had once visited the dargah many years ago during the urs. He distributed money among the faqirs who had gathered there, but one faqir politely declined to accept any money, saying that he relied only on God to feed him. Sridharswamy found this total dependence of the faqir on God so striking that he instructed Shastri to shift to the dargah, telling him it was the ideal place for him to continue with his spiritual quest.  Shastri insists that the Hindutva campaign to capture the dargah is motivated simply by sinister political motives and that those behind it have little or no concern with genuine spiritual matters. He says that the dispute that they are seeking to project--between Dada Hayat and Dattatreya-- is itself meaningless, for, as he puts it: 'Although they might be two different individuals, their soul is one and the same'. He stresses that true religion has to do essentially with the heart, the inner self, and not with mere names or external labels, and that at that level God is to be found in all human beings. This view is powerfully echoed in a qawwali that Dada Hayat's faqirs sing  at the shrine:

  Allah ko dhundo Allah ke pyaron main
  Allah samaya hai in ishq ke maro main

  Search for God among God's loved ones
  For God is to be found among those smitten by love.
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  Central to the Hindutva strategy of capturing the dargah is the question of caste. According to local informants, the core support base of the Hindutva groups in the area are Brahmins and 'upper' caste landlords, including rich coffee estate owners. In recent years, the Dalits, who largely form the landless labour class here, have become increasingly assertive of their rights, and this is seen as a grave threat to 'upper' caste/class hegemony. Hence, in line with the strategy followed elsewhere in the country, Muslims and Christians are being sought to be projected by the dominant caste/class groups as scapegoats-- as the menacing 'other'--in order to divert Dalit anger and subvert the Dalit movement from within. The Baba Budhan Giri dargah controversy must be seen as part of this wider conspiracy.

 This Brahminical agenda is also clearly visible in the changes that the Hindutva groups are trying to impose in the religious practices associated with the shrine. We have seen that the early Dattatreya cult was itself rooted in the non-Brahmin  anti-caste tradition, open to multiple influences and borrowing from certain strands of Sufism. This is now coming under attack, and a Brahminised version of the Dattatreya tradition is being imposed in its place.

 Traditionally, Dalits and other marginalised castes have formed the majority of the non-Muslim pilgrims to the dargah. Here, unlike in the case of many Hindu temples, they are allowed free access inside the shrine, and they eat and stay with pilgrims from other castes, Muslim as well as non-Muslim. Interestingly, a small shrine close to the dargah dedicated to Biru, a  non-Muslim disciple of Dada Hayat, has a Dalit priest. On the other hand, the Hindutva agenda is implicitly opposed to this egalitarian ethos, the attempt to hoist 'upper' caste priests to officiate at the shrine being one instance of this. Even the rituals that they are seeking to introduce--homas and pujas-- are typically Brahminical, from which the Dalits have historically been rigidly excluded.