As 2023 looms, parties look to appropriate poet-saint Kanakadasa’s legacy

Congress leader HM Revanna said his party started Kanaka Adhyayana Peetha, and held symposiums and seminars to popularise his teachings in colleges.
People pay tributes to saint Kanakadasa on the occasion of Kanakadasa Jayanti  in Bengaluru on Monday  | nagaraja gadekal
People pay tributes to saint Kanakadasa on the occasion of Kanakadasa Jayanti in Bengaluru on Monday | nagaraja gadekal

BENGALURU: Though the election code of conduct managed to mute Kanaka Jayanti celebrations on Monday, there is a strong undercurrent, with the BJP, Congress and JDS seeking to appropriate a lion’s share of poet-saint Kanakadasa’s legacy. In the run-up to the 2023 Assembly polls, every vote counts.

While the BJP takes credit for declaring Kanaka Jayanti a public holiday, it was Siddaramaiah -- then in the Janata Party and now in the Congress—who organised the 500th birth anniversary celebrations of Kanakadasa as a public event, for the first time in 1988-89. The then chief minister was S R Bommai, father of present CM Basavaraj Bommai. 

“It was the first time we had celebrated the 500th anniversary of Kanaka Jayanti in the late eighties,’’ said Siddaramaiah, one of the tallest leaders of the Kuruba community, which is the largest constituent of backward communities. He has never looked back since, and the community has largely supported him across the length and breadth of Karnataka, where they are spread evenly, unlike Lingayats who are predominant in North Karnataka, and Vokkaligas who dominate South Karnataka.       

Congress leader HM Revanna said his party started Kanaka Adhyayana Peetha, and held symposiums and seminars to popularise his teachings in colleges. Minister K S Eshwarappa, BJP’s tallest Kuruba leader, said, “We don’t want to misuse the name of Kanakadasa. But it will be good for people to understand what he said, ‘Kula, Kula, Kula Yendu Hodeda Bedira’.  Many people speak of caste, and it will be a great learning for present-day politics which depends so much on caste.” 

If the Congress and BJP are at the forefront, can the JDS be far behind? Former minister Bandeppa Kashempur, the Kuruba face of JDS, had during the 20-20 government in 2006, contributed Rs 3 crore to the Kaginele Abhivruddi Pradhikara. “Successive governments have helped develop Kanakadasa’s Janmabhoomi in Shiggaon, which is CM Bommai’s constituency, and his Karma Bhoomi in Kaginele as important heritage centres,” Kashempur said.

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