How An Innocent Hanuman Graphic Emerged As A Key Hindutva Symbol in Karnataka Polls

NEW DELHI: During his campaign in Mangalore, PM Modi praised Karan Acharya and his art saying, “I want to applaud artist Karan Acharya whose Hanuman portrait has captured the imagination of people across India. This is a laudable achievement and is the power of his talent and imagination. This is the pride of Mangaluru. All TV channels queued up for his interview."

The PM continues, “The Congress’ ecosystem doesn’t even tolerate the magnificent art of Karan Acharya whose Hanuman captured the imagination of the entire country. Unable to digest its success, the Congress tried miring it in a controversy. There is not an iota of democracy in the minds of the Congress members.” “This is also the reason why such a party does not deserve to rule Karnataka even for a day,” the PM added.

The popularised sticker mentioned above, is an unfinished graphic made by Karan Acharya, a Mangalore based graphic designer. Acharya created the figure in 2015, when boys from a youth club in his village asked him to design something different to put on the flags for Ganesh Chaturthi.

In late 2016, the graphic appeared in the most unexpected places including the rear windows of vehicles specially in Bangalore.

Popularised as “Rudra Hanuman”, the graphic was interpreted as an angry version of the Hindu deity Hanuman. However, the creator of the graphic insists that the graphic was intended to be “Hanuman with an attitude”. “My friends had told me to design something with an attitude, a Hanuman without a smile,” he said. “My Hanuman is not angry, he is just attitude Hanuman.”

Local shopkeepers say that the sticker is merely a part of the trend and attract the youth. Various auto rickshaw drivers found the sticker catchy, and so used it for their vehicles. However, HinduismNow.org, an online media portal, has claimed that the “Angry Hanuman” is the new face of Hinduism. In an article published by them, they say, “his (Acharya’s) poster that has become the rage in the last year (2016) across the country is a perfect symbolism of the attitude the new Hindu carries: No nonsense and ready for action.”

Commuters are reacting to the posters with a mix of suspicion and fear. An Uber ride was cancelled upon arrival by SK Abid Hasan, a resident of Kolkata, because there were stickers depicting Hindu Gods on his car. Down south, Resmi R Nair, a model and activist living in Bangalore, refused to travel in an Uber cab with a sticker of what is now popularly known as “Rudra Hanuman”. Resmi also said in her post on facebook that she and her female friends felt scared of travelling in cabs with such “violent” symbols of Hindutva.

J Devika, a Kerala based writer and activist, declared that she would boycott all cabs and autos with such stickers. "In Thiruvananthapuram, there are so many auto rickshaws that bear posters of the rudra Hanuman. I will not get into any such auto, even if I have to walk for 2 kilometers. Moreover, I will not engage with anyone who bears symbols of extreme Hindutva, and I refuse to help in making profits for any organisation that bears such marks," Devika said on the News Hour debate for Asianet.

Shivangi Sinha Roy, a 24-year-old journalist based in Delhi, said to News18 “I completely understand that symbols can be interpreted in various ways but it is so hard to not relate this to politics and political ideology. The fact that it is black and saffron and already the new face of outfits like Bajrang Dal is very scary.”

Meanwhile,Abhishek Mishra, a Vishwa Hindu Parishad member, recently cancelled his Ola ride due to the religion of the assigned driver. He tweeted a screenshot stating he cancelled the ride because he did not want to give his money to “Jihadis”. The tweet attracted a lot of backlash, but also a lot of support in the form of similar cancellations. A lot of people, following the trail, cancelled rides in which they had been assigned Muslim drivers claiming they were boycotting the Jihadis from all aspects of their lives.

In conversation with a customer in Jaipur, an Uber driver with the same sticker on his car stated how the sticker for him symbolised the power that Hindus should have in India, which as a country is majorly Hindu. He also mentioned how only the suppression of “people from pakistan (Muslims)” will make the country a better place to live in.

Although the representatives of Ola said in a tweet that it is secular like the country, these statements by the drivers still pose the question of whether or not religion and the differences amongst different religious groups has creeped in minute things like private public transport. With the PM now directly referring to the controversial art on India’s transport vehicles and praising it, the art takes on an even more political role.