Dilip Kumar M, research scholar at University of Mysore (UoM) says his professor, BP Mahesh Chandra Guru is the “best media professor in the country”, a statement he quickly modified to say, “Best Buddhist media professor.” The sentiment is echoed by others and even those who aren’t his students, like research scholar Narayan, describe the professor as a good man.

Guru has been teaching journalism for three decades and is the reportedly the first Dalit-Buddhist professor of media studies at UoM. He has served on University Grants Commission (UGC) committees and is the author of books in both Kannada and English. Professor Guru is an active voice of protest against the exploitation by the Brahmanical set up, as he describes it. He spearheaded the Mahishasur Movement last year, claiming that the asura was actually a Buddhist King after whom the city of Mysore is named.

On June 17, Guru was taken into judicial custody for making comments about Rama. Guru was suspended from his position at the University on June 22. “We have taken a decision in the syndicate to keep him under suspension as per the Karnataka State Civil Service Rule,” Registrar of UoM, Professor C Basavaraju, told Newslaundry.

“The fundamentalists are behind this,” Guru told Newslaundry after he was released on the evening of June 24. “The fundamentalists who are running the government.”

Two public lectures, one debate, a Hindu god and a professor

Last year, in January, Guru had delivered a special lecture on human rights and media. In it, he said that Rama by abandoning his pregnant wife had not only committed a human rights violation, but had also violated women’s rights. A complaint was filed against Guru by one Ravishankar, a member of the right wing organisation Karunadu Sarvodaya Sena, Ravishankar.

A month later, on February 11, Guru spoke at a seminar in UoM titled “Relevance of Ambedkar in Present Times” and here too, he made a comment that irked the Right. “Professor Guru said, ‘Don’t put pictures of gods in your houses. These gods won’t help you in anyway. Instead you put a copy of the Indian constitution in your homes,” Dilip told Newslaundry. He was present at the seminar.

An FIR was filed by a BJP member, PJ Raghavendra, against three people apart from Guru: professors KS Bhagvan and Aravind Malagatti, and Kannada Book Authority Chairman, Banjagere Jaiprakash. On June 17, Guru was taken into custody and would remain in jail for eight days. “Such incidents (of attack by Right wing) are increasing day by day,” Jaiprakash told Newslaundry, adding that people are afraid to speak what they think. “Even a small remark or comment is not tolerated, because there is Rightist government in the centre.”

Jaiprakash applied for an anticipatory bail in the February 11 case and is therefore free — a stark contrast to the harassment Guru faced. “Lawyer Nihal Singh of Bombay High court told me that the judge should have given bail because I am senior professor, a public servant and if I am put under judicial custody, I’ll get suspended,” Guru pointed out.

Guru’s arrest on June 17 was a result of neglect, according to Dr Lakshminarayan, President of People’s Union for Civil Liberties, Karnataka, which is investigating the case. Two court summons were issued to Guru, which he allegedly ignored. “Professor Guru neglected the issue, that why he is facing this trouble. He could have avoided this by simply apply for an anticipatory bail,” Narayan told Newslaundry.

Dilip, however, says that Guru did not receive the court summons because he was in Mangalore, correcting answer sheets. Guru says he received the summons only on June 13 and got in touch with his lawyer on the same day. His lawyer suggested that he should appear before court on June 17, after applying for anticipatory bail. The professor claims he was betrayed by his lawyer who joined the “vested interest”, “My lawyer had not applied for anticipatory bail before presenting me in the court of law,” said Guru. “It was his mistake and I had to suffer from it.”

The rising tide

What the professor and other intellectuals in Karnataka are fighting for is simple freedom of speech. Guru raised hackles because he was speaking for the creation of a different narrative, one that is free from the oppression of dominant upper caste discriminatory traditions.  “They [Dalit activists] are saying that the Dravidian gods are being appropriated by Brahmins or are turned into villains,” said Clifton D’Rosario, State General Secretary, All India Central Council of Trade Unions, Karnataka, and a former member of Alternative Law Forum. “The way in which the hegemonic Hindutva religiosity is spreading, there is no space for others.”

There seems to be little space for progressive thinkers who are trying to question conventional narratives. As  the murder of MM Kalburgi showed, critiquing norms can become a matter of life and death.

Jaiprakash, who faced flak for his remark that Ramakrishna Paramhansa ate beef, feels that things started going downhill after Kalburgi’s assassination in August, 2015. Yogesh Master was arrested in August 2015, for hurting the sentiments of Hindus in his book Dhundi, which tries to look at character of Ganesh from a historical perspective. Another writer, Harohulli Ravindra, was arrested for the syntax of his book on Rama. Ravindra wrote about Rama in an article using singular verb conjugation, rather than a plural one, which is used in Hindi as a mark of respect. “He only got a bail after we protested against the arrest,” Jaiprakash said.

The list doesn’t end there. Prominent Kannada writers, Chennaveera Kanavi and Giraddi Govindaraj, had to ask for police protection following threats from unidentified persons. All they’d done was condemn the murder of MM Kalburgi and in return, they received threats that their houses would be bombed. “The Right wing people gave statements in public [at rallies] that they will blow up their houses, yet no arrest was made,” Jaiprakash claimed.

Jaiprakash holds the state government responsible for this state of affairs. “Congress is afraid of losing the majority Hindu support,” he said. “They are over conscious and they are not ready to show their commitment to secular and progressive thinking.”

The spread of Ambedkarite politics across the country too has a role in what has gone down with professor Guru, claimed Pramod Ranjan, editor of Forward Press, a magazine that tries to voice the opinion of bahujans and has published articles by Guru. “The Right wing is trying to curtail the spread of the Dalit movement in the country which gained immense popularity with the whole JNU issue,” said Ranjan. He said that Guru was in the forefront and therefore an obvious target.

Now that the professor is back, there still remains a fight, which he has to undertake, to revoke the suspension but first he’ll have to fight the cases in which he’s currently embroiled. Professor Guru is positive about decision of the university, which he said is justified and in accordance to the laws pertaining to the matter.  “Now, I’ll have to take judicial remedies and approach the High Court to get the cases quashed. If that happens, the suspension will also get quashed,” he said.

Considering how long cases can linger in the Indian judicial system, Guru has a long road against him.