Let Me Explain: Banu Mushtaq at Mysuru Dasara and controversy around tradition, identity, politics

For over 400 years, Mysuru has seen a grand celebration of the Dasara festival. The city glows with music, dance, elephants, and colour, carrying forward a tradition that blends devotion, royalty, and cultural pride

But this year, the spotlight isn’t only on the festivities. It’s on the Karnataka govt’s choice of Kannada writer and Booker Prize winner Banu Mushtaq to inaugurate the celebrations. For weeks now, Kannada news channels have been debating whether Banu is the “right person” for the job.

For her critics, mostly from the right wing, her faith and her past statements make her “unsuitable.” Politics apart, the controversy has raised questions that are at the core of what Karnataka stands for.

Is Mysuru Dasara a cultural festival that belongs to everyone, or a strictly Hindu religious celebration? Should Kannada be imagined as goddess Bhuvaneshwari?

Is there an inherent contradiction in Banu Mushtaq inaugurating the Mysuru Dasara? But most importantly, what’s playing out is also a one-upmanship between two young BJP leaders

Let me explain.