A Rebel City With A Cause

From pub city to protest city? Has Bangalore, famous for its green parks, cool climes, chic pubs and pensioner populace, donned Calcutta's agitationist mantle? As Bangalore is caught up in a bawdy brawl over the Amitabh Bachchan Corporation Ltd (ABCL)-sponsored Miss World '96 contest, the city is once again making news "" for the wrong reasons.

Scenes of the Kentucky Fried Chicken stir are being re-enacted as women's groups threaten to form "suicide squads" and resort to "criminal action" to stop

hapless international aspirants from winning the coveted crown. In the last six months, the Garden City has weathered storms of protest over a mixed bag of issues. According to the harassed city police, Bangalore witnesses 340 protests every year over things as mundane as water shortage and as controversial as setting up of the Cogentrix power plant.

 

Has the placid, laid-back Bangalorean turned into a rabble-rouser? These are the days of agitations," sighs C Nagaraj, secretary, the Karnataka State Cricket Association, which is leasing out the Chinnaswamy Stadium for the Miss World contest.

However, there are others who will still give Bangalore the benefit of the doubt. I will not go as far as to call Bangalore a protest city. It has always had its share of professional agitators and cranks who want to be in the public eye. But, yes, there's a new element today, who is up in arms against the city's strained infrastructure," observes T P Issar, former chief secretary of Karnataka and chairman of the Urban Arts Commission.

A Bal Thackerayish brouhaha in Bangalore was the last thing film star turned corporate magnate Amitabh Bachchan expected from the genteel Garden City. But a writ petition has been filed against the extravaganza, and the BJP, ABVP and women's groups have raised the old bogey of the show demeaning Indian culture". Heads of two religious institutions, the Dharmadhikari of Dharmasthala, D Veerendra Heggade, and Vishvesha Theertha Swamiji of the PejawarMath in Udupi have also expressed their displeasure.

Thackeray will never allow such a show in Mumbai. Delhi is too political, so Bachchan chose Bangalore "" never anticipating trouble here. But we are no longer docile, we have had enough," says Pramila Nesargi, BJP member.

In keeping with this militant mood, one often spots a sticker on cars which says ""- Enough is enough, Banga-

lore get tough." Sometimes it is hard to imagine that this is the same city which organised pro-Hindi language rallies in the '70s, while other southern states went up in flames.

Bangalore also has another first to its credit. Pub-crawling began with the Khoday's

Ramda Pub which opened in early '74. UB Breweries also had a hand in seeing that "pub-culture" caught on and in the process Kingfisher beer became a household name. In an era of prohibition, Bangalore still boasts more than 110 pubs.

So are these protests against KFC, the Miss World contest, the Urdu language telecast, the Cogentrix power plant and the Japanese Electronic city motivated by pea-brained people seeking political mileage?"

Chidananda Murthy, president of the Kannada Shakti Kendra, which is fighting for issues close to every Kannadiga heart disagrees. There is a lot of simmering anger among the people of Bangalore. Outsiders have been coming in, grabbing our opportunities and the infrastructure has gone to the dogs."

This is a far cry from the good old days when the British took a fancy to this gulmohur city and developed it into a quiet cantonment in 1799. Even in 1981, it boasted a population of under 2.1 million, though the indus-

trious Sindhis had migrated to the city by the '60s. The migratory flock of Gujaratis and Maharashtrians arrived in the '70s. The Bangalorean passively watched the antics of the Iranians who flooded the city around the same time. "They indulged in gangwars and created havoc in Bangalore, but we tolerated them," points out a journalist.

By the '80s and '90s, the city began to grow at a rate of 76 per cent. The ubiquitousnclude virtual="/incs/bottom.inc"-->