The year was 2016. I had just travelled to the city of Hyderabad, to appear in the EFLU Entrance Examination. I was staying in the vicinity of Uppal, at my cousin’s residence, for about a month. After the completion of my Entrance Examination, I decided to visit the tourist destinations in the region. Till that point in my life, I had read academic textbooks and general knowledge books about the magnificence of the Golconda Fort. Hence, I decided to gain first-hand experience of its visual magnificence. As it was almost the end of summer, with frequent evening rains, the weather was pleasant during the day, although the sun shone brightly as I climbed the huge, wide stairs of the fort to its summit. My enthusiasm as a teenager, graduating from higher secondary school, ‘overpowered’ the physical exhaustion of the climb.

In July 2023, almost seven years after my first visit, I returned to the city. However, this time, I was not a teenager and I had relocated to the city, as a part of my job assignment, as a working professional. On the first Sunday of the month, I decided to revisit the Golconda Fort, along with a colleague. The revisit was also necessitated by our mutual drive towards an exploration of the city. We decided to undertake the public transport routes to reach the Fort. I had read much about and experienced in my last visit, the efficiency of public transport facilities, particularly the bus services. Unfortunately, the dynamics had changed by this time.

We could observe a decline in the frequency of the bus services plying on the Main Road of the Hi-Tech City area and assumed that the boom of cab services, and alternative public transport facilities, such as the metro rail network, might have led to such circumstances. Earlier, reports have been published which indicate the declining frequency of state transport buses, aggravating the crises for commuters. For our journey, the bus route which leads to the Fort required an interchange at Mehdipatnam. However, Google Maps happened to be our worst guide in these circumstances, as the conductor on the designated bus, which arrived at the Cyber Towers bus stop, informed us that the bus was not going towards Mehdipatnam. Ultimately, we had to deboard at the next bus stop and take an auto-rickshaw to reach Mehdipatnam. On reaching Mehdipatnam, we had to take another auto-rickshaw and the driver informed us that he would deboard us half a kilometre away from the Fort since they are not allowed because of traffic congestion. Rather unsurprisingly, on reaching the vicinity, we found that the road leading to the Fort had been already closed with barricades, due to the Bonalu festivities.

(Bonalu processions on the roads leading towards the Golconda Fort)

The Bonalu festival, viewed as a socio-cultural celebration, is unique to the regional geography of Telangana. Obeisance is paid to the Hindu Goddess Mahakali across various shrines in Hyderabad and other regions of the state. Observed during the Ashada Masam (July/August) of the Telugu calendar, the rituals of the festival are generally a form of thanksgiving to the Mother Goddess, after the fulfilment of devotees’ vows. The month-long celebration usually starts with ritual processions leading to the Jagadamba Temple at the Golconda Fort, with women believed to have been possessed by the spirit of the Mother Goddess carrying Bonam (literally meaning, ‘meals’), which is cooked in pots, and supported on the top of their heads. The Pothuraju, represented usually by a muscular man, as the manifestation of the brother of the Mother Goddess, walks along with the procession, dancing in a trance-like state, to the beats of the drums and other musical instruments.

(The Golconda Fort with a swarm of devotees during the Bonalu festivities)

Since Sundays of the month are particularly earmarked for the ritual observances of the festival, and the day when we planned to visit the Fort was one such day, the road closed by barricades was extremely crowded. However, to our surprise, a large pandal had been set up, quite adjacent to the barricades, where a singer was singing the popular North Indian Hindi devotional song “Tune Mujhe Bulaya Sherawaliye.” As we walked further towards the Fort, we observed that such stages were set up at almost every 500 metres. However, some of the pandals which caught our attention, particularly, were the ones which displayed their affiliation to some or other cultural association. One large pandal which stood out amongst the rest displayed large banners of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha, which is the youth wing of the Bharatiya Janata Party. Loud chants of ‘Jai Shree Ram’ were reverberating at the Pandal. The huge crowd which was moving towards the fort included certain teenagers and young adults who were shouting ‘Jai Shree Ram.’ These acts occurred as elements of surprise to us, as the slogan has been historically chanted with a socio-political aim, backed with ‘religious nationalism,’ especially in the Hindi heartland. Moreover, the slogan has also been used for furthering communal agendas and provoking religious conflicts in the state of Telangana.

(A pandal set up by the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha)

On the way leading towards the Fort, we could observe that the mosques, such as the Jama Masjid (Safa Masjid) and the other nearby mosques were closed and heavily barricaded, with police personnel surrounding them. Furthermore, all the meat shops were shut down and they were surrounded by police personnel, as well. All these events highlight the potential of anti-Muslim violence which would have been created, in the absence of such safeguards. Religious processions carried out in the last few years by the Hindu communities are a testimony to this.

As we entered the Fort and started searching for the Ticket Counter, a middle-aged man informed us that we did not need to buy tickets, as entry was free during this period, to facilitate worship by the devotees. Hence, we started climbing the staircases towards the top of the Fort, along with the others, who were not tourists, but rather devotees proceeding towards the temple of the Mother Goddess, located at the summit of the Fort premises. During our upward ascent, we had more surprises in store, waiting for us. Some gangs of young adults were creating a ruckus, by pushing through the crowds, and they were trying their best to create a charged atmosphere, by shouting another set of slogans. We could hear loud chants of “Ram, Lakshman, Janaki, Jai Bolo Hanuman Ki.” The chants of “Jai Shree Ram” echoed again. Sensing an atmosphere of provoked hostility, these events created feelings of anxiety and anger, within our hearts, simultaneously.

Such personal experiences should be situated within specific contexts. Way back in 2019, while launching a massive membership drive in the state of Telangana, the incumbent Minister of Home Affairs, Amit Shah, remarked, “The time has come for Telangana state’s saffronisation.” Although in the 2018 Telangana Legislative Assembly Elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party had contested 118 seats out of 119 seats, it could only win 1 seat. However, this does not imply that it is a lost cause for the BJP, as it already senses an opportunity in the state. It should not be a surprise given the fact that BJP had won 4 seats out of 17 seats, in the 2019 Lok Sabha Elections for the state. Additionally, the appointment of G. Kishan Reddy, as a Cabinet Minister for the Ministry of Tourism has also raised a few eyebrows. Moreover, the incumbent National President of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha and an MP from the Bangalore South Lok Sabha constituency, Tejasvi Surya, had claimed in 2020, that winds of change are blowing in Hyderabad and Telangana, and that entire south India will be saffronised in 2-3 years. All these statements reflect the desire of the Bharatiya Janata Party and its divisions to gain a larger share of the socio-political footprint within the state. The Telangana Legislative Assembly Elections are scheduled to be conducted at the end of this year. It would be a litmus test for the performance of the Bharatiya Janata Party, during this phase. It remains to be observed whether these elements of polarisation stand the test of time, in such a crucial juncture of the newly formed state.

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Somnath Pati is a Research Analyst at the Indian Political Action Committee and a former scholar of Modern History at the Centre for Historical Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU). Views expressed are the writer’s own.