Hyderabad: Inspired by freedom fighter Bal Gangadhar Tilak, who chose Ganesh festival to bring people together, MP Kalvakuntla Kavita has chosen Bathukamma to unite the women of Telangana.
Standing firm on the belief that the flowers used in Bathukamma have properties to cleanse the water, she said that one has to give back what they get from nature.
“It has a spiritual message that whatever comes from nature, must go back to nature. Back then, people had the responsibility to clean ponds in the villages. Primarily two flowers — gunugu and tangedu —are arranged in the Bathukamma. These have water-cleaning properties,” said Ms Kavita.
In 2007, she toured all districts of Telangana to promote the festival, and in 2014, she held a huge congregation of over a lakh people at Bangaru Bathukamma near Tank Bund. She gives herself full credit for popularising the state festival.
“When I first started working on this, my family didn’t know about it. I designed all posters myself and planned the whole tour. I did not want their influence on me. It was my idea and I wanted to nurture it and then show it to them,” she said.
Talking about the limited participation of women in Telangana movement in 2006-07 and their limited presence in the TRS, she recalled her unsavoury experience of police lathicharge. “Some women who came for the first time, did not turn up again as their families stopped them. So I started adding a ‘Jai Telangana’ tagline to every Bathukamma. The moment they carry a Bathukamma, they represent Telanagana. More than a religious thing, it is a cultural thing,” she said.
