Fear and feudalism in Hassan: How politics and the state fail victims of sexual assault

“The man didn’t spare either the fish seller or the sweeper,” an anganwadi worker from Holenarasipur in Hassan district of Karnataka told me, her voice shaking with anger. “He sexually assaulted everyone from an 18-year-old to a 68-year-old woman.” Like almost everyone else I spoke to in the small town, the worker did not want to be named. A shadow hung over the city: fear, mistrust and the struggle to stay under the radar of the many journalists who ventured into the city. The reaction was unusual for a situation in which the national media reported on a candidate’s sex crimes during a general election. But in Holenarasipur, the lawless and deeply feudal stronghold of the Revanna family, it made all too much sense.

The city, with a population of only about 30,000 as of the last census, was the birthplace of HD Devegowda, India’s eleventh Prime Minister. Devegowda represented Holenarasipur in the Vidhan Soudha from 1962 to 1989 before winning the Hassan Lok Sabha seat, which includes the city, five times. While his third son, HD Kumaraswamy, who was chief minister of the state twice, shifted his base to the neighboring Ramanagara constituency, Devegowda’s second son, HD Revanna, is currently serving his sixth term as the legislator from Holenarasipur. Revanna’s son Prajwal is the current Hassan MP.

Three days before Prajwal Revanna sought re-election on April 26, hundreds of USB sticks were anonymously distributed across the constituency – left conspicuously at bus stops, train stations, shops, parks and other public places. They reportedly contained nearly three thousand videos of at least a hundred women, some of whom were sexually abused, assaulted or raped. The survivors reportedly include Janata Dal (Secular) workers from Devegowda, wives of JD(S) workers, civil servants and journalists. According to reports, some of the videos purportedly shot by Prajwal contained images of him, while he can be heard in others. The earliest allegations that Prajwal and his father were involved in numerous sexual assault cases came in early 2023. The question then arises: If there was public knowledge of sexual assault in the Revanna household, then how could a crime of this gravity be committed ? and affects such a large number of people who have not been reported on for so long?