This year’s Sankranthi feels unlike any other, because a simple harvest festival was suddenly dragged into the noisy arena of caste pride and social media theatrics.
It began with an anchor named Lakshmi claiming that Sankranthi belongs to Kammas, describing it as essentially a Kamma farmers’ festival.
The video went viral and was trolled mercilessly. Ironically, the highest rice yield this year came from Telangana, not Andhra Pradesh where Kammas are more numerous, raising an obvious question about how exclusive ownership of a festival can be justified by selective geography.
Soon after, a counter video from 99TV surfaced, asserting that Kapus have long been farmers cultivating their own lands or leased fields, yet they never claimed Sankranthi as theirs alone.
The anchor rightly said the festival belongs to everyone, not to one caste. However, he then unnecessarily praised Kapus alone, invoking figures from Sri Krishna Devaraya to Chiranjeevi as benevolent and powerful Kapus.
The irony is that Sri Krishna Devaraya belonged to a Tulu lineage and has no historical connection to Kapus, though such claims are often made with confidence.
Amidst this, Brahmins jokingly said their ancestors calculated Makara Sankramanam, so Sankranthi is theirs, while Vysyas claimed that without their distribution networks no crop could be sold, and Reddys also stepped in citing their agricultural roots. What emerged was a comedy of disgust and entertainment combined.
Setting all these claims aside, the truth is simple; ancient India was agrarian, every community depended on agriculture, and therefore Sankranthi belongs to everyone.