Religiosity, Space-making, Exclusion: ‘Kanwar Yatra’ Celebrations in a North Indian City | Avishek Jha (Studies in Indian Politics)

 Religiosity, Space-making, Exclusion: ‘Kanwar Yatra’ Celebrations in a North Indian City
Avishek Jha

Abstract

Through an ethnographic study of Kanwar Yatra celebrations in a north Indian city, this article seeks to highlight the changing notions of public religiosity and mass celebrations in contemporary India. This article will first show how the festival of Kanwar Yatra is invested with diverse forms of religious performance and carnivalesque celebrations. In itself, these celebrations especially provide young people with avenues for fun and entertainment that combine ideas of lower middle-class consumerism with religious fervour in a public space. However, the evolving spaces that are built, even in the momentary conclusion of such a festival, are based on wider strategies of belonging and identity, often complicated further with the involvement of the state. Influenced by the projects of socio-cultural actors and political institutions, this article ultimately argues that Kanwar Yatra celebrations reproduce ideas of spatial domination, exclusion and surveillance of communities, with severe implications for minorities, especially Muslims.

Introduction

The recent and growing significance of the Kanwar Yatra celebrations in north India each year demands serious attention. Over the last few years, the scale of this festival has reached newer heights in terms of intensity, societal participation and state support (Kumar, 2018a; Panwar, 2019). This article will show how the Kanwar Yatra celebrations are invested with varied forms of religious performance, devotion and spectacle. It entails community mobilization and activation of social networks within the majority community and the subsuming of caste identities into the wider ambit of Hindu identity. Marked by acts of public religiosity, this festival is an apt example to understand the growing intertwining of religious and national identity, state-led patronage of religious interests and the changing notion of religion as a ‘competing ideology’ in contemporary India (Ahmed, 2023). Moreover, the growing youth participation in the Kanwar Yatra celebrations is reflective not only of the rising trends of a ‘new consumptive religiosity’ among young people in western Uttar Pradesh but also an expression of ideas of fun and entertainment that combine ideas of lower-middle class consumerism with religious fervour (Gopinath, 2019; Jodhka, 2017; Kumar, 2018a).

However, this article will also show how the evolving spaces that are built, even in the temporary conclusion of a festival, are based on strategies of social otherization and exclusion. With the involvement of the state and the consistent efforts of a host of socio-political actors, this festival ultimately acts as a tool for political mobilization and majoritarian aggrandizement in Uttar Pradesh. Through diverse initiatives, the use of language that emphasizes the differences in communities and their rights on the city, acts of regulation and blatant discrimination, the festival reproduces spatially influenced ideas of domination, demarcation and surveillance vis-à-vis diverse communities. These developments ultimately create severe anxieties in the everyday lives of minorities, especially Muslims.

Through an ethnographic study of the celebration of Kanwar Yatra in the North Indian city of Meerut in western Uttar Pradesh in July 2022, this article argues that the notions of public religiosity and mass celebrations are undergoing vital changes in contemporary India. With a thick description of the festival, the article will look at the multiple elements, practices and actors that constitute the Kanwar Yatra celebrations and its far-reaching consequences for notions of religiosity, space-making and exclusion in the following sections.

Celebrating Kanwar Yatra

Primarily practised in the Gangetic plains, the festival of Kanwar Yatra is age-old and celebrated by millions of people across different parts of north, central and eastern India (Sati, 2021). While generally observed by a small number of people over the years, several journalistic and scholarly works show that the festival became widely popular in the late 1990s, especially following the first wave of the Ram Janmabhoomi movement and the rise of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Uttar Pradesh (Kumar, 2018a).¹ However, there has been a massive rise in its popularity especially in the last decade. Kumar (2018a, pp. 115–119) has documented the rise in participation of Hindus, especially young people in Meerut and western Uttar Pradesh, in the Kanwar Yatra celebrations as recently as 2016. In his field site of Khanpur, a village in Meerut district, he notes that the number of people participating in the yatra increased from a paltry one or two to more than 30 each year (Kumar, 2018a, p. 115). This is an example of just one village in Meerut district.

Majority of the devotees, predominantly young men, participate in an arduous journey carrying the holy Ganges water from designated pilgrimage spots to prominent Shiva temples in the Gangetic belt or local shrines in their villages or towns during the Hindu month of Sawan/Shravana.² Especially, during July–August every year, millions of devotees walk barefoot with containers carrying the holy Ganges water over their shoulders with the help of a sling, called kanwar.

Meerut is one of the key cities on the pilgrimage journey for millions of devotees travelling or walking across western Uttar Pradesh from the holy sites in Uttarakhand. The former National Highway 58 that passes through Meerut, now broken into several segments between the city and the temple towns of Haridwar and Badrinath on the Himalayas, is packed with devotees. Moreover, Meerut is also significant as one of the prominent religious sites for several pilgrims in western Uttar Pradesh. The city is known for its famous Aughudhnath Temple, which is home to one of the oldest shrines dedicated to Lord Shiva.³ Several devotees travelling through Meerut offer their prayers and perform rituals at the temple before walking towards Delhi or Hapur in west Uttar Pradesh.

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https://doi.org/10.1177/23210230241235368

India: Food, community and elections | Bharat Bhushan

 https://www.business-standard.com/opinion/columns/food-community-and-elections-124041500162_1.html

Food, community and elections

 

Bharat Bhushan

 

Prime Minister Narendra Modi accused Opposition leaders of displaying a "Mughal mindset" when videos surfaced of Lalu Yadav, Tejashvi, and Rahul Gandhi bonding over cooking mutton. Not only did he accuse them of deviating from Hindu dharma in the auspicious month of Sawan, but he also alleged that the display of bonhomie was deliberate.

The videos, the PM said, were reflective of the mindset of the "Mughal" invaders "who found perverse joy in the demolition of temples and defiling places of worship.

To dismiss this as election rhetoric would be to forget that creating controversies over meat-eating has been part of communal propaganda for over a century and a half in India.

Today's smear campaign is reminiscent of the strategy said to have been used against CM Stephen, who was contesting against Atal Bihari Vajpayee in 1980 from the New Delhi Constituency-I. It was a close contest, and the right-wing organisations backing Vajpayee wanted to take no chances.

According to an apocryphal story, the cadre was deputed to join queues at polling booths and engage voters in conversation, alleging, "Aadmi achha hai par suna hai gau-maans khaata hai (He is a good man but we have heard he eats beef)." The whisper campaign is said to have cost Stephen the election -- losing by a mere 5,045 votes!

Today's political fight is nowhere as close as it was in 1980. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Prime Minister Modi said they are comfortably placed to win the upcoming Lok Sabha election. Then why are such cheap shots directed at the Opposition?

He had also earlier distorted Rahul Gandhi's remark about the Opposition pitted against the power (shakti) of the controversial Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs)—calling it "a well-thought-out attack against Hindu religion," where goddesses are worshipped as Shakti. He labelled those who did not attend the temple inauguration at Ayodhya sinners, exhorting voters, "Ram Navami is coming, remember those who committed this sin."

By drawing parallels between the Congress manifesto and the demands of the pre-Partition Muslim League, two organisations separate in time and context are made to appear similar, divisive and only representatives of sectional Muslim interest.

While such iterations of religious identity will keep the BJP's vote bank consolidated in Northern and Western India, it is even more crucial in states where the BJP is desperate to make inroads. Hindutva is the platform from which the BJP hopes to counter the strong regional sentiment and distinct political culture in these states. Its success has so far been uneven.

The BJP has made major inroads in West Bengal, where its Hindutva rhetoric seems to have struck a chord in a state that has witnessed two partitions on communal lines. The BJP is tapping into that deep and rich seam.

In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, it won 18 seats, and its vote share was only 3 per cent behind the ruling Trinamool Congress. In the state assembly in 2021, the BJP improved its tally from 3 to 77, becoming the main Opposition party. From Sandeshkhali to Ram Navami celebrations, all incidents and festivals are occasions to polarise the Hindu voters against the 30 per cent Muslim population of the state.

However, the BJP has not been successful in Tamil Nadu and Kerala so far. In Tamil Nadu, the BJP has aggressively argued that the Dravidian political parties and their allies are essentially anti-Hindu. 'Real' Tamil culture is postulated as having been part of a unified Hindu culture till Dravidian atheists hijacked it. This thesis was bolstered by the two Kashi-Tamil Sangamam organised by the Modi government in 2022 and 2023 and articulated in the Prime Minister's election campaign in Tamil Nadu.

The BJP's state president, K Annamalai, has also held forth about reclaiming Tamil culture from the Periyar-Dravida ideology, which he says is anti-Hindu and destroying 'true' Tamil culture and society.

In Kerala, too, the BJP faces a Hindu majority that is largely oriented towards Left and secular parties. The Hindu vote here is divided along caste lines. The marginalised and backward castes support the Communists, while the Congress has a proportion of the upper caste (Nair) Hindu vote and is seen as the party of the Muslim and Christian minorities. The Muslims are represented in North Kerala by the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML).

Kerala politics alternates between the Left Democratic Front (LDF) led by the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and the United Democratic Front (UDF) led by the Congress. The BJP aims to break this cycle by weaning away the Hindu vote.

It tried to woo the Dalit castes through the Kerala Pulaya Mahasabha and Kerala Peoples' Front, an organisation of 21 backward castes, but failed. Nor did its militant agitation against women's entry into Sabarimala Temple amount to much electorally. Now, a propaganda film, "The Kerala Story", is about a Hindu woman being converted to Islam and forced to join the Islamic State. The threat of 'love jihad' and 'narco-jihad' is also being propagated by the BJP to also mobilise the Christian minority.

Contrary to popular belief, the BJP is not bringing out its communal rhetoric because it is apprehensive about election results. It is an offensive strategy. Prime Minister Modi has learnt to successfully twist the meaning of his adversaries' statements and actions. The forms of distortion are sufficiently in tune with communal thinking so that his supporters can easily amplify them and influence voters. It also keeps the communal divide open against attempts by the Opposition to bridge it. 

Most importantly, it is used to increase the BJP's Lok Sabha seats. Like all good businessmen, who consider anything below the previous financial year's profits a 'loss', the BJP wants each election to bring in higher returns.

Prime Minister Modi needs this more than the party because that alone can sustain faith in his charisma. Anything less will be seen as the onset of weakness in his leadership.

Disclaimer: These are personal views of the writer. They do not necessarily reflect the opinion of www.business-standard.com or the Business Standard newspaper

 

Savera’s second report on Hindu supremacist VHP America's trail of violence

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A Sound Democracy - Music, Movement and a Mob

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Video: Release of the volume IN DEFENCE OF THE REPUBLIC by Constitutional Conduct Group April 13, 2024

 

 

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Baba Ramdev Snubbed by the Supreme Court of India | Ram Puniyani

(https://thewire.in/health/the-business-of-godmen-how-ramdev-was-protected-and-even-promoted-by-the-system) 

 

Supreme Court Snubs Baba Ramdev

 

Ram Puniyani

 

Last couple of decades; we have seen the rapid rise of many Godmen. They did have a social presence earlier also but lately their social influence and political clout was quite frightening. Many of them had a dark belly also, but by and large that has been overlooked and shadowed by the large divinity surrounding them. Shakaracharya Jayendra Sarswati was accused of murder of Ashram worker, Shankar Raman. In Satya Sai Baba’s Prashanti Nilayam also there was a murder case. Gurmeet Ram Rahim carried on with his activities, one journalist Chhatrapti Ramchandra was killed for bringing forward his black deeds. Finally with difficulty law caught up with him and currently he is in jail, rather most of the time on parole. Asaram bapu is another one who succeeded in escaping the clutches of law till a long time and finally he is behind the bars. Currently another one Bageshwar Dham baba is having a roaring success with devotees. These are the tip of the iceberg, and spread around the country many such people are mesmerizing the people in the trap of blind faith. The riches of most of these are enviable.

There are two others who are worth mentioning Sri Sri Ravishankar, who rampaged the Yamuna for his gala event. He was also associated with Anna Hazare’s RSS supported movement. He is in the news generally for subtly supporting Hindu nationalist politics. And then there is Baba Ramdev. He began his career as a Yoga Guru with great success and then made transition to business World with the brand of Patanjali. This firm, producing and marketing Ayurvedic products has brought Baba in the line of front ranking business tycoons, with huge assets. He and his close associate Acharya Balkishan have built up a massive empire, un-challenged till lately. All his ayurveda products were publicized with great fanfare and a large section of media went gaga for his achievements.

The academic qualifications of Acharya and Baba duo are not much known. Currently there are many Ayurvedic Medical Colleges, but it is doubtful if they have any degree from these. On the pretext that they are posing an indigenous challenge to the multinational corporations, many of their methods probably went unchallenged.

Matters came to head during Covid 19. On one hand the ruling government made hefty donations for the Pune based Bharat Biotech, Covaccine. On the other hand, within a month of the outbreak of Pandemic; Baba came up with the claim that they have developed a medicine for treatment and prevention of the disease, ‘Coronil’. The claim was that it has the approval of WHO. When challenged by the Ayush ministry, they corrected themselves to say that it has been developed on the guidelines of WHO. Ayush ministry distanced itself from the claims of Baba. The Combo pack of Coronil was introduced with great fanfare in presence of two Cabinet ministers, Dr. Harshvardhan and Nitin Gadkari. Dr. Harshvardhan himself is a trained medical doctor. There is currently a blind praise of ancient systems.

Baba claimed that the medicine has been tested on 100 patients of mild to moderate severity and the Corona test became negative in a few days. He had tied up with a few doctors for the testing of medicine. The protocol of introducing the medicines in modern medicine is preceded by biochemical analysis, animal testing and clinical double blind trial of adequate size samples. This was not followed.

Overawed with his commercial success, he not only accepted the praise from most of the Godi media, he took a step further to call Allopathic as a stupid science. Irked by this the Indian Medical Association (IMA) filed a case against him, which was heard recently. First he apologized to IMA for insulting the modern medicine. Just to recall when he sat on a hunger strike against corruption, he claimed that he has a ‘Yoga body’ and he can withstand the fast for a long time. Within a few days his condition worsened and was admitted to an allopathic hospital. Similarly a year ago Acharya Balkishan was seriously ill and had to be admitted to the ICU of an allopathic hospital.

After Court’ warning, his firm continued misleading advertisements. Court summoned him. He apologized profusely. Court refused to accept his apology and has asked him to mend his ways and come back again.

The details of the whole episode apart, how come such faith based knowledge and use of medications based on that have been rising for so long, what an arrogance to downgrade the modern system of Medicine? One concedes there is lots of empirical wisdom in some traditional medicines and even in Grandma’s medicines. The point however is that the modern system of medicine is based on evidence and peer review. The knowledge is ruthlessly subjected to review and criticism. And this is what leads to improvement leading to something close to what is useful.

The faith based knowledge, and thereby treatment systems are above criticism. Many Babas have their own system of treatment. The protocol of medical systems is evolved by adapting to better systems. The likes of Ramdev take the advantage of Holiness, to be above criticism and make many statements as they like. He had proclaimed that he has treatment for Cancer, Aids and what have you. He even claimed that Homosexuality is a disease and he can cure it!

So far he has the protection of ‘system’ and that gave him the arrogance to downgrade the allopath and make irrational claims about ‘his’ system. And why are such Babas having gala time with their faith based claims?

Last few decades have seen the rise of politics in the name of religion. This also harps on the ancient Indian knowledge systems. Taking these in a critical way is what science and rationalists will demand. This is what was demanded by the likes of Dr. Dabholkar, Govind Pansare, M M Kalburgi and Gauri Lankesh. They were done away for raising rational understanding. This is a period when rational thinking and methods are being undermined in the glare of ‘faith based knowledge’. Even in our educational curriculum in the name of ‘Indian Knowledge systems’ the faith based things will form part of curriculum.

Baba Ramdev is a symptom of the society gripped by faith-blind faith combo. The Supreme Court has done well to put a small stop to this ascending ‘Baba’ trend in the field of medicine.