Bateshwar (Agra): Amardeep Diwakar, 24, from Sirsaganj town of Firozabad district was one of the first few Kanwariyas who managed to offer Gangajal to lord Shiva at Bateshwar temple in Bah, about 100 kms from Agra. He, along with nine companions, had brought a Dak Kanwar (one of the five types of Kanwar Yatra in which the devotee does not stop anywhere before the culmination point) from Soron town in Kasganj district, almost 120 kms from Bah, that too in record time of nine hours.
Built on the banks of river Yamuna, Bateshwar is known for having a 101 Shiva temple complex. Bateshwar is also famous for being the native village of former prime minister of India and one of the most renowned BJP leaders, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who had spent over a decade here after his family moved to Bah from Gwalior.
“Yes, it took us just nine hours to reach Bateshwar from Soron. We started on Saturday morning and reached here the same afternoon, around 4 pm. Since then, we have been standing outside the temple to offer the holy water to Shivji,” said Diwakar, who claims they stood at Bateshwar for over 34 hours before they could offer the holy water at 2:30 am on July 13.
Bateshwar temple. Credit: Ishita Mishra
According to Bateshwar temple authorities, every year almost 50,000 Kanwariyas offer Gangajal to lord Shiva here during the month of Shravan. Interestingly, while the Kanwar Yatra is observed only till Shivratri (14th day of the Shravan month) in Delhi-NCR and western Uttar Pradesh, in Bateshwar and many other parts of India, this tradition continues for an entire month. Bateshwar, thus witnessed its last Kanwar Yatra on July 20.
Evolution of Kanwar Yatra
As described in Hindu mythology, Kanwar Yatra is a procession carried out by Shiva devotees – commonly known as Kanwariyas – who collect water from the sacred Ganga river and carry it across hundreds of miles to offer it in the shrines of the lord.
Unfortunately, the Kanwar Yatra, that demands faith and piousness, has evolved to mean something very different in the present time. With the motivations and actions of the Kanwariyas varying from what was envisioned in Hindu mythology, Shiva devotees are now under the scanner of both police and administration and are being widely criticised for the mayhem they create while passing through urban areas.
But Diwakar, a garment salesman from old Delhi who is a class 12 graduate, is not upset with all the criticism flying around. This year was his fourth Kanwar Yatra, but he was leading the group of Dak Kanwariyas for the first time.
Also read: The State’s Tepid Response to Kanwariya Hooliganism Is Dangerous
As he told me, the leader of the Daak Kanwars starts the Yatra, performed like a relay race. The Kawar is passed like a baton to other yatris, till it reaches its final destination without halting anywhere. The Kanwariyas have to ensure cleanliness and they are supposed to observe a fast from the beginning till the end.
So what has Diwakar done to be a leader, I asked.
“I guided them the right way to perform puja and never allowed anyone to trespass our Kanwar. It’s very important that we ensure that no one touches or crosses our Kanwar which otherwise will become ashudh (impure) and we have to start from the same point again,” Diwakar explained.
To him, people in cities are atheists and criticise the Kanwariyas just because it is fashionable.
“They unnecessarily honk and create a fuss when we cross the roads. This happens barely for a week or two. They own the roads for the rest of the year. We are performing such a rigorous fast and they don’t even have the patience to let us cross the road first. Hence, they must be taught a lesson,” said Pavan Saini, a member of Diwakar’s team who is also from Sirsaganj and pursuing a B.Sc degree from Agra University.
Amardeep Diwakar with his companions. Credit: Ishita Mishra
The violence and ruckus created by the Kanwariyas touched new heights this year. Even the apex court took cognizance of the situation and asked the police to take immediate action against those creating vandalism in the name of religion.
Myths and misconceptions
While almost all the Kanwariyas from Bateshwar, Firozabad and nearby areas were dressed in their regular trousers or jeans and shirts, or even shorts, those who have some Delhi-NCR connection were distinguishable. So was Diwakar’s team. With Indian national flags atop their Kanwars, and dressed in saffron attire with pictures of lord Shiva and his family printed on their chests, the men in the team exuded masculinity and were the perfect picture of hardcore Hindutva. They said they got their clothes from Chandni Chowk.
Standing in the central campus of the temple, Amit Kumar, a teenager, claims to be the biggest ‘bhakt’ of ‘Bhole’. While commenting on his choice of saffron clothes with figures of gods on them, Amit, who is from Jalesar, said, “This is the colour of lord Shiva.”
When I asked if that was indeed so, he consulted a few elderly men standing nearby, and then decided to change his answer.
“This is the colour of Hindutva. We are Hindu. This is the colour for us,” he responded.
The uncertainty about traditions and customs was not limited to a few. Many of the energetic young Kanwariyas at Bateshwar seemed full of enthusiasm but were misinformed.
Though Amit and his team, all in their early 20s, were completely against drinking alcohol and eating non-vegetarian food during the yatra, weed or hashish was fine – Lord Shiva, the lord of sanghar (destruction) would approve. He was also not one for non-violence, after all.
Kanwariyas at a Kanwar Seva Shivir. Credit: Munish Kumar
Mayank Dixit, accompanying his maternal grandmother to Bateshwar, offered some corrections to Amit’s statement. “Saffron is not the colour of Shiva, its white. For Kanwariyas, Shiva is the god who allows drugs and violence. This is false representation. Shiva is not always intoxicated; he suffers dizziness because of the poison he swallowed for the sake of humanity. None of these young men have the will to make such sacrifices,” he said.
Dixit, who was not interested in wearing his religion on his sleeve, was enjoying the local Braj songs sung by elderly family members of the Kanwariyas while the younger lot was busy clicking selfies and resisting people from crossing their pots using hockey sticks. The queue outside the temple was over three-kilometre-long and was increasing. Several villagers who had their children with them, were thus forced to make them sleep on roads. The sight inside the temple was terrifying with people falling on each other and even on the deity, just to ensure their tributes reach him.
Around 3 am, the sound of melodious Shiva songs was disturbed by loud Bollywood music being played on a truck that arrived at the temple along with scores of young men. When the police officials asked them to lower the volume, they took the truck to the backyard of the temple and danced till 5 am. They left just as dawn arrived.
A Kanwar procession in progress. Credit: Munish Kumar
What explains the ignorance among Kanwariyas
Rakesh Bajpai, 56, who is an administrator at Bateshwar temple, has an explanation for the ignorance among Kanwariyas. For him, most of these devotees hail from poor socio-economic backgrounds, are less educated and are blind followers of their religion.
“The youths in this lot are engaged in menial jobs. This yatra is a time when they can openly break the rules and inspire fear. They are otherwise little respected because of their castes, lack of education and employment,” he said.
The Kanwar Yatra, which used to be a small affair until the late 1980s, gained extraordinary momentum in the mid-90’s. According to reports, the Kanwar pilgrimage to Haridwar in particular (all from Delhi-NCR-Haryana and West-UP goes to Haridwar) has grown to become India’s largest annual religious gathering that witnessed around 12 million participants in 2010 and 2011. This figure crossed the 20-million mark in 2017.
Even the local administration of Bateshwar temple has introduced a new format of issuing tokens to Kanwariyas from this year. The aim is to get the exact count of devotees who offered Gangajal to Shiva.
Ghanshyam Tiwari with his group. Credit: Ishita Mishra
Ghanshyam Tiwari’s group – which comprised five people, all from Pinahat – was dressed in saffron shorts and t-shirts which they had brought from the bank of river Soron. These clothes were being distributed by BJP members on the ghat, they said. When I questioned them about the reason for wearing ghunghroo (copper bells) on their feet, they claimed that this was meant to alert people to give way to Kanwariyas.
However, for elderly people in the temple, these bells are meant to keep insects and reptiles away as the Kanwariyas walk on roads and even inside forests barefoot, even during the night.
Rising trend of Kanwar Yatra
Ghanshyam said it was not fair to heap criticism on Kanwariyas when Moharrum processions and self-flagellation draw no comment. “They create fear among Hindus with swords and whips. We only carry bamboos. You have a problem with that?”
An alarming fact about Kawariyas – especially in places like Delhi-NCR and western UP – is the rising desperation among these devotees to get into the mainstream. The political forces here act as a catalyst which accelerates this desperation.
“If you see Kanwariyas in any other city across the country, be it Agra, Kashi or even in Rajasthan, they are the people who believe in rigorous worship. However, those from Delhi-NCR are those who frankly come for the luxury services of Kanwar Seva Shivirs, which offer them food, rest and sometimes a free space to consume drugs and dance. Most of these shivirs (camps) are erected by political parties or by the people who have political connection,” said Narendra Pal, a property dealer and resident of Delhi’s Patparganj area who was upset as six of his workers had taken off for over seven days to participate in the Kanwar Yatra.
Vivek Kumar, a professor of sociology at Jawaharlal Nehru University, mentioned that the rising trend of Kanwar Yatra, especially in the cow belt (Haryana-UP) is surprising as north India has never revered Shiva with such enthusiasm.
“Haryana is a place where Hanuman is worshipped more and in UP, Ram is the deity which can be seen everywhere. It surprises me that Shiva has become so important. Also, while during the rest of the year, women and girls worship Shiva-Parvati and the family, during Kanwar Yatra, only men can be seen worshipping the lord,” said Vivek for whom such religious processions are only meant to keep the youth engaged with religion.
Talking about the fanfare of Kanwariyas, Vivek says that this is nothing but an organised phenomenon which is rising under the regime of a particular political ideology.
“Earlier people were mostly engaged in farming so were not particularly prosperous and hence they used to have sober festivals and processions. But these days, the youths collect money for Kanwar Yatra through chanda (donations), hence they look fancy and so is their yatra,” he added.
Mahendra Dubey, son of Ram Narain Dubey, a BJP leader and former mayor of Delhi, who has erected a Kanwar Seva Shivir at Seemapuri border area, claimed that over a lakh devotees rested in his camp. Erected under the banner of Shiv Shakti Kanwar Seva Shivir, this camp witnessed its 20th year in 2018.
Kanwariyas at a Kanwar Seva Shivir. Credit: Munish Kumar
“These devotees are doing such rigorous seva of Shiva. If I can’t do that at least I can help them with some rest and refreshments,” he said, adding that the number of Kanwariyas this year was less than previous years.
“We used to organise competitions of biggest tabloids of Kanwariyas. This year, the enthusiasm was very less. The Kanwariyas were mostly on bikes and those walking on foot were very less in number,” claimed Dubey.
Sixty-five-year-old Govind Bhadauriya, whose son Kamlesh (41) took a haath kawar (two small kalash in hand), however has a grudge against those who judge Kanwariyas.
“What we do is out of faith. My lord calls me and I visit him. What is wrong with ‘me’ as a devotee if people are doing politics over religion,” said Bhadauriya, who further questioned: “Does that means that I should stop following my religion?”
Bajpai, the temple administrator, has an answer: Follow the religion, but get some information first.
“Tum auraton ko mar rahe ho, logo ko dara rahe ho, raste jam kar rahe ho, danga fasad kar rahe ho. Kis liye? Taki ye ganga jal jot tum apne sath liye ho ye apaviytra na ho jaye. Are, kaise samjhau tumko, Ganga to wo hai jisne jag ko pavitra kia hai, tum apne paap dhone ganga me jaate ho. Batao, wo Ganga kya kisi k choone se apavitra ho jayegi (You are beating women, creating fear among people, jamming roads and running riots. For what? To save the Gangajal you have from becoming impious. How to make you understand that it is this Ganga only which has made this world pious. You go to wash your sins in Ganga. How come this will become impious if someone like you would touch it?),” he said before making an announcement for a five-year-old girl who was missing in the sea of devotees who were leaving no stone unturned to please Lord Shiva.
Ishita Mishra is a UP-based journalist.
