Saakhi is a Sunday column from Mrinal Pande, in which she writes of what she sees and also participates in. That has been her burden to bear ever since she embarked on a life as a journalist, writer, editor, author and as chairperson of Prasar Bharti. Her journey of being a witness-participant continues. 

The Himalayan region teems with lores of mysterious wanderers; gods, great warriors, saints, pirs, fakirs and gurus of various sects all have all called on the great mountains. Their visits are marked by little sacred shrines, ashrams and caves that dot the region from Gadhwal to Kumaon – the places where they are said to have sat, meditated or slept before moving on. The sacred Dhoonis or Jyotis lit by saints, holy rivers and lakes where warriors washed off their sins of fratricidal wars are worshipped by all castes and tribes even today. And each such shrine forms a sacred link in a long circuit of sacred places in Devbhumi, the divine land.

Like all children who grew up in the region, we were brought up on lores that showed India as a polycentric, plural country with a deep sense of reverence for all forms of life: humans to flora and fauna, religions and races. It therefore came as a shock to know that parts of this multicoloured dreamscape created by our ancestors may be soon bulldozed to pave way for a new vision of India and modern development. Reports are flying in on how the political party in power is going to squeeze out all shrines, mazars and churches deemed “illegal”. An ugly new term – “land jihad" – has been coined to identify and highlight the identity of the unwelcome land grabbers. The government has clarified that it considers its own of the Sanatan Hindu Dharma as the golden benchmark. So if tourists are invited for pilgrimages through holy trails, the spots associated with the Sanatan version will get precedence even over certain non-Sanatan sects.

After coming back to power last year, the double engine government of chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami has passed a draconian anti-conversion law and is formulating a Uniform Common Civil Code making it mandatory for all communities to give up their personal laws and submit to the common law of the land. To facilitate religious tourism to Sanatan Mutts, it now proposes razing all the “illegal’ shrines, especially mazars and churches, located in forests and hamlets or by water sources all over the state. The government alleges that the minority communities have been building fake shrines and mazars only to grab land to entrench themselves in the state and ultimately skew its delicate demographic ratio in favour of minorities.

The problem is the land ironically described in tourist brochures of the government as ‘Devbhumi’ has never discriminated between gods of minorities and the Hindu (read Sanatan) majority. For centuries, the Devbhumi has been dotted all over with shrines to gods and goddesses and gurus who are non-Hindu or at least unacknowledged by the Vedas: Golu Devta, sacred Samadhis of non-Sanatani pirs, Nathpanthi yogis and jogis. The large-hearted and egalitarian men and women in the area, even when they were building their homes, used to leave the Samadhis intact. I myself recalled several such Samadhis dotting my grandmother’s fruit garden where we were supposed to observe decent manners and not spread litter. Towns in both Kumaon and Gadhwal have happily and proudly played host to nearly all major thinker-philosophers, saints, pirs and fakirs from Shankaracharya to Guru Gorakhnath, Kalu and Maimanda Pir to Vivekanand and Tagore.

Joshimath, the town housing one of the four sacrded Mutts established by Adi Shankara, has a rich association with the heretical Nath Panthi and Siddha sects dating back to the eight century. It has an original Dhooni lit by Guru Gorakhnath and also Shankaracharya established holy Dham to Sanatan gods. And no one has ever seen it as objectionable. The town, though, has literally been cracking up because of the furious building activity unleashed in the last five years. Will such  sanctified spaces – peeths, ashrams and dhunis that have woven a rich tapestry of religions – now be going under bulldozers to make way for six-lane roads and tourist resorts for Sanatani pilgrims?

Yoga and yogis have had a long association with the Himalayan area over the centuries. The 21st-century avatar of yoga and the Nath Yogis were actually shaped only after the 11th century. Matsyendra Nath (known in folklore as Raja Machhinder) was a great yogi and alchemist who renounced his kingdom and the Vedic Sanatana tradition and opted for the life of a homeless, heretic sadhu. The Nath Siddha tradition crafted by his great disciple Guru Gorakh Nath created a large following of the Gorakh Panth among both Hindus and Muslims who for various reasons wished to opt out of Vedic ritualism and the caste system. As per the 1921 Census list, the Nath sect in India had 6,29,978 Hindu yogis, 31,158 Muslims (who called themselves jogis) and also 1,41,132 fakirs.

According to scholar Madan Chandra Bhatt, an old manuscript of Guru Gorakhnath, Guru Paduka, was located at the Joshimath Jyotirpeeth in Uttarakhand. According to it, in 14th century there was a fierce clash between Timur’s armies and the armies of Hindu King Dhamdeva on the banks of the Ganges. Both armies also included mercenaries from Nathpanthi Sadhus and pirs and fakirs. Of these, two – Syed Kalu (of Turkic origin) and Maimanda Pir – migrated separately towards the hills. Syed Kalu was directed by Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya to go into the Himalayan region to cure a terrible burning sensation he was experiencing. He left with his two followers via towns of Jaspur, Kashipur, Kaladhungi and Ranikhet, to finally settle in a quiet place near Almora, where he is buried with his two murids and his pet white horse. The mazar there holds an annual urs at which the standard prasad offered by both Hindu and Muslim pilgrims are the usual chadar with rounds of jaggery (Gud ki Bheli) and yes, bundles of bidis (cheroots) that Baba is said to be fond of.

It is unsurprising that in the manner of many other medieval pirs, gurus and sadhus including Guru Gorakh, at each place were Guru Nanak paused to take a break, a commemorative shrine came up. As a child one has seen at least three Kalu Pir shrines in Almora, Ranikhet and Haldwani and heard of two more, one in Lohaghat near the Nepal border and the other in Bhimtal.

Maimanda Pir, the other survivor of the battle at Kaliyan e Pir, became a Nathpanthi Muslim Fakir and had close ties to the Nath sect in Joshimath. He was said to have received his diksha in Kashi. Both Kalu and Maimanda Pirs rose to be very popular among people in the Gadhwal region. They are routinely invited through songs sung during exorcism rites to protect the innocent and drive out evil, “Tu Maimanda Pir Masaan…Turkani ko Putra haat Avyu... (You the son of a Turk mother the brave Maimanda please emerge from the burial site)." The two are referred to as the bravest among the brave and the Pir of Pirs (Veeranu ko Veer, Piran ko Pir). Like Nathpanthi Sadhus, they are called formally with the adesh (order) of their guru, “Om Namo Guru ko Aadesh!” The singer asks the pir as he manifests himself in the body of the autariya (the possessed) how he came; the answer is, “Ham ham kerta ayo Chham Chham kerta ayo! Dharti Agaas Feranto Baba Pir... (I came with a loud hum and sound of bells rose from earth towards the skies)."

These simple local rituals stemming out of love and devotion for pirs and gurus among the largely Sanatani locals are proof that landscapes such as these are not sanctified by the size of shrines and the wealth of rich devotees for whom six-lane roads are being built. The sacred ecology of the region has been protected and maintained not by politicians, bureaucrats, contractors and tourists they usher in, but by a humble bunch of local faithfuls that understand a living connection between all religions that links Kalu Pir to Golu Devta and Syed Maimanda to Guru Gorakhnath and offer them whatever they can afford: jaggery, a bundle of beedis, or simply berries and flowers picked in the forest.

Mrinal Pande is a writer and veteran journalist.

The Wire is now on WhatsApp. Follow our channel for sharp analysis and opinions on the latest developments.