My Day as a Warkari and a Walk to Remember

This year I joined the Pandharpur Wari, which is a 250-kilometre and 21-day long procession from Alandi and Dehu to Pandharpur in Maharashtra. I was a part of it for a day on Sunday July 7, for an 8-km stretch from Baramati to Sansar.

First, a brief background of the wari. Wari is a nearly 800-year-old tradition, where the footwear of two saints are carried in a palanquin. Sant Dnyaneshwar’s palanquin starts from Alandi, while Sant Tukaram’s palanquin commences from Dehu.

More than 2 million warkaris – participants in the procession – undertake the long journey, accompanying the palanquins. Some warkaris bring their own palanquins of saints from their villages, some carry tulsi plants or coconut as offerings to the deity Vitthal in Pandharpur.

The warkaris walk in dindis – or village-based groups. In Pandharpur, they first bathe in a holy river and worship Vitthal and his spouse Rukhmini. Along the way they sing the abhangas (compositions) of Sant Tukaram and repeat names of the saints rhythmically. They also dance to the drums and cymbals. The dindis are registered, well organised and disciplined – they start daily at 6 am and halt at designated places for freshening up, meals, and rest.

There is an important distinction between the wari and other religious processions in which the image of the deity is carried. In the wari tradition, the warkaris represent their favourite bhakt Sant Tukaram by the footwear.

Also, in this long tradition, one has never heard of any violence on or by the warkaris. They pass through the areas inhabited by various caste groups and communities, and their temples and mosques. No one has objected to the waris in all these years. When the wari passes through a Muslim area on Eid or other festivals, the Muslim community defers their celebrations, or includes warkaris in their celebrations by sharing food. Many Muslims also join the wari.

Dnyaneshwar and Tukaram are Bhakti saints. The Bhakti movement was a popular faith movement and religious expression of the subalterns and lower castes, i.e. those excluded from the temples due to their caste status on the basis of purity and pollution norms, which privilege the Brahmins as the custodians of religion, temple and offerings to their gods.

To the Bhakti saints, god is not in the temple, but omnipresent, and within the heart of the believer. Serving the most needy, irrespective of the caste, is akin to worshipping Vitthal. In an instructive story, Tukaram is trying to help a cow come out of muck in which it is stuck outside Vitthal’s temple. Even after a long time and a lot of effort, he does not succeed, but keeps trying. His impatient followers tell the saint that they are all waiting for him to enter Vitthal’s temple and begin the worship. He refuses to enter the temple until he succeeds in pulling out the suffering cow. The cow then appears in its true form – Vitthal, who was testing his favourite bhakt. The story says that the god is suffering with those who are marginalised and suffering; their liberation is his worship.

The Bhakti movement was a movement of resistance to the oppressive caste system and over-ritualised Brahmanical traditions, which barred the subalterns from accessing the Sanskrit religious texts, thereby controlling religion and using it as an instrument of oppression.

The Bhakti and Sufi movement were spiritual expressions popular among the people, as they were inclusive in their approach, believed in equality of all human beings, and love, as the only true religion. The Sufi and Bhakti movements were parallel movements, and they influenced each other. Some Bhakti saints were disciples of Sufi saints and vice-versa.

I was part of dindi number 261, called “Ek divas tari wari anubhavavi (experience wari, even if only for a day).” There were about 400 people in the dindi, including Tushar Gandhi, the great grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, Arun Mhatre, the famous Marathi litterateur and poet, and Feroze Mithiborwala, an activist. This dindi was organised by Sharad Kadam and others associated with the Rashtra Seva Dal, a progressive-socialist organisation for the past 11 years.

Their objective is to mobilise progressive writers, artists, activists, and youth to participate in the wari. They see wari as a progressive cultural festival. Sharad Kadam told this writer that the warkari tradition stands for equality and dignity of all human beings – irrespective of caste, class and culture – and service to the most needy. These are constitutional values as well.

He further said that their dindi joins on the first Sunday after the wari reaches Pune, wherever the palanquin is going to be. They take a night halt at Pune on Saturday and travel early on Sunday to catch up. That is because some people can spare only a Sunday of their lives. Women also participate in the wari in large numbers. While there are no separate and private arrangements for women, they are made to feel safe and thus participate in large numbers.

What I saw

It was very uplifting to be a part of the sea of human beings. Wherever I saw were men and women, all chanting the names of the saints and singing their compositions. We had to walk about 8 kilometres in the hot sun.

All the warkaris cooperated with each other, even though most were strangers to each other, and shared the water they had with whoever wanted it, as we were all getting dehydrated. The chants distracted me from my suffering due to the hot weather. All the warkaris shared their energy, without which it would have been extremely difficult, if not impossible to walk that entire stretch.

I felt tired only after we reached our destination at Sansar. The sea of humanity was calm and serene as there was an invisible thread of love binding them all together, though they belonged to different castes, classes, communities and genders.

I met Dr. Pillai in our dindi, whose mother tongue is Malayalam, and who practices medicine in Baramati. I was surprised to read a poem he wrote in excellent Marathi. In it, he said that Tukaram had abolished the difference between castes and communities and that Allah and Vitthal are the same god.

No one in the wari asked me or others our religion or caste, as that was immaterial to them. They had only one common objective – help each other reach Pandhapur and fulfill their vows.

Some warkaris had undertaken this journey for the last 25 years and would be doing so for many coming years. Love and commitment to Vitthal summoned them to the journey. Dr. Pillai, for one, had undertaken this journey for a number of years as he was disturbed by growing communal hatred in the society. He felt that the wari spreads a message of love and inclusion. The warkaris chant, “Dnyanoba Mauli Tukaram”. Dnyoba and Tukaram refer to the saints. Mauli refers to Vitthal, who is worshipped as mother and not father. Vitthal is a caring deity rather than power wielding and punishing deity.

What made the wari so serene, when in the recent past we have witnessed communal violence accompanying Ram Navami processions, Jal Abhishek Shobha Yatras, Hanuman Jayanti Shobha Yatra and other such yatras?

The traditional Ram Navmi and Hanuman Jayanti Shobha Yatras that have been taken out for over decades, still pass off peacefully and are traditionally welcomed by the Muslim community. The latter offer participants coconuts, or cold drinks or snacks. The traditional yatras also stop playing music while passing through a mosque, to allow the Muslims to pray peacefully. Their purpose is to follow their traditions, and not to assert their privileges or hegemony over others in the locality.

However, those organised by followers of the political ideology of Hindutva often violate the conditions on which the permission is granted to them by police. They insist on diverting from the traditional route of the yatra and meander into Muslim neighbourhoods, play loud music near mosques for an irritatingly long period, including during prayer time and shout political slogans asserting superiority and power of Hindus.

Also read: Changed Procession Route, Provoking Muslims: Ram Navami Followed a Familiar Pattern in Gujarat

One big difference in the wari and religious processions organised by Hindutva political organisations is that the participants in the former are bound by religious and spiritual values, while the participants in the latter are bound by political ideology and political objective, viz. establishing hegemony of the majority community, even in face of resistance to it and even if it is accompanied by or leads to violence.

Members of the Muslim community enthusiastically participate in the former (wari) and accept it as a part of their culture, whereas they fear the latter (shobha yatras organised by Hindutva organisations).

I saw only one police constable at one chowk (cross roads) during the wari, regulating the traffic. There wasn’t any need for a police force at all. Whenever vehicles approached and needed to cross the wari, members would stop and allow them passage, and catch up if they were left behind. Massive police forces accompany shobha yatras organised by Hindutva organisations, and yet they are often unable to prevent a breakout of violence or stop them from violating the conditions of permission.

One warkari told this writer that once they participate in the wari, it gives them enough energy to live a good, disciplined and religious life for the entire year. They return to the wari next year to carry on for another year, and so on. This wari has filled me with enough energy, calmness and inspiration, perhaps to carry on for much longer, perhaps forever! I feel like going next year as well. I haven’t been to Haj pilgrimage. I sense it might have the same effect on me. Vitthal! Vithal! I pray that one God may teach us peaceful co-existence.