The Kanwarias

  • Krishan Kalra
  • India
  • Aug 29, 2014

 

 

I got up with a jolt; I had been dreaming. ‘I was a ‘kanwaria’, lying down on a comfortable mattress in one of the ‘shamianas’ somewhere in South Delhi. There were three guys pressing my tired legs & shoulders, another one was standing by with glasses of cool sherbet, a huge ‘thaali’ with a variety of piping hot delicious food was ready on a side stool, loud speakers were blaring out ‘bhajans’, and a cool breeze was wafting out of portable coolers placed all around the tented & carpeted ‘kanwaria camp’. On a raised platform stood our – mine and those of other ‘kanwarias’ – sacred ‘kanwars’ (metal urns full of holy water from the Ganges). We had carried these on bamboo carriers – one urn suspended at each end of the thick stick in a sort of rope tripod – all the way from Hardwar, walking only a few kilometers per a day. It seemed a cushy life indeed’. Why did the dream have to end?! 

    Come July every year the Kanwaria ‘movement’ starts in North India. There are enough devotees wanting the holy ‘Gangajal’ brought all the way from Hardwar by these ostensibly religious pilgrims. They are supposed to walk bare feet, carry the urns on their shoulders (never letting them touch the ground), bathe daily & dress up in clean clothes,  remain vegetarian & teetotallers, and observe abstinence – till they deliver the urns to their patrons (mainly high-caste Brahmins). During the journey, to help ease the pain & give rest to the tired limbs of the kanwarias, the devotees put up transit camps enroute, where all creature comforts – I suspect sometimes even taboo elements like ‘ganja’ & ‘afeem‘ – are provided to these ‘pseudo bhakts’. How many of them actually observe all the rules, and how many do not take shortcuts by motorbikes or tempos, is not known – or found worthwhile to check. What mayhem and chaos is created on the roads and how traffic comes to a standstill - especially in narrow bazaars – no one cares. How many unemployed anti-social youth become ‘kanwarias’, part of an organised closed-circuit recruitment racket, and hold towns to ransom – even beating up motorists coming in their way - no one dares (to care). And the ritual goes on….

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