Op-Ed

The politics of Amarnath Yatra
AGGRESSION AT ITS WORST
<P><STRONG><FONT color=#000099>A Journey of Faith or a Battle for Hindutva. Facts speak for themselves, comments M Ashraf.</FONT></STRONG> </P>
<P>Islam is the most tolerant religion in the world. Sura Kafirun in Holy Quran clearly declares, “To you, your religion and to me my own”. Every human being has the choice to profess his religion and there is no coercion in Islam. However, the followers of every Faith must not impinge on others or disturb the nature. Once a pilgrimage to pursue certain spiritual beliefs goes beyond religion, it not only loses its sanctity but disturbs one and all. This is what is happening to Amarnath Yatra.
 The Amarnath Pilgrimage does not have an ancient historical background. It seems to have become popular only in the beginning of the last century when it was called the Tirtha of “Amaresvara or Amarnatha”. From the earliest times as recounted by Kalhana in Raj Tarangni, there has been one important pilgrimage for Kashmiri Hindus. The Haramukh-Gangabal pilgrimage. Historically the holiest of the Kashmirian Tirthas has been the Haramukuta, the “Siva's Diadem”. Kashmiris considered the Gangabal Lake as the true source of Kashmir's Ganga or Sindh River and it was known in ancient times as “Uttaraganga”. Nilmata Purana describes the Lake as “Uttaramanasa”. It was the final goal of the great “Haramukuta Pilgrimage” which used to take place once in four years in the month of Bhadrapada. The pilgrimage was still popular till the visit of Sir Aurel Stein, the translator of Rajtarangni who came here for the first time in 1888. The other important Pilgrimage for Kashmiri Brahmins has been Kheer Bhavani.
 Sir Aurel Stein while describing Amarnath pilgrimage mentions, “Judging from the scanty references made to this Tirtha (Amarnath) in the Rajtarangni and Nilmata, it appears doubtful whether it could have enjoyed in old times quite such great celebrity as now”. Even in recent times till late eighties this pilgrimage was not so much known and was also restricted to a specific period of about a week or ten days on Shravan Purnima around Rakhsha Bandan. The total number of pilgrims including sadhus would not exceed 20 to 25 thousand. In fact after the eruption of turmoil in the valley in 1990, there were hardly any pilgrims. The Yatra shot into prominence only after a non-Kashmiri militant organisation, the Harkat-ul-Ansar banned it. The ban was taken as a challenge by the Hindutva organisations like the Bajrang Dal, the Shiv Sena, and others. These organisations were fully supported by the Government of India in taking up this challenge to show to the world that the writ of Hindu India ran all through Muslim Kashmir. From that day onwards it was a virtual battle between the foreign militant organisations and the Hindutva brigade. There were repeated attacks on the Yatra over the years which made the Yatra known throughout India. These attacks also acted as a red rag to the bull and the militant Hindu organisations made it a point to send their young members on the pilgrimage as a patriotic duty. During this period there were two episodes, one natural, and the other man made which disrupted the Yatra and forced the Government to put some restrictions on it to control its movement in the interests of the pilgrims. In 1996 due to an unseasonal blizzard hundreds of Yatris perished as more than 70 thousand had gone up due to absence of any control on numbers. 
 The second episode involved a militant attack in Pahalgam which resulted in a large number of casualties but most of these were of the locals who had faced indiscriminate firing by the security forces gone totally berserk. Both the incidents were subjected to formal Government inquiries. The first one was conducted by Dr.Nitish Sen Gupta and the second one by General Mukherji, the Corps Commander. Both recommended total control and regulation of the Yatra. It was stipulated that the Yatra should be for one month only and the number of yatris per day from both the routes should not exceed 5,000. This was the maximum limit suggested and could be even lesser. The things ran smoothly as long as the Government directly controlled the Yatra. The only problem was that the entire Government machinery would get totally bogged down for almost month and a half for the conduct of the Yatra. It was Dr. Farooq Abdullah who, presumably, to please his Delhi masters and also to lessen the burden on the State Government, set up a Shrine Board to better control and manage the Pilgrimage through Hindus themselves. However, he probably did not know what an unmanageable mammoth he was creating. 
 The Shrine Board functioned smoothly during the time of General Rao and did not take upon itself the task of setting up a virtual Amarnath Nagar. In fact, during his tenure the total involvement of the Board was limited to the Shrine area from Sangam to Cave, hardly a distance of about 2 kilometres. It was with the coming of the present Governor that the Board became rather unwieldy and started grabbing the entire Pilgrimage along with the land en route right from Pahalgam on one side and Baltal on the other side. One of the stipulations of the Amarnath Act was that the Board would be headed by the Governor and for that purpose the Governor has to be a Hindu. Probably, it was because of this that the Central Government could not appoint a Muslim Governor. There were rumours about Wajahat Habibullah being appointed but this did not happen. Does this fit in with the “Secular” Consitution of India? In addition, over the years the Pilgrimage has come to resemble a military operation. There are three layers of security provided all along the Yatra route. The mountain tops and ridges are sanitised and area domination is conducted a month in advance by Rashtriya Rifles. Then the second layer of security is provided by Border Security Force or Central Reserve Police Force and the first layer or the direct security to the Pilgrims as well as the Cave Shrine is the task of the Central Reserve Police Force. More than 12,000 security personnel are involved in this operation. 
 The control room in Pahalgam with a dozen wireless antennae resembles a war operation room. Then there are permanent helipads constructed next to the cave with dozens of helicopter sorties every day. During the course of the expansion of the Yatra, the original caretakers whose ancestors actually discovered the Cave Shrine were systematically eased out. I have had the opportunity of accompanying Yatra during my tenure in Tourism few decades back. Those days it was a very cool affair and a rewarding experience. Pilgrims both young and hold with very little warm clothing and without proper shelters would trudge along in rain and mud. It was in the real sense of the word, a journey of faith for all the participants. It was faith alone which would enable them to carry on in spite of tough conditions especially in inclement weather. The Yatra used to last at the most two weeks and the total number of Yatris did not exceed 20,000 or so. The present Governor as the Chairman of the Board converted it into a commercial enterprise. Everything is taxed by the Board. In fact, he went to the extent of experimenting with the naturally created ice-lingam and also proposed to put an artificial lingam of crystal glass. Many religious authorities including Mahant Deepinder Giri have held the actions of the Board being against the religious scriptures. 
 If the lingam is to be artificially created and its duration extended by refrigeration, then why not do it in a temple in Delhi itself? Why travel all the way through the tough and difficult terrain of the Himalaya? The Governor has been behaving as if he has found the true religious connection of the ancient “Hindu” Kashmir with the present “Hindu” India. There are more dramatic similar caves with ice-lingam in many parts of Ladakh. These are natural creations and not artificially made! Faith is also in appreciating nature's creations and not in fiddling with these. The actions of the Board are making the pilgrimage lose its sanctity and it is rather becoming sanctimonious. The gusto with which the Governor has been going on for the expansion of the Yatra clearly indicates that there is some hidden agenda. He has been taking a so called “Sofiana Music” route to rope in local Muslims. This has nothing to do with a simple and normal religious pilgrimage of Hindus. He has, in fact, admitted that he had changed the mind set of the people in Kashmir. 
 The result of his actions is a slowly emerging communal divide which may suddenly blow up one day. Before that happens, it would be advisable for the concerned authorities to revert back to the traditional pilgrimage including its historical duration. The innocent pilgrims want to participate in a spiritual journey and not in the “Battle for Hindutva”!</P>
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