Monday, January 13, 2020

Travelling in Uttar Pradesh

And am nauseated by the hate here.
Everywhere I go, I see some example of how the muslims in the state are being oppressed.Things are doubly difficult for me because I am working on a project that requires me to interview people engaged in religious rituals along the river. On one hand, whenever I visited these temples and the associated fairs, I would always bring home trinkets for mum. Walking through those markets and seeing all the things that gave her joy is hard. On top of that, I see how this religion that she valued is being turned into an instrument of hate.
Yesterday, we walked along the river through a muslim neighbourhood. Just behind a mazhar, sharing a wall with it in fact, was a newly constructed temple to Ram. All around the area were posters claiming that India is a hindu nation. Anti-constitutional, illegal, but intimidating and encouraged by the present government.
It is not just religion that is used to foster hate. It seems that even river conservation has, knowingly or unknowingly, gotten into the act. We stayed to watch a Gomti Aarti, a prayer to the river. As we watched, we realised that it was a new ritual initiated here as part of the Gomti cleaning campaign. I understand the effort to involve people through social rituals. But in this case, there was a twist to the ritual. As is usual, the puja ended in a crescendo of generic requests- let there be peace in the world, let everyone prosper, let all be happy, and interspersed in all that- let cow slaughter be stopped.
At present, cow slaughter is a highly politically charged point in India, and used as an excuse to kill Muslims and Dalits.
 The Clean Gomti campaign, by only associating itself with a hindu ritual, especially when the ritual shocking ended with a call to end cow slaughter, is not something I want to align myself with. But today, I need to go over and interview those people about their expectations for the river.