One moment the youth of Lalitpur were pulling the chariot of Rato Machhindranath and the next moment, their hands had rocks and bricks aimed as projectiles at the police force that had decided to take action to stop the rath pulling festival. There has been no records so far of the injured. From every angle this is an unfortunate incident and there will be a steep price to be paid for this misadventure of the Nepal government. It will always be the higher authority that has to be made accountable first, even though in incident like this, no one can escape the blame.
(All photos provided by Yogendra Bhujel)
The blame can be spread around to every individual and the party involved in this incident because their decision, delay in the decision and the indecision all played an important part in such a violence to erupt. There are always multiple levels of thoughts and other variables in play in such an incident.
When people look at the predominantly evident situation of the coronavirus fear and the prohibitory orders in place to curb the spread of the virus, it would seem that the local youth were at fault, but it was not an organized gathering. People started to come out by one or two at a time and soon there were around 800 people gathered around the chariot of their cultural deity Machhindranath whose folklore goes back to 1,400 years. Such a long and what is said to be the longest tradition in Kathmandu valley of pulling the chariot for the longest duration had another angle that was different from all the other festivals that had been cancelled. There was a fear that if the festival was not held for any reason in any of the year, then it would have to be taken to the neighboring district of Bhaktapur. That fear played a big part in Lalitpur people to coming out on their own to pay their honor of gratitude to the deity who had helped end 12 years of drought 1,400 years ago.
There was a deep cultural significance of Machhindranath in Patan. If the chariot had not been built in the first place, or the idol had not been installed in the chariot, there would not have been the youth thrust to pull the chariot. The police should not have been present to put pressure because that gave the youth an added incentive to show their defiance. And when the police resorted to violence by using the water cannon and ultimately the tear gas, situation deteriorated to throwing projectiles.
There had been many attempts by the local committee to conduct the festival by using appropriate measure, even without the crowd if needed. All the requests were overlooked and nothing was done by the district government. There was a lack of coordination between the three agencies –the guthi, the organizing committee and the local administration. No one really thought though the importance and the possible consequence. It seems like everything was based on ad hoc decisions, instead of trying to accommodate the deep cultural and heritage that signified the festival.
At another level, faith is more momentous than anything else. It drives the people overcome fear and risk their lives. For Newars of Lalitpur this festival was a part of their identity. Machhindranath was the deity of good times, and removal of problems, hence even to overcome the pandemic, it could have been instrumental in building communal faith. The spiritual and faith component of this festival helped to overcome fear of the people. That is also a valid point to have been noted. If you consider such gatherings, there have been so many similar gatherings and annual festivals held even in the U.S. The government there did not intervene. The Sturgis motorcycle rally comes to mind. Did someone get corona after the event? It sure did. When it comes to Lalitpur jatra, the people did have fear of the pandemic and were definitely afraid of death, but chose to overcome fear and chose to honor their culture.
The government’s action and logic seems hollow. Just issuing a prohibitory order is definitely not a solution, just like putting down the country for four months of lockdown did not help stop spread the virus. If the government had been honest about people’s health and the mortality, then the first thing it would have done would be to stop thousand of Nepalese from the Far Western region to return to India to their jobs. They are so desperate from hunger that even coronavirus threat pales in comparison. They know they are walking into the jaws of death by returning to Indian when their situation if worst it has been. So why is the government doing nothing there?
Another level of discrepancy is seen in the make up of the population. Newars have been living in Kathmandu for thousand of years and the valley’s culture is nothing but Newar culture. They are proud to be the keeper of faith and their heritage. Without the Newars, Kathmandu would have no culture or identity of its own. On the other hand, the great rulers in power are all from out of the valley. They are outsiders by all means, hence it is normal to be oblivious to the sentiments or Newars. On top of that they carry a philosophy that derides the spiritual quest of human and takes policy measures to undermine them. This time it cost them disgrace in the Patan community.
On a positive note, the festival has been allowed to proceed to a logical end by performing the necessary rituals and end ot by Bhadra 26. So, that has put to rest for the time being the discordant voices of Newars of Lalitpur. It has only quelled, but the simmering must be present under the surface. During the violence on Thursday, an innocent traffic cop was singled out and beaten badly by the youth. If such disregard for Newar culture continues, as has been proven by the distruction of Newar heritage in Kathmandu valley, the time may come when the eruption of sentiments might turn against the top guns.
The writer is a graduate of Arizona State University in Political Science. He is working as a social activist and motivational speaker for students across Nepal since 2007. He also blogs at Strong Blog.
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necesarily reflect the official policy or position of Nepalisite.
