Picto Diary - 10 December 2019 (3) - Ganges Ghats AM

Above: Hindu Siva Priest. Dashashwamedh Ghat. Varanasi, India. 10 December 2019.

Koessler, Drums, and Mwah (sic) received a blessing from this priest. Proof was marked on our forehead.

Above: Crematorium, Manikarnika Ghat. Varanasi, India. 10 December 2019.

Same view as last night, but, this time 7:00 AM. Activity has died down a bit. There are two ongoing cremations here.

Above: Human ashes. Manikarnika Ghat. Varanasi, India. 10 December 2019.

According to guide Shaly these ashes will eventually be emptied into the Ganges River.

Above: Ritual Ganges bathers. Dashashwahmed Ghat. Varanasi, India. 10 December 2019.

Above: Old town Varanasi. Varanasi, India. 10 December 2019.

Koessler, Drums, and TIMDT consider large wood pile. Fuel for cremation fires. Per Shaly, the Gangetic Plain, not a forested area, is starting to experience a shortage of wood.

Above: Gyanvapi Mosque (file image). Varanasi, India. 10 December 2019.

We were reminded of sectarian tensions simmering under the surface between Muslims and Hindus on our walk through Varanasi Old Town.

The Gyanvapi Mosque was built by the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb in 1669 CE, after destroying a Hindu temple. The remnants of the Hindu temple can be seen on the walls of the Gyanvapi mosque.

A 1991 civil suit by a Hindu temple trust claimed the site of the mosque.

Simultaneously, in 1991 the Indian Government passed The Places of Worship Act to freeze the status of places of worship.

So, to walk this section of the city, we had to pass through armed security which surrounded the mosque.

Considering Ayodha (see next paragraph), security at Gyanvapi today does not seem excessive.

On 6 December 1992, in nearby Ayodha, the Hindu oriented BJP political party organized a rally involving 150,000 followers at the site of the Ayodha mosque. The Ayodha Mosque, like the Gyanvap Mosque in Varanasi, was claimed to have been built on the site of an ancient Hindu Temple, in Ayodha said to be the birthplace of the Hindu god Rama. The ceremonies included speeches by the BJP leaders. The mob grew restive through the duration of the speeches, and stormed the mosque shortly after noon. A police cordon placed there to protect the mosque was heavily outnumbered. The mosque was attacked with a number of improvised tools, and brought to the ground in a few hours. This occurred despite a commitment from the state government to the Indian Supreme Court that the mosque would not be harmed. More than 2000 people were killed in the riots following the demolition. Riots broke out in many major Indian cities including Mumbai, Delhi, Bhopal and Hyderabad.

While we are in India, ramping up are demonstrations around the country protesting new immigration laws that restrict Muslim immigration into India. While Muslims and Hindus seem to get along well in daily life in the villages throughout the country, religious zealots, on both sides, fan the flames of sectarian tension. It so happens that strong factions of the BHP party, now holding political power in India, are Hindu nationalists. They believe that just as Pakistan became a Muslim nation, so India should be a Hindu nation. Of course, at the time of Indian independence in 1948, India was set up as a secular nation affording protections to all religions. We may, during our visit to India be witnessing, first hand, the chipping away of the Gandhi/Nehru sponsored sectarian paradigm for India's governance. If such a transition towards government sanctioned Hindu tribal dominance continues, it won't occur without heretofore submerged sectarian tensions rising, once again, to the surface.

Nation state and tribal nationalism all seem to be gaining strength throughout the world. Islam, China, Russia, and Great Britain have all redirected governance models towards nationalism/tribalism and away from multiculturalism. In broad context, therefore, India, in advancing Hindu tribalism, is not an aberration. The arc of history is bending tribal.

Above: Sadhu and Drums. Varanasi, Old Town. Varanasi, India. 10 December 2019.

Sadhu is a religious ascetic, mendicant or any holy person in Hinduism and Jainism who has renounced the worldly life.

It literally means one who practices a ″sadhana″ or keenly follows a path of spiritual discipline. Although the vast majority of sādhus are yogīs, not all yogīs are sādhus. The sādhu is solely dedicated to achieving mokṣa (liberation), the fourth and final aśrama (stage of life), through meditation and contemplation of Brahman. Sādhus often wear simple clothing, such saffron-coloured clothing in Hinduism, white or nothing in Jainism, symbolising their sannyāsa (renunciation of worldly possessions). A female mendicant in Hinduism and Jainism is often called a sadhvi, or in some texts as aryika. Hat tip Wikipedia.