How Kanwar Yatra, once a quiet walk of piety, has taken a riotous turn

In the magnificent pantheon of a vast and diverse world of Hindu divines, Shiva is considered the presiding deity. While various studies highlight different gods as being popular among believers, a significantly large proportion of devotees identify most closely with Shiva.

The Kanwar, Kānvar or Kāvaḍ Yātrā (travel) is an annual pilgrimage of the devotees of Shiva, to Hindu pilgrimage places, mainly at Haridwar, Gaumukh and Gangotri in Uttarakhand and the Ajgaivinath Temple in Sultanganj, Bihar, to fetch the holy waters from Ganga.

Millions also fetch the sacred water, carry it on their shoulders and offer it in their local Shiva shrines, or specific temples such as Pura Mahadeva temple in Baghpat, and Augharnath temple in Meerut, the famed Kashi Vishwanath temple in Varanasi and the Baidyanath Temple in Deoghar (Jharkhand), among other places.

Also read: UP bans trishuls, hockey sticks on Kanwar Yatra routes amid rise in assault cases

Quiet journey of devotion once

Back in the 1960s and 1970s, the yatra used to be a small annual affair, undertaken by a few saints and older devotees, who trudged for hundreds of miles carrying the sacred water in containers suspended on either side of a pole.

Recalling its hoary past, writer DR Dubey noted: “The Kanwar Yatra was once a quiet fire of devotion, barefoot men walking hundreds of kilometers, carrying sacred Ganga water with nothing but faith to sustain them. It was a journey of penance, silence, and surrender, where every blister was a prayer and every step, a vow.”

That scenario has changed drastically over the years.

The Indian politician, forever on the lookout to cultivate new devotees, saw in it an opportunity to improve their ratings. Since the late 1980s, when it started gaining popularity, the Kanwar pilgrimage to Haridwar, has grown to be India's largest annual religious gathering, with an estimated 30 million devotees in 2023 and 2024.

Chaotic affair today

The devotees come mainly from the northern states – Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Rajasthan, Punjab, and Bihar. With the good word already spread, believers from Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Odisha and Madhya Pradesh too have joined in.

The outcome, sadly for those who use the highways for work or pleasure, is hardly holy. When the yatra began on July 11 this year, heavy security measures were in place, and the traffic on the Delhi-Haridwar National Highway-58 stands diverted for a period of two to three weeks, from mid-July to mid-August.

Also read | Over 50 years, religiosity ebbed out of Kanwar Yatra, replaced by macho Hinduism

Earlier this week, police in Uttarakhand’s Haridwar district arrested four Kanwars for allegedly blocking the Delhi-Haridwar National Highway and damaging public property near Bahadarabad. In another incident in Kanpur, clashes reportedly broke out during a Kanwar Yatra procession, resulting in the assault of a home guard, a security guard, and a student volunteer. Some media reports claimed the violence and subsequent vandalism at a police station were carried out by Kanwars.

In Muzaffarnagar, a group of Kanwars allegedly vandalised a roadside eatery, claiming its Muslim owners had not clearly displayed their identities.

Delinquency in name of devotion

Now, consider a smorgasbord of what could only be described as sporadic acts of public violence:

a) Data from the Mela Police Force Control Room in Uttarakhand showed that more than 170 Kanwars were booked under charges such as hooliganism, rioting, blocking highways, obstructing police personnel, breach of peace and wrongful restraint in five days since the yatra began.

b) In Uttar Pradesh, most cases of vandalism occurred in Meerut, Muzaffarnagar, Ghaziabad and Kanpur, while in Uttarakhand, Haridwar has emerged as the focal point of such disturbances.

c) Media reports suggest that a group of Kanwars threw stones at a mini-truck on July 17 and broke its windows after it allegedly hit one of their fellow travellers crossing a road in Meerut’s Daurala.

Also read | Who are Kanwariyas and why are they so often in the news?

d) A group of Kanwars damaged a car in Ghaziabad, claiming it had hit one of their volunteers. Video clips showed a Kanwar standing atop a car and smashing its windshield with a stick. Police were present but did not stop them.

e) In Meerut, Kanwars damaged a school bus on Tuesday (July 15), alleging it had brushed a Kanwar.

f) Tension rose in the Shivrajpur area of Kanpur the same day, after a pilgrim was injured. Others with him blamed the police for the injury and attacked the force present. Later, around 80-90 people reached the Shivrajpur police station, created a ruckus, and reportedly entered the station. They are accused of misbehaving with the inspector and other policemen.

g) In Uttarakhand’s Haridwar, four Kanwars reportedly vandalised an eyeglass shop on Tuesday after the shopkeeper refused to lower the price. Although the incident was caught on CCTV installed by the police, no action was taken against them.

To quote Dubey again: “On key routes like Delhi to Haridwar, the spiritual is being drowned in the profane: blaring loudspeakers, violent mobs, intoxicated youth, and political posturing dressed up as piety. Stone pelting, public intimidation, and vandalism are replacing reflection and restraint. What should be a test of the soul is becoming a theatre of might, where religious devotion is warped into public aggression. This isn’t evolution, it’s desecration.”

Also read: Bareilly teacher’s poem on Kanwar Yatra sparks row, case filed

All is not lost

In contrast, Dubey notes that the travel to the Sultanganj-Deoghar route in Jharkhand and Bihar is as the Kanwar Yatra was meant to be. “Here, the 108-km journey unfolds with an almost mystical quality. Families participate together, with grandfathers teaching grandsons the proper way to balance the Kanwar, mothers preparing simple meals for the pilgrims, and entire communities coming together to support the sacred journey.”

In the national capital, the scenario is different. The Uttar Pradesh police have banned Kanwar Yatra pilgrims from carrying sticks, tridents, hockey sticks, and using motorbikes without silencers in parts of the state following a string of clashes and incidents of vandalism.

The restrictions were imposed in Saharanpur, Shamli, Muzaffarnagar, Meerut, Bulandshahr, Hapur, and Baghpat as the Kanwar Yatra progressed through several districts in Uttar Pradesh.

Also read: Kanwariyas vandalise highway dhaba in UP over onion in food

Strong political patronage

The Kanwars, once patronised by the Congress and its allies, can potentially be a body of stormtroopers, whose services can be utilised in activities other than merely religious.

That they enjoy political patronage would be to understate a point. In India’s politically crucial Uttar Pradesh, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath strongly condemned attempts to malign the image of Kanwar pilgrims, saying that branding them as miscreants or “terrorists” is an insult to India’s cultural and spiritual heritage.

Also read: 'No provocative slogans, display of weapons': UP CM's directives for Kanwar Yatra, Muharram

“During the holy month of Sawan, Kanwars undertake their yatra with devotion, chanting ‘Har Har Bam Bam’. Yet, some people from other communities insult them and label them as terrorists. They are subjected to media trials and defamed, which is completely wrong,” he said at a public event in Varanasi on July 18.

Earlier, he had instructed officials to arrange floral showers from helicopters at key points along the Kanwar Yatra route as a mark of respect and welcome for devotees during the holy month of Sawan.

Clearly, the umbilical cord between politics and religion, instead of being weakened, is getting stronger by the day. And if some people are feeling their heat, the problem is entirely theirs.