Orders for displaying names on shops on Kanwar Yatra routes negate Constitution, Gandhi and Ambedkar’s vision

M.K. Gandhi wrote about the ridiculousness of 'Hindu water' and 'Muslim water' more than a century before the governments of Yogi Adityanath and Pushkar Singh Dhami passed Orders for displaying names on shops on Kanwar Yatra routes, writes S.N. Sahu.

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IN 1915, M.K. Gandhi denounced the discriminatory practice prevalent in the British colonial era that Hindu pilgrims visiting Haridwar would not accept water on the way apprehending that it could be "Musalmani", offered by a Muslim.

It is rather deplorable that the same practice is now being replicated by the Bharatiya Janata Party governments in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand headed by Yogi Adityanath and Pushkar Singh Dhami respectively.

These two chief ministers have issued Orders that shops, eateries, restaurants and even push carts selling water, fruits and vegetables on the route taken by Kanwariyas should mandatorily and prominently display the names of the owners of those establishments and the employees working there.

Kanwariyas are those undertaking the annual pilgrimage to Haridwar, Gaumukh and Gangotri in Uttarakhand and Ajgaivinath, Sultanganj in Bhagalpur, Bihar to fetch the holy waters of River Ganga and offer it to Shiva temples in their respective regions.

The Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand governments issued the Orders to ostensibly remove confusion from the minds of Kanwariyas and avoid any kind of situation giving rise to allegations and potential breach of law and order in the routes taken by them.

Gandhi's indictment of Hindu water

In his autobiography, My Experiments With Truth, Gandhi wrote about his visit to Haridwar where the Kumbh Mela was organised in 1915 and recalled his harrowing experiences in covering the distance from Saharanpur to Haridwar in a carriage with no roof and scorching heat, making the pilgrims very thirsty.

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"The pangs of thirst, caused by even such a journey as this," wrote Gandhi, "could not persuade orthodox Hindus to take water, if it was 'Musalmani'."

"They waited," he remarked sadly, "until they could get the 'Hindu' water."

He then very scathingly wrote, "These very Hindus, let it be noted, do not so much as hesitate or inquire when during illness the doctor administers them wine or prescribes beef tea, or a Musalman or Christian compounder gives them water."

Yogi and Dhami reviving the idea of Hindu water and Muslim water

The indicting remarks of Gandhi that those very Hindus who only accepted water from someone professing the same faith and never looked at the religious identities of doctors and compounders administering medicines and water to them are applicable to Yogi Adityanath and Dhami for their Orders to display names of shop owners on the routes taken by the Kanwariyas.

Those denunciatory remarks of Gandhi resonate in the sharp utterances of people who ask if the names of the founders or owners of pharma companies selling medicines would be displayed or if the names and religions of the donors of the blood would be displayed in the containers carrying their blood often used to save lives of the people when they face life and death situation.

Normalising economic boycott of Muslims and perpetuating Untouchability

In 1915, Gandhi saw pilgrims on their way to Haridwar only accepting so-called Hindu water. Had he been alive in India of 2024, he would have been shocked and outraged to see the elected chief ministers of India, having taken oaths of bearing true faith and allegiance to the Constitution of India, issuing Orders to display names of the owners of the shops on the route taken by Kanwariyas to fetch Ganga water.

He would have understood the meaning hidden in such Orders that are aimed at profiling the religious and caste identities of the owners of those shops and the people employed there.

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He would have clearly deciphered that the revulsion he experienced in 1915 in seeing some Hindus look at food and water from the perspectives of religion is being played out in the Orders issued by Yogi and Dhami, which are interpreted even by some allies of the Modi regime as attempts to normalise social and economic boycott of Muslims and perpetuation of Untouchability.

In 1945, Gandhi wrote in his text Constructive Programme that the disgraceful sale of Hindu tea, Muslim tea, and Hindu water and Muslim water would come to an end if there would be unity of heart among the people of India professing diverse faiths.

Details of names quite often indicate the religious and caste identities of people. Prominent display of such details of those engaged in trade and commerce— exercising their fundamental rights enshrined in the Constitution— come in the way of Gandhi's vision of fostering unity of heart. It makes them vulnerable to all kinds of discrimination, exclusion and violence on account of those very identities.

When so many dharma sansads (religious parliaments) attended by several BJP leaders and legislators have called for the genocide of Muslims and their comprehensive social and economic boycott, the display of their names on the boards of the shops they own exactly in the manner done in Hitler's Germany to identify shops of Jews there would make them easy targets of discrimination and exclusion.

Ambedkar on preventing boycott of minorities

While Gandhi's warnings and apprehensions are playing out in the Orders issued by Yogi and Dhami, B.R. Ambedkar's 1945 Constitution for the United States of India providing measures to prevent a social and economic boycott of minorities assumes added significance.

These Orders have put in danger the ideal of the Constitution, in particular, fraternity, which Dr Ambedkar called the true meaning of democracy.

I wrote an article, "Recalling Dr Ambedkar's prescient vision of 1945 against calls for boycott of minorities" in The Leaflet on August 27, 2023.

Also read: Recalling Dr Ambedkar's prescient vision of 1945 against calls for boycott of minorities

Ambedkar explained in the Constitution, "Whoever publicly makes or publishes or circulates a proposal for or makes, publishes or circulates any statement, rumour or report with the intent to, or which he has reason to believe to be likely to cause, or in any other way instigates or promotes the boycotting of any person or class of persons, shall be guilty of the offence of instigating or promoting a boycott."

Ambedkar's warnings on a communal executive

The Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand governments' Orders are covered by Dr Ambedkar's aforementioned provision on boycott.

Dr Ambedkar, while ensuring in the Constitution that boycott of minorities would be treated as an offence, provided in it protection against a communal executive'. 

One can also interpret that the Orders of Yogi and Dhami amount to Orders from a 'communal executive' and protection from such an executive should mean scrapping such Orders.

Top BJP leaders who falsely accuse Congress of not honouring Dr Ambedkar should take a look at the chief ministers of their own party who are completely negating Dr Ambedkar's vision and reviving the fears expressed by Gandhi in 1915.

They should be mindful that the people of India who made the idea of saving the Constitution a major electoral issue will find such Orders revolting and against constitutional morality.

Only by rescinding the Orders will the Constitution be upheld. In this context, the Supreme Court taking notice of the matter and staying these Orders is a step in the right direction.

The next step would be for the court to declare such actions as illegal and unconstitutional once and for all.