SABARIMALA -- A RECAP

The media is a "one-trick pony"-- more, or less.....

A sensation-a-day is the mantra on which the media celebrates its existence. A sensation at least once in a few days is the formula on which it manages to thrive. No sensation for a couple of weeks, and that is the sure-fire blight for "media-wilt"! Idle thoughts these are not. Anybody who has perhaps a less than average memory, but who is careful about keeping a note of half-a-dozen sensations from the previous month, and checking for its "progress" for about three months would come to the above conclusion. Then there is another interesting side to sensations too-- you just can't have a couple of simultaneous sensations! One of them will get relegated to the back of nowhere in no time!

Such being the curious nature of media "attention" on issues that are more than mere sensations, it behoves the responsible citizen to "recap" and "revisit" topics and issues that demand more than a cursory attention. The recent tragedy at Sabarimala on the occasion of the Makarajyothi (in mid-January) is fresh in the minds of at least some of us, and surely the date is etched indelibly in the minds of the poor souls who lost a father, a husband, a son or a brother in the melee at Pulmedu on that fateful day. Do have a look at my earlier post "Sense and Sabarimala". ( http://2ndthinker.blogspot.com/2011/01/sense-and-sabarimala.html )

The weeks that followed the tragedy saw a tapering off of interest in the matter despite a rather spirited slanging match between the Forest Department, the Electricity Board and, of course, the Devaswam Board. Now the brouhaha has virtually died down and we (and surely the media!) are waiting for something else to happen before we start our response engines!

I was in the meantime keeping track of the post-tragedy fallout.

It was interesting, nay amusing, to see the government (which means the clever politicians!) playing hide-and-seek with the question of whether the Makara Jyothi was man-made or not, and in the event that it was man-made, who was/were the man/men who made it! The Chief Minister, an adroit old hand, easily side-stepped the issue by saying that it was a matter of 'faith' into which the government was loath to enter! No question of any enquiry of fact-finding regarding a question that was debated ad-nauseum by all and sundry, including the rationalists. It is fated to remain a mystery.

The sad fact remains that the Makara Sankranthi pilgrim rush is mostly as a result of the pilgrims' wish to witness the 'divine jyothi'. What goes without saying is that the creation and perpetuation of the "cash cow" that the Makara jyothi was  a legerdemain that was being accomplished with the tacit knowledge and connivance of the "powers that be". Those who have been following the developments are sure to remember the many revelations in the media as regards the truth about this "magical flickering light that appeared on cue" at Ponnambalamedu, and for a glimpse of which hundreds of poor pilgrims had paid for with their precious lives.

Here are a few links of interest:

"...The ‘Makarajyothi' issue has taken a new turn with a former Commissioner of the Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) writing to the Devaswom Ombudsman in Kerala, asserting that the TDB had indeed been lighting the fire seen atop Ponnambalamedu..." Read more at < http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/article1117779.ece >

"...Contending that Makarajyothi was not a miracle but a man-made fire, the Supreme Court was moved on Saturday to stop lighting it at Ponnambalamedu near the Sabarimala shrine in Kerala in January every year... More at < http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/article1117782.ece >

"...The Hindu on Friday posed the question (is the Makara Jyothi man-made) before a number of prominent persons closely associated with, or seek to represent the interests of, the revered and ancient forest-shrine. The answer: it is indeed man-made...." Follow the story at < http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/article1110275.ece >

The clincher, however, was the statement made by the Pandalam Raja himself in a letter to the Editor of The Hindu newspaper. ( http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-opinion/article1110364.ece ) The Pandalam Royal family is part and parcel of the legend of Lord Ayyappa and even today the Raja retains many privileges, including being the official custodian of the Lord's festive ornaments and paraphernalia. The Pandalam Royal family has been involved with the rituals of the Ayyappa temple from the very beginning. But apparently the Devaswam Board's clever stratagem for making some solid quick money did not "gel" with the rather orthodox Raja, and he has now come out with a categoric denial of there being any "divinity" associated with the flame that flickers at Ponnambalamedu.

The Raja being the accepted authority as regards many customs and rituals of the Sabarimala temple, there does not seem to be the need for any further authority to accept the truth that the "divine jyothi" is a man-made sham jyothi, lit in order to deceive the poor pilgrim. We have to educate the pilgrims about the truth of the jyothi before the next Makara Sankranthi day. Tout it as a part of the temple ritual, if you will. If the environment and forest ministries will permit,  the Devaswam Board can open a trekking path to Ponnambalamedu and make some good money by selling a limited number of passes to pilgrims so that they could witness the "deeparadhana" and the "jyothi" being lit at the hilltop. Well, why not??

If that is not possible, maybe for the present, the Board and the government have to see that no "clandestine jyothi" is lit there, throwing the pilgrims into another dangerous convulsion. It may be recalled that the Indian Space Organization had promised detailed satellite maps of the terrain to the government and the Board. It would be interesting to keep track by satellite of the presence of any "human agency" lighting the "divine fire"! Why can't a body of selected public figures, Board officials, Forest and government reps and a few rationalists be permitted to be present at the Ponnambalamedu venue on the Makara Sankranthi evening so that the issue could be settled once and for all???

That, precisely, is the rub!! Nobody wants to "settle" the issue for good!  Why? There is good (?) money in it! That, dear reader, is the sad truth behind all that apathy...

Another curious development that was briefly reported was the claim made by a group representing the "malayarayans" and "malappandarams" and other hill tribes that they traditionally  had the claim to light the Makara Jyothi at Ponnambalamedu. They were driven off when the forest area came under the Electricity Board after the commissioning of the Sabarigiri hydel project. The tribals are vocal about wanting their claim restored. A very interesting development indeed. I dont know, but they do not seem to have moved the court yet in this connection. This would tie in with my earlier suggestion. Restore the tribals' right and also start a new 'pilgrimage' to Ponnambalamedu and "market" the jyothi as a part of the Sabarimala rituals. This definitely would save lives and unnecessary rush and madness that have increasingly come to be a mark of the Sabarimala pilgrimage as the years go by.

Yet another aspect that led to the tragedy that received the attention of many officials and functionaries was the unprecedented burgeoning of crowds at the hilltop temple. Not only that the mechanism of crowd control had miserably failed at the Sanctum and all along the trekking paths, there was another 'phenomenon' this year. All the roads leading to Sabarimala were clogged with vehicles and irate pilgrims.

It will be easy to understand if you approached the whole 'phenomenon' from the 'result' and did some 'reverse engineering' to arrive at what had caused all this. The 'result' this year was that the waiting period for everything, be it 'darshan' of the Lord, be it the time in the last-leg queue before the temple, be it in the trekking paths, be it on the roads.... the waiting period could be counted in hours...something like eight to fifteen or more hours...and sometimes, in the far off approaches, almost 20 plus hours.

This was an unusual phenomenon. The usual mechanisms of traffic and vehicle movement and parking and other controls were not working effectively, with the result that vehicles and pilgrims were "pouring in" and clogging every inch of space for miles and miles around. And they were right royally stuck there, mostly in the mountain roads, and far away from anything or anybody. With wait periods growing into something like half a day, or more, these pilgrims became a body of  "captive customers" for the "vultures" who moved in, charging at times Rs 50 for a bottle of water, Rs 25 for a snack or other unimaginable sums for paltry products and services.

This was an appalling 'phenomenon' noticed and confirmed by many officials, of course, "off the record", and by many pilgrims, who wanted to be very much on record. So what is the conclusion that any dimwit can come to in the light of this shocking revelation? The whole crowd situation was, to a large part, "engineered" this time by another avaricious bunch--the traders and shopkeepers who "service" the pilgrims. It is common knowledge how every trader, every jeep and other private vehicle driver is squeezed for "commissions" by reps of parties and power groups. There is no need to try and identify these 'extra-constitutional' powers. They are as real as real can be, and they span all political colours and affiliations. Forest officials, particularly, mention this nexus between the local political functionaries and the traders. And anybody who knows anything about at least the abkari and real estate and other "mafias" of God's Own Country only know too well that when it comes to 'milking' the people, pilgrims or non-pilgrims, there is consensus and nexus and what not between the (here, micro) "corporate" players and the political players--which, after all, happens to be a nationally accepted reality these days!

It would take some spirited and impartial enquiries to bring to light the "real truth/s" behind the Sabarimala tragedy. As I suggested at the very beginning of my earlier post, right now that seems like a possible outcome only if Lord Ayyappa himself listens to the pleas of the faithful and "calls the shots", so to speak. The rest of us, if we remember to bother, can be satisfied with a vague report that might have good company while gathering dust in the repositories of the government -- where all such reports eventually go upon their submission.

In the meantime there was some mention of a master plan made and submitted to the State Government by that Master Builder, Laurie Baker. [ "...A pictorial report prepared by the late architect Laurie Baker on creating essential amenities for Sabarimala pilgrims without harming nature has been gathering dust for the past 15 years..." Read more at < http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-tamilnadu/article1118038.ece > ]

Naturally, from what I heard, Baker, ever the man of sensibility and unmatched love for nature, favoured the hill temple to be maintained in a spartan manner, with all the concrete monstrosities that have mushroomed around the sanctum, dwarfing it beyond belief,  to be razed to the ground. Pilgrims would be permitted to trek up the hill path, again maintained in a natural manner without concrete walkways, with the Pampa Ganapathy Temple serving as a gateway point. This is an eminently sensible and practical suggestion. But the master plan, prepared after a first-hand visit by the Master himself, lies gathering dust in the shelves of the Secretariat.

Will the authorities publish that precious document?? PLEASE! And invite comments from architects, the general public, pilgrims and priests and also from planners so that some kind of a practical solution could be arrived at as soon as possible. But then that would call for a serious 'purpose' in the 'mind' of the government, at best an inanimate and inhuman mechanism.

I have been, on the side, talking to many knowledgeable and gifted people who shared their ideas and concepts to "streamline" the Sabarimala pilgrimage as a unique experience that could even be marketed as a " spiritual destination". The details, like the pieces of a large and complex jigsaw puzzle, are now slowly falling into place. But I am sure of one thing--when a group of live minds with sincerity and enthusiasm come to concentrate on a problem, the solution is likely to be simple and elegant and beautiful.

On second thought, that's what WE ALL want with regard to the Sabarimala situation, whether we are believers ourselves or not. I am looking forward to sharing with you that final shape/solution of the 'jigsaw puzzle' in a future post.

So, here is to a sensible Sabarimala pilgrimage!


* * * * * * * * * * * *