Dr.Mazhar Naqvi
How the fusion of cultures
penetrates deep into the minds of people and become a tradition is best
exemplified by the participation of Hindus in Muharram ceremonies in pockets of
North Karnataka?For instance, in Ayanur village of Ballari district, Karbala is
remodeled as Lanka. Yazid is Ravana and his effigies are burnt. In Ramdurg, Hazrat
Imam Hussain is the younger brother of the village deity, Durugavva. During the
immersion procession, Tazia (replica of his shrine in Iraq) stops in front of
the Durugavva temple to talk to his sister who is known as Hazrat Zainab in Azadar
world and considered as messenger of Karbala. In Agasanur, villagers don’t wear
slippers or sleep in beds for 10 days. On Ashura, villagers, they wear white
dresses and go to the house of the Jangama priest (a Lingayat) and invite him
to the dargah. There, he transfers the Peers(Spiritual leaders) and Alams
(standards) to Muslims.
The village of Bilagi in Bagalkot
district lights up on the night of Ashura with a cart that carries burning
torches in a procession. Appanna Jadhav, a Maratha, has been carrying the doli or
palanquin for over four decades.
In Kalaburagi, the story of Imam’s
martyrdom and his companions is intermingled with that of Pundalika, a local
youth who suffered as he neglected his old parents. In Harooru near Chikkodi,
Yazid is a local moneylender who harasses farmers. In Mugalkhod in Belagavi,
Hazrat Ali, the patron saint of the Garadi Mane (wrestling school), is the
younger brother of Hanuman. Images of Hanuman and a tiger symbolizing Imam Ali
are seen in several villages in the Mumbai-Karnataka region.
Tragedy of Karbala has also touched
Karnataka’s folk literature. Muharram songs are plenty in folk literature. The story of
the Prophet’s family(Ahlebait-E-Athaar) and the Battle of Karbala continue to
dominate these songs, but their striking feature is the inclusion of many local
elements. The ballads speak of contemporary issues. The singers have infused
their present-day pains into the historical tragedy. They speak as if the
Karbala martyrs were born in their own village.
In one village, welfare programs
such as widow pension found place in Muharram mourning. In Humnabad, Dr.
Ambedkar and the lord Buddha featured once in Muharram folksongs. A singer in
Kalaburagi recalled the death of 20 villagers in a road mishap. A singer in
Bagalkot talked about farmers who lost lands in the Upper Krishna irrigation
project in Muharram 2019.
Whereas Hindus continue to
participate in large number in Muharram ceremonies as usual, it is the Muslims
who are drifting away on the ground what they perceive as a corruption of the
original practice. In Bidar, educated youths because of a puritan view of
Muharram taken by some schools like Wahhabi, Tablighi Jamat Jamat and Ahle- Hadees.
Muharram in north Karnataka has had
its share of controversies as well. In some villages in Kalaburagi, it was
stopped when Dalit boys refused to play the drums in Muharram processions or
clean Imam Bargahs if boys from other castes did not join them. In some
villages, the rise of the right wing has reduced the participation of
upper-caste Hindus. Yet Muharram remains a shining example of inter-faith
understanding, an observance with sense of harmony and strong participation
from Hindus in many villages where not a single Muslims resides.
Source: Based on inputs fro
newspaper reports, views of the scholars expressed from Hampi University and
Islamic scholars from Bidar. Photo Courtesy Google Images)
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