State-sponsored Fraud

Disaster has struck the Sabarimala pilgrimage in Kerala before, and it is clear that lessons were not least. Else, more than a hundred devotees to the Ayyappa temple may not have died. Unmanageable crowds and clueless authorities combined to cause last week’s tragedy. The portends were there all through this pilgrimage season at Sabarimala. A near stampede had occurred only a few days earlier when a surging crowd broke rope barricades. The earlier disaster in 1999 killed 55 people. Unfortunately, the people are none the wiser.

Each Sabarimala pilgrimage season brings crores of rupees to the Kerala government, exploiting the superstitious belief of people, who gather to view the ‘celestial glimpse’ of the ‘Makarajyothi’ at the time of Makara Sankranti day. Time and again it has been established that the so-called divine light was originally the light worship of tribal people living in and around Ponnambalamedu of Sabarimala, which is now cleverly used by Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) and Kerala government by commercializing a superstitious belief of ‘Makarajyothi’.

The so-called celestial Makarajyothi that evokes awe in devotees is created by officials who burn loads of camphor secretly at the Ponnambalamedu adjacent to the hill shrine and wave wet sacks over it to generate a twinkling effect. Officials, priests and even devotees in the know of things prefer that this hoodwinking is not published among lakhs of illiterate and educated-illiterate devotees mainly from Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. The hysteric reaction of the crowds to Makarajyothi was one of the reasons for the stampede that occurred on January 14 and the one in 1999.

TDB president Rajagopalan Nair has told that most of the people (in Kerala) know the truth and there was no need for him to explain matters. In a strange coincidence, many believers and rationalists of Kerala now believe that authorities should reveal the truth about Makarajyothi or so that stampedes such as the one which killed 102 people the other day can be avoided. Sanal Edamaruku, president of the Indian Rationalists’ Association said that he would soon move a public-interest litigation in the Kerala High Court seeking disclosure of the fact that the Makarajyothi is a fire lit by officials atop the Ponnambalamedu on the evening of Makara Sankranti and not a celestial light as many believe. For diametrically opposite reasons, Rahul Easwar, writer and grandson of the chief priest of the Sabarimala temple, Tantri Kantararu Maheswararu, also wants to ‘clear the misunderstanding’ in the minds of devotees about Makaravilakku and Makarajyothi.

The tragic stampede of Jan.14 that killed 102 people was triggered after a crowd of over 2.5 lakh people assembled at the Pulmedu forest area to watch the Makarajyothi. A similar stampede in 1999 had killed more than 50 people. It was in 1973 that a group of rationalists led by M.R.S. Nathan climbed the Ponnambalemedu hills to find out what the Makaravilakku is. “They hid in the forests and found a group of officials belonging to the TDB and the Kerala State Electricity Board burning camphor in a huge vessel,” said Edamaruku.

In 1983, activists took photographs of the act. But their renewed attempt in 1984 was foiled by the police. “We tried to enter the hill and the police surrounded us and beat us to pulp,” recalled Prasannarajan, an activist who was involved in the movement. He added that most people in Kerala, including believers, knew that the Makarajyothi was not ‘miraculous’ but that was not entirely the case with devotees from other states. In 1990, Edamaruku himself led a march to Ponnambalamedu to “expose the attempt by the state to deceive devotees”. “This is not a problem about believers and unbelievers,’ he said. “This is actually about a state-sponsored fraud.” Though an attempt was made by some activists to move court over the issue in the 1990s, the PIL got dismissed because of a technical objection. Edamaruku is now determined to secure judicial intervention in the issue, ironically, for the sake of believers.

For Venganoor Balakrishnan, a writer on rituals, the worrisome aspect of such acts is that it trivializes the profound Hindu faith. “The loss of lives is a great tragedy and the diminution of our faith is also a great tragedy,” he said adding “such incidents show that our faith is in need of renaissance as in the 19th century. We need someone like Swami Vivekananda to show us the way.” The tragedy has also deeply grieved many ordinary devotees of Lord Ayyappa. Says N. Ramachandran Nair, who has climbed the hill more than 25 times. “I know that Makaravilakku is lit by officials, but this has not reduced my faith,’ he said. “But there is need to clarify so that devotees are not misled.” Easwar however blamed the media for hyping up the issue. “As a member of the priest’s family, I can vouch that we have always tried to differentiate between the Makarajyothi, which is a star, and the Makaravilakku, which is a light,” he said. He explained that the Makaravilakku was a ‘deeparadhana’ (a worship with lamps) conducted at Ponnambalamedu. “It should be seen in context,” he said. “Over the years, people have mixed up both these phenomena. It could be because of the ignorance of the TDB authorities. I think the misunderstanding should be cleared.”

However, the TDB has no such plans in its agenda. A senior TDB official, demanding anonymity, said that the board was not planning to put out an official clarification on the issue. When asked whether the ritual can be lengthened to a few days to prevent crowding, he said, “That cannot be done as it has to happen on Makara Sankranti day.

However, the insistent demands from the faithfuls and the faithless alike as well as the agony of those who lost their loved ones are unlikely to eventually force TDB authorities as well as the Kerala government – whether ruled by the ‘secular’ Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) or the ‘revolutionary’ CPM-led Democratic Front (LDF) to clarify the matters. Lest the Kerala government will lose revenue to the tune of several crores which is compounding with each passing year with the superstition crossing the boundaries of the Vindyas.

It is a coincidence that the 1999 disaster and the and the present one occurred during the regimes of the CPM-led LDF, then presided over by late E.K.Nayanar and now by V.S.Achuthanandan. Strangely, the CPM-led People’s science movement, Kerala Sasthra Sahitya Parishad (KSSP) and its protagonist Dr. M.P.Parameswaran, an atomic scientist, had led a jatha in 1970s exposing the myth of Makarajyothi and miracles. Most of the people of Kerala got enlightened by the movement and gave up their fascination for Ayyappa of Sabarimala. Even an ordinary Keralite, in exclamation, only utters the words ‘Enda Guruvayurappa’ and not ‘Enda Ayyappa’. That explains why there was not even a single victim from Kerala in the last week disaster – all were from the states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. Will at least this tragedy and the exposure of the fraud behind Makarajyothi open the eyes of the people of Tamil Nadu.

Similarly on the New Year eve, 15 persons were killed in two different road accidents in the state – 9 Ayyappa devotees returning from Sabarimala and other six devotees on their return from Mookambikai temple in Karnataka. The main reason for such accidents involving pilgrims is their anxiety to visit as many temples as impossible within a few days, that the drivers of vehicles are hardly allowed to sleep or take rest. Adding to the agony of the hapless drivers is the loud chanting of ‘divine’ slogans by the devotees. The rush to temples on particular days – like ‘Ekathasi’ days and Saturdays of the Tamil month Purattasi as if the deities are powerless during the rest of the year and hoarders, black marketeers and business magnets laundering in black money making huge ‘offers’ to Tirupati deity (bundles of currency notes, gold bars are frequently found in the huge hundi) as if they are share for the Lord from their loot, etc., - are only exercises of denigration of their own deities.

While there is no qualm over the faith of individuals and their right to worship, superstition shall not lead to loss of precious lives and hard-earned money!