From Pilgrim Landscape to ‘Pilgrim Road’
Tracing the Transformation of the Char Dham Yatra in Colonial Garhwal
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/jsrnc.34317Keywords:
Hinduism and ecology, caste hegemony, phenomenology, history, orientalismAbstract
The pan-Indian pilgrimages to the char dhams (four holy abodes) of the Garhwal Himalayas were deeply ecological and sensorial experiences in the pre-colonial era. Drawing on archival research, I trace how colonial schemes, together with the enterprises of modern Hindu institutions, engendered significant changes to the ethos of this yatra (pilgrimage). Colonial administrators imagined the thinking, acting, and sensate personae of the pilgrims as simply suffering bodies. Officials implemented road works, forestry, and conservancy arrangements in ways that exacerbated inequalities of class and caste in the pilgrimage. State gazetteers and neo-Hindu guidebooks alike privileged a high-Hindu, upper-caste narration of the significance of the yatra. I argue that the locus of the sacred increasingly shifted away from pilgrims' ephemeral encounters with the natural world toward the precincts of temples. I contend that in the postcolonial context, this historical trajectory helps explain ongoing government plans to build 'all-weather highways' to link the char dhams.
References
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Amin, Shahid. 2015. Conquest and Community: The Afterlife of Warrior Saint Ghazi Miyan (New Delhi: Orient Blackswan).
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Khemraj Srikrishnadas (publisher and compiler). 1900. Bhasatikasametam Kedaramahatmyam Prarabhyate (Bombay: Srivenkatesvara Press). [Micro?lm, Library of Congress].
Kinnard, Jacob. 2014. Places in Motion: The Fluid Identities of Temples, Images, and Pilgrims (New York: Oxford University Press). Doi: https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199359653.001.0001.
Mani, Lata. 1998. Contentious Traditions: The Debate on Sati in Colonial India (Berkley and Los Angeles: University of California Press).
McKay, Alex. 2015. Kailas Histories: Renunciate Traditions and the Construction of Himalayan Sacred Geography (Leiden: Brill). Doi: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004306189.
Nasiruddin, Munshi. 1890. ‘[Patronage refused for the publication of] Badari Mahatam’ (Progs. Nos. 105/106, March 1890, Public Records; New Delhi: National Archives of India).
Nivedita, Sister. 1967. The Complete Works of Sister Nivedita: Birth Centenary Publication, Vol. 1 (Calcutta: Ramakrishna Sarada Mission).
No Author. 1850. ‘Report on Garhwal Addressed to Batten, Commissioner of Kumaon’ (Pre-Mutiny Records, Series IX [Judicial], Vol. I; Dehradun: Uttararakhand State Archives).
No Author. 1909. ‘Scheme for Sanitation Staff for the Pilgrim Route’ (Department XXVII, File No. 8; Nainital: Regional Archives).
No Author. 1940–43. ‘Miscellaneous Correspondence regarding kutiyas and dharamshalas’ (Tehri Garhwal Collectorate Records; Dehradun: Uttarakhand State Archives).
No Author. 1949. ‘Question of Cancellation of Lease to the Kali Kamli Wala Trust’ (List 11, File No. 38, Box No. 13; Dehradun: Uttarakhand State Archives).
Pandey, Gyanendra. 2006. The Construction of Communalism in Colonial North India (Delhi: Oxford University Press). Doi: https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198077305.001.0001.
Parliamentary Papers Volume 20. 1780–1849 (Great Britain: House of Commons, HM Stationery Of?ce).
Pilgrim [pseudonym of P. Baron]. 1844. Notes of Wanderings in the Himmala (Agra: Agra Ukhbar Press).
Sankrityayan, Rahul. 1953. Himalaya Parichay (Allahabad: Allahabad Law Journal Press).
Sax, William. 2009. God of Justice: Ritual Healing and Social Justice in the Central Himalayas (Oxford: Oxford University Press).
Sharma, Aman. 2018. ‘Kedarnath Shrine Could See Highest Ever Pilgrims of 10 Lakh by October’, The Economic Times, 29 August.
Sivananda, Swami. 1953. Pilgrimage to Badri and Kailas: A Pilgrim’s Guide-book with a Spiritual Message (Rishikesh: Yoga-Vedanta Forest University).
Skinner, Thomas. 1833. Excursions in India (London: Richard Bentley).
Taneja, Anand Vivek. 2013. ‘Nature, History, and the Sacred in the Medieval Ruins of Delhi’ (PhD diss., Columbia University).
Tapovanam, Swami. 2012. Wanderings in the Himalayas (trans. Kesava Pillai; Mumbai: Central Chinmaya Mission Trust).
Thapar, Romila. 2001. ‘Syndicated Hinduism’, in Gunther-Dietz Sontheimer and Hermann Kulke (eds.), Hinduism Reconsidered (Delhi: Manohar): 54-81.
Wentz, Evan. 1920. ‘Report on the Kedarnath Badrinath Pilgrimage by W.Y. Evan-Wentz’ (List V, File No. 225, Box No. 62; Dehradun: Uttarakhand State Archives).
Amin, Shahid. 2015. Conquest and Community: The Afterlife of Warrior Saint Ghazi Miyan (New Delhi: Orient Blackswan).
Atkinson, Edwin Thomas. 1882–1886. The Himalayan Districts of the North-Western Provinces; Forming vol. X–XII of the Gazetteer of the NWP [The Himalayan Gazetteer]. (Allahabad: North Western Provinces Government Press).
Bartwal, Chandra Kunwar. 2000. ‘Kedarnath ki yatra’, in PAHAR 11: Tirth Yatra (Nainital: PAHAR [originally published 1940]).
Drew, Georgina. 2017. River Dialogues: Hindu Faith and the Political Ecology of Dams on the Sacred Ganga (Tucson: University of Arizona Press).
Jolly, Asit. 2017. ‘PM Narendra Modi’s All-weather Highway for Uttarakhand Pilgrims Will Claim 33,000 Trees’, India Today, 5 August. Online: https://www.google.co.in/amp/s/www.indiatoday.in/amp/magazine/from-india-today-magazine/story/20170814-uttarakhand-pilgrim-char-dham-mahamarg-vikas-pariyojana-narendra-modi-1027901-2017-08-05.
Joshi, Hridayesh. 2016. ‘Kedarnath: 3 Years after the Disaster’, NDTV, 18 June. Online: https://www.google.co.in/amp/s/www.ndtv.com/blog/kedarnath-3-years-after-the-disaster-1420538%3famp=1&akamai-rum=off.
Khemraj Srikrishnadas (publisher and compiler). 1900. Bhasatikasametam Kedaramahatmyam Prarabhyate (Bombay: Srivenkatesvara Press). [Micro?lm, Library of Congress].
Kinnard, Jacob. 2014. Places in Motion: The Fluid Identities of Temples, Images, and Pilgrims (New York: Oxford University Press). Doi: https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199359653.001.0001.
Mani, Lata. 1998. Contentious Traditions: The Debate on Sati in Colonial India (Berkley and Los Angeles: University of California Press).
McKay, Alex. 2015. Kailas Histories: Renunciate Traditions and the Construction of Himalayan Sacred Geography (Leiden: Brill). Doi: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004306189.
Nasiruddin, Munshi. 1890. ‘[Patronage refused for the publication of] Badari Mahatam’ (Progs. Nos. 105/106, March 1890, Public Records; New Delhi: National Archives of India).
Nivedita, Sister. 1967. The Complete Works of Sister Nivedita: Birth Centenary Publication, Vol. 1 (Calcutta: Ramakrishna Sarada Mission).
No Author. 1850. ‘Report on Garhwal Addressed to Batten, Commissioner of Kumaon’ (Pre-Mutiny Records, Series IX [Judicial], Vol. I; Dehradun: Uttararakhand State Archives).
No Author. 1909. ‘Scheme for Sanitation Staff for the Pilgrim Route’ (Department XXVII, File No. 8; Nainital: Regional Archives).
No Author. 1940–43. ‘Miscellaneous Correspondence regarding kutiyas and dharamshalas’ (Tehri Garhwal Collectorate Records; Dehradun: Uttarakhand State Archives).
No Author. 1949. ‘Question of Cancellation of Lease to the Kali Kamli Wala Trust’ (List 11, File No. 38, Box No. 13; Dehradun: Uttarakhand State Archives).
Pandey, Gyanendra. 2006. The Construction of Communalism in Colonial North India (Delhi: Oxford University Press). Doi: https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198077305.001.0001.
Parliamentary Papers Volume 20. 1780–1849 (Great Britain: House of Commons, HM Stationery Of?ce).
Pilgrim [pseudonym of P. Baron]. 1844. Notes of Wanderings in the Himmala (Agra: Agra Ukhbar Press).
Sankrityayan, Rahul. 1953. Himalaya Parichay (Allahabad: Allahabad Law Journal Press).
Sax, William. 2009. God of Justice: Ritual Healing and Social Justice in the Central Himalayas (Oxford: Oxford University Press).
Sharma, Aman. 2018. ‘Kedarnath Shrine Could See Highest Ever Pilgrims of 10 Lakh by October’, The Economic Times, 29 August.
Sivananda, Swami. 1953. Pilgrimage to Badri and Kailas: A Pilgrim’s Guide-book with a Spiritual Message (Rishikesh: Yoga-Vedanta Forest University).
Skinner, Thomas. 1833. Excursions in India (London: Richard Bentley).
Taneja, Anand Vivek. 2013. ‘Nature, History, and the Sacred in the Medieval Ruins of Delhi’ (PhD diss., Columbia University).
Tapovanam, Swami. 2012. Wanderings in the Himalayas (trans. Kesava Pillai; Mumbai: Central Chinmaya Mission Trust).
Thapar, Romila. 2001. ‘Syndicated Hinduism’, in Gunther-Dietz Sontheimer and Hermann Kulke (eds.), Hinduism Reconsidered (Delhi: Manohar): 54-81.
Wentz, Evan. 1920. ‘Report on the Kedarnath Badrinath Pilgrimage by W.Y. Evan-Wentz’ (List V, File No. 225, Box No. 62; Dehradun: Uttarakhand State Archives).
Published
2019-02-18
Issue
Section
Articles
How to Cite
Nath, N. (2019). From Pilgrim Landscape to ‘Pilgrim Road’: Tracing the Transformation of the Char Dham Yatra in Colonial Garhwal. Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture, 12(4), 419-437. https://doi.org/10.1558/jsrnc.34317
