By Omar Rashid
New Delhi: The centuries-old Jeth Mela (fair) held every year at the shrine of Saiyad Salar Masud Ghazi, a semi-legendary military figure from the 11th century, popularly believed to be a nephew of Ghaznavid ruler Mahmud of Ghazni, will not be held this year as the Uttar Pradesh government has denied it permission.
While authorities said that the decision to deny permission for the fair was taken from the point of view of law and order, especially the atmosphere in the aftermath of the Pahalgam attack, the stage had already been set when back in March, Chief Minister Yogi Adtiyanath in a veiled reference to Masud Ghazi had said that “glorification” of an “invader” amounted to “consolidating the foundation of treason.”
Police in several districts of UP had in March already outlawed fairs and festivals linked to Ghazi Mian, as he is popularly known. In Sambhal, police denied permission for the annual Neja Mela, saying that an event to honour an “invader,” “plunderer” and “murderer” would not be allowed to be held even if it had been traditionally organised year after year.
Now, the government has denied permission to the biggest and most popular annual fair linked to Ghazi Mian held at his shrine in Bahraich, a district near the Indo-Nepal border in central-east UP. Lakhs of people, both Hindus and Muslims, have traditionally attended it and the festival is regarded as an example of the region’s syncretic culture.
Sangh Parivar’s concerted efforts to project Ghazi Mian as a villainous character
The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and its affiliates have over the last few decades concertedly tried to superimpose the fable of Ghazi Mian into current politics and project him as a villainous character who was slayed by a backward caste Hindu warrior Maharaja Suheldev, iconised by the Rajbhar and Pasi communities today. The Hindutva version of communalising the Ghazi Mian story stands in contrast to the syncretic culture played out at his shrine.
While Muslims venerate Ghazi Mian as a saint, Hindus visit the shrine as they believe that praying there fulfills their wishes. Some communities also take out baraats (marriage processions) of Ghazi Mian as they believe he was slayed just before he was to get married. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has tried to use the story of Suheldev, a legendary Bhar chieftain, to pit Dalits and OBCs against Muslims. In the RSS imagination, Suheldev was an archetype Hindutva foot-soldier who halted the Islamisation of the region for 150 years.
While till now the BJP had taken many steps to glorify Suheldev to overshadow the legacy of Ghazi Mian, the cancellation of fairs and festivals linked to Ghazi Mian appears to be the start of a new trend to directly marginalise the shrine
This story was originally published in thewire.in. Read the full story here.