Written by: Sashwat Paudel - 2022019, Grade X
Posted on: 27 September, 2020
On September 3rd, the Machindranath Jatra was conducted despite the coronavirus pandemic. This act was seen as a very rude offense to the lockdown and the rules we were to abide by during the pandemic. The Jatra was very chaotic, after the jatra, the social media was filled with people sharing the unfortunate dispute between the locals and the police body. People had mixed feelings about this incident. Some in total favor of what had happened (i.e pulling the rath), some totally against it, some neutral (proper precautions should have been taken for successfully pulling the rath). From an outsider’s perspective, this may be considered a really big problem and it is. People may initially think that the people who came forward to conduct this jatra despite of a pandemic are to blame, but, as we all know there are two sides of a coin. We cannot discard the other side by not even knowing what the situation really was.
The Machindranath Jatra also known as the “Rato Machindranath Jatra” is one of the greatest religious events in the city and the longest chariot festival celebrated in the country. The Rato Machindranath is known as the giver of rain in our mythology. This jatra holds a big importance to the culture and traditions of the country. It is held in Lalitpur, Nepal. This jatra is conducted once a year and it has been this way from ancient times.
This jatra holds great importance for the people that conduct this jatra every year and those who participate in it.
So, to make things clear about the chaos in the jatra, the people never wanted to pull the chariot in the middle of a pandemic when this decision could be very fatal. The people complained that the task was carried over to the government to keep the chariot in its rightful place. When the government did not do the task, the people were infuriated and made the decision to take the matter in their own hands to bring justice to their God. Many people misunderstood this scenario because of bad media coverage on this issue. There was this misconception that they did it just to show they could do it; but, the real situation was not the same. Also, many people reacted to this in very harsh ways. If the Nepal government was accountable toward tasks like this, there would not have been this problem in the first place. The government should not be ignorant about these kinds of sensitive things. The rath may not mean anything at all to us outsiders, but may be the only reason people are living at this point. For many people God and their rituals are the most important thing in their life. Not only this, many people have faith in these things and what gives purpose to them in their life. People spend their whole lives serving the god that was left wandering in the open streets. Religion and culture is not a word, they are a kind of emotion and no one can interfere in topics like these, the topic in itself is a sensitive issue. The government of Nepal did a terrible job as usual.
What has been done, is done. We cannot reverse it. The government should be aware of the fact that playing with people’s beliefs and faith can drive people insane and it did. We should remember that the people who showed up in the jatra were the same people that eat the same way as we do, sleep the same way, and most importantly they also have emotions. A few days after this incident, after conducting the chyama puja, the rath was pulled in a systematic and organized manner. Had the government taken initiative and taken this issue into consideration beforehand this incident could have been completely avoided.
