On April 6 this year Maharashtra celebrated its new year, Gudi Padwa. So did neighbouring Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana—as Ugadi. The four states have much in common in terms of culture and tradition, perhaps a part of the commonality infused into the culture of these states by Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj or maybe it even precedes that era. The Maratha empire extended as far as Tanjore in the South, Orissa and Bengal in the east, Gujarat in the West, most of Central India and Khyber Pakhtoonkwa in the north, now in Pakistan. They left behind cultural influences on all the regions.
Nevertheless, the harvest festivals across India more or less arrive within days of each other in the month of April according to the panchang or Hindu calendar. They mark the beginning of the traditional new year.
As a self-read student of Indian culture and history, I must admit I missed the new year celebrations among Kashmiris. I knew Mahashivratri is a big event for the state, almost a 10-day celebration like the Ganeshotav in Maharashtra, Dussehra in Mysuru, Durga Pujo in Bengal and Onam in Kerala.
So I was both startled and learnt something new from a tweet by AICC general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra wherein she posted a photograph of a decorated thaali and wished everyone a happy Nauroz. She was criticised for not knowing the difference between the Kashmiri Navreh (lunar calendar) and Parsi Navroz (solar calendar). Now Priyanka is both part Parsi and part Kashmiri, so one might presume she got the events and names mixed up.
But then Vivek Kaul of the Kashmiri Pandits Association of New Delhi, wishing all Kashmiri Pandits Nauroz Mubarak in a Facebook post (as we do Holi Mubarak to each other), and others pointed out that it is both Nauroz and Navreh—coming from Persian influence on Kashmiris. Those who migrated out of Kashmir decades or even centuries ago modified it to Navroz and those who remain behind refer to it as Navreh.
So, Priyanka was not ill-informed about her own tradition. Kaul’s post took me back to something I had read years ago about how Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru’s family name was actually Kaul. But they lived beside a canal in Kashmir which is known as Nehr in Hindi/Urdu and since Kashmiris always round off their adjectives or names with an “oo” (for example Mattoo for those who may be guardians of a Mutt or ashram), they became known as Nehru-wale-Kaul. When Motilal Nehru, Jawaharlal’s father, migrated to Allahabad, the name was shortened to Nehru, making that surname a unique one in India.
However, amidst the bigotry of those attacking Priyanka, I was startled to discover two things—in her tweet, she uploaded the photograph of a thaali that her mother Sonia Gandhi had laid out on her table that day as she was too busy campaigning. She said her mother had kept reminding her not to forget to arrange the thaali but finally did it herself. “How sweet are Moms!” Priyanka marvelled.
Yes, mothers are there for their daughters every step of the way but there was less maternal love and more political messaging in that tweet: That Sonia, often dismissed as of foreign origin by her political rivals, is keeping the Kashmiri Pandit tradition alive in the family. Sonia probably learnt that from her mother-in-law, Indira Gandhi, who never forgot her Kashmiri roots. Days before her assassination in October 1984, the former prime minister had been to Kashmir on a brief holiday because she had wanted to see the red chinar leaves change colours and fall off the trees in autumn—the sight of the ground carpeted with the leaves is always extremely beautiful.
So Priyanka tried to lend a healing touch to Kashmir, apart from political messaging through that photo. Years ago, she stepped back for Jagmohan, the former governor of J&K who had switched loyalties from the Congress to the BJP, at a voting queue in New Delhi. She pointedly said, “My mother has brought us up in the Indian tradition of always bowing before our buzurgs (elders).” Jagmohan got the message—she was really saying her mother was as Indian as any other Indian.
There is something else that also caught my eye—the items in that thaali and how it was decorated, flowers, mirror and all. There was wheat, rice, walnuts and some perhaps exclusively Kashmiri items placed before a picture of Lord Krishna and a panchang. It reminded me of the Vishu-keni that Malayalees set up in their homes on their new year, Vishu (which falls on April 15 this year). Also similar to the decorative thaalis with freshly harvested grains or the season’s first fruits in Bengal and Assam on their new year.
So, from Kashmir to Kerala, the Indian tradition and culture seem to be the same, even if some states have drawn from Persian influence to wish Holi Mubarak or Nauroz Mubarak. It only shows how we have absorbed and assimilated other cultures, mixed it with our own, but never lost the traditional flavour.
In the extremely polarised times of recent years, notwithstanding the political messaging by Priyanka, it is uplifting to know that India continues to be united in its diversity. And that whether Nauroz or Vishu, Bihu or Gudi Padwa, we remain one from north to south and east to west.
Sujata Anandan
Senior journalist and political commentator
Email: sujata.anandan@gmail.com