Many of the “Naga Sadhus” at the Kumbh are fake, people paid to take part to bump up numbers and keep the spectacle alive.Jha has done extensive interviews over the years of researching this book, and the voices of the protagonists and perpetrators themselves give additional heft to the text. To that end, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad worked hard and long, over decades, to ensure that when the time came, they had enough religious “might”, literal and metaphorical, on their side.It took the Sangh Parivar decades, but they did it. It is not that other political movements did not try. Amidst all the stories of wondrous sadhus performing imagination-defying feats is another tale of power and money. (Photo: Biplab banerjee) Ascetic Games is an in-depth look into the world of Hinduism’s most flamboyant “holy men”, the Naga Sadhus. Many of the ‘Naga Sadhus’ at the Kumbh are fake, people paid to take part to bump up numbers.The numbers of India’s sadhus are falling, though. How long that lasts is another matter. They provide spectacle and inspire awe, with their nudity, their dreadlocks, their ash-covered bodies.
There is strong resistance from within.The writer is a senior journalist who writes on media affairs, politics and social trends. Because he resisted the RSS-VHP claims on the Ram Temple, he became a strong voice in the movement which opposed the demolition of the Babri Masjid by the Sangh Parivar. The Nagas know this and that is part of the reason for the anger with the forces that try to control them.The only criticism of this book is that sometimes there is too much detail into the nitty-gritty of chicanery, of the he-said, he-said, back and forth between warring factions.From Ayodhya, Jha takes the reader to Kumbh and its colourful history. Jha finds that Mahatma Gandhi was disillusioned by his visits to the Kumbh and by the “spirituality” of these sadhus
China building block flat twin screw barrels Factory and stayed away, although the freedom movement did benefit from the support of sadhus who wanted to be part of the fight for Independence. The numbers of India’s sadhus are falling. The effort to control the Akharas, the organisations of wrestler-sadhus, was seen as crucial. They are integral to the Kumbh gatherings.Instead, this is a well-documented research project into how the Hindutva rightwing, the RSS and the VHP, managed to infiltrate the akharas of North India through the Kumbh and use these “sadhus” and holy men to further their political ambitions. The manner in which Gyan Das of Hanuman Garhi, the most powerful of the Ayodhya mahants, was cut down to size by the VHP is a tale worthy of the best that the medieval times can offer. Gyan Das was influential beyond the world of Akharas.
This reviewer met him in 1998, when he was still at his peak and his antipathy to the RSS-BJP-VHP was in plain view.But not until the RSS nurtured political ambitions, and got the VHP to do the groundwork, was any political party really successful. Of shifting loyalties and of extreme violence. But this journey is not into the esoteric, exotic, spiritual or the enlightened. The run up to the success of the demolition plan, as far as the RSS was concerned, lay in Ayodhya. She tweets at @ranjona. This is an insight into the mind of one man and why he chose to be a religious mendicant. The RSS-VHP stranglehold on Ayodhya, however, has not worked as successfully at Kumbh, according to Jha and all the adulteration and injection of upper caste Shankaracharyas and conmen pretending to be sadhus and holy men has not paid the correct dividends.We begin in Ayodhya, the “battleground” for the birthplace of Lord Ram, and the demand for a Ram temple that culminated in the destruction of the Babri Masjid in 1992.The story of Shivraj Giri and his Jamun tree dhooni in Haridwar is the most compelling of all of Jha’s characters. Dhirendra Jha lays bare how power and money keep religious fires burning for political dividends.
The Nagas know this and that is part of the reason for the anger with the forces that try to control them.But not until the RSS nurtured political ambitions, and got the VHP to do the groundwork, was any political party really successful.For anyone interested in the politics of religion or in the strange world of India's ash-covered holy men, Ascetic Games is a must-read. Although the RSS influence is massive, Jha’s conclusion is that it is not complete.Ascetic Games: Sadhus, Akharas and the Making of the Hindu Vote, by Dhirendra K Jha Westland, Rs 599. Controversial characters like Radhe Ma and Nithyanand make their appearances here. Shivraj Giri is not political in his ambitions but the politics, money and violence which have infected his calling also invaded his own life and turned it upside down. But even so, the ways in which these groups function, the extent to which they go to gain control — murder, violence bribery, chicanery — puts paid to any innocent notions the reader may have about the higher reaches of religious thought.The politics that governs these Akharas, named after wrestling rings, is exposed in great detail, sometimes perhaps eye-wateringly too much. And as Jha’s story unfolds, it is evident how cleverly and stealthily the Hindutva movement placed its people in positions all over the world of akharas and holy men. The occupational hazard of being a journalist perhaps. For all the infiltration that the Akharas allowed, some areas and traditions are sacrosanct apparently and control of the Kumbh is one of them
