Politics

Police scuffle with Warkaris, sect BJP has tried to woo, sparks political row in Maharashtra

June 12, 2023
Bharat Times

Mumbai: The Maharashtra police and the Warkari followers got involved in an altercation Sunday when the devotees took out an annual procession in Pune to Pandharpur ahead of the auspicious occasion of Ashadi Ekadashi.  

Maharashtra Home Minister Devendra Fadnavis refuted the claims of lathi charge, while the opposition parties smelled an opening to attack the nearly one-year-old Bharatiya Janata Party-Shiv Sena government. 

“There was no lathi charge on the Warkari community. We learnt (our lessons) from last year’s stampede-like situation at the same place (Alandi) and tried giving fewer entry passes to various groups. It was decided to issue 75 passes to each group that participated in the pilgrimage. However around 400-500 young warkaris wanted to enter the temple and they broke the barricade. This is when police tried to stop them,” Fadnavis said Sunday in Nagpur. “In this incident, even some police personnel were injured.” 

Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) spokesperson Sanjay Raut was quick to attack the Eknath Shinde-led coalition government, saying that “Mughals have reincarnated in Maharashtra”.

Similarly, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) senior leader Chaggan Bhujbal alleged that the police action was “an insult” to the Warkaris.

“Warkaris are themselves telling that they have been attacked. But Fadnavis can’t see this. And now there is a pressure to delete the lathi charge video and claim that police didn’t resort to lathi charge. Fadnavis’ claims are lies,” Congress state president Nana Patole said at the Congress office in Mumbai.

But who are the Warkaris? But who are these Warkaris? Though not known to have aligned with any party,  the Warkaris are being wooed by various quarters. In June last year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated a shila (rock) temple at the Sant Tukaram Maharaj mandir (temple) dedicated to the 17th-century saint in Dehu, near Pune. 

“Earlier, nobody thought of Warkaris as a community to be tapped (electorally). But Modi’s visit to Dehu is a well-thought-out strategy. The Warkari sect has a lot of significance in Maharashtra and his (Modi’s) announcements were received with claps everywhere,” political analyst Hemant Desai had told ThePrint after Modi’s visit last year.

“Warkaris are from all castes and communities, but Marathas are mostly dominant. The population from rural Maharashtra is especially associated with the Wari, and the BJP wants to take rural Maharashtra along with them,” Desai said.

Referring to Modi’s rally in Dehu, political analyst Pratap Asbe had told ThePrint that the political motives behind the move cannot be ruled out. “The BJP directly wants to appeal to the Bahujan samaj since Sant Tukaram has higher appeal in that community,” he had said. 

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Warkaris & Wari

The Warkari sect comprises devotees of Lord Vitthal, the presiding deity of Pandharpur and believed to be an incarnation of Lord Krishna. 

Tracing its roots to the Bhakti movement, the Warkaris claim to be apolitical and caste agnostic. The members of this sect also follow the teachings of Bhakti saint-poets Tukaram, Dnyaneshwar, and Namdeo, among others.

Advocate Vikas Dhage Patil, a functionary at the Shree Dnyaneshwar Maharaj Sansthan Committee in Pune’s Alandi, had said the Warkaris do not subscribe to any caste or religion and are followers of the saints who themselves hailed from different castes.

“Tolerance and inclusiveness is the idea behind this (Warkari sect). The message about a casteless society led to the social movement,” Patil said, adding that the sect comes out in full strength when it undertakes the annual ‘Wari’ pilgrimage, which dates back nearly 700-800 years.

For centuries, the temple towns of Dehu and Alandi have been the starting points of the Wari, which sees participation by lakhs of devotees who accompany the padukas (representation of feet) of Sant Tukaram and Sant Dnyaneshwar, respectively, to Pandharpur.

“A person from a ‘lower caste’ can also participate in the Wari, while we have many Muslim participants as well. All you need to be is a devotee of the saint,” Patil said. 

While many who take part in the Wari are farmers, working professionals are also among the 12 lakh Warkaris — according to Patil’s estimate — who gather at Pandharpur each year for the pilgrimage. 

(Edited by Tony Rai)

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