Word: yatra
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...political power of the lower castes, and giving voice to urban middle-classes who backed pro-market, liberalizing reforms. Back then, the BJP successfully occupied a nationalist space ceded to it by a weakened Congress - staging events harking back to an idealized Hindu past, such as the theatrical "rath yatra" (literally, a chariot ride, but used here to allude to the mythical Lord Rama's quest to slay the evil Ravana) that motivated frenzied crowds of Hindus to demolish an ancient mosque in December 1992, sparking months of Hindu-Muslim carnage. When in power from...
...would be naive to think that India has shed its Hindu chauvinism overnight. After the latest attack, former BJP Deputy Prime Minister Lal Krishna Advani announced he would he embarking on a "yatra," a cross between a march and a pilgrimage, to protest the pandering to "minorities" - meaning Muslims - that he said had led to the bombings. Moreover, as relations with Pakistan warm, India's nationalist hawks are all too eager to find another "anti-India" bogeyman in the rising Islamic fundamentalist movement in India's its eastern neighbor, Bangladesh. Nor is the absence of a riot much to celebrate...
Actually, the Nabakalebara Yatra (ancient ritual of changing the bodies of the god) can be performed every 20 years. But the interesting thing about it is that no one is allowed to see the sacred thing which forms the "soul," and surely anyone who touches it must die. The priest whose task it is to switch the soul from the old to the new body is chosen for his outstanding sanctity, but he never survives the ordeal. It is a fact that the Bhitarachha Mahapatra died immediately after this duty was last performed...
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