An overview of Brawl in RatoMachindranath Jatra
There is nothing yet left to be hit by this COVID-19 pandemic. In Nepal, my home country, where most regions including Kathmandu Valley is under prohibitory order for controlling rapid rate of COVID-19 cases and people are allowed to move only for buying important household and medical things. Crowd of people is not enjoyed by the government and are given punishment by the security persons.
Now let's come to main incident. Recently there was a huge brawl between security officials and the group of people who were celebrating RatoMachindranath Jatra which occurred in Lalitpur Nepal. The video of a traffic police getting beaten in that brawl is all over the Internet and each Nepali is giving their opinion. There are two main things that people talk about regarding this event. One is about the cultural importance of the festival and second is that Was the condition suitable for the festival? As the cases of COVID-19 are increasing day by day. Around 500 people are daily affected only in Kathmandu Valley where the incident occurred.
Let's talk about the festival. Rato Machindranath Jatra or Bhoto Jatra is a chariot carcase honoring the Buddhist deity of compassion Avalokiteshvara held annually in Lalitpur. It is the longest chariot festival celebrated in Nepal.
Preparation of the festival starts with construction of a 60-foot tall chariot. All the history behind the brawl starts from here. The government didn't warn the locals that run the festival about if it will be allowed or not. Also initially they were allowed to prepare the chariot during the time of lock down.
After the completion of Chariot, the government didn't allow the procession to run because of the increased number of COVID-19 patients in the surrounding areas where the chariot was supposed to have run. Newar people who are the ones who celebrate it have certain rituals that if the Jatra won't occur it will affect their upcoming festivals like Dashain and they won't be allowed to celebrate it. Another ritual is that the Chariot is then transferred to another Newar community located in Bhaktapur which would be disrespectful for the Newar community in Lalitpur.
According to some people who were a part of Chariot festival they had contacted with the local authorities and the government about running the chariot using Armies or any other safety protocol. However authority never responded to the local people. And that's how it started according to them, negligence of local authority.
The government was not right too but the people involved In the Jatra were the stupidest and wrong at the most part. The beating of the innocent traffic police who was there for taking care of the vehicles in the road shows the intention of those locals were to fight and start the conflict not even to take part in Jatra.
If they really wanted to run the festivals in this time of pandemic they might have changed the method of celebrating it by reducing the size of the chariot (if it can be allowed by the culture) and limiting the number of participants or using any other alternatives.
People are hiding behind the name of culture to justify that activity. Are they forgetting that we are the one who made the culture and it is not a constant that can never be changed. Culture changes with time and situation. Just ask one question: Were you celebrating the Jatra in the same way as it started? Isn't there any change in the way you were celebrating. Probably in old times all people celebrating were wearing traditional newari dresses.
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