{"id":35,"date":"2016-04-04T06:28:52","date_gmt":"2016-04-04T06:28:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=35"},"modified":"2016-04-04T06:28:52","modified_gmt":"2016-04-04T06:28:52","slug":"where-the-gods-are-on-trial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/?p=35","title":{"rendered":"Where the Gods Are on Trial"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I<\/span>n southern Chhattisgarh\u2019s Kanker district, a strange procession begins every August.\n\nHundreds of tribal men, armed with bows and arrows, sickles, and small axes, set out on foot from nearly 300 villages from the area adjoining the state\u2019s beautiful Bastar region. The men, dressed in their finest dhotis and kurta, accessorised with cowrie necklaces and bracelets of brace, are converging on Sur Dongar, or God\u2019s Village. They trek past 12 hairpin bends to reach Mount Kalkesh, weathering plunging streams and dense forests, sometimes covering more than 50 kilometres a day. That\u2019s a long journey, considering their precious cargo: their gram devtas or village deities, seated on a fragrant aanga, made of Bel or Saja wood, anointed with peacock feathers, turmeric, oil and flowers. Tots of the local brew keep the villagers going.\n\nOnce atop the mountain, the procession gets a raucous welcome. It\u2019s time for the men and their Gods to pay obeisance at the temple of Bhanga Ram Devi, the most powerful one in the tribal pantheon. Only offerings of chicken, rice, and flowers \u2013 and a line-up of all the gram devtas \u2013 please the Devi.\n\nOver the following week, more rituals follow, along with preparations for a \u201ccourt session\u201d. The last day of the week is an all-nighter. Goats are sacrificed and eaten. The meat is considered sacred and carrying it out of the temple is a bad omen. On Saturday, the trial begins.\n\nThe proceedings of this trial are not very different from those witnessed in any other court. The accused are lined up in the durbar. The court is called to attention, and the trial begins. A steady stream of village headmen lists out crimes of the past year, a litany of all foul that has befallen each village from floods to forest fires, epidemics to snake bites. All sins against life are recounted and the manjhis and sirhas (local priests) lay them at the door of the accused, the one who is deemed ultimately responsible for the fate of the villagers\u2026\n\nGod.\n<\/p>

***<\/p>\nChhattisgarh\u2019s tribals aren\u2019t alone in bringing the almighty to book \u2013 people across the globe and throughout history have registered their complaints against the heavens with the judicial system of the land. \u00a0In some cases, God has even been executed. In Children of the Days: A Calendar of Human History<\/em>, Uruguayan journalist and writer, Eduardo Galeano tells us how in 1918, in the midst of the revolutionary upheaval in Moscow, a Bible was put in the chair of the accused. The defence lawyer argued that God was not fit to stand trial on grounds of mental illness, but the tribunal hearing the case eventually sentenced him to death.\u00a0 On January 17, at dawn five rounds of machine-gun fire were shot at the heavens.\n

For the people of Kanker, each of the syllables of the word \u201cBhagwan\u201d signifies one of the five elements: Bh is for bhoomi (earth), ga for gagan (sky), va for vayu (wind), a for agni (fire), and n for neer (water). So it is perfectly logical for the gram devtas to be penalised when they fail to hold up their end of the bargain.<\/blockquote>\nCloser home, the irrigation department of Bihar\u2019s Rohtas district petitioned a local court to demolish a Hanuman temple, located in the middle of a busy road, in February this year. The court in turn issued a summons<\/a> to the God for illegal encroachment of government land \u2013 and upon not finding anyone to receive the notice at the premises, left it pasted on the idol\u2019s chest.\n\nThis real-life litigation has yielded a vast playground for fiction \u2013 the 2012 Paresh Rawal-Akshay Kumar satirical comedy OMG \u2013 Oh My God!<\/em><\/a>, based on a Gujarati play, sued God of destruction of property due to an earthquake. But the sharpest such example comes from the 2008 teleplay God on Trial<\/em><\/a>, written by British screenwriter Frank Cottrell-Boyce, based on a widely repeated Second World War story that is most likely apocryphal. In the drama, a group of Jewish prisoners in Auschwitz try God for abandoning his people and allowing the Nazis to commit genocide. God, the drama concludes, broke the agreement, and \u201ctherefore\u00a0God is a cheating bastard\u201d.\n

***<\/p>\nThe chief justice at the Chattisgarh trial does not go so far as to call God a cheating bastard. Ramji, the sprightly 65-year-old pramukh of all the villages sports a turban with a couple of feathers, is more circumspect with his grievance. \u201cBhagwan hai kyunki hum hai<\/em>,\u201d he says in the local Gondi dialect, \u201caur hum kyunki Bhagwan.<\/em>\u201d He takes his role as the arbiter of this dispute rather seriously. It is a role that has been passed down the generations \u2013 Ram\u2019s father, grandfather, as well as great-grandfather were all pramukhs \u2013 and one that he has prepared well for.\n\nRam\u2019s sage observation stems from the tribals\u2019 belief in animism. For the people of Kanker, each of the syllables of the word \u201cBhagwan\u201d signifies one of the five elements: Bh is for bhoomi (earth), ga for gagan (sky), va for vayu (wind), a for agni (fire), and n for neer (water). So it is perfectly logical for the gram devtas to be penalised when they fail to hold up their end of the bargain.\n\nIn the durbar of Bhanga Ram Devi, the villagers are the prosecutors, the judge, and the jury. During the hearing, the headmen systematically explain the losses incurred, and how the Gods fell short of fulfilling their commitments.\n\nPunishment for their crimes vary. Some Gods get away easy, with only a few months in the Rawaana Sthal, a penitentiary in the form of a cavernous hole in the mountain close to the temple. Others are forced to spend more than a year in there. But if the villagers have felt particularly aggrieved during a year, a guilty one can permanently get relegated to the solitary. No devotees are allowed in there, and without an adoring bhakt, it can get pretty lonely in the Rawaana Sthal.\n\nEven if you\u2019re God.\n\nEdited by Karanjeet Kaur<\/em>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a land caught in the crosshairs of a decades-old fight between the government and the rebels, justice rings hollow. The tribals focus their rage on one entity… God.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":36,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-people"],"yoast_head":"\nWhere the Gods Are on Trial<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In a land caught in the crosshairs of a decades-old fight between the government and the rebels, justice rings hollow. The tribals focus their rage on one entity... 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