In Assam, Hindu high priests are staunchly anti-BJP

by Guest Sat Mar 26, 2016 7:38 pm

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1160327/jsp/frontpage/story_76642.jsp#.VvcrFMdX_ww

by Guest Sat Mar 26, 2016 7:41 pm

Jengraimukh (Majuli), March 26: The progress of the BJP at Majuli, the seat and soul of Assam's Vaishnavite movement, may have just run into a high-priest hurdle.

"We are Assamese first, Hindus next," Narayan Chandra Goswami, 74, xatradhikar of Notun Kamalabari Xatra told The Telegraph today. "Xankardeb and Madhabdeb did not use the word Hindu. People who come to our xatras come as bhokots (disciples) and Assamese. Our culture has to get precedence over Hindutva, a word that stems from a communal concept and has been created by the BJP."

A little away, at Auniati Xatra, Ananta Kalita, 27, who has been a monk since he was 10 and is now in charge of the museum at the xatra, said: "We are xatras but not RSS and vice-versa. As far as we are concerned, anyone who likes Bharatvarsh is a Hindu."

Auniati Xatra, he said, welcomes people from all religions. "Muslims come here and partake prasad, they come and act in our bhaonas (traditional theatre). Eating meat and fish does not make one a non-Hindu. In our xatra, junior monks like me are fish-eaters."

Pitambar Dev Goswami, who heads Auniati Xatra, said over phone this evening: "We are raised as per the traditions of the Sanatan Vaishnav dharma. We do not use terms such as Hindutva."

Pitambar Dev holds a doctorate in Assamese literature. Narayan Chandra Goswami of Notun Kamalabari Xatra is a Sahitya Akademi awardee and the recipient of an honorary DLitt from Dibrugarh University.

Kalita, who is much younger to them, holds masters degrees in Assamese and English. They are a miniscule of the intellectual milieu that Majuli's xatras present, something that the BJP may have to contend with in the days to come.

In Assam, Hindu high priests are staunchly anti-BJP

In Assam, Hindu high priests are staunchly anti-BJP

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