Gen Z’s kanwariyas: barefoot and bereft
By 6 a.m. on August 9, Har Ki Pauri in Haridwar was already a wall of saffron. Steam rose off the Ganga in the early
By 6 a.m. on August 9, Har Ki Pauri in Haridwar was already a wall of saffron. Steam rose off the Ganga in the early light as men and boys ranging from their teens to their late 60s – barefoot, dressed in T-shirts bearing images of Hindu gods, speakers strapped to bamboo kanwars blaring remixed bhajans – waded into the river that Hindus believe is holy.
By the afternoon, these men had become a river of their own. They flowed down Highway 58, headed back to their homes, mostly across Delhi,
Haryana, and western Uttar Pradesh. Some were travelling as far as Jammu, Rajasthan, and Bihar, walking hundreds of kilometres with pots of Gangajal (water) balanced
on rods across their shoulders: the kanwars.
The BriefWire