New Delhi: Maharashtra’s coastal town of Rajapur in Ratnagiri district witnessed an unsettling communal episode recently during the annual Shimga festival procession. Viral videos showed a group ramming a tree trunk into the gates of the local Jama Masjid, leading to accusations of forced entry and deliberate provocation. While police officials have denied claims of any orchestrated attack, locals say that the festival’s age-old traditions were exploited to stoke tensions.
A festival marked by syncretism
Shimga is a week-long festival which coincides with the festival of Holi. It is celebrated in parts of the Konkan. Statues of goddesses are taken out of the temples in a palakhi (chariot), on processions. This is a longtime tradition.
The video from March 12 which went viral also shows people participating in a palakhi procession. As part of the celebrations, a coconut tree is cut down and carried through the town and is ultimately burned in a ritual fire. A unique aspect of this procession is its brief stop at the Jama Masjid’s gate, where the tree is momentarily placed on the mosque’s steps. Members of the local Muslim community offer a coconut to the revellers before the procession moves to the Dhopeshwar temple. Locals said that traditionally, the procession concludes by Asr prayers, i.e. by 5 pm, but this year, the group arrived at the mosque’s gates around 8 pm.
This custom has historically represented the Hindu-Muslim unity of the region. According to a local who requested anonymity, “This has been happening for generations, twice every five years, and never before has there been an issue.”
However, what occurred this year deviated from this tradition. Instead of simply placing the tree trunk at the mosque’s steps, some individuals forcibly rammed it into the gate. Videos from the incident also captured members of the procession hurling the trunk into the air multiple times, raising concerns that the festival was being manipulated to fuel discord.
This story was originally published in thewire.in. Read the full story here.
