Holi event to unite Hindus, Muslims in Shahjahanpur now causes fear of disharmony

A Holi procession in Shahjahanpur that started as a symbol of communal amity is now a potentially dangerous event, which puts the police and administration on high alert.

The Laat Saheb ka juloos (the procession of the big lord) was started by Nawab Abdullah Khan—a descendant of Nawab Bahadur Khan—a soldier in the army of the Mughals who had received the city of Shahjahanpur as a gift for services rendered to the empire. He started this tradition to bring together Hindus and Muslims who had been increasingly estranged after the war of independence in 1857.

Vikas Khurana, the head of the department of history at the Swami Shukdevanand Post Graduate College, Shahjahanpur, said, “The nature of the 1857 revolt was such that the British believed that it was Muslim leaders who had led it, in order to reclaim space for the Mughal Empire. They then started to sow the seeds of enmity between the two communities. The procession, then named Nawab Saheb ka juloos, was started to bring the communities together.”

The Nawab Saab in the procession was a symbol of the British, and both Hindus and Muslims would vent their anger against him but also shower him with flowers as he reached the kotwali, where he demanded the crime records for the year. In time, however, this tradition degenerated into abuse and violence against the designated Laat Saheb—a person brought from outside the district. The change in name (from Nawab Saab to Laat Saheb) happened in 1947.

Khurana said, “The change in the political climate and the increasing saffronisation has led to an aggressive Hindutva. In the procession, a couple of years earlier, the teeth of the Laat Saheb were broken. The administration since then has been giving him a helmet.”

The identity of the Laat Saheb and the organising committee was hidden till a few years ago. There are, in fact, three Laat Sahebs who take out processions on buffalo-pulled carriages on different routes. It is financed by the jewellers of Shahjahanpur, most of whom have their shops in the Chowk area.

There was an attempt to stop the procession through a writ in the High Court, but the court refused to intervene, citing it as a cultural heritage.

Now the focus of the administration remains to maintain peace and harmony during the procession. This year’s procession is particularly vulnerable as Holi and Shab-e-Barat fall on the same day. Forty mosques have been covered with black cloth and areas barricaded, so that no unruly revellers take advantage of the situation.

Shahjahanpur district magistrate Indra Vikram Singh said, “There is heavy deployment of paramilitary force, the provincial armed constabulary and additional police from neighbouring districts to maintain harmony.”