Power math

The Gorakhnath Math lends its name to Gorakhpur, the city on the banks of the Rapti river. Thousands throng the math every day. Some come to connect with the divine, others have more mundane needs.

Just past the main gate, on the left, a board says karyalay (office). The math headquarters doubles as a field office for Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. Earlier, as MP, Yogi used this office to meet constituents.

Now, Dwarika Tiwari, chief administrator of the temple, has stepped into those shoes. He listens to and guides complainants. He says he is in by 7am and works until 4pm. Then, he takes an hourlong break and, then, stays until late evening. Meanwhile, the landline phone is ringing off the hook. Two assistants guide callers and note down grievances. Every day, the district magistrate and the senior superintendent of police send a staffer to collect the applications.

Tiwari joined the math in 1972. “Look at the number of people who come here every day to get their work done. This includes both Hindus and Muslims,” he says. “This is ample proof of Yogi ji’s secular credentials.” The number of supplicants has swelled since Yogi became chief minister.

The math was founded in the 11th century by Guru Gorakhnath, from the Shaivite Nath sect. If the math is the ‘centre’ of Gorakhpur, the temple sacred to Lord Shiva is the centre of the math. Gorakhnath was known for his martial skills, too. He had a large following among the Gorkha tribe and the math has a temple in Nepal’s Gorkha district. The math shuns the caste system and its monks are celibates. Interestingly, all head priests have been non-Brahmins. Yogi, for example, is a Thakur.

Spread over 56 acres, the math runs a 350-bed hospital, complete with a blood bank and two ambulances. It sees around 1,000 out-patients a day. “You can get registered just for Rs 30 and the doctors are very prompt,” said Anokhe Lal, a patient who had come from the neighbouring Deoria district.

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Maharana Pratap Shiksha Parishad, the math’s academic wing, runs 28 schools, five colleges with postgraduate departments, a polytechnic, a postgraduate college for Sanskrit, a nursing college and a yoga centre. All together, the Gorakhnath math is estimated to generate around Rs 500 crore every year.

The math maintains around 400 cows on a two-acre dairy farm. The cows are looked after by volunteers, and the entire milk is consumed by the math. “Before he became chief minister, Maharaj ji would spend some time with these cows every day,” said Mohammed Maan, who oversees the farm. “Gau-seva [serving the cows] was one of the most sacred things for him.”

The math’s political links are much older than Yogi Adityanath. One of his predecessors, Mahant Digvijaynath, joined the Congress in 1921 and was arrested for his role in the Chauri Chaura incident. During the non-cooperation movement, Mahatma Gandhi’s followers held a demonstration in Gorakhpur market on February 2, 1922. Many protesters were arrested and locked up in Chauri Chaura police station, then part of the United Provinces of British India. On February 5, protesters gathered before the police station demanding the release of their fellow agitators. The police fired at the crowd, which went berserk and burnt the station. All 23 policemen inside died in the fire.

Saddened, Mahatma Gandhi went on a fast, saying that the killing violated the principle of ahimsa. The British arrested and sentenced him to six years in jail, for inspiring the non-cooperation movement. As a result, on February 12, 1922, the Indian National Congress called off the movement.

Of 228 people arrested for the Chauri Chaura incident, six died in custody, 19 were hanged and 110 received life sentences. Mahant Digvijaynath became a bitter critic of Gandhi and joined the Hindu Mahasabha in 1937—the year Vinayak Savarkar became its head. Mahant Digvijaynath was later jailed for nine months, for exhorting people to kill Gandhi. In 1967, he won the Gorakhpur Lok Sabha seat on a Hindu Mahasabha ticket.

His successor, Mahant Avaidyanath (also spelt Avedyanath) was the lynchpin of the Ram Janmabhoomi movement, which led to the demolition of the Babri mosque in Ayodhya in 1992. He won the Maniram assembly seat five times as an independent—1962, 1967, 1968, 1974 and 1977. And the Gorakhpur Lok Sabha seat four times—1970 (independent), 1989 (Hindu Mahasabha), 1991 and 1996 (both times BJP). Yogi Adityanath took over the seat from him in 1998 and held it till he became chief minister.

Yogi got the math much more involved in local politics. The math has been at the forefront of Gorakhpur’s fight for better roads and sanitation. It has fought for farmers and against slaughter houses. Yogi, in 2015, threatened the civic administration with dire consequences if the proposed All India Institute of Medical Sciences was moved out of Gorakhpur.

Yogi raised the Hindu Yuva Vahini in 2002 to “ensure justice for dalits and to fight untouchability”. It is said that Yogi believes that justice is for sale to the highest bidder, and that judiciary serves the powerful. Hence, the Vahini.

Today, Uttar Pradesh has 2.5 lakh Vahini units, managed by 27 officials. All members and office-bearers are volunteers. Membership is free; there are no membership drives. In fact, the Vahini is now cautious about new members. State general secretary Pramod Mull said, “We are a social organisation committed to protecting Hindu culture and icons. We keep a check on members to prevent anyone from maligning our name through anti-social activity.”

The Vahini celebrates the birthdays of Maharana Pratap and Chhatrapati Shivaji, as well as the birthdays of Hindu Gods. Its members contribute in cash and kind to these and other festivals.

The Vahini has a violent image, but Mull says its violent actions were mostly reactions to injustice. As an example, he recounts an incident in 2007: a resident of Gorakhpur, Rajkumar Agrahari, who was returning from a wedding, got caught in the thick of a Moharrum procession. He got jostled and exchanged hot words with some youth. As angry words led to blows, he sought refuge with the policemen on duty. But, they turned him away, and the people hacked him down. He died on the way to hospital.

The Vahini protested when the police refused to release the body, Mull says. Yogi, who was out of town, was taken into custody on his return, and was jailed for 12 days. Gorakhpur was in lockdown mode for a fortnight. “After the agitation, Rajkumar’s body was released and the guilty were booked,” says Mull. “The Vahini ensures justice to those who cannot fight for themselves. What is wrong in that?”