The weather was monsoon. dark clouds were thundering, The city was empty The shutters were down and there was not even a single person on the road. There was a heavy police presence and for a moment I felt that I was not in Udaipur, Rather I am entering Srinagar. It was very sad to see Udaipur so empty, gloomy and full of police forces. Even Pawan was in the shadows and as we were crossing the empty city Pawan said, ‘If curfew had not been imposed on that day, you would have got this city burnt.,
Udaipur has changed. In those tense moments of 28th June, as the mood of the city changed in ‘Us vs They’, it was clear to see how the division of people, separation among themselves happens in a blink of an eye! For the first time in my time in my home state, I felt that rare sense of alienation from which the hearts and minds of the people could hardly escape in the near future. It could never happen in Udaipur or Rajasthan, it was not imaginable. The usually calm, spirited and solemn cities and territories have reached a point in which the mood is solemn, but deep inside and unreliable. Within a few hours the sentiments of the people changed, and not only in Udaipur, but also in the surrounding areas of the city. Totally hostile attitude towards ‘them’.
For me, Udaipur has always been an integral part of my journey back home in Rajasthan. A city that I have known and always believed to be very peaceful and safe. But on the evening of June 30, as I was on my way from the airport into the city, I found myself in a completely strange environment. That’s when I asked Pawan, a local journalist, to accompany me for the first time. The weather was monsoon. Dark clouds were thundering. The city was empty, the shutters were down and there was not a single person on the road. There was a heavy police presence and for a moment I felt that I was entering Srinagar, not Udaipur. It was very sad to see Udaipur so empty, gloomy and full of police forces. Even Pawan was in shock and when we were crossing the empty city Pawan said, ‘If curfew had not been imposed that day, you would have found this city burnt’.
I sighed. There was a heavy sound of wind. The driver was also driving worried. There was a feeling of extreme state of violence, fear and hatred in the calm air of the city. There was a turbulent restlessness the city had never felt before in history, a tremendous disbelief that it had never felt before! Many spurts of emotions in the troubled city.
The vibrancy of Udaipur, which used to cheer its tourists and the casual, calm mood of the locals, was bleak today. From the balcony of my hotel on Lake Pichola, I saw a new Udaipur in front of me. I looked into the flowing waters of Lake Pichola and heard a rare voice in the vibrant city, the sound of silence! There was no human presence at Gangaur Ghat. The dogs had also gone hiding somewhere. On normal days, women meet and gossip at the ghat in the evening. For men, it is a sanctuary of idleness where weary tourists take endless selfies. But today the ghat was empty, the lake was empty, the hotels around me were empty, there was emptiness in the air too.
The brutal murder of Kanhaiya Lal has created a national discourse, a stir. But the murder in Udaipur has done something that has destroyed the aura of the city of generally tranquil lakes. Very sad, the hotelier said, ‘I don’t know whose hi lag gayi our city is’. After the difficulties of Kovid that lasted two years, now the business had started running, so it was done. There is a fear that the business will come to a standstill once again. My hotel which is always expensive and full of tourists is lying vacant. In less than 24 hours, all bookings for the next two weekends have been cancelled, leaving employees with uncertainty and low expectations.
If there is fear among the townspeople, there is anger too. Everyone in the city is in fear and trouble. But Ranjit Singh is sure that soon everything will be back to normal in Udaipur. Business will pick up its pace. The people of the city will move on, but the harmony that existed among the communities, by which Udaipur lived in calm and general harmony, has gone on the backburner. Even in Ranjit Singh’s voice, during the discussion of ‘us vs them’, there were signs of fury and anger.
There is anger against ‘them’. There is great hatred against him among many locals, Pawan reiterated that if the curfew was not imposed on time, the city of Udaipur would have burnt down. An eyewitness told that on the day of the murder, anger was boiling among the people. ‘Suddenly many people came inside this street (the street where Kanhaiya Lal’s shop was) and started shouting at the police, ‘Leave us, we will take revenge’. They were shouting slogans, and ‘them’ was furious at all. They were making the atmosphere worse and worse. Recalling that time, a 17-year-old boy started trembling as he saw his eyes.
After the murder, protests, marches were taken out by Hindus all over Udaipur, but all remained peaceful. The big exam was to be held on July 1. That day was not only the day of Friday prayers but also the auspicious day of Jagannath Yatra. As the police presence tightened up, an atmosphere of unprecedented tension and uncertainty built up. What if, could they, maybe they would- concerns like Udaipur was restless. Mobile internet was snapped across the state. There were strict restrictions, restrictions like curfew in many cities. Small children on bicycles were chanting ‘Bharat Mata ki Jai’, waving saffron flags and moving on the road to Jagdish temple. Enthusiastic and uninterested home ladies in their colorful finest clothes waited eagerly to take part in the yatra. ‘You know how many Hindus have come out today, Hindus have united, this is a befitting reply to them’, a 25-year-old boy standing on the street told me.
Surely Udaipur has fallen into the deep pit of ‘us’ versus ‘they’. Good people are at peace with the peaceful completion of Jagannath Yatra and the return of normal life in the city. Tourists are also getting the message of normalcy in Udaipur. But for the Hindus of the city, the day of Jagannath Yatra was also going to give the message of ‘unity of Hindus’, so there is also a new belief among the people that talks have reached every nook and corner of the country from Udaipur about what happened in Udaipur and the city. Now it is the epicenter of ‘Hindu Unity’.
When the desire for self-determination becomes partisan and divided, the result is bound to be dirty bloody relationships and behaviour. When an old city like Udaipur is made to witness communal and brutal violence, a new character is born in the result. All that happens in the new mood, new shadow of the city, which makes the city not only a paradoxical place, but also a city like Udaipur, which is adorned with its lakes and history, gets into the spirit of change and violence.
Udaipur has fallen into the hook of ‘we’ and ‘they’ and revenge. A relative of one of the eyewitnesses of the massacre said sadly, Udaipur has become Srinagar. Two beautiful cities that live and survive on tourism have been scorched by violence in the name of religion. ‘Earlier it was Kashmir, now we are’, he sighs. Where his sister said on this, ‘We have already seen in Kashmir how cruel ‘they’ are, now we are seeing it in Udaipur’.
