The Politics of the Kanwar Yatra: State Patronage, Rule of Law, and the Challenge to Indian Secularism
Centre for Study of Society and Secularism
The Politics of the Kanwar Yatra: State Patronage, Rule of Law, and the Challenge to Indian Secularism
Neha Dabhade
The disturbing visuals circulating on national television and social media of participants in Kanwar yatra beating up a helpless man outside of a police vehicle while others are dancing and cheering on has foregrounded the discussion on the state support to Kanwar Yatra and the violence a section of the Yatra is perpetuating year on year. It raises the question on who can occupy public spaces in India which in recent years are intensely contested especially during festivals. The discussion on Kanwar Yatra becomes all the more relevant and timely given that the authorities in districts including Meerut, Ghaziabad, Baghpat, Muzaffarnagar have issued orders for closure of government and private schools, along with nurseries, colleges, universities and technical institutions barring the scheduled exams to continue. This directive comes on the heels of the vandalization of a school van in Lucknow when the bus accidentally collided with a motorcycle carrying participants of the procession. This comes at a time when the education system in India and future of Indian youth has assumed centre stage and there are a series of protests in different parts of India over this issue. In another incident, in Meerut, a video showed a group of processionists assaulting a man after a minor road collision.
During the month of Shravan, millions of devotees undertake the Kanwar Yatra, carrying holy water from the Ganga to offer at Shiva temples. The pilgrimage has deep religious significance and, for generations, was largely a decentralized expression of popular devotion. However, in recent years, the Kanwar Yatra has undergone a remarkable transformation. It has become one of the largest state-managed religious mobilizations in contemporary India, involving extensive deployment of police and paramilitary forces, special infrastructure, traffic management, public expenditure, and direct administrative intervention.
There is nothing inherently unconstitutional about a secular state regulating and ensuring the safe conduct of a religious procession. The Constitution protects the freedom of religion under Articles 25 and 26 of every citizen. However, this freedom of religion is subject to subject to public order, morality and health. The state is expected to intervene in religious matter where public order, health and morality are threatened. The Kanwar Yatra which is disrupting public order and endangering lives of innocent citizens should be strictly regulated by the state. Constitutional concern and misalignment arise when such the state appears to be giving patronage selectively, when state power becomes intertwined with majoritarian religious symbolism, and when the state's commitment to neutrality and the rule of law appears compromised. The Kanwar Yatra today raises precisely these concerns.
From Administrative Regulation to Political Patronage
The scale of state involvement in the Kanwar Yatra has expanded dramatically over the past decade. The state of Uttar Pradesh this year like in the previous years, has deployed helicopters to shower flower petals on the procession. The resources for this aerial floral welcome came from state exchequer. Just to understand the scale of the expenditure incurred by the state for the Kanwar Yatra, one of the reports stated that in 2024, the government of UP had made a budgetary allocation for Kanwar Yatra to the tune of Rs 100 crore. This also includes an expenditure of Rs 20 lakh for hiring choppers which shower rose petals over the processionists and to ensure a smooth and safe pilgrimage (Banerjee, 2024).
Certain measures like closure of traffic and deployment of forces may be justified on grounds of public safety. However, some actions of the state coincide with overt political messaging. Ministers publicly participate in welcome ceremonies, governments advertise the arrangements as evidence of their commitment to Hindu religious traditions, and administrative decisions are often presented as demonstrations of cultural nationalism rather than neutral governance.
This transformation reflects a broader political phenomenon in which religious festivals become sites for ideological symbolism. Scholars such as Christophe Jaffrelot have argued that the contemporary politics of Hindu nationalism increasingly relies upon public religious mobilization that blurs the distinction between religion and state. The Kanwar Yatra exemplifies this process by converting a pilgrimage into an event that visibly showcases governmental patronage of a majority religion.
The central concern lies not in the state's regulation of religious practices, but in the uneven pattern of political patronage, whereby comparable levels of institutional and state support are rarely afforded to religious processions of other communities. Such differential treatment raises important questions regarding the principles of state neutrality and equal citizenship in a secular constitutional democracy. Indian secularism does not require hostility toward religion; rather, it requires principled distance and equal respect for all faiths.
Administrative Neutrality under Strain
The constitutional debate surrounding the Kanwar Yatra became particularly significant in 2024 when authorities in Uttar Pradesh directed eateries and food vendors situated along the pilgrimage route to display the names of owners and employees. Similar directions were issued in Uttarakhand and Madhya Pradesh.
Civil society organizations, academics and political leaders challenged these directions before the Supreme Court, arguing that they effectively enabled religious identification of business owners, particularly Muslims, and could facilitate discrimination against them.
The Supreme Court stayed the implementation of these directives, observing that no individual could be compelled to disclose personal identity in this manner and indicating that the legitimate concern of the administration should be ensuring transparency regarding the food being served rather than identifying the religious identity of proprietors.
The controversy demonstrated how administrative measures ostensibly adopted to maintain public order can produce exclusionary consequences. Even if the stated objective was convenience for pilgrims, the practical effect of requiring disclosure of names along a religious route was to expose businesses to communal scrutiny.
The Constitution guarantees equality before law (Article 14), prohibits discrimination on grounds of religion (Article 15), protects personal liberty (Article 21), and secures freedom of conscience (Article 25). Administrative decisions affecting religious communities must therefore satisfy standards of necessity, proportionality, and equal treatment.
Violence and the Rule of Law
While it is no secret that the Kanwar Yatra enjoys massive state patronage, it wouldn’t be inaccurate to say that the processionists have also enjoyed a degree of impunity granted by the state which emboldens a section of the processionists to indulge in violence.
Over the past few years, numerous documented incidents have involved groups of participants engaging in vandalism, assault, road rage, attacks on police personnel, destruction of vehicles following traffic disputes, and damage to public property point towards this impunity.
2024:
In 2024, a mob of processionists assaulted a Muslim man, Aquib, and vandalized his car in Muzaffarnagar on July 21. Police found the attack was unprovoked; no kawad had actually been damaged. An FIR was filed against seven named processionists for attempt to murder and rioting. In the days that followed, a group of processionists attacked a petrol pump in Muzaffarnagar's Mansoorpur area after a vendor nearby objected to them discarding mango seeds on the premises (India Today, 2024). On the same day, another e-rickshaw driver, Sanjay Kumar in Haridwar was beaten and his vehicle vandalised after an accidental collision. In Haridwar, Kanwariyas assaulted sub-inspector Sudhanshu Kishore and snatched his phone after he tried to stop a DJ system near a toll plaza (Nawaz, 2024)
On 30th July, in Haryana’s Fatehpura, Kanwar processionists pelted stoned a school bus of a Sikh-run academy (Akal Academy) after it allegedly brushed a Kanwar; two Bajrang Dal activists later booked for instigating the mob (Kumar, 2024 ). On the same day, in Ghaziabad, a police vehicle was vandalised and overturned by a mob of processionists who were objecting to a wine shop remaining visible. On 1st August, in Hapur, Kanwar processionists attempted to forcefully enter into a madrasa at Sikandar Gate, alleging someone had spat on them from the roof.
In Muzzafarnagar, on 23rd July, 2024, E-rickshaw driver Mohit (a Dalit) was assaulted by processionists after his vehicle brushed a kanwar; he died 5 days later (July 28) — police attribute death to pre-existing illness. However, Mohit’s family disputed this and claimed his death was a result of injuries to his chest and kidneys (Rashid, 2025).
2025:
A car carrying a Muslim family, driven by one Nazim, in Haridwar on 5th July, 2025, allegedly brushed against the processionists; a mob surrounded the vehicle, dragged out occupants including women and children, and beat the driver while extensively damaging the car. An FIR was filed against 8 individuals (Radiance News, 2025).
These incidents have occurred across different states and different years, prompting state governments themselves to impose restrictions on the carrying of tridents, hockey sticks and other objects capable of being used as weapons during the Yatra.
Such incidents raise an uncomfortable question: does the state respond with equal firmness when violence occurs during politically significant religious mobilizations like Kanwar Yatra on the one hand and processions of other religions on the other hand?
The issue is not whether pilgrims should be prosecuted because they are pilgrims. Rather, it is whether criminal law is applied uniformly regardless of religious identity or political context. We have witnessed how the student protestors demanding the resignation of the education minister are being hounded and criminalized by the state. The videos have documented well how unarmed students were beaten up by police and arms wielding men in plain clothes.
The rule of law requires that offences such as assault, rioting, criminal intimidation, and destruction of public property be investigated impartially. Selective enforcement weakens public confidence not only in policing but also in constitutional governance.
Economic Exclusion and Religious Profiling
Another worrying trend has been the effect of administrative measures on Muslim-owned businesses situated along Kanwar routes.
Reports during the 2024 controversy documented concerns that compulsory disclosure of owners' names would effectively enable customers to identify Muslim-owned establishments and potentially avoid them. Critics argued that such measures legitimized economic exclusion based upon religious identity rather than consumer preference.
A secular state cannot become an instrument through which economy is organized around religious identity. Such administrative directives emboldened the targeting of Muslim shopkeepers by Hindu right wing organizations and vigilante.
Secularism Beyond Symbolism
Indian secularism differs from the strict separation model between state and religion found in some Western states like France. In India, religions have often occupied public spaces and its different manifestations in public are not prohibited. However, the state has no official religion and the state is required to give equal respect and maintain equal distance from all religions. The contemporary governance of the Kanwar Yatra tests these principles.
When governments devote extraordinary administrative energy and patronage to facilitating one religious procession while simultaneously issuing directives that disproportionately affect minority communities, questions inevitably arise regarding constitutional neutrality.
The concern is therefore not the yatra itself. It is whether state institutions remain impartial while facilitating it. Whenever violence associated with any religious procession is tolerated or inadequately addressed because of political or ideological considerations, the immediate consequence is impunity. The long-term consequence is erosion of public faith in equal citizenship.
Reclaiming Constitutional Secularism
The Kanwar Yatra constitutes a significant religious tradition for a section of Indian society and, like all forms of peaceful religious observance, warrants protection and regulation within the framework of the rule of law. The critical issue, however, is not the religious practice itself but the nature and extent of state involvement in it. In a secular constitutional democracy, the state is expected to maintain principled neutrality toward all religions. Where the state chooses to extend support for religious practices, such support must be guided by the principles of equality and non-discrimination rather than selective preference for the symbols, practices, or institutions of any particular faith. The preservation of India's secular democratic order therefore requires that state patronage, where it exists, remain consistent with the constitutional commitment to religious neutrality and equal treatment of all communities, rather than becoming a substitute for these foundational principles.
The real test of Indian secularism is not whether governments facilitate religious observance. It is whether they do so without compromising equality before law, without encouraging religious profiling, and without relaxing the ordinary application of criminal law when politically influential groups violate it.
The Constitution of India envisions neither a theocratic state nor an anti-religious one. It envisions a republic in which every citizen—pilgrim, shopkeeper, devotee, or dissenter or any other ordinary person—enjoys equal protection of the law. The future of Indian secularism will depend not on how grandly the state facilitates religious processions but on whether it continues to administer the law without fear, favour, or discrimination.
Reference:
Banerjee, B. (2024, July 22). Money Control. Retrieved from Money Control: https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/india/rs-1000-crore-boost-the-economic-impact-of-kanwar-yatra-12774312.html
India Today. (2024, July 25). Retrieved from India Today : https://www.indiatoday.in/india/video/kanwariyas-vandalise-petrol-pump-in-ups-muzaffarnagar-after-dispute-with-staff-2571684-2024-07-25
Kumar, M. (2024 , July 31). Times of India. Retrieved from Times of India: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chandigarh/kanwariyas-vandalise-school-bus-fir-against-40/articleshow/112150818.cms
Nawaz, M. (2024, July 27). Times of India. Retrieved from Times of India: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/dehradun/police-officer-injured-in-attack-by-kanwariyas-in-haridwar/articleshow/112054494.cms
Radiance News. (2025, July 7). Retrieved from Radiance News : https://radiancenews.com/kanwar-yatra-pilgrims-allegedly-assault-muslim-family-vandalise-vehicle/
Rashid, O. (2025, August 1). The Wire. Retrieved from The Wire: https://thewire.in/law/kanwariyas-beat-him-in-such-a-way-that-he-appeared-almost-dead-slain-drivers-family-disputes-police-claim