Infrastructures and Discontent in the Garhwal Himalayas

Abstract

Uttarakhand, especially the region referred to as Garhwal, is usually referred to as Devbhumi, land of gods. This would be, one would imagine, because of the four centres of pilgrimage, the Char Dham, three of which – Kedarnath, Badrinath and Gangotri are situated at the source of Himalayan rivers that constitute the Ganga, the fourth being the source of another major river, the Yamuna. However, this presentation argues that what truly make Uttarakhand land of gods are the devi-devtas, the local deities that are the protectors of the land, deliverers of justice and those that are believed to control weather. Though considered divine, people forge familial ties with these deities and take them out to travel through their territories. Today, with the Indian state initiating major infrastructure projects to make the Char Dham sites more accessible to Indian pilgrims – through highways, railways and air routes – there is widespread discontent amongst mountain inhabitants. The projects, ostensibly meant to generate employment and ensuring ‘development’, are in fact emptying out the villages, leading to a crisis of migration. In people’s imaginaries, the devi–devtas themselves seem to be reacting to this infrastructure push, opposing these projects by bringing natural disasters upon the region. With the state imposing its pantheistic religious agenda on the region, threatening to subsume local Garhwali culture, where do these local communities stand today?