Swami Nigamananda: Salute to a Satyagrahi

After four months of fasting for saving river Ganga, Swami Nigamananda Saraswati died at around 2 pm on June 13, 2011 at Jolly Grant Himalayan Institute Hospital in Dehradun. Swami Nigamanand, 34, had been fasting for 115 days in Haridwar.
The 34-year-old Swami, a member of Matri Sadan, was protesting against the illegal mining that is polluting the river Ganges. He had started his fasting on February 19 this year. On April 27, his health started deteriorating and forced the authorities to admit him at the district hospital. The Swami went into coma and had to be admitted in a very critical condition to the Jolly Grant Hospital in Dehradun on April 27, 2011.

After 115 days without food, Nigamanand had to die to be noticed, briefly, by the national media

 

In contrast with the fuss over Ramdev, it's a terrifying revelation of how lop-sided India’s priorities have become.

Against the background of the Anna and Ramdev 'fasting' tamsahas, somebody commented that a culture addicted to cheap thrills is always self-destructive, for it cannot focus its mind on anything that lacks a circus.

'The cleaning of the River Ganga' is a much-flogged horse, and doesn't have much 'sensational value'. A clean Ganga is of fundamental importance to the life of a large part of India. Chief ministers sign agreements over this, just as the Uttarakhand chief minister did. It's just lip service: 'clean' the river  without interrupting ongoing polluting activity or try to change anything.

So when  Swami Nigamanand, to whom the cleanliness of the Ganga was really equal to godliness, began to fast to draw attention to the illegal mining, sand-quarrying and stone-crushing that pollutes  a stretch flowing to Rishikesh, no one wanted to take notice. The wannabe Mahatma and the crossdressing Yogi were hogging mediaspace.

Mining and stone-crushing companies are too good a source of funds for a government. And why should anyone pay  attention to a sadhu with neither political connections nor media presence? Nigamanand was innocent [and foolhardy] enough to think that fasting for a good cause would bring about change.

The politicians who turned deaf ears to the Supreme Court’s directives on clearing the banks of polluting industries were really not interested, and were busy 'pleading' with Ramdev to end his fast, to score political points.

A man fasting to make a point, any point, must be looked after. In this case the point was of overwhelming importance. What happened to the local and national media on this one?  Nigamanand’s courage in taking on powerful mining bosses and indifferent or greedy politicians should have been recognized and given space in print and on the electronic media.

Post his death, the slanging match between the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party is shameful. Instead of humility and shame, each side is using Nigamanand's death to score a point against the other. They have an eye on the forthcoming assembly elections in Uttarakhand, they care for neither Nigamanand nor  the Ganga.

 

Illegal activity: stone-crushing polluting the Ganga

The accusations — the Congress gave the stone-crushers their licence, the BJP allows the mining to continue and so on — include one of poisoning the sadhu. This sordid drama proves that politicians and governments are least interested in the good of the people, or the improvement and preservation of the environment.

Will 'civil society' response be such that the death of this real Satyagrahi doesn't go in vain?

Only you, dear reader, can answer this one!