Celebration of love in time of love jihad

DEWA (Barabanki): In this age of politically induced communal conflict in the name of ‘love jihad’, the followers of Haji Waris Ali Shah are continuing to spread the message of love. Marriage to them is a personal matter and no one has a role in the decision even if the man and the woman belong to two different religions. Haji Waris Ali Shah was a 19th century Sufi saint whose mazar (shrine) is at Dewa, Barabanki.
“Love is the thread that binds people and gives birth to peace which leads to growth and development. And Sarkar (Waris Shah) has always favoured love over everything else,” said Hakim Sabir Shah Warsi, chief of fukhra (seers) committee, Dewa Sharif. “Marriage is an understanding between two individuals and background of the individual should not be a matter of dispute as long as the two parties consent,” he added.
Ghulam Waris Khan, secretary of the Haji Waris Ali Shah mausoleum trust that manages the shrine, said “the saint upheld that ‘mohabbat karo, mohabbat hi se sab kuchh hoga (love and love alone will make everything happen for you) and none of his followers in the world would ever come in the way of love. ‘Sarkar’ never differentiated between people on the basis of their caste or religion, therefore, secularism is our religion.”
The belief stays with the commonest of folk in the vicinity. “If someone in my family professes love for somebody from another culture, I will not oppose,” said Siddiq Waris Warsi, member of the state minorities’ commission, who lives right next to the mazar.
The seer’s followers from distant places also uphold his message of love. To counter love jihad, they quote Waris Shah’s philosophy. “Jo rab hai wahi Ram hai,” said Mukhtar Warsi, a retired mechanic who renounced the world to become Waris Ali Shah's ahramposh (a formally initiated follower).
A glimpse of this harmony reaches its epitome every year in October when local administration organises Dewa Mela, a tradition started by the seer himself.
“Baba never liked to stay at one place and this deprived many of his blessings. Therefore, locals urged him to start a mela in the memory of his father to which he agreed. Baba designated Karvachauth as the day to begin the festival,” said district magistrate Yogeshwar Nath Mishra. The 100 years old tradition is a huge crowd-puller, even in spite of impediments like this year’s freak rains around that time.