Why you shouldn’t fret missing New Year in India

Whether its Goa, Thailand or good ol' amchi Mumbai irrespective of where you are ringing in the New Year, almost everyone will be stuck to their mobiles or tablets wishing everyone. Wonder why people get so frantic? For all those who (despite logic and good sense), fall for the marketing hype of a New Year, with hope, determination, a set of resolutions and enough SMS and WhatsApp messages to clog entire networks, there's good news. You can keep doing all of this again and again and again through the year. Chances are, there’s another occasion to wish the ones you want to, coming around in a few days.

Tamilian tug-of-war

After all for Indians, isn’t the New Year just another calibration on the calendar? If you miss the Gregorian New Year on January 1, in the middle of your December 31 Hic Hic Hurrays, fret not. The next set of resolutions can be made soon after on January 14 — one of the two Tamil New Year dates. Though the Supreme Court recently extended former Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa’s bail by four months in the disproportionate assets case, 2014 has already been annus horribilis for the 66-year-old Puratchi Thalaivi Amma who had to spend three weeks in a Bangalore prison before being granted bail by the top court in October. The verdict that found her guilty of corruption during her first term as Chief Minister in the early 90s ended her third term as the head of the Tamil Nadu government. She was disqualified as a lawmaker and picked loyalist O Panneerselvam as her replacement.

The case against Amma, who heads the ruling AIADMK in Tamil Nadu, was transferred in 2001 to neighbouring Karnataka to ensure the trial would not be influenced by the politics of her home state. She has denied any wrongdoing. Her adoring sycophantic supporters, for whom Amma can do no wrong, even shaved their heads in protest when she was found guilty. In fact the apex court asked her to ensure her party workers don’t disrupt law and order in Tamil Nadu to protest against developments in her case.

The only consolation for Amma is that her bête noire Kalaignar Karunanidhi of the signature dark shades fame is having an even more terrible time thanks to a ‘son-stroke’ by elder son, MK Alagiri. The man whose canary yellow scarf makes you reach for your own shades every time he’s on TV, may have reconciled to the DMK’s D Napoleon joining the BJP, but will he be able to hold the party rank and file together with their knives are out for each other?

The Dravidian movement and its demand for many things cultural, has often been punctuated off and on with a demand for a 'pure Tamil calendar.' Considering how big a priority this was over more mundane roti, kapda, makaan issues on January 28, 2008, the DMK government actually legislated something called the 'Tamil Nadu, Tamil New Year Declaration Bill' which brought forward the official Tamil New Year from April 14 to January 14.

Of course in keeping with the Indian melting pot (if-you-can’t-sort-out-the-confusion-add-to-it) tradition, it was a Sikh - Surjit Singh Barnala as Governor of Tamil Nadu - who grappled with the intricacies of Dravidian politics as he explained to the House, the logic behind the Bill. It wasn't just the date but a much wider change of calendars. The DMK rejected the traditional Tamil calendar and officially adopted the Thiruvalluvar Calendar. The argument given - that both the new date and the new calendar were more secular and more truly 'Tamil'.

An earlier milestone was used to substantiate this claim. In 1921, more than 500 scholars, under the Maraimalai Adigal, a leader of the Tamil Self-Respect Movement, met in Chennai to make some radical changes. They decided that the Tamil calendar was not really Tamil but based on a more 'Sanskritised / Hindu' understanding of the cosmos. (The strident notes of Dravidian politics render academic the more obvious questions: Can you really conflate terms like Hindu and Sanskrit). The scholars evolved a new calendar, basing its calculations on the birth of Tamil poetry's greatest figure - Thiruvalluvar. But, first they had to resolve the historical uncertainty over Thiruvalluvar's birth date which they did by fixing it as 31 BC. Till then, the dates of Thiruvalluvar had ranged from 30 BC to 600 AD.

While the DMK called their decision to change the calendar and the date of the New Year 'revolutionary', many others in Tamil Nadu said it was 'ridiculous'. Some historians challenged Thiruvalluvar's date of birth, saying there was no definitive textual evidence of it being 31 BC. A senior journalist argued that political ideology “should not rupture civilizational practices,” pointing out that a large part of Tamil poetic imagery celebrated April 14 as the day of renewal.

To add to this conundrum, the AIADMK and the MDMK as opposition parties not just condemned the DMK move, but challenged the new New Year date in court. They send innumerable circulars asking their workers to 'aggressively continue to celebrate' the New Year on April 14.

Claims, counter-claims and detailed arguments on both sides continue and use in their armoury a potent mix of history, politics, culture and astronomy. But where almost every ideology trips is in its belief that that it can strip people of religiosity - however 'noble' their intention may be. The irony here is that even those who celebrate January 14 as their New Year do so not as its a secular date based on the birth of a famous poet but as Pongal that falls in the auspicious month of 'Thai'. Politics apart, the short of the long story is that Tamilians have given us two New year days: January 14 and April 14.

Going balle-balle twice a year

The Sikhs or rather their apex religious body - the Shiromani Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC) have also given us a New Year- March 21. Exactly 10 years before the DMK's move, the SGPC played its own calendar politics. No prizes that in this case too identity had to be asserted.

A software engineer (from Canada), Pal Singh Purewal argued that the Sikhs needed a separate calendar, distinctly their own, not the Vikrami lunar calendar shared with the Hindus for the past 500 years. Purewal says he spent 30 years working on the calendar before presenting it to the SGPC. The new calendar, much like the current Western one is solar, with fixed dates and named Nanakshahi after the founder of the Sikh faith, Guru Nanak. In 1999 the SGPC first introduced the new calendar which triggered of both controversy and confusion. The jathedar of the Akal Takht, at first, banned the calendar until consensus was built on its use. The Akalis jumped in with Badal championing the calendar in many of his political rallies at the time.

Familiar arguments were fore grounded - radical Sikhs vociferously argued that the calendar would give more power to their cause. Others argued that sharing a calendar culturally unites the Hindus and Sikhs in Punjab. Finally in 2003 the Nanakshahi calendar was ratified. Today it is used in 90% of all Gurudwaras, with some exceptions like Patna Sahib.
Interestingly, critical dates on the Nanakshahi calendar like Guru Nanak Jayanti, Holla Mohalla and Bandi Chorh Diwas remain the same, which at least ensures Sikhs and Hindus continue to celebrate Holi and Diwali together. It must be pointed out here that while traditionally, Punjab celebrated harvest festival Baisakhi as the New Year, the Nanakshahi calendar's New Year begins on the Gregorian date of March 21. So, that's actually two more New Year days.

Equinoctial New Years

The advent of spring, the vernal equinox, brings with it a surfeit of New Year Days, perhaps not as politically contentious but each with its own mythological, religious and agrarian stories. The Telugu and Kannada New Year- Ugadi / Yugadi (depending on which side of the Bellary mines you are on) was on April 4 this year, the same day Maharashtra was celebrating Gudi Padva. South Karnataka (which is actually the coastal western part of the state, geographically!) of course celebrates with Kerala, which  marks the beginning of the Malayali New Year with Vishu.

When one Communist state which celebrates rice and fish is marking its New Year how can the other – West Bengal - be far behind? In the din of all the face-offs between the Left and Trinamool (or is it increasingly the BJP and Trinamool?), one cannot forget that NoboBorsho of Boishak has a fascinating Mughal note.

Amartya Sen's The Argumentative Indian features an engaging chapter on 'India through its Calendar's. It recounts fascinating stories like that of Akbar. An emperor obsessed with experiments in multiculturalism, Akbar felt the need for a common calendar which could cut across regions and faiths. The result: Tarik-Ilahi, a new calendar, which was essentially solar but also had some traits of the Islamic or Hijri calendar. The year 0 in that calendar was 1556, the year Akbar was coronated. The Tarikh-Ilahi didn't really outlive Akbar, except in Bengal where a large form of it reappears in the Bengali San Calendar, followed by Bengalis both along the banks of the Ganga or the Padma as she is called across the border in Bangladesh.

The Diwaliwallahs

After Spring, the next concentration of regional New Years, close to the autumn equinox, is linked to Diwali and the merchant community. The Gujaratis, Marwaris and Jains, all celebrate the festival as their traditional New Year when they worship the Goddess of Wealth and open new account books.

The Parsis gave us three

The monsoon months would have been the only time without a New Year tucked within had it not been for the good ol' Parsis. They may be the smallest community in the country but you can't ignore them – they give us not one but three New Year Days. It's a little complex. (A good Parsi friend from the Zorastrian clergy who tried to explain the differences between the calendars even used the word “eccentric”). The ancient Zoroastrians used the Achaemenian Calendar which celebrated the vernal equinox or March 21 as - Navroz or New Year Day.

The Sassanian King Ardashir I evolved a new calendar - the Shehanshahi - when he came to power in Persia. He changed the old 360 days calendar to 365 days. The five extra days were piously dedicated to the five gathas or prayers. According to the Shehanshahi calendar, followed by many Parsis in India, the New Year will be in August this year and gets to July 31 by 2084.

There's more. The Shehanshahi Parsis are different from the Kadmi Parsis, based mainly on the difference of a calendar. The Zoroastrians who came to India had added a 13th month to their calendar around 1129 AD. But those who remained in Iran never did so. In the 18th century a Zoroastrian priest on a visit to India from Iran pointed this out to some members of the clergy who felt that since the Iranian Priest had come from the 'original homeland' his calendar must be the right one, to be followed. On June 6, 1745 a number of Parsis in Surat followed the recommendation of the Priest and removed the extra month. This calendar is called the Kadmi and its New Year Day falls 30 days before the Shenshahi so this year its New Year Day is July 30.

How could the Parsis of tony South Bombay, not strike their own note on this one? In 1906 Khurshedji Cama, a Bombay Parsi founded the 'Zarthosti Fasili Sal Mandal' or Zorastrian Seasonal-Year Society which declared that the 'original' calendar was most logical with some changes. According to this, March 21 was a New Year Day.

One must admit that if it weren't for the triple excuses for tucking into sumptuous Parsi cuisine all these Zoroastrian calendars and their calculations can get a bit confusing. Phew!

And still more to come...

The synagogues of Kerala and Mumbai will serve their congregation apples and honey to mark a sweet new beginning on Rosh Hashanah, the New Year, a date that varies each year between September 5 and October 5. The Buddhists in Sikkim, Ladakh and elsewhere celebrate Losar or the new year in December. And, of course, the first of Moharram, the New Year according to the Hijri Islamic calendar could fall in any season.

The story behind the calendars is all about the interplay of science, culture and identity. But rise above the politics and what you have are innumerable days to renew resolutions on getting a six-pack.

So there you go. And all along you felt ‘Calendar’ was only Satish Kaushik’s character’s name in Mr India?