“Gudi Padvachya Hardik Shubechcha! Nutanvarshabhindan! (Gudi
Padva greetings and a happy new year),” I said via chat to a friend in
the US. Instead of returning my greeting, he swore. “Sh*t! I haven’t
wished my parents! It is one thing to forget resolutions but I toh keep
forgetting the New Year,” he said with a smiley before signing off.
I wondered what the big deal was. Isn’t the New Year just another calibration on the calendar? Besides, for those in India who cling to the concept of a New Year, there are a number of new years to look forward to. In case you miss the Gregorian New Year on January 1, the next set of resolutions can be made soon after on January 14 — one of the two Tamil New Year dates.
The Dravidian movement and its demand for things cultural is punctuated off and on with a demand for a ‘pure’ Tamil calendar. Prioritising this over more mundane roti-kapda-makaan issues, in 2008, the DMK government legislated the ‘Tamil Nadu, Tamil New Year Declaration Bill’, which brought forward the official New Year from April 14 to January 14. The DMK rejected the traditional Tamil calendar and officially adopted the ‘Thiruvalluvar’ calendar, named after one of Tamil Nadu’s greatest poets.
The DMK called their decision to change the calendar ‘revolutionary’. Others in Tamil Nadu said it was ‘ridiculous’. Historians challenged Thiruvalluvar’s date of birth. A senior journalist argued that political ideology should not rupture civilisational practices. The AIADMK and the MDMK as opposition parties challenged the new date in court, and asked their workers to ‘aggressively continue to celebrate’ the New Year on April 14. The irony is that even those who celebrate Jan 14 are really just celebrating Pongal. Politics aside, the short of it is that Tamilians gave us two New Year days: January 14 and April 14.
The apex religious body of the Sikhs — the Shiromani Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC) have given us one — March 21. Ten years before the DMK’s move, the SGPC played its own calendar politics. A Canada-based software engineer, Pal Singh Purewal, argued that the Sikhs needed their own distinct calendar — not the Vikrami lunar calendar shared with the Hindus. The new solar calendar was named Nanakshahi. In 1999, the SGPC introduced this calendar, triggering controversy and confusion. The jathedar of the Akal Takht banned the calendar until consensus was built on its use. Akalis jumped in with Badal. Radical Sikhs argued that the calendar would give more power to their cause. Others said that sharing a calendar culturally unites the Hindus and Sikhs. Finally, in 2003, the Nanakshahi calendar was ratified. Today it is used in 90% of all Gurudwaras. But critical dates on the Nanakshahi remain the same, ensuring that Sikhs and Hindus celebrate Holi and Diwali together.
Punjab celebrates Baisakhi as the New Year. And according to the Nanakshahi, the year starts on March 21. Thus two more New Year days.
The advent of spring and the vernal equinox brings with it a surfeit of New Year days. They may not be as politically contentious but each has its own mythological, religious and agrarian stories. The Telugu and Kannada New Years — Ugadi or Yugadi was on March 23 this year, when Maharashtra celebrated Gudi Padva. South Canara celebrates with Kerala, marking the beginning of the Malayali New Year with Vishu. The other Communist state, West Bengal, isn’t far behind. In the mother of all face-offs between the Left and Trinamool is the Nobo Borsho of Boishak that has a fascinating Mughal note: Obsessed with experiments in multi-culturalism, Akbar felt the need for a common calendar that could cut across regions and faiths. The result: Tarik-Ilahi, an essentially solar calendar with some traits of the Islamic or Hijri calendar.
The calendar didn’t really outlive Akbar, except in Bengal.
The next concentration of regional new years, close to the autumn equinox, is linked to Diwali and celebrated by the merchant community: the Gujaratis, Marwaris and Jains.
The monsoon months would have been the only time without a New Year had it not been for the Parsis. They may be the smallest community in the country but they give us three New Year days. Ancient Zoroastrians used the Achaemenian Calendar, which celebrated the vernal equinox or March 21 as Navroz. The Shehanshahi parsis follow a 365-day calendar and will celebrate new year in August this year. The Kadmi Parsis follow a slightly different 12-month and mark their New Year 30 days before the Shehenshahi. In 1906, a Bombay Parsi founded the ‘Zarthosti Fasili Sal Mandal’, which declared that the ‘original’ calendar was the most logical with some changes. According to this, March 21 was New Year. If it weren’t for the triple excuse of tucking into a Parsi feast, these calculations would be very confusing.
The synagogues in Kerala and Mumbai willmark a new beginning on Rosh Hashanah in October. Buddhists celebrate Losar in December. And Moharram, the New Year according to the Hijri Islamic calendar, could fall in any season.
And all along you thought Calendar was just Satish Kaushik’s character in Mr India.
I wondered what the big deal was. Isn’t the New Year just another calibration on the calendar? Besides, for those in India who cling to the concept of a New Year, there are a number of new years to look forward to. In case you miss the Gregorian New Year on January 1, the next set of resolutions can be made soon after on January 14 — one of the two Tamil New Year dates.
The Dravidian movement and its demand for things cultural is punctuated off and on with a demand for a ‘pure’ Tamil calendar. Prioritising this over more mundane roti-kapda-makaan issues, in 2008, the DMK government legislated the ‘Tamil Nadu, Tamil New Year Declaration Bill’, which brought forward the official New Year from April 14 to January 14. The DMK rejected the traditional Tamil calendar and officially adopted the ‘Thiruvalluvar’ calendar, named after one of Tamil Nadu’s greatest poets.
The DMK called their decision to change the calendar ‘revolutionary’. Others in Tamil Nadu said it was ‘ridiculous’. Historians challenged Thiruvalluvar’s date of birth. A senior journalist argued that political ideology should not rupture civilisational practices. The AIADMK and the MDMK as opposition parties challenged the new date in court, and asked their workers to ‘aggressively continue to celebrate’ the New Year on April 14. The irony is that even those who celebrate Jan 14 are really just celebrating Pongal. Politics aside, the short of it is that Tamilians gave us two New Year days: January 14 and April 14.
The apex religious body of the Sikhs — the Shiromani Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC) have given us one — March 21. Ten years before the DMK’s move, the SGPC played its own calendar politics. A Canada-based software engineer, Pal Singh Purewal, argued that the Sikhs needed their own distinct calendar — not the Vikrami lunar calendar shared with the Hindus. The new solar calendar was named Nanakshahi. In 1999, the SGPC introduced this calendar, triggering controversy and confusion. The jathedar of the Akal Takht banned the calendar until consensus was built on its use. Akalis jumped in with Badal. Radical Sikhs argued that the calendar would give more power to their cause. Others said that sharing a calendar culturally unites the Hindus and Sikhs. Finally, in 2003, the Nanakshahi calendar was ratified. Today it is used in 90% of all Gurudwaras. But critical dates on the Nanakshahi remain the same, ensuring that Sikhs and Hindus celebrate Holi and Diwali together.
Punjab celebrates Baisakhi as the New Year. And according to the Nanakshahi, the year starts on March 21. Thus two more New Year days.
The advent of spring and the vernal equinox brings with it a surfeit of New Year days. They may not be as politically contentious but each has its own mythological, religious and agrarian stories. The Telugu and Kannada New Years — Ugadi or Yugadi was on March 23 this year, when Maharashtra celebrated Gudi Padva. South Canara celebrates with Kerala, marking the beginning of the Malayali New Year with Vishu. The other Communist state, West Bengal, isn’t far behind. In the mother of all face-offs between the Left and Trinamool is the Nobo Borsho of Boishak that has a fascinating Mughal note: Obsessed with experiments in multi-culturalism, Akbar felt the need for a common calendar that could cut across regions and faiths. The result: Tarik-Ilahi, an essentially solar calendar with some traits of the Islamic or Hijri calendar.
The calendar didn’t really outlive Akbar, except in Bengal.
The next concentration of regional new years, close to the autumn equinox, is linked to Diwali and celebrated by the merchant community: the Gujaratis, Marwaris and Jains.
The monsoon months would have been the only time without a New Year had it not been for the Parsis. They may be the smallest community in the country but they give us three New Year days. Ancient Zoroastrians used the Achaemenian Calendar, which celebrated the vernal equinox or March 21 as Navroz. The Shehanshahi parsis follow a 365-day calendar and will celebrate new year in August this year. The Kadmi Parsis follow a slightly different 12-month and mark their New Year 30 days before the Shehenshahi. In 1906, a Bombay Parsi founded the ‘Zarthosti Fasili Sal Mandal’, which declared that the ‘original’ calendar was the most logical with some changes. According to this, March 21 was New Year. If it weren’t for the triple excuse of tucking into a Parsi feast, these calculations would be very confusing.
The synagogues in Kerala and Mumbai willmark a new beginning on Rosh Hashanah in October. Buddhists celebrate Losar in December. And Moharram, the New Year according to the Hijri Islamic calendar, could fall in any season.
And all along you thought Calendar was just Satish Kaushik’s character in Mr India.
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