Hundreds attend Manikut Festival in Hajo to promote communal harmony

Guwahati, January 16, 2019:

People of Assam are celebrating the onset of ‘Pahila Magh’ with traditional games like buffalo fight and egg fight and both young and old have been seen participating in these activities in the rural belt of Assam. But while the rest of Assam was busy celebrating the post-harvest festival of Magh Bihu, hundreds gathered at Hajo to take part in Samanway Sobha Jatra and Manikut Festival.

In Hajo, a town located 24 kms west of Guwahati in Assam, the All Assam Students’ Union (AASU), has been organizing the Manikut Festival since 1993. It is a harmony march and started as a show of unity among different communities in Assam after the demolition of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya.

The procession and festival in the small town which is considered Assam’s ‘oasis of communal harmony’ is symbolic of how residents of this sacred place have learnt to live in peace.

This year, the Manikut Festival started with a cultural procession that began from Haigrib Madhav and reached Powa mecca mosque where it culminated in the festival.

[caption id="attachment_21431" align="alignnone" width="660"] The Powa Meccha shrine at Hajo[/caption]

The procession was graced by several traditional dance forms and the indigenous cultures of Assam like the nam kirtans, as well as exhibition of the dance forms of several tribes like the Rabha, Missing, Tiwa, among others. People from all walks of life irrespective of caste, creed and religion took part in the festival.

The event was attended by the president of Assam Sahitya Sabha, Paramananda Rajbongshi, General Secretory of AASU, Lurin Jyoti Gogoi and several prominent faces from the Assamese cultural sphere.