Before Sambhal: When a train was halted for Holi and Haj pilgrims

New Delhi: It was Holi of 1999, the very day Haj pilgrims were to take a train from Uttar Pradesh’s communally sensitive town of Mau to Delhi. The situation was fraught - till the administration imposed prohibitory orders to temporarily stop the train so the pilgrims in white didn’t come face to face with the drenched in colour revellers.

Twenty-six years later, it is another Holi and another coincidence. The festival falls on a Friday during Ramzan and the administration in various states, particularly in Sambhal in Uttar Pradesh, is on its toes to ensure ‘jumma’ prayers and Holi pass off peacefully.

That spring of 1999 and the predicament of the authorities in Mau has been recalled in detail in former Uttar Pradesh director general of police (DGP) O P Singh’s book Through My Eyes: Sketches from a Cop's Notebook.

The authorities in Mau served the prohibitory order on loco pilot (train driver) after the Railways refused a request from the authorities to delay the afternoon train by a few hours till Holi festivities end, he writes.

"It was the first time in India's history that an order under section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC), a law typically used to prohibit unlawful assemblies and prevent disturbances, was invoked not to control a mob, but to stop a moving train," the former state police chief says in the chapter titled “The Train under 144 CrPC”.

The soon to be published book, accessed by PTI, has multiple anecdotes from Singh’s 37-year policing career.

The former DGP says that Mau, a region known for its rich yet delicate communal fabric, had found itself at the heart of an unprecedented administrative decision in 1999.

"A seemingly routine train schedule had the potential to disrupt peace, but an extraordinary step ensured that harmony prevailed." That particular year, he recounts, Holi coincided with the departure of a sizable population of Haj pilgrims who were scheduled to board a train from Mau to Delhi, their first stop before flying to Mecca.

"The train was scheduled to arrive at noon, exactly when Holi celebrations would be at their peak. Streets would be filled with revelers throwing coloured powders and water, the air thick with the scent of festive sweets and burning pyres of Holika Dahan from the previous night," the officer writes.

The Muslim pilgrims, the chapter says, dressed in white clothes and symbolizing purity and devotion, would have had no way of passing through without being inadvertently caught in the revelry and the district administration foresaw the problem.

Sensing that any "unintentional provocation" may "ignite tempers" in the district that had a history of communal skirmishes, the authorities sought the help of the Railway authorities "with a simple request: delay the train by a few hours".

The country's largest public transporter refused, stating that train schedules could not be altered for local events, no matter how sensitive the situation was and that "operational punctuality" was foremost for the Railways.

"Faced with an inflexible railway system and the looming risk of communal discord, the district administration took a bold and unprecedented step...." "The prohibitory order was served directly to the train driver, legally preventing the train from proceeding beyond a designated railway station in a neighboring district," the former DGP says.

Police and other government authorities were deployed alongside the train that, as per Singh, remained "stationary for a few hours", not due to technical failure or scheduling delays, but by the "sheer force of law." The Holi celebrations "died down slowly" and the pilgrims boarded the train without disturbance, their white robes unstained, their hearts set on their spiritual voyage, he writes.

While the decision to delay the train was "extraordinary and controversial, it demonstrated a profound understanding of ground realities an acknowledgment that sometimes, rules must bend to uphold peace and coexistence", Singh says.

The 1983-batch IPS officer from Gaya in Bihar retired from service as the Uttar Pradesh DGP in January 2020. Before heading the police force in his cadre state, he also led two central forces -- the CISF and the NDRF.

Singh released his memoir Crime, Grime & Gumption: Case Files of an IPS Officer last year and his latest book is set for an early release.

This year, too, Holi is a controversial day. Comments made by a police officer in Sambhal, for instance, have kicked up a row. He said those who feel uncomfortable with Holi colours should stay indoors, as the festival comes only once a year whereas ‘jumma’ namaz takes place 52 times in a year.

Sambhal has been tense after riots broke out on November 24 last year following a survey of the Shahi Jama Masjid located in the town. Four people were killed and several people, including police personnel, were injured in the clashes.