Welcome to Kumbh in the time of Uma. Before you enter Ujjain, leave behind all desire for liquor, meat, eggs or sex.On the eve of the new millennium’s first Simhasta—a Kumbh that takes place every 12 years—this ancient city bears the mark of the moral fervour that the recently elected BJP government in Madhya Pradesh has brought in its wake.It started with the ban on liquor, meat and eggs in parts of the city, spread to a clampdown on prostitution that has virtually rendered the 500-year-old red light area of Ujjain a ghost town and has now reached condoms.A proposal by the Madhya Pradesh AIDS Control Society to distribute condoms in Ujjain was shot down because it was seen as a threat to the ‘‘sanctity’’ of the Simhasta.The ban on the sale of liquor and meat in Ujjain for the duration of the Simhasta was one of the first decisions taken by the Uma Bharti government. Subsequent protests by residents of the city saw a recent amendment in this order, with sale prohibited on particularly auspicious days such as the Shahi Snan, as well as the preceding day.Liquor contractors have since held meetings demanding the same concession, but they have not been so lucky. In any case the residents of the city, where one of the temples—that of Kal Bhairon—requires the offering of liquor as prasad, have already stocked up in ample measure.But the area worst affected in Uma’s clean-up is the red-light area Pinjadwari in the interior of Ujjain. Row upon row of locked houses in deserted alleys are the result of a concerted drive against prostitutes by the police over the last two months, which has seen arrests by the hundreds. In a few of the houses, old women no longer plying the trade have been left behind. They are reticent to reveal their names—‘‘Call us what you will. Names such as Sita Bai, Fatima Bai and Maya are common here’’—but one of them speaks up against the government campaign.‘‘I have lived thorough five Simhastas, I have never seen anything like this. Earlier we would voluntarily stop business on the days of the Shahi Snan. All the police ever told us was that we shouldn’t take away the jawans. This clampdown began after the new government came to power. We were told that photographs of sadhus in our streets would look bad. Do we ask the babas to come here? And does the trade become wrong only during this Simhasta?’’The moral piety of the new government is certainly new to Ujjain. Sudraka’s classic Sanskrit play Mrichchakatika (The Little Clay Cart) is set in Ujjain and speaks of a man’s love for a ganika (roughly translated it means a courtesan).The sex workers of Pinjadwadi are a far cry from the ganikas of ancient India, but even the town dates back over 500 years. It has survived with the help of state patronage and the prostitutes claim that a few of the buildings in the area had been built by the earlier maharaj for favoured courtesans.
