No more Ekka Tonga gallops this time
LUCKNOW: Sturdy, well-fed horses, aesthetically decked up in finest of decorative items handpicked by their masters, bolting across the roads of the city in the foggy winter mornings of November — being cheered by onlookers all along.
Scenes like these, which had become an annual feature for the state capital for the past several decades, would no longer be witnessed this time as the celebrated ‘Ekka Tonga race’ of Lucknow Mahotsav has pushed out of the mega event. The tradition dates back to 1975, right since the inception of the mahotsav.
Even as the district administration and mahotsav insiders cite different reasons for discontinuation of the trend, the move has got thumbs down from many, particularly the Ekka Tonga riders.
While the district magistrate says the race has been removed to make way for new events, sources in the Mahotsav’s organising committee said the decision has been taken in view of a court order following a PIL on animal rights in another state.
“We used to work all through the year, collecting artificial flowers and other decoration material to deck up our tonga for the Lucknow Mahotsav. We would visit ‘Dewa mela’ and ‘Takiya mela’ to source the stuff. When our tongas would win, it used to be a big celebration. But all our efforts seem to have gone in vain this year,” said Rashid Qureshi, whose tonga had been winning the race for last many years.
The enthusiasm for participating in the race was so high that masters used to start feeding their horses nutritious food months in advance. “I used to feed my horse ‘Chyawanprash’, ‘chana’ and ‘laddoo’ before the event. My horse made me proud by winning a number of races,” said Raju, another tonga wala in Lucknow. Hosted by the Lucknow Nagar Nigam, there used to be cash award for winners of the race. PM Dhar, former secretary of the culture department and the brainchild behind the Lucknow Mahotsav, said, “We included the event as part of Lucknow’s tradition because the aim of starting the mahotsav was to showcase the very essence of the city’s rich culture, art, cuisine and tradition.” Lamenting the decision to discon- tinue the event, he said, “It is good to add new things and move with times but ‘Ekka Tonga race’ was one event that represented the culture of Lucknow, which is gradually fading.” In its initial years, when the mahotsav was hosted at the Begum Hazrat Mahal Park, the race would take place on the road adjacent to the Gomti from Nishatganj bridge to Hanuman Mandir, Dhar recalled.
In the past few years, the race had started taking off from KD Singh Babu Stadium with the horses passing through Roomi Darwaza before culminating at the starting point. Prominent residents of Lucknow expressed a feeling of sadness over the decision and suggested the race be continued, while keeping safety measures and traffic in mind.