Tourism department promotes wari tradition among non-Marathis

In a bid to introduce the wari tradition to non-Marathi residents and tourists in the city, Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation (MTDC) is organising a cultural event to give people a glimpse of the festive procession, in collaboration with an NGO.

The event will be organised at a Hadapsar mall on June 22, the day the wari procession is set to reach Pune.

“We started this initiative last year and received a good response. But this year, due to security reasons, instead of getting people to participate in the palkhi (the procession), we will show them wari in a different way, by making a replica of it,” said marketing head of MTDC, Rajesh Joshi.

Palkhi is a thousand-year-old tradition where warkaris (people who follow the wari, a ritual) take part in a chanting-and-dancing procession, which starts from Alandi and ends in the holy town of Pandharpur in Solapur district.

“Non-Marathi people, even Pune residents, don’t know of it,” said Prajakta Panshikar, deputy director of Janwani NGO.