Maha Kumbh Mela: The world’s largest gathering begins in India

Hundreds of millions of Hindus are gathering this week in what is expected to be the world’s largest human gathering, with a staggering number of devotees, tourists, politicians and celebrities taking holy baths at the confluence of two sacred rivers in India.

The religious festival, called the Maha Kumbh Mela, is held every 12 years on the banks of the Ganges and Yamuna rivers in the city of Prayagraj in northern India. This year, officials expect as many as 400 million people – more than the population of the United States – to visit the site in Uttar Pradesh state over the next six weeks.

The event is a major showcase of Hinduism, and has recently become an important political event with the rise of Hindu nationalism, supported by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s right-wing political party. It’s also a huge logistical task for government officials working to prevent incidents like stampedes and the spread of disease.

What is Maha Kumbh Mela?

The Maha Kumbh Mela, or the “Great Festival of the Sacred Jug”, is the largest religious celebration in the world. Based on a Hindu legend in which demons and gods battle over a pitcher holding the nectar of immortality, the centuries-old celebration centers around a series of sacred baths, which Hindus say cleanse their sins.

The sacred baths are preceded by processions involving singing and dancing people in vibrant clothing, in ornately decorated chariots and carrying ceremonial spears, lances and swords. To participate, people travel from all over India and the world to the junction of the Ganges and Yamuna rivers, a sacred site that is also said to be the ending point of a mythical third river, the Saraswati.

The timing of the festival, which ends this year on February 26, depends on the astronomical alignment of the sun, moon and Jupiter, which takes about 12 years to orbit around the sun. Smaller versions of the festival are held in one of three other Indian cities – Haridwar, Nashik and Ujjain – approximately every three years.

How big is the festival?

The scale of the Maha Kumbh Mela is astonishing. Most recently, in 2013, it attracted 120 million people in Prayagraj, according to a government estimate. An average festival in 2019, although less religiously significant, attracted 240 million people.

Government officials said that the city, which has a population of about 6 million people, is preparing to host between 300 and 400 million people this year. In preparation, the state built a temporary camp site on 10,000 acres, featuring tens of thousands of tents, bathrooms, roads, parking lots, water and electricity infrastructure, and thousands of security cameras and drones.

Many of these preparations – which are likely to make this the most expensive Maha Kumbh Mela film to date, at around $800 million – are aimed at preventing… Deadly stampede And disease outbreaks that occurred at previous festivals. The event is also expected to generate billions of dollars in revenue for the state government, officials said.

To accommodate the swimmers, the government has also installed a platform made of sandbags along a seven-mile stretch of the Ganges bank. On Monday and Tuesday, millions of pilgrims flocked to the river on those steps in the cool morning mist, praying for happiness, health and prosperity.

What is the importance of the festival today?

The Maha Kumbh Mela has always been an important symbol of Hinduism, although it was not typically politicized until the recent emergence of the idea of ​​India as a Hindu nation. This year’s festival is the first since Mr. Modi’s Hindu nationalist political party, the Bharatiya Janata Party, became the country’s ruling party 11 years ago.

“It will be interesting to see if Prime Minister Modi leaves,” said Arati Jerath, a political analyst in New Delhi. “This is supposed to be the biggest and most auspicious time to swim in the Ganges.”

Yogi Adityanath, the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh who is also an orthodox Hindu priest, changed the name of the festival’s host city in 2018 to Prayagraj from Allahabad. The move, part of a wave of changes introduced by the Bharatiya Janata Party, replaced the Islamic name given by the 16th century Mughal Emperor Akbar with a name referring to the Hindu pilgrimage site.

In 2019, when India held general elections, the Kumbh Mela A A great political opportunity Mr. Modi and his party to attract a receptive audience of millions. Mr. Modi won that election.

The next general election is further away this time, scheduled for 2029. But Mr. Modi, who narrowly won Smaller margin While his party I suffered losses In last year’s vote, he placed himself on posters promoting the festival across the country and described it as an embodiment of India’s “timeless spiritual heritage”. Social mediaLinking the spiritual event to the country’s national identity.

“The BJP hopes to use it to strengthen its Hindu nationalist base,” Ms. Jerath said. But she added that it was unclear whether this would necessarily win the party more votes. “Whether it is successful or not, I don’t know, but it certainly helps bring the BJP one step closer towards its goal of turning India into a Hindu majority country.”