1 Setting a prescient

1.1 What is the Kumbh Mela?

A story in Hindu mythology tells us about how gods and asuras came together to churn out the nectar of immortality from the ocean. The nectar was contained in a “Kumbh”, which means an empty vessel. During the process four drops of this nectar fell into the four sacred rivers of Godavari, Shipra, Ganga, and the confluence of Ganga, Jamuna and Sarasvati, at the four sites of Nashik, Ujjain, Haridwar and Prayagraj, respectively. It is believed that pilgrims and sadhus visit these sacred sites to praise the gods and ask for forgiveness of their sins. As per Hindu astrology, the Kumbh Mela occurs when there is a specific congregation of Jupiter, Earth and Moon, which occurs every twelve years in each city. During each Mela, millions of hindu devotees come and visit the ghats of the sacred rivers and take a bath, to wash away their sins. The Mela is more than just a massive pilgrimage, it is a spiritual frenzy. No one knows the germination of this festival, but there are a lot of written and spoken stories across India. These stories are mobilized by various “Akharas” running across India. Akharas are religious institutes or monasteries who defend the religion by educating devotees into martial arts and ritualistic practices, who at the end become sadhus.Akharas are formed by highly influential men, who have millions of followers and devotees. During the Mela, the city provides land for these Akharas to reside into these“unending landscape of tents”.

“There’s a blur of feet hurrying through ankle-deep mud. Millions and millions of them. Some in plastic sandals, others in rubber boots, many others in cheap city shoes, or trainers, or flip-flops, or brogues. Tens of thousands more are barefoot, some limping, others running. This sea of humanity is surging forward, relentless and unstoppable. Most of them have bundles on their heads. Each one is stuffed with rice and flour, pots and pans, blankets and bedrolls. Many have babies bundled on their backs or toddlers clutched tight to their chests. Eyes squinting into the bright winter sunlight, they are streaming in from all points of the compass towards the vast encampment. A sense of frantic anticipation and complete exhilaration unites them. As it does so, the unending torrent of pilgrims sets eyes on the glinting waters. It is the point where their journey ends just as it begins. This is the greatest gathering in human history, a multitude of one hundred million souls.”

Tahir Shah (2013)

The architecture of the Kumbh Mela has evolved through many years, and many forces and powers have shaped it into this.

As explained by Kama Maclean (2008), in the colonial state of India, large pilgrimages have the potential to generate power, and they saw these as “powerful conduits of disease as well as news, rumors, sedition and eventually nationalism, and they consistently sought to control the pilgrimage.” The British had a different agenda with the Kumbh Mela, and considered them as “a potentially dangerous festival that demanded tight regulation and control, whereas for the latter it was a sacred sphere in which foreign interference was deemed intolerable.” Kama Maclean (2008). The festival still continues on the politics of regulation and control, where powerful institutes of the nation negotiate with the institutes of religion. There was an urge that emerged to control this frenzy. As these places of pilgrimage hold power, a very different kind of politics emerge in controlling this space of mass movement.