Author: Anupreeta Das, Hari Kumar and Atul Loke
Published on: 02/02/2025 | 00:00:00
AI Summary:
The Maha Kumbh Mela is a Hindu festival in India that is drawing hundreds of millions of pilgrims. It is also a feat of urban planning, an overnight megalopolis built on land borrowed from the receding Ganges in the state of Uttar Pradesh. The political sensitivity of the event was apparent this past week when 30 pilgrims died and 90 were injured in a stampede. Mr. Modi is expected to take his holy dip at the Maha Kumbh on Wednesday. The media spotlight on him that day will spill over to his Bharatiya Janata Party. Mr. Adityanath has been equally active in seeking political advantage from the spiritual event. Hindu legend holds that when gods and demons fought over a pitcher, or “kumbh” of the nectar of immortality, the gods spilled drops in four places. For decades, the festival was overseen largely by various orders of Hindu monks. But governments have long been facilitators, ensuring that the events are orderly and safe. Adityanath's courting of wealthy and influential attendees came at the cost of arrangements for ordinary pilgrims. Dr. Lucia recalled being astounded during her first visit to a smaller version of the Kumbh in 1997, boarding a packed train from Varanasi to Prayagraj, where she was forced to sit under a sink for the roughly three-hour journey. Promotion of the event, both domestically and globally, increased significantly after Mr. Modi came to power in 2014 Officials say they are using sophisticated technology powered by artificial intelligence to monitor and manage crowds. Private companies have supplied artificial intelligence software that can record specific information like the number of people taking holy dips at a certain hour. For many of the millions of pilgrims, however, the marvel of the Maha Kumbh Mela is neither political nor organizational.
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