World’s Largest Hindu Religious Gathering Allows BJP to Globally Promote Religious Nationalism

Mon Jan 13 2025
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Key points

  • Adityanath will likely use festival to bolster his political profile
  • Name of Kumbh Mela’s host city was changed to Prayagraj from Allahabad
  • It could draw as many as 400 million pilgrims

 

ISLAMABAD: The Kumbh Mela, the largest gathering of Hindus is all set to provide India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) a staging ground to internationally promote religious nationalism.

According to Bloomberg, India is hosting a once-in-a-decade religious event — billed as the world’s largest human gathering — that gives Modi’s party a fresh opportunity to promote its Hindu nationalist agenda among hundreds of millions of pilgrims.

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Women participate in the evening prayers ahead of the Maha Kumbh Mela festival in Prayagraj on January 10, 2025. —Photo by AFP

Billed as the world’s largest human gathering, India hosts a once-in-a-decade religious event from Monday that gives Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s party a fresh opportunity to promote its Hindu nationalist agenda among hundreds of millions of pilgrims.

Modi’s likely successor

Yogi Adityanath, the hardline Hindu monk-turned-politician, widely seen as a possible successor to Modi, will likely seek to use the Kumbh Mela as a national platform for his state — India’s most populous — and help build his political profile.

In a sign of the event’s growing Hindu-nationalist tone, the name of the Kumbh Mela’s host city was changed in 2018 to Prayagraj from Allahabad — part of a wave of name changes by the BJP of places with designations tracing back to the Mughal era. A proposal by Hindu religious groups to ban non-Hindus from setting up food shops at the event has been met with opposition by a Muslim body.

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Hindu devotees smeared with ash dance during a religious procession ahead of the Maha Kumbh Mela festival in Prayagraj on January 10, 2025. —Photo from Social Media

During previous festivals, organisations promoting the Hindu-nationalist cause have all occupied a central presence, and this year will be no different. The right-wing Vishwa Hindu Parishad, or VHP, has issued calls for people across India to visit the Kumbh this year. In December, Modi said that previous governments neglected the significance of religious events like the Kumbh Mela — though the opposition too has used the festival to pitch its agenda.

“The previous governments did not give attention to the Kumbh and religious pilgrimages,” Modi told a gathering in Prayagraj. “Devotees kept suffering in such events, but the governments of that time did not care about it.”

The previous governments did not give attention to the Kumbh and religious pilgrimages.” – India Prime Minister Narendra Modi

The Kumbh Mela will take place on the banks of the Ganges river in northern India over the course of some six weeks, a religious extravaganza that attracts Hindu devotees and tourists, rich and poor, political leaders and celebrities.

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Hindu devotees carry their belongings as they arrive to attend the “Maha Kumbh Mela”, or the Pitcher Festival, in Prayagraj, India, on January 12, 2025 —Photo from Social Media

With local reports suggesting it could draw as many as 400 million pilgrims, the event is a mammoth logistics operation for the government in Uttar Pradesh state, which must seek to prevent stampedes and disease outbreaks that have been occurrences in the past.

Hindu vote bank

It’s also a political opportunity for Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party and other groups on the Hindu right, who will likely use the event to advocate for their cause. Uttar Pradesh lies squarely in the so-called Hindi belt, the stretch of northern India that is a stronghold for Modi and the BJP, and is run by Yogi Adityanath.

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“The politics behind it is to show that the government is promoting religiosity, is promoting the Hindu religion and is trying to create a Hindu vote bank in order to create what is popularly known as a Hindu nation,” said Sudha Pai, a former professor of political science at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi.

Pollution issue

One big challenge loom over the event — dealing with the sheer volume of human waste generated by such a gathering. The Ganges is already known for its heavy pollution levels, and past festivals have turned into a breeding ground for disease due to inadequate waste-disposal measures. Officials have said 150,000 toilets have been dispatched to the event, while technology from India’s space and nuclear research agencies is reportedly being deployed to help cope with the volumes of sewage, according to Bloomberg.

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