A politicization of faith

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t has been touted as the world’s biggest religious festival and human gathering yet, and India’s central government and that of the state of Uttar Pradesh (UP) have been busy slapping themselves on the back for pulling it off successfully. In fact, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been counting on the recently concluded Maha Kumbh Mela to boost the party’s chances in the upcoming Union and State elections, including the UP Assembly polls in 2027. 

Yet even as officials tally the political and economic profits it has generated – and will still generate – critics and observers alike say that questions about the tragedies that marred the 45-day Hindu religious festival need to be addressed. Indeed, while it enabled millions of the faithful to spiritually cleanse themselves, the 2025 Maha Kumbh also exposed present-day India’s troubling reality – where devotion is turned into a political spectacle, dissent labeled as blasphemy, and death masked as divine will.

Held last Jan. 13 to Feb. 26 in Prayagraj in Uttar Pradesh, the Maha Kumbh Mela was supposed to be an event occurring only every 144 years. That made it an extraordinarily special religious celebration for Hindus, who form a majority in secular India. Official estimates say that a record 660 million devotees from across the world journeyed to Kumbh in search of salvation, attained through a ritual bathing in the holy rivers of Ganga and Yamuna, as well as the mythological Saraswati. But despite what officials said were detailed preparations that included the use of state-of-the-art technology, many devotees had to endure needless despair and suffering, with some ending up hurt physically or dead.

That same technology has also seemed to be useless in helping determine just how many casualties there were as a result of a massive stampede on the intervening night of Jan. 28 and 29 at the Maha Kumbh. Neither was it able to prevent another stampede a fortnight later at the New Delhi Railway Station, where at least 18 devotees headed for the Maha Kumbh were crushed to death. 

Authorities initially denied both mishaps. But after photos and video footage of the injured and the dead in both tragedies began to go viral, officials later admitted that the tragedies had taken place and had resulted in fatalities. Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said of the January stampede: “We did not allow the incident to be excessively highlighted as panic could have worsened the situation.” 

He also called it a “minor incident” but announced INR 2.5 million ($29,226) ex-gratia for the kin of the deceased. “Despite the deaths and mayhem, the inflated 660 million attendance, and INR 3 trillion ($35 billion) revenue is what the government wants the public to remember – figures that may benefit BJP electorally,” says historian Kanad Sinha of the Sanskrit College and University. After all, he adds, the 2025 Kumbh was more about “flaunting religious identity” than quiet devotion. 

“This year’s event was preceded by a relentless PR campaign promoting the ‘once-in-144-years’ myth to stoke Hindu pride among devotees who rarely question matters of faith,” Sinha points out. “Repeated by the media and amplified on social media, the narrative took on a trend-like frenzy.” 

A history of risk

Ever since its inception in the 1800s, no installment of Kumbh has been bereft of danger, with crowd control a consistent challenge. Historian Kama Maclean, in her 2008 book Pilgrimage and Power, cites the first major tragedy at the 1820 Haridwar Kumbh, where 485 died. In 1954, during independent India’s first Kumbh at Prayagraj, a massive stampede killed around 800 on Mauni Amavasya, one of Hinduism’s holiest days. Other deadly incidents at Kumbh followed: 1840 (50+ deaths), 1906 (50+), 1986 (200), 2003 (39), and 2013 (42).

Despite its inherently dangerous nature, the gathering continues to grow in scale and intensity and remains sacrosanct to devotees and religious leaders. It has also proved useful for rightwing political groups that see it as helping the Hindutva movement, which champions Hindu primacy in India’s cultural and political identity, to flourish. 

For the BJP-led government, Kumbh has become a central stage for propagating the idea of a Hindu Rashtra (Hindu Nation), which in turn can translate into votes that will keep it in power.

Not surprisingly, the transformation of the 2025 Kumbh into a144-year edition was seen by many observers as a political move. They questioned the accuracy of the claim, recalling the Maha Kumbh in 2001 and in 2013. 

But it was pushed by the Modi administration anyway, and echoed by the mainstream media beginning in early 2024 — the year India was to hold massive multi-phase general elections.

Then just more than a week into the Maha Kumbh, observers saw a demonstration of religion mixing with politics when UP Chief Minister Adityanath and his Cabinet reportedly discussed state policies as they took a dip in the holy waters. 

Interestingly, Modi himself later had a dip at the Sangam (the point where the three holy rivers meet) on the day Delhi held its Assembly election. 

“Right from British times, public manifestations of faith like the Kumbh Mela have always had a political dimension to them,” says Radhika Seshan, history professor at the Savitribai Phule Pune University. “But what then served as grounds for assimilation of an Indian nationalist identity against foreign occupation has now become an exclusive site for Hindus to establish their superiority.”

“At present,” she continues, “Kumbh has blurred the lines between religious Hindu and political Hindu and thus Hinduism and Hindutva. The former are those who believe that if you die at Kumbh, you are transported straight to God; there is a tremendous fatalism within them. The latter are more concerned with the public display of their rituals as an assertion of their identity, they view mobilization as a means of political gain.”  

“The political parties are bound to use both to their advantage,” Seshan says. “Covering up the stampede was essential for the BJP as the disaster occurred at a religious gathering as significant as Kumbh. This gave a lot of leverage to those who oppose the party in power, which bases most of its electoral agenda on the religious sentiments of the people.” 

Questionable figures

Especially for the January stampede, the number of the dead has remained in dispute. According to the Maha Kumbh police deputy inspector general, the tragedy resulted in 30 dead and 60 injured. A week after those figures were released, the publication Newslaundry estimated that at least 79 died in the stampede. It based its figure on police and hospital records, and alleged that many fatalities were passed off as natural deaths in the absence of timely postmortems. 

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge meanwhile claimed that the number of the dead ran in the “thousands.” Dainik Bhaskar also reported a second stampede at Jhusi, just two kms. from the Sangam, which it said resulted in over 100 fatalities. 

Many of those at the scene during the January stampede – which, like the 1954 Kumbh tragedy, had occurred during Mauni Amavasya — insist that the official figures do not match what they saw.

One devotee who survived three simultaneous crowd crushes on Jan. 29 says that the scale of that tragedy has been grossly underreported. 

“Besides the stampede at Akhara Marg, there were about five crowd crushes across the site,” says the devotee who declines to be named. “I was stuck in a crowd crush at Lower Sangam Marg for about an hour. I witnessed at least five people die right in front of me, children and old people struggling to catch a breath, people being separated from their families, suffering heart attacks, epileptic seizures and suffocation. We were all helpless and praying to be saved. It is impossible that only 30 people died. At least 200 people lost their lives.” 

The devotee blames poor crowd management, saying, “The police allowed huge crowds in from two entry points before Mauni Amavasya, but strangely closed all exits on the night of the 29th.”

Several other eyewitnesses have similar accounts, recalling that all routes to the Sangam were closed before the Amrit Snan or holy dip. That trapped thousands of devotees. As the crowd jostled and heaved, several people were trampled or were asphyxiated. Medical officials later confirmed that numerous attendees suffered fractures, heart attacks, or jumped off floating bridges in desperation.

A display of the Great Divide

For sure, the stampedes only showed that few, if any, lessons were learned from previous similar tragedies even as political leaders planned bigger and grander gatherings. Hyderabad-based journalist Siddharth Singh says that despite the Maha Kumbh Mela having an announced budget of INR 75 billion ($877 million), “on site we were completely left to our own devices, we were not made aware of the designated apps or special services.” 

But aside from gross mismanagement, “VIP culture” was another factor that attendees say caused many of them to suffer. Singh says that VIP convoys zipped through attendees who had to walk as much as 20 kms. just to make the ritual dip. 

“Next to the millions of clueless pedestrians, some of whom were walking barefoot for hours, vehicles with sirens happily drove till the Sangam,” recalls Singh. “After the stampede, the government had claimed that there were no special facilities for VIPs, but we witnessed it first-hand. Local (legislators) even had two extra cars escorting their vehicles.”

“Barricades and traffic diversions were all across Prayagraj,” he adds. “We were stuck on a narrow road for almost two hours along with a long fleet of vehicles to even enter the Kumbh grounds.”

For the Modi government and its allies, however, criticism of the arrangements, along with questions on the exact death toll, is anti-Hindu. 

“Nowadays we see that there is a group of leaders who mock religion, ridicule it, are engaged in dividing people, and many times foreign powers also try to weaken the country and religion by supporting these people,” Prime Minister Modi has said. “People who hate the Hindu faith have been living in some phase or the other for centuries…keep attacking our faith, beliefs, and temples, our religion, culture and principles.”

A Feb. 17 report by the Central Pollution Control Board that revealed high levels of fecal coliform bacteria in the Ganga, making the water “unfit” for bathing, was also described by the UP government as an “attack on Hinduism.” The Board later reversed its stance and declared the water “fit,” despite eyewitness accounts of a garbage-strewn river. 

But the flip-flopping seems to matter little to the likes of Prashanto Maity, who attended the festival with his family of three.  

“We go to Kumbh to do or die,” says Maity. “If someone dies at the Kumbh, it is a God-willing death, it is not an accident but a blessing. We need Kumbh to unite Hindus when the country feels polarized.” ◉

Amarabati Bhattacharyya is a journalist and writer based in Kolkata, India, with a keen interest in global affairs, human rights, and culture. She has written for publications like The Hindu, The Telegraph, National Herald, and Maktoob, among others.