Reinventing religion beyond the spectacular consumption at Maha Kumbh Mela

Can such a gathering be used to address the question of what is punya and paap in the contemporary context of caste oppression, violence against women, or poverty of unfathomable scale?

The Maha Kumbh Mela dominates the media, the railway platforms, trains and the roads leading to the city of Prayagraj. People are fighting with each other to reach the city even at the cost of getting arrested. The police has been urging people not to go to Kumbh due to unmanageable crowd. Costs of items such as boating, local transport and food have soared sky high.

According to a stock brokering company’s analysis, the 2013 Maha Kumbh Mela generated approximately ₹12,000 crore in revenue, which went up to ₹1.2 lakh-crore in 2019, and in 2025 it’s projected to go up to ₹2 lakh-crore. This revenue generation is driven by what pilgrims spend on transportation, accommodations, food, retail, and other services. The beauty of capitalism lies in its ability to reap benefits out of anything, even religious fervour, which can very well be the outcome of what Karl Marx called ‘the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, just as it is the spirit of spiritless conditions’.

Events like this trigger different kinds of consumption. If the government (Union and state) has spent Rs 12,670 crore, then it is bound to generate revenue through consumption after such a huge amount is pumped into the market. These festivities also create gig jobs in huge numbers. This is also how religion and economy are seen interacting in a big way. Capitalism would facilitate everything till it drives its growth and sustains its existence. Religion has also been a major boost for its sustenance in this sense. Recent data reveals that around 45 crore people already visited the site.

The Confederation of All India Traders projected the generation of a Rs 2 trillion business, while according to the CII, brands are expected to spend Rs 1,800 crore-2,000 crore on advertising, etc. Some reports said that the Uttar Pradesh government allocated Rs 6,900 crore for 549 projects. Whatever the figures there is an undeniable economic boom interwoven with religiosity at the Maha Kumbh Mela.

What is also irrefutable is the massive convergence of people at the site. What brings them here is the belief taking a dip at the confluence washes away sins and purifies them though it has been historically difficult to put a date of origin to this gathering. This year, despite news about the stampede and traffic snarls, the event continues to draw huge crowds.

Political dividend

Unlike earlier congregations, this gathering has been popularised through its creation as a spectacle to be consumed by the masses. A momentum was created over time, months before the event, about the necessity to be at this congregation.

The event would allow the Uttar Pradesh government to earn brownie points for having organised this massive spectacle without much difficulty. Its organisation will be used to prove Yogi Adityanath as a great leader and organiser. The goodwill Adityanath earns is likely to help him in during the 2027 Assembly elections. Both the elements of religion and management will be conflated to bring out the desired advantages.

On the shoulders of workers

Such a huge arrangement needs people constantly keeping the massive area clean, and maintaining each and every aspect of the congregation. As German playwright Bertolt Brecht asked:

Who built the seven gates of Thebes?

The books are filled with names of kings.

Was it the kings who hauled the craggy blocks of stone?

And Babylon, so many times destroyed.

Who built the city up each time?...

The government has called this year’s event a ‘model of environmental conservation and cleanliness’. There are reports about how technology is being used to make it green with the usage of advanced equipment for sanitation, setting up of toilets and urinals, QR code-based cleanliness monitoring, and employing thousands of sanitary workers, among other things.

However, it appears that despite the use of machinery and AI sanitation needs human beings. Reports have emerged which show that sanitation workers, who most probably would be Dalits given the existing rigid caste equations and the government’s admission in Parliament that 92% of workers cleaning urban sewers, and septic tanks are from SC, ST, OBC groups, have to often ‘get down and dirty’.

The possible other side

The religious congregation in Prayagraj shows that people can flock together if the State so wants, and it acquires a much-committed urge on part of people when religion becomes the driving force. Could such a gathering be also used to ensure that it addresses the question of what is punya and paap in the contemporary context of caste oppression, violence against women, or poverty of unfathomable scale? It is not that religious tendencies historically have not intervened in such situations.

The liberation theology in Latin America, which played a major role across the continent raising issues of hunger, poverty, racism, and gendered inequality, can be a relevant example in this context. Moving beyond marriage of consumerism and religion and creating an economy of spirituality what if such events are contemporised to devise mechanisms to fight against caste, class, and gendered oppression deeply embedded in our societies.

One of the pioneers of Liberation theology Gustavo Gutierrez, a philosopher and a Dominican priest, argued that “misery and oppression lead to a cruel, inhuman death, and are therefore contrary to the will of the God of Christian revelation who wants us to live…” They consistently argued against marginalisation of the Amerindian and black populations because racial discrimination was “a major challenge to the Christian community”.

The subjection of people belonging to certain castes to certain occupations considered lowly or engaging in practices of exploitation that creates hunger and exploitation cannot be justified by religion. There have been religious leaders who organised peasants because they did not see any contradiction between practising their religion and organising the exploited. One such person was Swami Sahajanand Saraswati who wrote that “…birth of religion happened to satiate hunger of soul. In the same way as for hunger of the body grains are produced, religion emerged to satiate hunger of the soul… But today the situation is completely different… religion is used to strengthen the roots of exploiters, to ensure that they earn more and more and to suppress the discontent and possibilities of revolution among peasants.”

(Ravi Kumar is Associate Professor, Department of Sociology, South Asian University.)

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are the author's own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of DH.