When concerns of privacy, security and mere quaintness (is that same as outlandishness?) of Kumbh, which is associated with mass ritual bathing in the confluence of holy rivers every 6,12,144 years, were flying around in our group, my head started swimming with my own crowd and health preferences not to mention my own dichotomies and dilemmas.
Not having ever been to a Kumbh of this magnitude, I can only speculate but I certainly know I do not have the authority to preside over the matter with my personal opinion and judge it. I also know that it does not behoove me to be an armchair critic about its premise, management or the use of technologies. After all, what's the use of technology if it cannot be deployed to prevent disasters when such a multitude is gathering in an apparent abandon?
I also wonder if it can be swept under the bracket of quaint religious practices or if it is a mystical (tantric) spiritual practice that has been in vogue for thousands of years as part of this unbroken civilization. Have we ever seen such a mass expression of longing for liberation from the physical plane of existence? The people (not counting those who can afford lux tents) who throng the Kumbh with such a force of conviction demand so little while enjoying the munificence of so many ashrams offering free food to enable their arduous journeys.
A crowd of this size and nature can go berserk in a trice. While we go around blessing the use of technology for everything under the Sun (when to eat, when to sleep, when to put the phone down etc.), it's perhaps not relevant to suspect the organizers of their big brother intentions. If fires like LA fires were to happen in India, would the world calmly and quietly marvel about nature's fury? I suspect that they will swoop down and pontificate about all the gross inadequacies in the third world.
It's also quite reductive to boil this down to mere economics. I know religious tourism is a thing just as health tourism is. It's most likely not the predominant factor. It's also known how temples gave fillip to hyperlocal economies be it Srirangam or Kashi from time immemorial.
What cannot be fathomed by our minds doesn't deserve to be brushed off as weird or quaint. That this land is full of contrasts is a known enigma to the world at large. It simply refuses to be locked into in a familiar western frame of reference. That so many are willing to brave discomfort, danger and even death to be at the Kumbh must speak to us of their strong conviction. At the end of the day, India is a love affair that only lovers can make sense of, perhaps. So be it!
Closing this meditation with a prayer for the welfare of all those who are attending it or involved in managing it.
