[Death and loss have
long been associated with the pilgrimage at the Kumbh, which takes place in
other locations according to a different cycle. Deadly stampedes
previously occurred at the Allahabad pilgrimage in 1840, 1906, 1954 and 1986.
And yet still the pilgrims come. Hindu lore says that when the Moon and Jupiter
align, the Ganges and Yamuna are joined by a mystical river, the Saraswati,
bearing the divine nectar of immortality.]
ALLAHABAD, India — The pilgrims came, millions upon millions of them, in the
greatest tide of humanity ever seen. Again and again, the vast crowds
threatened to press too close, to trample the smallest. Then it happened.
As many as 36 people
were killed Sunday in a stampede at
the train station here as they rushed up steps leading to one of the platforms,
news agencies reported. The stampede came at the height
of the Kumbh Mela, a Hindu religious festival that occurs once every
12 years by the banks of the Ganges and Yamuna Rivers.
“I can’t believe God
punished us this way,” said Santos Singh, one of the pilgrims at the station.
“My 15-year-old son got injured. I wish police were more responsive.”
About 30 bodies covered
in white sheets were visible on the train platform on Sunday evening. Several
appeared to be children.
Death and loss have long
been associated with the pilgrimage at the Kumbh, which takes place in
other locations according to a different cycle. Deadly stampedes
previously occurred at the Allahabad pilgrimage in 1840, 1906, 1954 and 1986.
And yet still the pilgrims come. Hindu lore says that when the Moon and Jupiter
align, the Ganges and Yamuna are joined by a mystical river, the Saraswati,
bearing the divine nectar of immortality.
Those who bathe in the
conjoined waters are cleansed of their sins and given blessings that extend
through several generations, Hindus say. Pilgrims make the trip not just for
themselves but for their children and grandchildren.
Another lure is the
presence of thousands of mystics, whom Hindus revere as spiritually
powerful. But the crowds around the great procession
of naked mystics in the predawn hours on Sunday were
frightening.
Finally, the mystics
rushed toward the holy waters, some with spears, tridents and swords held high.
They plunged in,
scattering marigolds and sacred ash. Other pilgrims surged forward, and the
mystics had to fight their way back to shore.
Behind the mystics were
saffron-robed gurus on silver thrones. And behind the gurus were pilgrims by
the millions, some barefoot and others so stooped they could see little more
than their own feet. A few crawled.
“We have a dip here and
then live happily for the rest of the year,” said Shaish Narayan, 62, a
woodworker who first took part in the Kumbh when he was 5. “I put my faith in
Mother Ganges.”
N. K. Auddy, a
consulting engineer from Kolkata, was taking part in his first Kumbh because
his daughter recently gave birth to his first grandchild, and he was hoping for
a divine blessing for the child. “I want him to have a good future,” Mr. Auddy
said.
Government officials
estimated that 10 million pilgrims were encamped in Allahabad on Saturday
night, with 20 million to 30 million expected to bathe by Monday.
If those figures are
even close to being accurate, it is as if the entire population of Texas
decided to visit an area the size of Savannah, Ga., all on the same weekend.
About 80 million
pilgrims — roughly the population of Germany — are expected at some point in
the Kumbh’s 55-day run. By comparison, 3.1 million people visited Mecca in
Saudi Arabia during last year’s annual pilgrimage, the
hajj. Each successive Kumbh breaks the record for the largest
gathering in human history.
Many stay in a huge tent
city built on riverbanks that were underwater as recently as October. Its
inhabitants have access to drinking water, public toilets, good health care and
consistent electricity — none of which India has been able to reliably deliver
anywhere else.
The precautions and
amenities are intended to prevent the stampedes and plagues that have so
worried government officials. About 70,000 government employees provide
security, sprinkle insecticide, sweep up excrement and spray bleach. But it was
not enough to avert a tragedy on Sunday.
The stampede was set off
by railway delays, shoddy infrastructure and overcrowding, several witnesses
said. Train service was severely delayed during the early evening, they said,
leaving more and more passengers stranded in the small station.
Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh said he was shocked by the tragedy and promised
to compensate the injured and the families of those killed.
A stampede seemed
possible several times on Sunday as pilgrims jockeyed to be present at the one
place and time where the gods are said to bestow their most precious gifts. One
problem is that pilgrims often linger in the water and on the beach, preventing
the next wave of people from entering. The police routinely charged onto the
beach, blowing whistles and pushing people back with long bamboo poles to clear
the way for more pilgrims.
The intense jostling
separated many families, and desperate searches took place all over the beach.
Thousands of children and older women ended up in tents for the lost.
Loudspeakers announced names, hometowns and locations.
Devanti Devi, of Bihar,
said her 70-year-old mother had been missing for three days. “She doesn’t have
any money, and I don’t think she can hear the announcements,” Ms. Devi said.
For some Indians, the
growing religious fervor of the
country’s Hindu majority is a cause for concern. A right-wing
Hindu group at the Kumbh called last week for continued confrontation with the
nation’s Muslim minority by insisting that a Hindu shrine be built where a
mosque once stood.
“These right-wing
organizations use the Kumbh to mobilize pilgrims, and there’s always the threat
that they can turn violent,” said Sumanta Banerjee, a researcher at the Indian Institute of Advanced Study in
Shimla.
But politics seemed a
distant concern for most of the pilgrims here. Maheshanand Giri, one of the
first mystics into the water on Sunday, said that the presence of mystics was
an important reason for the popularity of the Kumbh. “People come here to have
a holy dip in the Ganges, and we are an add-on,” said Mr. Giri.
Madhusudhan Upadhaya, a
tea seller from Hyderabad, said he had traveled for nearly two days before
arriving in Allahabad. “I’ve come here for the blessing, which is best gotten
here,” he said. “But I don’t know if it will work. It’s not science. You can’t
test this.”
Reporting was contributed by Hari Kumar and
Raksha Kumar from Allahabad, and Heather Timmons and Malavika Vyawahare from
New Delhi.