Maha Kumbh: After all the disasters, why are they still risking life and limb?

As reports streamed in of the horrific stampede at New Delhi railway station in which the death toll has reached at least 18 so far with dozens injured, another report began doing the rounds too: the number of Maha Kumbh-bound vehicles in Madhya Pradesh's Rewa, bordering with Prayagraj (Allahabad), has increased in the past 24 hours, prompting the administration to be on alert, officials said on Sunday.

And this is only the latest in a series of disasters attached to the mega religious gathering, from the horrifying stampede in Prayagraj on 29 January to the repeated fires at the mela site to several fatal road accidents involving pilgrims.

Around 1,000 vehicles were moving towards Uttar Pradesh every hour at Chakghat border point in Rewa district, and nearly 800 returning from there in the same period, they said. Prayagraj is around 45 km from the Chakghat border, and the first parking for the Maha Kumbh has been set up just six km from Chakghat, the officials said, adding that elaborate arrangements have been made in "holding areas" and help centres.

The point of all this being, the flow of pilgrims to Prayagraj shows no signs of waning, and the continued traffic congestion in and around Maha Kumbh 2025 is threatening to assume legendary status.

Why are so many people risking life and limb to visit the Maha Kumbh, to supposedly wash off their sins in a so-called holy river polluted beyond redemption? Granted, it's a once-in-a-144 year event, which literally does make it a once in a lifetime opportunity. But is it worth dying for?

The build-up to the event has been aggressive to the point of sickening. From corporate branding of every description to numerous enticements for wealthy visitors to religious appeals of the crudest kind, the commercial aspect of the gathering has been relentlessly in your face. The thousands of crores of public money spent in organising the Maha Kumbh, the Uttar Pradesh government stated, would be easily recovered thanks to the sheer numbers of visitors.

UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath went on record to state that his administration was ready to welcome even 100 crore visitors, but left unsaid the fact that arrangements were overwhelmingly designed to cater to those who would help the government make money, rather than every pilgrim who turned up, rich or poor.

Predictably, not a single VIP casualty has been reported in any of the mishaps dogging Maha Kumbh. Which is probably why, since the first stampede, social media has been full to overflowing with callous instances of victim blaming, mostly from those who feel the government has done everything it can to ensure the safety and comfort of visitors, and those who died must have done so for some fault of their own. That the government's culpability has been amply demonstrated by evidence on the ground has made no difference to these cheerleaders.

Allied to this group are the ones who have linked a visit to the Maha Kumbh as a sign of nationalism and adherence to 'Sanatani values'. For these people, such as 28-year-old self-styled godman Dhirendra Krishna Shastri, no discomfort exists that cannot be trumped by faith. It is another matter that most of these VIP saffron dignitaries have not had to contend with the travails facing the ordinary pilgrim.

Those travails have been widely aired on social media, through videos, photographs, and the written word. Of zero arrangements for comfort, next to no security, and an uncaring administration. Yet again, those who have complained have largely either been blamed or ridiculed for going at all, or admonished for making the government look bad.

Below a Reddit post showing a clip of Dhirendra Shastri branding all those who refused to visit the Kumbh as "anti-national", user Aayush Agrawal wrote: "Guys I request you to not go to KUMBH. I myself was very keen to go there but my nana (maternal grandfather) passed away on 26th after snan due to poor to no service of ambulance and healthcare. He was having heart ache after snan and was forced to walk 20 km to reach the healthcamp which resulted in heart attack and brain hemorrhagic stroke. I respect religious beliefs but it should not cost anyone’s life... government is trying the best to hide any mishaps."

Yet another group has emerged too — those who feel dying at Kumbh frees the soul from the cycle of rebirth. While this is tied to an ancient Hindu belief that a soul attains moksha when someone dies in a holy place, it is pertinent to remember that this applies largely to what we term 'natural' deaths, to those whose time had come anyway.

Is this combination of religious and patriotic fervour what has kept the masses coming? One suspects not. While faith does play a part, one senses that for most visitors to Maha Kumbh, there is a desire to cling on to any symbol of hope in a life full of financial insecurity, unemployment, failure, and general deprivation.

Where life holds little meaning and no sense of achievement, a visit to the mother of all Kumbhs gives one bragging rights, makes one stand out. Provides a sense of equality with those VIPs whooshing in on chartered flights and going on chartered cruises.

Hence, perhaps, the desperate rush to board trains at a time when trains for the aam janta are rapidly making way for the ostensibly more premium and less affordable coaches of trains such as Vande Bharat. Even if it means smashing windows and invading reserved compartments by the ticketless. Because every penny saved on travel is a penny spent on buying salvation at the mother of all Kumbhs.

With PTI inputs