THE government says more than 420 million pilgrims have ritually bathed at the world’s largest religious festival, estimates organising authorities say are calculated using artificial intelligence and surveillance cameras.
It is not possible to independently verify the mind-boggling figure – more than the population of the United States and Canada combined – a staggering statistic even for the world’s most populous nation of 1.4 billion people.
“More than 420 million devotees took a dip in the holy Triveni Sangam,” the government’s Press Information Bureau said yesterday, referring to the confluence of the Ganges, Yamuna and mythical Saraswati rivers.
The Kumbh Mela, a six-week-long Hindu celebration of prayer and bathing held every 12 years in the northern city of Prayagraj, has more than two weeks yet to run, ending on Feb 26.
Religion and politics are deeply intertwined in India, and critics say the festival is being promoted to burnish the credentials of Hindu nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who himself took a ritual dip on Wednesday.
Modi’s close ally Yogi Adityanath, also from the Bharatiya Janata Party, is a firebrand monk and chief minister of Utter Pradesh state, where the festival is taking place.
The organisers say they are using a network of cameras and overhead drones, with AI systems to calculate the number of devotees – and manage crowds.
But that did not prevent a deadly stampede on Jan 29 that killed at least 30 people. The festival is rooted in Hindu mythology, a battle between deities and demons for control of a pitcher containing the nectar of immortality.
Pilgrims believe the ritual bathing helps them attain salvation. — AFP
