India’s government is spending huge sums of money on a religious megafest. But it’s not because they love a good party. Investing in the Kumbh Mela is a plan to court the country’s majority Hindu population ahead of this year’s general election.
India’s Bharatiya Janata Party believes that India is a Hindu nation, despite the religious diversity of its 1.3 billion people and the non-religious nature of its constitution. Some say the BJP is using Kumbh Mela, or the Hindu pitcher festival, to push its agenda.
Kumbh Mela is taking place beginning this week in Uttar Pradesh. It is the largest gathering of Hindu pilgrims on earth. Some 150 million people are expected to attend this year’s Kumbh, which runs through early March.
The ancient festival involves a series of ritual baths by Hindu sadhus, or “holy men,” and other pilgrims. They bathe at the meeting of three rivers—the Yamuna, the Ganges and the Saraswati. Pilgrims bathe in the river believing it cleanses them of their sins and ends their process of reincarnation.
How sad! The Bible clearly states that there is only one true God. (Exodus 20:3) He alone can forgive sin. (1 Timothy 2:5)
Kumbh Mela is religious in nature, but it is also infused with politics. Throughout the Kumbh fairgrounds, the faces of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Uttar Pradesh’s chief minister, Yogi Adityanath, appear on posters boasting about government projects. Kumbh officials have also spent money on a marketing blitz—including an ad on CNN.
For many Indians, Hinduism belongs at the forefront of Indian elections. Even Rahul Gandhi, the opposing Congress party leader, plans to take a dip at the Kumbh.
Homemaker Reva Goyal’s opinion of the election reflects that of many Indians. “In this, politics and religion are mixed.”
(Hindu devotees march in a procession to participate in spiritual-cleansing baths in the Sangam, the confluence of the rivers Ganges, Yamuna, and the mythical Saraswati at the Kumbh Festival, in Allahabad, India. AP Photo/Rajesh Kumar Singh)
