Benaras 2011
Ganga on a Wobbling Pivot
A Discover India Program
Analytical report submitted to Discover India Program Committee, FLAME for partial fulfillment of Discover India Program Six Credit Course
Research Team
Shruti Bansal, Palak Shah, Shivani Shah, Janam Mehta, Sehar Chumble, Samrat Urval, Manan Vyas, Navak Gupta, Kunjal Gandhi, Dhvani Kothari, Ajit Balkawade, Sejal Singhvi Faculty Mentor : Professor Shirisha Sathe
21-3-2011
FLAME School of Liberal Education
Foundation for Liberal and Management Education, Pune
Year 2010 - 2011
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Authentication Certificate This is to certify that the work incorporated in this report entitled “ Benaras 2011 – Ganga on a Wobbling Pivot” submitted by the undersigned Research Team was carried out under my mentorship. Such material as has been obtained from other sources has been duly acknowledged.
Research Team
Shruti Bansal ______
Palak Shah ______
Shivani Shah ______
Janam Mehta ______
Sehar Chumble ______
Samrat Urval ______
Manan Vyas ______
Navak Gupta ______
Kunjal Gandhi ______
Dhvani Kothari ______
Ajit Balkawade ______
Sejal Singhvi ______
Date : ______Faculty Mentor : ______
Place: ______Signature: ______
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Acknowledgements
Sudhir bhai, Manjuji and Malik bhai were like our Lamp posts in the night,
Mayor Kaushalendra Singh exposed the
Holy river Ganga’s plight, Dahya Mama, Vasundhara and Yogesh Pathak
Thanks for being our guiding light!
Professors Dalia and Maya
What would we have done without you? Dom kids, diya sellers, pandas on the Ghat
Thanks for explaining to us what you do!
Ram Krishna Malviyaji, For your help we bow down Hoping that one day Benaras becomes a clean town!
Ahmad bhai and Shrey We are grateful to you
For telling us about Benaras when we had no clue
FLAME Chairman and President For allowing DIP to happen, Hats off to you
DIP Committee- No one could have done a better job than you! Shirisha Ma’am-
Thank you for being ever so helpful and kind If we had to do DIP again Benaras is the only place that comes to our mind! 6
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Table of contents
INDEX OF CHAPTERS
AUTHENTIFICATION CERTIFICATE ...... 3
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ...... 5
INTRODUCTION ...... 10
LITERATURE REVIEW …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………17 MYTHS AND CONTRASTS ...... 18 RIVER GANGA…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………...20 GANGA ACTION PLAN………………………………………………………………………………………………………….22 DEATH…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….26
METHODOLOGY…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………29
ANALYSIS………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………...45
APPENDIX………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..53
BIBLIOGRAPHY……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….…57
INDEX OF FIGURES AND VISUAL DOCUMENTS
FIGURE 1: MAP OF INDIA SHOWING VARANASI ...... 9 FIGURE 2: GANGA POLLUTION ...... 11 FIGURE 3: RIVER BANK POLLUTION DUE TO RITUALS AND SEWAGE ...... 12 FIGURE 4: MAP OF THE 12 DAMS ...... 21 FIGURE 5: SUNRISE AT GANGA……………...………………………………………………………………………………………29 FIGURE 6: GANGA AARTI ...... 32 FIGURE 7: MOUNTAINS OF WOOD ...... 34 FIGURE 8: MANIKARNIKA GHAT: THE PERRINIAL PYRE ...... 35 FIGURE 9: SHAMSHAAN NAATH STUDIO.……………………………………………………………………………………..….37 Figure10 Pappu Chai Walah ……………………………………………………………………………………………….....43
TABLE 1: LITERACY RATES OF THE STATES IN INDIA………………………………………………………………………….53
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Figure 1: Map of India showing Varanasi
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“Ganga: The abused yet adored superstar of India!” ~ Philip Reeves
At the formal launching of the Ganga Action Plan on June 14, 1986 at Benaras, the then PM Rajiv Gandhi made an opening statement saying: “The purity of the Ganga has never been in doubt. Yet we have allowed the pollution of this river, which is the symbol of our spirituality….From now on, we shall put a stop to this. We shall see that the waters of the Ganga become clean once again...In the years to come, not only the Ganga, but all our rivers will be clean and pure as they were thousands of years ago.”1
It has been twenty five years since the Congress initiated the ambitious Ganga Action Plan. It has failed three times, and the standards of goals have been lowered with each attempt. In the twenty five years, the Apex body NRCA (National River Conservation Authority), was supposed to meet once every year whereas they have met only eleven times, with no discussion between the years 2003 – 2007.2 Inertia in taking action largely stemmed from the widely held belief that Ganga as a holy river can purify everything that is put into it.
As of today the Ganga is counted by the WWF (World Wide Fund) as one of the 5 most threatened rivers in Asia and top ten in the world.3Water samples from Benaras reveal that the faecal Coliform (type of bacterium found in colons of humans and animals) count is 10,000% higher than the government standard for safe river bathing.4 And yet people bathe in the Ganga every day.5
1http://www.ecofriends.org/main/eganga/images/Critical%20analysis%20of%20GAP.pdf 2http://www.ecofriends.org/main/eganga/images/Critical%20analysis%20of%20GAP.pdf 3http://www.financialexpress.com/news/ganges-is-one-of-worlds-10-most-polluted-rivers/194554/ 4 http://www.indiawaterfoundation.org/water_situation_in_UP.aspx 5 http://www.indiawaterfoundation.org/water_situation_in_UP.aspx
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People from various parts of the country come to die in Benaras, with bodies burning every hour of the day. The two cremation Ghats (Harishchandra and Manikarnika) together dump 33,000 bodies and 16,000 tonnes of ash annually into the river.6
People in Benaras attribute the major cause of pollution to the Tehri Dam in Uttarakhand, which has led to the flow of water falling from 1,000 cubic feet per second to a mere 2 cubic feet per second.7 Mild forms of stagnation are the most pertinent causes of pollution today.
But the more imperative question is, do we really need major statistics to tell us how polluted the water is when it is clearly visible to the naked eye?
Figure 2: Ganga Pollution
In twenty five years, the government has spent 36,000 rupees8 on de-polluting
6http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2010-05-15/india/28297840_1_ganga-river-basin-authority- king-bhagirath-lower-ganga-canal 7http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2010-05-15/india/28297840_1_ganga-river-basin-authority- king-bhagirath-lower-ganga-canal 8http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2010-05-15/india/28297840_1_ganga-river-basin-authority- king-bhagirath-lower-ganga-canal
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the rivers of India but if after it all the Dom Raja9 even today says, “It is our tradition to dirty the Ganga, for our religion deems it tolerable”, then we have a problem.
The root of this problem lies in the fact that there is a conflict between the belief systems of people, and the strategies applied to de-pollute the river. Let’s take the simple ritual of offering flowers into the river. Flowers do not decompose completely in water; they become lumps that settle down on the river bed.
Figure 3: River Bank Pollution due to rituals and sewage
The government devices measures to stop this, but the problem occurs when people do not conform to the measures that are imposed.
This is due to an opposing religious belief that it is disrespectful to put flowers on the ground after they have been offered to god. The only option then is the river, and since the Ganga will ‘forever remain pure’, the individual will prefer to go against the government and preserve his belief systems. So even if there is a will to support the government, the will to uphold one’s own belief system is more powerful and sometimes inflexible.
9Dom Raja- Dom is the caste of cremators in Benaras. Dom Raja is the head or king of this caste.
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Three words that unarguably stand out in the statement made by the Dom Raja are tradition, dirty and religion. For someone to make a statement like this with not only conviction but also pride means that there is more to it than what it merely suggests. To understand the subtext of this statement it is important to first trace where the Dom Raja gets his conviction from. The strength of his beliefs must stem from a referral point that is either greatly valued or extremely reliable. We could say that fundamentally his belief is premised upon the concept of water having some kind of sacred quality or a religious connotation. This idea has its origin in the Vedas.
The Rig Veda attaches a purifying quality to water but in a spiritual context – “Whatever sin is found in me, whatever wrong I may have done, if I have lied or falsely sworn, Waters remove it far from me…” (Rig Veda)10
Here the physical act of bathing in water is not explicitly stated. Simply coming in close contact with water is enough to free one from one’s sins. It also says that man must not pray to water, the physical entity, but appreciate the spirituality and sacredness that lies within. Unfortunately today people worship Ganga, the physical entity, because that is what is imparted to them over the years. People bathe in the river every day, because lot of them feel obligated to religion to do so. There are multiple instances where they still directly drink water from the river, thinking that physically drinking the water will lead to some sort of purification. On important festivals, people gather on the banks of the river and perform elaborate pujas (ritual offering), where various things like flowers, food etc are put in the river as symbols of gratitude.
At some point in time the actual knowledge of the Vedas has been manipulated to meet various purposes. Due to the manipulation, fundamental concepts of what religion deems sacred and what it considers profane has been tampered with. For instance, cremating bodies in the river is definitely ‘polluting’ but most people have never even looked at it in this manner. It is done for the attainment of moksha (salvation) which is obviously a ‘pure’ notion. So, the irony exists when a ritual performed to purge one, contaminates another.
10www.wateraid.org/documents/hindumyth.pdf
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It is a common sight in Benaras to see people pray to the Ganga, bathe in it and defecate in it as well. When questioned about the clear contradiction, the answers would always come down to the basic idea that the Ganga can never be dirty. How can the most sacred river in the country not clean itself? The Vedas on the other hand clearly attribute an impure value to bodily secretions such as blood, semen, tears, urine and faeces.11 If this is true then defecation in the river is certainly not the “purest” thing to do. So we see how the existent notions of sacred and profane, pure and polluted have placed Ganga on a wobbling pivot today.
For those living in Benaras, Ganga is not only an integral part of their life but often a source of income. People believe that having a shop on the Ghats right on the banks of the river would do well because they are in close proximity to Ganga Maa.12 The thread for Sari weaving dyes better in Benaras because there is something different in the water. Many a times people who have difficulty in bearing children believe that with Ganga Maa’s blessings, things can be changed. If the wish is fulfilled then elaborate rituals are performed where the hair of the new born baby is offered into the river. A lot of people believe that they got saved from the bomb blast13 on Dashaswamedh Ghat because they were on the banks of the Ganga. But they don’t turn back and question those who did actually lose their lives due to the blast, when clearly they were on the banks too. The Ghats and the Ganga also account for major livelihoods in the city. Most shops on the Ghats flourish due to the influx of tourists as Ganga attracts people from all over the world.
The Ganga is not only a source of spiritual security but also a source of income; one is essential to life and the other to livelihood. In such a situation a program to clean the Ghats for example becomes difficult as a large number of things need to be restructured. Programs should therefore be more preventive in nature, where measures take into consideration the dynamics of the people in relation to
11www.wateraid.org/documents/hindumyth.pdf 12 Ganga Maa – Reference to Goddess Ganga as their mother 13 Bomb blast at Dashaswamedh Ghat on 7th December 2010. (www.hindustantimes.com/One-killed-many- injured-in-Varanasi-bomb-blast/Article1-635578.aspx - 78k)
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the river. For example, taking pundits into confidence and with their help propagating ‘Ganga-friendly’ practices would be accepted and practised by people faster than any imposing government measure.
The present situation is a result of a precise chain of events. Religion majorly affects the daily life and livelihoods of people. Manipulated accounts of religion have led to certain rituals, practises and behavioural patterns. These practises account for the pollution of the river. The government employs strategies to curb the pollution but these strategies often counter people’s beliefs. This conflict leads to the eventual failure of any program.
However the present condition is not as bleak as it sounds for the will to de – pollute the river does exist within the people. This will needs to be manoeuvred in a way where it can be converted into action, with minimal conflicts between belief systems.
Therefore the question that this report addresses is:
What are the possibilities of de - polluting the Ganga that can be realised from the life and livelihoods constructed around the river?
To answer this question, we started studying the lives and livelihoods of people on the Ghats and investigated the extent to which myths and religious beliefs shaped their attitudes towards the river. Consequently we tried to understand if certain ritualistic practises and behaviours had their roots in these beliefs. Having put all of this into perspective, we attempted to draw possibilities of de - polluting the river using indigenous ways that emerged from the narratives of the people on the Ghats.
To better grasp the rest of the report it is essential to operationalize the definitions of certain words. Livelihood can be understood in two ways, firstly as a source of income and secondly as a way of life which includes daily experiences of an individual. Livelihoods are dynamic and can be studied every day because they form the routine existence of people. This was the primary basis for choosing this aspect for research. Since we focused on the livelihoods on the Ghats, it is necessary to define the area which was covered by us. By Ghats we
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mean the broad flight of steps from that lead to the immediate bank of the river.14 We chose the Ghats because we realised that they provide a common area for diverse sets of people from locals to tourists to interact with each other. During the course of the field research we realized that certain myths are still prominent today, and new ones continue to be created by the people. Myths are traditional stories accepted as a part of history, carried forward through generations and serve to explain the world view of a group of people15. Beliefs on the other hand are certain principles and value systems held by a person mostly used as a basis for making decisions in life.16
The goal of this report is to recognize the possibility of de - polluting the Ganga by understanding the current attitudes of locals on the Ghats in Benaras.
14 http://www.wordnik.com/words/ghat. Referred to on October 22nd, 2011 15 http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn. Referred to on November 17th, 2010 16 http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn
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“Read not to contradict and confute, nor to believe and take for granted, but to weigh and consider” ~Francis Bacon
Michael Ackerman, a photographer, in his book, End Time City writes:
“I had a completely raw, heart-felt, visceral engagement with the city. Almost every night that I spent in Benaras, I would go to sleep very, very desperate to wake up and have another chance to absorb what was there and connect with it. The city of Benaras is an intense combination of fairy tale and nightmare, it is a very holy place to people and everyday they come there by the hundreds or the thousands. It is a never-ending pilgrimage. At the same time, it is such a dark place where the death is ever present. There’s just this poetic chaos to it, a beautiful urgency…”17
Benaras is as old as some of the oldest cities in the world such as Athens, Jerusalem and Peking (now Beijing). The author of “Benaras: City of Light” rightly remarks, “If we could imagine the silent Acropolis and the Agora of Athens still alive with the intellectual, cultural, and ritual traditions of classical Greece, we might glimpse the remarkable tenacity of the life of Kashi.”18 This is to say that Varanasi has survived the tides of time, and will continue to do so because of its ability to hold on to tradition. From the Ganga Aarti in the morning to the Ganga Aarti in the evening, the people of Benaras engage in ritualistic practises, some which have their roots in religious texts, some have their roots in myths and others in unwritten laws.
17Ackerman, Michael, and Christian Caujolle. End Time City. Zurich: Scalo, 1999. Print. 18 Eck. L. Diana, Banaras: City of light, UK, 1983.
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Mark Twain (1890) very aptly remarks in one of his works, “Benaras has the highest density of myth, legend and story of any city that I had ever been in. There, one is walking in and on history that is still flourishing and growing. Someone once said that a city is not fundamentally geography or a history, neither a maze of streets nor a rational plan of a settlement, a city is a myth and story made manifest”
Benaras is sacred because it is placed on the trident of Shiva... Ganga descended on Earth from Shiva’s locks... One’s sins get washed away by bathing in the Ganga...Ganga is self- purifying...In Kashi one gets mukti (salvation)... Kashi can endure any destruction... Kashi is beyond time and space.
What keeps myths alive in Varanasi? What makes people talk about them even now? Today a few myths have changed from just being stories to a concrete set of beliefs, few of which are mentioned above. These myths coupled with beliefs give rise to an associated behaviour. In some cases, even though the myths in themselves might have lost their original purpose, the resultant beliefs are still strongly held. But what happens when the myth is forgotten and the behaviour persists? All that is left is a hollow belief, which perhaps leads to blind faith.19
“Whenever a situation develops to its extreme, it is bound to turn around and become its opposite” ~ Frank Capra
Claude Levi Strauss in his work on myths (Structural Anthropology) said that the underlying structure of any myth has sets of binary oppositions. He further explained that there is a need for human beings to convert differences of degree to differences of kind. The human mind needs to create opposites to create order.20 The good will not remain good if something is not bad enough. It is a
19 Faith here is defined as belief that does not rest on logical proof or material evidence. http://www.wordnik.com/words/faith 20Levi-Strauss, Claude. Structural Anthropology. New York: Basic, 2009. Print.
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common Hindu belief that if one dies in Varanasi, one can free oneself from the cycle of re-birth and attain moksha, this belief has its origin in a myth. Applying Strauss’ structure to this myth, we recognise the contrast set as moksha and re- birth. Being caught in the cycle of re-birth is considered bad and therefore breaking free from this cycle (moksha) is given a positive status.
Apart from the contrast within the myths, we also discovered contrasts between various articles that we came across. When we read up on various government funded sites, tourism sites and blogs, two recurrent themes that emerged were the worship of Ganga, on one hand, and her abuse and exploitation on the other.
For example in an article21by Subhamoy Das, he writes that ‘The Puranas, or ancient Hindu scriptures, say that the sight, the name, and the touch of Ganga cleanses one of all sins and taking a dip in the holy Ganga bestows heavenly blessings.’ A website 22 attracting tourists says that ‘The river Ganga is personified as Goddess and holds an important place in the Hindu religion.’ Joe Pace, a foreign tourist visiting Benaras, in his blog23 writes about a local who said, “Fortunate are those who live on the banks of the Ganga.” After reading such articles, one forms an image in one’s mind of Ganga as a divine and an ethereal entity. Diluting this image, Mimmik in his Traveller’s blog24 writes, “I've been trying to figure out the whole contrast of the immense holiness of the river versus the phenomenal pollution, human waste, rubbish and filth that contaminates it”. Like him, Jermaine in her blog25 is surprised that people put ashes, bathe, wash clothes and drink water from the same river! An article26 written about the Yamuna River said that it was ironical how people offered flowers to the river calling it holy, and it was those same flowers that did not decompose completely and lead to pollution. The same is seen on the banks of the Ganga as well.
21 http://hinduism.about.com/od/godsgoddesses/a/ganga.htm 22 http://www.varanasicity.com/river-ganga/index.html 23 http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/joepace/3/1288635839/tpod.html 24 http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mimmik/mimmik/1100432160/tpod.html 25 http://www.travelpod.ca/travel-blog-entries/jermaine/india-2004/1096632300/tpod.html 26 clpmag.org/article.php?article=Delhis-Dark-Waters_0049
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The sheer number of articles written on these two subject matters gave us an insight into the magnitude of sacredness and profanity that existed there. The two themes formed two ends of a continuum and all of the articles that we came across could be placed on one of the two sides. We wondered how these contrasting realities existed together. Were they dependent on each other in some way?
“India’s holiest river is suffocated by sacredness”
~Katie Walter
There is a lot that has been written about the Ganga; about her beauty, her healing powers and her sacredness. In his book Discovery of India27, Jawaharlal Nehru says:
“The Ganges, above all is the river of India, which has held India's heart captive and drawn uncounted millions to her banks since the dawn of history. The story of the Ganges, from her source to the sea, from old times to new, is the story of India's civilization and culture, of the rise and fall of empires, of great and proud cities, of adventures of man…”
The river Ganga originates at the Gangotri glacier in the Himalayas and flows till it empties into the Bay of Bengal. At the source, she is called the Bhagirathi. She starts being called Ganga at Kanpur in the state of Uttar Pradesh. She flows through eleven cities, supporting 43% of India’s population28. Ganga is the lifeline for thousands of people, not only because it is a place of worship for the Hindus, but also because her waters can be harnessed to generate hydroelectric energy, for irrigation and domestic purposes. Locals as well as tourists flock to bathe in her sacred waters each day to cleanse their sins. An estimated 2,000,000 people, along the entire stretch of the river, daily bathe in her.29
27 Nehru, Jawaharlal. The Discovery of India. New Delhi: Penguin, 2004. Print 28 http://moef.nic.in/modules/recent-initiatives/NGRBA/Gap1.html, Referred to on 25th Feb 2011 29 http://www.scribd.com/doc/17689104/Ganga-River-Pollution Referred to on 22nd November, 2010
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As of now, there are 12 dams on the river and many more have been proposed and rejected by the government. These dams, used to generate hydroelectricity are posing a serious threat to the natural flow of the river which leads to accumulation of pollutants on the river bed.
Figure 4: Map of the 12 dams Moreover, these dams adversely affect the aquatic life. The Ganges River Dolphin is under serious threat. A survey by the World Wildlife Fund found less than 3,000 left in the Ganga water catchment.30
The 12 municipal towns situated on the banks of the river till Haridwar, dispose nearly 89 million litres of sewage on a daily basis.31
According to a study done in 2010, it was found that there were 144 industries situated on the banks of the Ganga in U.P alone and 402 tanneries in Kanpur,
30http://wwf.panda.org/what_we_do/endangered_species/cetaceans/about/river_dolphins/ganges_river_d olphin/ 31 http://www.scribd.com/doc/17689104/Ganga-River-Pollution. Referred on 22nd November, 2010
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which is rated as the number one contributor of Ganga pollution.32 These tanneries release organic wastes as well as inorganic toxic wastes in the river which are extremely harmful. In 1996, five tanneries, ten textile mills and several other industrial units discharged 37.15 million gallon per day.33
In Allahabad, which is approximately 150 kms from Varanasi34, fertilizer industries contribute by disposing nitrogenous wastes into the water.
The Worldwatch Institute in Washington reports that, in the Ganga Basin, every minute, a person dies of diarrhoea and each year, eight out of every ten people suffer from amoebic dysentery. The World Health Organisation reveals that, directly or indirectly, the polluted Ganga river is responsible for 80 per cent of all health problems and one-third of all deaths in India. This is because pollutants contaminate the ground water system, impacting water supplies and agriculture.35
"There are gaping holes in GAP"
~ Rakesh K. Jaiswal
On 15th August 2009, our current Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh said something similar to what Rajiv Gandhi said twenty five years ago --“The sacred Ganga is the life source for crores of Indians. It is our duty to keep the river clean. We have constituted the National Ganga Authority in which the Central and State Governments will jointly work towards this end.”36 The Ganga Action Plan, often synonymous with the Ganga inaction plan started with gusto on June 14th, 1986 in Varanasi. It is ironic how both the prime ministers had similar things to say
32 http://www.gits4u.com/water/ganga.htm. Referred on 15th December, 2010 33 http://www.scribd.com/doc/17689104/Ganga-River-Pollution. Referred on 22nd November, 2010 34http://maps.google.co.in/maps?hl=en&biw=1366&bih=643&q=distance%20between%20allahabad%20a nd%20varanasi&safe=active&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wl 35 http://www.cleanganga.com/articles/feb03/kill_millions.php 36http://www.srikumar.com/toastmaster/speeches/speech_by_prime_minister_independence_day_2009.ht m
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even after twenty five years. The Ganga Action Plan started off with clear objectives, to abate pollution and improve water quality, to conserve biodiversity, to develop strategies for river basin management, and to gain enough experience to implement similar river clean-up programs in other polluted rivers in India.37 But the program failed to meet targets, the four year program continued for fourteen years, with a success rate of only 39%. The plan was hereafter called off. GAP II started in 1993 while GAP I was still in progress with the aim of applying the failed model of GAP I on other rivers of India. GAP II was projected to be completed in 2005, however only 13% was completed till 2001. The GAP identifies two sources of pollution, point sources (those that can be measured) and non point sources (those that cannot be measured). Core schemes of the plan focused on point sources of pollution such as domestic, sewage and industrial waste. Non-core schemes targeted non point sources of pollution such as dumping of solid waste, open defecation, dumping of half burnt/ un-burnt dead bodies, etc. Since treating sewage is the main target of the core schemes, one primary strategy was used. They had planned to intercept the sewage lines and divert them to the Sewerage Treatment Plants erected by the government in 25 cities including Benaras. The Sankat Mochan Foundation in Varanasi found out that these STP’s failed in the city because when run at full capacity they caused erosion of sewer linings, leading to spillage from man holes in low lying areas of the city. The Dinapur38 STP can handle only 80 mld (million litres per day) of sewage but is loaded with 115 mld. This means that 35 mld of untreated sewage flows into the Varuna river which eventually joins the Ganga. River Assi, faces similar problems too. This makes both the rivers huge sewage drains. Unfortunately, the 84 bathing Ghats in Benaras are situated exactly between these two rivers. Power breakdowns are common in the city resulting in untreated water flowing into the rivers and spilling out onto the roads and streets. During monsoons the Dinapur treatment plant remains closed, due to which untreated sewage flows in to the river for a span of four months every year. The people of Dinapur village suffer from water borne diseases and
37www.ecofriends.org/main/eganga/images/Critical%20analysis%20of%20GAP.pdf 38 Dinapur- Village in Chiraigaon Mandal in Varanasi district
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mosquitoes.39 The central issue arises from the fact that the amount of sewage largely extends the capacity of the STP’s causing half treated and half untreated material flowing into the river.
Another problem with GAP is the criteria used for understanding the quality of water. The plan uses only two measures for acquiring this information, firstly the Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD)40 and secondly Dissolved Oxygen (DO) content in the water. Both these metrics vary greatly in various places. BOD and DO have an inverse relation however, in some places their quantities are either both less or both more which is not understandable. A large part of GAP was to ensure that the water of the Ganga reaches bathing class standards - where BOD is 3mg/L Max and DO is 5mg/L Min. In some places the BOD is 25mg/l with high levels of faecal Coliform making it highly unsuitable for bathing. An estimated number of 2,000,000 people bathe in the Ganga every day.41However the lack of consistency makes these measures themselves unreliable and therefore the objective of understanding water quality through them is futile.
Microbial pollution of the river continues to remain an issue. Sewage is partly responsible for this but a large part of it is due cattle wallowing, mass bathing, garbage and carcass dumping etc. GAP identifies the following non point sources of pollution:
Ø Open defecation Ø Disposing half burnt or un-burnt dead bodies in the river Ø Run-off from solid waste and garbage dumps Ø Industrial effluents
39 http://www.eoearth.org/article/Indian_river_systems_and_pollution?topic=58075#gen13 40 BOD- Biochemical oxygen demand or BOD is a chemical procedure for determining the amount of dissolved oxygen needed by aerobic biological organisms in a body of water to break down organic material present in a given water sample at certain temperature over a specific time period 41www.americanchronicle.com/articles/109078http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/view/109078 http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.americanchronicle.com%2Farticles%2Fview% 2F109078&h=dd984 http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.americanchronicle.com%2Farticles%2Fview% 2F109078&h=dd984http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.americanchronicle.com% 2Farticles%2Fview%2F109078&h=dd984
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To deal with open defecation, GAP proposed to appoint local NGOs to maintain low cost toilet complexes. Similarly, improved electric crematoria had been set up to deal with dead bodies; however these were not very effective due to the recurrent power cuts in the cities. Effluent Treatment Plants (ETP) had been constructed to treat industrial waste but waste waters in large quantities still reached the Common effluent treatment plant where all the effluents were treated. It is obvious then, that the individual ETPs do not work properly.
The Supreme Court and the High Court outlined a list of duties that the local government should perform in order to take care of the non point sources of pollution. However, the local government failed miserably in implementing any of them. The key reason for failure was the lack of technical expertise and skilled man power. Local government officials were never involved in the planning process and therefore couldn’t execute the programs in the desired manner.
The initial objective of the GAP was to stop the pollution and make the river not only clean but also, in Rajiv Gandhi’s words, ‘pure’. Later the objective was modified and the plan aimed at making the water suitable for bathing standards, when this could not be achieved, the objective became to reduce the pollution load in the river which in comparison to the other two is the easiest to achieve. Instead of setting higher standards, the levels of objectives were lowered for the ease of meeting targets.
Throughout the Ganga Action Plan, solutions proposed for the problems were curative in nature. For example, to mitigate the problem of dead bodies, electric crematoria were erected; to reduce open defecation, public lavatories were built, these were solutions offered to the problem and they might have worked but they did not target the core of the problem. If the programs were designed to prevent these from occurring altogether, then the results could be more long term.
Rajiv Gandhi mentioned in his speech that “GAP is a plan for all the people of India; one in which they can come forward and participate.” It is ironical how the common man is barely involved in the execution of the plan. Since the measures were curative in nature, none of the programs aimed to create awareness or
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educate the people on the current state of the river. The Ganga Action Plan was launched because people did not take initiative in de-polluting the river, as they believed that the river is self-purifying. Twenty five years later, we still hear similar statements being made by people. A Citizens’ Monitoring Committee was supposed to be formed in each town with the prime task of reviewing the progress of the plan with the public. However, the general public is now only involved in reviewing the decisions that have already been made.
The popular myth states that it took over a thousand years and rigorous penance for King Bhagirath to bring Ganga on the Earth. Today it would not be an exaggeration to say that, the river needs many such Bhagiraths to survive and truly become ‘pure’ again.42
“Kashivam maranam muktiha" (Death in Kashi is liberation)
~ Vedas
‘Every day, some 250 public cremations take place in the burning grounds, resulting in a fog of ashes along the river.’ This is an estimate provided by a student of BHU in his research paper calledManaging Death in the Burning Grounds of Varanasi, India.43With approximately 91,250 cremations taking place in Varanasi every year, cremation of dead bodies, immersion of ashes and at times, disposal of half burnt bodies are identified as one of the more crucial non- point sources of pollution. As mentioned earlier, 33,000 bodies and 16,000 tons of ash are thrown in the river per annum. This is a consequence of the belief held by majority of the Hindus that death in Kashi liberates one from the cycle of birth and re-birth. ‘Death, which elsewhere is polluting, is here holy and auspicious’, boasts a tourism site44. A traveler in his blog45 terms Varanasi as ‘The city where people come to die.’ Hindus believe that after death, if one is cremated in
42www.hinduonnet.com/folio/fo0107/01070140.htm - 9k 43http://www.newschool.edu/uploadedFiles/Faculty/NSSR/Fernandez,%20Castano,%20Singh%20JCCP.df 44 http://ngaur.tripod.com/moksha.html 45 http://www.travbuddy.com/travel-blogs/19473/People-come-die-here-Magical-Ganga-5
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Varanasi and one’s ashes are immersed in Ganga, one will attain moksha (liberation). Such beliefs are built on a foundation of a parent myth. In this case, the belief is grounded in a myth in which the Gods were deciding the fate of a priest named Vahikan who had committed sins. While they were debating over whether to send him to heaven or hell, a vulture tore a piece of his body, which was lying on the banks of the Ganga, and flew away. On its way it dropped the bone into the river and immediately the priest attained moksha.
Kashi is one of the 7 holiest cities in India46, and it is a belief that a visit to any teertha (pilgrim place) bestows punya (merit) upon the devotee. However, according to another tourism site47, the other six cities can offer only indirect and incomplete liberation. If one dies in any of those cities, one is reborn for the last time in Kashi and thus the ultimate promise of moksha (liberation) comes only from dying in Benaras. The root of this belief lies in a deeper conviction. The belief that Kashi is thrice-blessed exists firstly due to its very existence as the City of Lights48, secondly, because it is blessed by the presence of the holy Ganga and lastly because Shiva resides here and he himself whispers the taraka mantra49 in the ears of those dying.
An article on the Indian Express website, on 22nd January, 2011 reported that ashes of 128 Hindus were finally brought in from Pakistan to India after 40 years, to be immersed in Ganga.50 This showed how people’s beliefs aren’t dependent on whether they are from Benaras or any other city or even another country.
The extent of people’s faith in such beliefs is evident when one finds dharamshalas, located very close to the river, that exclusively serve the elderly Hindus who come to this Mahashamshan (The Great Cremation: another name for Kashi) in the hopes if dying there and joining the hundreds of burning pyres
46 http://holidayindiadestination.blogspot.com/2010/09/north-india-tour-varanasi-holiest-city.html 47 http://www.visitvaranasi.com/moksha.htm 48 “Light signifies knowledge, knowledge purifies sins which leads to immortality “Eck. L. Diana, Banaras: City of light, UK, 1983. 49 http://www.visitvaranasi.com/moksha.htm 50 http://www.indianexpress.com/news/from-pak-to-ganga-ashes-of-128-arrive/740726/
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at the two cremation ghats. In an account of a tourist who visited Varanasi, he writes about how he talked to the people who run Mukti Bhavan (Salvation House). He shared that they take only those people who are above the age of 60 and look like they are going to die51. Once the guests check in at the hotel, they have to die within the next two weeks or else they are asked to leave. As many as 30 to 70 people die there every month52. Apart from the old people approaching death, there are only priests who pray for death to come. "While the rest of the world celebrates a new life when a child is born, similarly we celebrate death," says the manager of Mukti Bhavan53.
A foreign traveller very vividly describes death in his article ‘The Business of Death’54. He says that in Benaras, one experiences the ‘closeness to death’. So much so that death almost becomes a character that impacts everybody’s lives in the city in some or the other way. He talks about an advertisement that he saw outside a hotel saying ‘close to cremation site’. People had used this notion of death and harnessed the effect it has on tourists to make money.
When people say that death in Kashi is celebrated, what is it that they really mean? How can a phenomenon such as death, that has become a routine, still remain a celebration? Is it that they actually do not mourn over death but celebrate it or are they just indifferent and almost immune to it now?
51 http://www.nriworld.in/news/99-Check-in-for--Special-dying-facility-at-%E2%80%9C-Mukti- Bhavan%E2%80%9D-in-Varanasi 52 http://www.indianpath.org/entry/mukti-bhavan-a-hotel-that-bestows-death-and-freedom-to-the-soul 53 http://www.expressindia.com/news/fullstory.php?newsid=87754 54 http://discovervaranasi.com/blog/tag/ghats/
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“The only source of knowledge is experience” ~ Albert Einstein
How does one get to know a place? Is it just by observing or by talking to the people? Should one become a part of the culture or stay detached? How can one get fascinated by a new place and yet not let that fascination taint one’s views? We found that there is no right or wrong way of discovering a place. One simply has to be open to the experiences the city has to offer and be perceptive to the underlying mechanisms that shape the beliefs and behaviours of the people.
We decided to begin our study from Dashaswamedh Ghat since it was the closest one to our dharamsala. We made our way through the narrow lanes that lead to the ghat and reached there just before sunrise. We were in Benaras! The day here started much before sunrise. The dark sky had begun to turn pink and orange and we could feel the energy pulsating on the ghat. There were people bathing in Ganga, shop owners, selling paraphernalia of the Ganga puja (prayer),
Figure 5: Sunrise at Ganga opening their shops and boatmen approaching tourists saying, “Madam, want boat ride?” We saw Babas with long beards wearing bright red kurtas and
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rudrakshamalas (chains) and sandalwood smeared across their foreheads sitting on the far ends of the banks and staring in nothingness. The sunrise on the Ghat was a breath-taking sight with the golden rays of the sun carefully gliding over the serene waters of Ganga.
As we walked on the Ghat, we decided to start talking to a few people. In December of 2010, there was a bomb blast on this Ghat and people didn’t seem to have recovered from it. A flower seller remarked, “My daughter almost lost her head in the blast, thanks to Ganga Maa’s blessing she is alive today.” They had personified the river and given her the status of a mother (maa). This anthropomorphic representation of Ganga was something that we observed with all of the people that we interviewed.
Small girls walked around selling post cards and tiny earrings. We noticed that the paan shops were always crowded, irrespective of the time of the day and astrologers did good business by attracting a number of foreign tourists.
We wanted to talk to people on the ghats mainly about Ganga pollution. However, we were a little apprehensive. What if we hurt their religious sentiments in some way? What if the people don’t want to talk about this? We were pleasantly surprised when we found that people were open to discuss this topic. When we asked the people bathing in Ganga whether or not they believed that soap was a pollutant, some casually said, “Ganga will wash away the dirt as she flows.” Others said, “It’s not the soap but the sewage and industrial waste that is the cause of pollution. Some people actually went on to saying, “If soap cleans our body, it is sure to clean the Ganga too.” When we asked them why they bathe in the river knowing that it is polluted, all of them unanimously said, “No matter how dirty Ganga is she will always be pure.” This got us thinking about their notions of pure, impure and dirty. Could the river be dirty and yet be pure?
We walked along the ghats and we saw two young diya(mud lamp) sellers coaxing people to buy small bowls of flower petals with a tiny diya in the middle. When we started hinting at how it might be dirtying the river, they immediately responded, “We are not polluting the river. When we put the diya in the river, it will reach the other side and someone will take it out.” We were amused by their
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childlike ignorance but we felt that if from their childhood itself these girls are conditioned to believe that what they are doing is not dirtying the river, will they ever be able to understand the concept of pollution?
Just then a boatman saw us interviewing people and approached us for a boat ride. We decided to interview him also. Khiralal began to talk about how the government is lax and that is why the Ganga is dirty but he spat paan into the river every time he had to answer our questions. We asked him why he would do that and he replied confidently, “Ganga is our mother, when you were in the womb did your mother mind you doing anything? The same way we are in Ganga’s womb and she won’t mind either.” For a few minutes we did not know how to respond to that! His statement had brought to our notice contrasts such as the worship and abuse of Ganga. But after meeting a number of people, all of who believed that the Ganga was dirty but continued to pollute it themselves, we wondered whether these contrasts were simply in our heads!
Suddenly two young boys approached us and introduced themselves as Sunil and Babu. They asked us about our project and like curious youngsters they posed queries one after the other, as if they were interviewing us. Sunil volunteered to take us around Manikarnika Ghat the next day. So, we exchanged numbers and they left us. Minutes later they got lost in the crowd.
During the day we met a DVD seller. He told us that even though he did not want to bathe in Ganga, he continued to do it because of tradition. A cloth vendor in the adjacent shop added to this and said, “The water is dirty, if I bathe in it for five days in a row I may get a skin disease but I will do it because it is in my tradition.” These comments startled us. These people clearly knew that Ganga was polluted but for them following tradition was most important. This got us questioning their religious beliefs. They did not bathe in the Ganga because of her supernatural abilities but because their traditions required them to do so. Could it be a fear of being ostracised from a social or religious community that bound these people to their tradition?
The evening brought with it a whole new bunch of sights and sounds. Bhajans were played in the background and the multi-coloured lights gave the entire
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Ghat a more lively and glamorous look. We met a book seller who insisted that we stayed on to watch the Ganga Aarti. He said, “In a few hours you will be able to see the Ganga Aarti, but don’t see it as a source of entertainment.” We were a little confused by his statement but at that time we didn’t give it much thought. The Aarti was a combination of light, sound, colour, co-ordination, performance and style.
Figure 6: Ganga Aarti
The entire thing did seem choreographed and it attracted hordes of people. Tourists preferred to watch the Aarti from the boats; this gave the boatmen good business. We thought that maybe this was what the book seller meant by the Aarti being a ‘source of entertainment’. We decided to inquire further by talking to the manager of the Ganga Seva Nidhi, a committee that organised the Aarti on the Dashaswamedh Ghat. He said, “It isn’t commercialised because we never ask for money. There is no donation box for people to drop money. Also, there are no set aside areas for VIPs, where people have to pay to reserve a spot. Everyone sits together, next to each other.”
We also got a chance to speak to the founder of the Gangotri Sewa Samithi, a committee that organised the Ganga Aarti on the adjacent Rajendra Prasad Ghat
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every evening. Pundit Kishori Raman Dubey very proudly told us that he was the first person to start the Ganga Aarti on the Ghats, approximately twenty years back. Unlike our previous interview with the manager of the Ganga Seva Nidhi, Pundit Dubey believed that the Aarti was completely commercialised. He pointed out to the various boards with advertisements of the State Bank of India and other businesses that sponsored the Aarti. These boards were put up all over the Ghat. He also told us that originally these committees were formed to clean the Ganga. Today, the money allocated for cleaning the river is used to fund the Aarti. Pundit Dubey held the other committee responsible for siphoning off all the allocated money. He complained that it was not possible for him to do anything on his own to clean Ganga, if the other committee just wanted to focus on ‘advertising the Aarti and attracting more tourists’. We were disappointed to see how instead of coming together and working towards cleaning Ganga, these committees preferred to shift the responsibility onto each other. Just when we were about to leave his office, Pundit Dubey gave us a copy of his Clean Ganga booklet. We found it ironical to see advertisements of Malls, Hotels and restaurants on its cover!
At the end of the day we were exhausted but still excited with all the information that we had collected. We found it really difficult to put into words and fill our journals with all the feelings and thoughts we had had that day. We fell asleep that night dreaming about all the experiences that we had gathered during the day and about all the experiences still to come.
The next morning we woke up to the sound of temple bells ringing. We got ready and left for Manikarnika Ghat to meet Sunil and Babu. This ghat is also called the ‘Mahashamshan’ or the Great cremation ground. Here, the locals believe that the funeral pyre will never cease to burn.
As we walked through the narrow lanes, we noticed shops selling all kinds of things related to the cremation rituals. There were shops that sold shrouds to cover the body, urns to keep the ashes, sandalwood incense sticks and even clothes to be worn on the day of the ritual.
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Figure 7: Mountains of wood
As we got close to the ghat, the only shops we could see were those selling wood. Our pace slowed down, we were amazed at the sheer amount of wood that was stacked up; it undoubtedly rose to around twenty feet. When we reached the ghat, we were stunned to see how different it was from the Dashaswamedh Ghat just a few kilometres away. At Dashaswamedh, one can feel the pulse of the city and one sees life at its zenith – the Ganga Aarti, the diverse sets of people, the variety of shops, the blinding lights, the deafening sound of the Bhajans and bells. At Manikarnika there is another light, this light is blinding too, it is the light of the forever burning pyre. The atmosphere was almost rancid. Bodies came in hundreds every day to be cremated. If one were on a boat at the centre of these two Ghats, one would see life and death working simultaneously.
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Figure 8: Manikarnika Ghat: the Perennial Pyre
We spoke to a few children who helped their fathers with the cremation. One young boy said, “We have seen dead bodies all our lives so now we laugh about it.” Another child said, “During rains we do good business because more people die.” For a second all of us were taken aback by those comments. We have been brought up in a society where children are not exposed to death. But on that ghat, death and dead bodies were a routine sight for the children. Moreover, what shocked us was how for them death was a business opportunity.
Bodies trailed in every fifteen minutes with a procession of men chanting “Ram Nam Satya Hai,” and no one, except the twelve of us, batted an eyelid. It was a part of their lives. People said, “Everywhere in the world people celebrate birth, but here in Kashi, we celebrate death.” This perspective, this new paradigm through which these people were viewing death was very different for us. We saw a body being carried on top of a rickshaw. The people had tied it with a rope. This was something we had never seen before in our lives. We found out from a few people around us that bodies are brought to Benaras from far off places as well. In fact, once there was a body of a Japanese man brought in from Japan to be cremated in Benaras on the Manikarnika Ghat.
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After lunch we interviewed a vendor selling wood. When asked about the Ganga, he couldn’t contain himself, he said, “Ganga takes care of our needs and requirements. I will do well if I am next to her. She is a Goddess and our mother at the same time.” Our conversation with the vendor attracted more people. Soon we had managed to initiate a discussion on Ganga. A man said, “We feel bad about dirtying the river but it is a part of religion.” A pundit added, “Ganga is a reserve bank from which the gods and goddesses distribute blessings. Thirteen hundred devas (gods) and devis (goddesses) bathe in the river every day. When the blessings are over, they replenish them from heaven. How can the river ever be dirty?” We found it amusing how people brought in myths and religion to explain their actions. Sunil walked us around the Ghat and explained to us the process of cremation. He said that there were a few types of bodies such as those of babies, pregnant women, people bitten by snakes, holy men and animals, which were not burnt; they were simply wrapped up in a cloth, tied to a stone and left in the river. Sunil explained how babies, pregnant women and holy men were all forms of God and so they were not burnt. He added that some ‘tantric babas’ (ascetics who worship Goddess Shakti and practice black magic) could revive people bitten by snakes and so they were not cremated either. When asked whether they thought this would cause pollution, he said, “Babies are sacred, snakes are God and holy men are messengers of god, so how can you say that they pollute Ganga?”
This constant allusion to religion and mythology was something we had noticed in a lot of our interviews. We wondered whether these practices of not burning few types of bodies were actually written in the scriptures or just something the people had made up and passed down through generations. We thought about how these people made sense of their world with the help of religion.
Suddenly, a small board at the end of a lane caught our attention. It said ‘Smashaan Naath Photo Studio’ and had pictures of dead bodies on it. We were intrigued and decided to explore it further. Inside the ‘studio’ we met a man who told us that in Benaras the government does not issue death certificates. He didn’t know why; perhaps because there are too many deaths. So, instead he would take a photo of the dead person and give it to the family. He showed us a
36 Figure 1: Baba Smashaan Naath Studio
At that time we asked him whether he would be open to performing pujas for Muslims or Christians if they decided to convert to Hinduism. He seemed very disturbed by our question. He said that it would be unthinkable for him! However, during our conversation he mentioned that when foreign tourists are inquisitive about the Hindu rituals, he is more than happy to perform pujas for them, irrespective of their religion. We were amused by his statement! When we asked him how this would not be ‘unthinkable’ he retorted, “We pundits also need to earn money and support our families. We charge the foreigners more than the Hindus, it is a selfish need but it is necessary.”
Later that afternoon we interviewed a few of the cremators. They belonged to the Dom Caste. Years ago, this caste was considered untouchable. Even though today people have become more open to accepting them in society, the Dom community still faces discrimination. A young boy sarcastically remarked, “People treat us as untouchables when they are alive, but they do not realise that at the end of their lives they will end up in our hands only.”
Sunil and Babu had arranged a meeting with the Dom Raja. He was the head cremator and commanded as much respect as the King of Benaras. Right outside his house we noticed a few piles of half burnt wood. Sunil explained to us that these were remains of a wood pyre. This made us a little uncomfortable. But what Sunil told us next completely blew our mind. He said that the Dom Raja cooks his food using wood from the funeral pyre. With a few disturbing thoughts, we entered his house. As we spoke to the Dom Raja, we noticed that every few minutes he spat paan on the wall right next to his bed. Right then it struck us that this was an analogy to how Benarasis treated Ganga. They consider Ganga as their life source, their home but still continue to fill it with filth. The Dom Raja extended this attitude even to his own house.
In the evening we met a boatman who told us about a very interesting incident. He said that Rajiv Gandhi had come to Benaras to inaugurate the Ganga Action Plan. At that time, he had insisted on evacuating everyone from the Manikarnika Ghat. Because of that, for the first time in history, the funeral pyre had stopped
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burning. The pundit said that immediately the following year, Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated. He added that he felt the reason for Gandhi’s death was solely because he did the unthinkable action of dousing the funeral fire. Now, we did not know whether this was a true, factual incident or not. However, the confidence with which the pundit narrated this story, he managed to convince quite a few of the people who had gathered around us. We wondered what if this story is passed down through generations and years later people forget the Rajiv Gandhi story but remember only the portion where if someone extinguishes the Manikarnika fire, he/ she will die? Was this the beginning of a new myth that we were witnessing?
As we walked on the Ghats, we realised that there are no boundaries that mark the end of one Ghat and the beginning of the other. It is just a long stretch of land. We crossed quite a number of Ghats and we saw people sitting together and having their evening tea. We saw children playing cricket and other games. The Ghats were like a common meeting area for the Benarasis.
Suddenly we saw people carrying large logs of wood. Right then we knew that we had reached the second cremation ground in Benaras, Harishchandra Ghat. The first thing that struck us on the Ghat was the tall building that houses the electric crematoriums. It overshadowed everything else on the Ghat and gave it quite an eerie atmosphere. We spoke to a few people about the crematoriums and they said, “No one uses them. They have been lying unrepaired for two years now. But that is good. The real Dharma is getting cremated on wood. The electric business is no good. See, it got spoilt right?” We were startled. What does one say to that? This was another example of people connecting incidents to religion.
We walked down the steps of the Ghats in silence, very close to where the dead bodies were being cremated. That is when we observed a few people playing cards right next to a body. They were laughing and cracking jokes. For most of us, since death is a sad incident, laughing next to a dead body just before it gets cremated was completely unheard of. We all felt quite perturbed but we managed to get on with our interviews. When we asked a man on the Ghat what he thought about those people playing cards, he replied, “doctors see patients
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every day. If the doctor cries every time his patient dies, how will he make money? In the same way, those people are used to seeing dead bodies every day. It is their job to carry the body till the pyre.” We thought that his explanation made sense but we still couldn’t completely eliminate the disturbingly uneasy feelings we had had.
That evening we spoke to a few cremators on Harishchandra Ghat before finally heading back to our dharamsala. Some of the cremators showed some resentment over the attitudes of people towards them. He said, “People from higher castes don’t want to be touched by us but they have to be touched by us when they die. Without us who will give them mukti from the cycle of re-birth? We love the Ganga very much. She does not discriminate between rich and poor, lower and upper castes, man and woman, Indian or foreigner, Hindu or Muslim, sinner or saint. She takes everyone into her embrace.” We all in some way agreed with the man. Rivers transcend religious and social barriers. Ganga had given them hope that perhaps someday, people would also come to accept them completely in their society.
The following morning we had decided to go to Assi Ghat which was the southernmost ghat in Benaras. It so happened that we visited the Ghat on the much celebrated day of Basant Panchmi (a day that marks the beginning of spring). We saw many women on the banks of the river performing various kinds of rituals. When we asked a woman whether she thought that throwing flowers and other things into the river during the ritual may cause pollution, she immediately replied, “No there is no such thing as pollution. If she (Ganga) can wash away our sins, she can definitely wash away the dirt.” We thought that her naivety was a more serious concern that one would need to address before trying to solve the problem of pollution.
One ritual that instantly caught the eye was the ‘Gau Daan’. In this ritual, elderly women would hold the tail of a cow (Gau) and offer it come food. This food was later offered to Ganga as well. They believed that after the age of fifty-five, women lose their femininity and they need to go to Ganga and Gau (both considered mothers) to bless them. We later figured out that this was their way
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of dealing with the menopausal phase that women went through in their mid- fifties. Since we were unaware of this then, we decided that we would also participate in the ritual instead of simply observing it. When we asked whether we could also perform the Gau Daan, there was a sudden change in the moods of the women. They were all shocked to see young teenagers like us interested in performing such rituals. About five or six women came surrounded us and told us that we should not get into such things and that we were still young. They all genuinely seemed concerned. The pundit offered to perform another puja for us. So, we performed the simple Ganga puja, where we pray to the Goddess to bless us and our families.
At the end of the puja, we learnt something of great importance – it is an understood fact among the people that some amount has to be given to the pundit. When we did not pay him, we could hear the women talking among themselves and trying to hint at us that we must pay the pundit. So, we paid him some money and left.
Assi Ghat had shops just like on any of the other Ghats that we had visited. They had flower sellers and small time jewellery vendors. However, the difference was that at that Ghat, there were many restaurants catering to the tastes of foreign tourists. There were also many souvenir shops. We realised that that Ghat must be very popular with the foreign tourists.
That afternoon, we had scheduled a meeting with the Mayor of Varanasi, Mr. Kaushalendra Singh. He was very straightforward in his interview and didn’t even once try to deny that Ganga was polluted and that the government was lax. When we asked him about what he thought about the Ganga Action Plan and other campaigns designed to clean the Ganga, he simply laughed and said that nothing had worked so far and that he did not think that it would ever work because the politicians were very corrupt. We thought that this was quite a cynical point of view. It was upsetting to see that being the Mayor, even though he had the power to initiate campaigns to de-pollute the Ganga, he was being lethargic and indifferent to the whole situation.
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After our meeting with the Mayor, we met Malviyaji, the trustee of the famous Kashi Vishwanath temple. He had strong views on religion and rituals. Dharma (religion) to him meant to follow all that was written in the holy books. He encouraged people to take a dip in the Ganga and go to the temple to worship Lord Shiva. However, when we spoke to his son, he gave us a different view point. He told us that he learnt the Vedas only for knowledge and because it was a part of Brahmanical tradition but he studied Science, Physics and Maths so that he could become an engineer and earn more money than he would get as a temple priest. We found this interesting. He was the son of a trustee, someone who was looked up to as a religious authority. For generations his forefathers had been priests. But he wanted to move out of this social structure and his father was quite alright with his decision. He called the new generation ‘part of arthayuga or materialistic comforts. We wondered if the society was beginning to break free of traditional conventions and becoming more materialistic.
In the evening we decided to visit a very famous tea vendor of Assi Ghat called Pappu Chai Walah. We had seen this place in the documentary we saw before the field trip. The place was small, with Pappu sitting outside making tea. We took a video of him making tea in the most unique fashion. We had heard of this place from quite a few of our informants in Benaras. They had told us that people from various backgrounds came here and had discussions over many topics over a cup of tea. We had thought that this place would be perfect for conducting random group discussions.
We initiated the topic of Ganga and pollution and immediately someone said, “Ganga is dirty only in parts, besides if the government would let the Ganga from the dams flow, she would be clean.” This we knew was true. There are over twelve dams on the Ganga. One man gave us a very interesting comparison. He said, “How can a body live if more than half of its blood is drained out. Similarly, the dams drain out the Ganga water, how do you expect it to live?”
Another man in the group said, “You are an outsider, so you think that the river is dirty. It is all about belief. I believe in the sacredness of the Ganga and so I will not fall sick even if I drink the water. But since you don’t believe in it, you will fall
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sick.” This got us thinking about how the concept of sacredness and the deep rooted belief in the ‘holy’ Ganga was such an important part of the mind-set of the people. We being ‘outsiders’ may never be able to understand it.
We conducted the discussion for over an hour. We asked them about any solutions that they would like to propose to clean the Ganga. One man said, “We have started the Mahadeva club where we have 50 families who promise not to use soap while bathing in Ganga.
Figure 2: Pappu Chai Walah
Within the next few years we wish to have over 5000 families who join us with this promise.” We thought that this was a very proactive thing to do. Up till now we had met people who blamed the government for the dirt, blamed the industries or even completely refused to believe the fact that Ganga was polluted. For the first time, we met a man who wanted to do something for the river. This gave us hope that perhaps there really is a possibility, even within the religious and social framework of the people on the Ghats, of de-polluting the Ganga.
Our journey had come to an end. We had had experiences we could have never imagined! We had made quite a few discoveries such as the concept of death, the strong dependency on myths and the evident (to us) contrasts that people faced daily. We knew that Ganga was being polluted by industries, by municipal waste
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and even by the people. People believed that the industries were the main cause of pollution, and perhaps they were right. However, given the number of dams on the river and a decrease in the flow, even the comparatively little pollution caused by people on the ghats was amounting to a grave problem. After spending time with the people, we realised that maybe we would be able to come up with a few ideas on how we could help de-pollute the Ganga.
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“Discovery consists of seeing what everybody has seen, but thinking what nobody has thought” ~ Albert Szent-Gyorgyi
By the end of our field trip we had gathered a myriad of experiences. We had managed to capture not merely the livelihoods of the people but also their lives on the Ghats. We realised that religion and the river are an inseparable part of a Benarasi’s deep rooted love for his city. A professor at the Sanskrit University in Benaras had rightly said, “Ganga and Kashi Vishwanath Mandir are the two industries that run Benaras.”
We had come to Benaras with a lot of questions. But questions are a part of living and so even though we managed to get answers to some of the questions, others were left unanswered.
One of the most recurring questions that kept coming forward during our research was how the people lived amidst contrasts and refused to see them. We thought about whether these contrasts were evident only to us. We had identified three types of contrasts during our research. The first was in the structure provided by Claude Levi Strauss to deconstruct myths. He explained that in every myth there are contrasting pairs of good and bad. The bad has to exist for the good to be considered so.
The second type of contrast, also mentioned earlier in the report, was in the type of articles written about Ganga. We found almost equal number of articles that spoke about the reverence of Ganga as much as the ones that spoke about her exploitation.
The third contrast came up when we were on field. Our trip was for about eight days and it wasn’t too long before we had made our first discovery. We noticed that there was a disparity between the overt behaviour of a Benarasi and his or her underlying religious beliefs and spiritual convictions. The boatman, for example who kept spitting paan into the river, throughout our boat ride, told us
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stories about his life in Benaras. He said that Ganga Maa played a very important role in sustaining his livelihood. He continued to talk about how Benaras would not be the same without Ganga. However, beyond a point, we were too distracted by his paan spitting to listen to him. His action of spitting paan directly contradicted the image that he had created of Ganga – divine and life-sustaining. This contrast was so apparent but he did not see it. When questioned, he said, “Ganga is our mother, we are in her womb and she will take everything just like a mother accepts everything her child does in her womb.” For him this explanation was enough to continue his behaviour and not take responsibility for the consequences of his actions.
We came across another example where the contrast was apparent. There is a myth that immersing the ashes of the dead in Ganga gives them mukti. However, it is the same ashes that cause pollution in the river. This disparity is bridged by their strong belief in mukti and a happy afterlife. Death is an irreversible concept and they want to be sure that they get liberated.
Their convictions are pro-Ganga. But their actions harm her. The reason why they don’t view this as a contradiction is because they have religious beliefs rooted in mythology that bridge this gap.
An important question that arises now is how the people on the Ghats use religion and mythology to describe incidents in their lives and make sense of the world around them. From daily life experiences such as opening their shop every morning to escaping death during the bomb blast, everything had an explanation rooted in a religious belief.
This was not completely unusual as the state of Uttar Pradesh is one of the states in the country with very low literacy rates.55The common man there has not been exposed to science and research. Therefore, he has no option but to place his faith in religion and mythology. A lot of people on the Ghats told us how they believed that nothing could ever bring harm to Kashi, no natural or manmade disaster could ever destroy the city simply because of the myth that Kashi
55Refer to Appendix, Pg. no. 52, Table 1
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resides on the trident of Lord Shiva. People would make sure they took a bath in the Ganga river every day before going for work. This was because they believed that their day would go well if they did so. This belief was internalised to the extent that if they did not bathe in the river, they would get irritable during the day and not be able to give their work their best. Children were taught the value of bathing in Ganga and drinking her water. Since such values are imbibed in them since childhood, it does not come as a surprise that the younger generation will grow up overlooking the pollution in the river and furthermore continue to pass on the same set of values to the next generation.
Looking back at primitive societies, before the advent of science and technology, religion was used to explain phenomena. Today, a few hundred years later, when the world has moved on to super fast technology and reliance on science for all the answers, Benarasis still continue to live in a time capsule. They live in a time when Ganga used to flow freely, her waters not held back by dams. At that time, ashes, flowers and other organic wastes were not a cause of serious concern. However, the fact is that Ganga is no longer free flowing and that even these organic wastes are causes of pollution.
In the past, maybe if the government, before making the laws or designing plans, had taken into account that people here don’t view their actions as polluting at all, the government may have been able to come up with a more comprehensive strategy to save the Ganga.
The GAP, as mentioned earlier, focused mainly on point sources of pollution such as industrial and sewage waste. These constituted a large part of the total pollutants going in into the river. However, the relatively less in quantity non point sources should not be ignored either. The partial decomposition of flowers, the decaying carcasses and the ash lead to bacterial growth and surface pollution. If the flow of the river was not controlled by dams, these organic waste materials would be washed away. However, the reduction in the flow of the river has lead to stagnation of very slow moving water in many stretches. Due to that, the organic waste accumulates in the river causing a rise in water borne diseases such as cholera, amoebic dysentery and typhoid. So, basically, this supposedly
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small percentage of pollution can lead to a much bigger problem. Therefore, it is important to tackle it along with other larger issues of industrial, sewage and municipal pollution.
Through the narratives of the people, we discovered a few possibilities of de- polluting the river. These do not challenge the beliefs of the people. Therefore by adding this perspective to the existing schemes of the Ganga Action Plan, they are more likely to receive less resistance and therefore be more effective in cleaning Ganga.
The GAP had two main schemes to handle non point sources of pollution – Low cost sanitation and River front development. These included measures that would tackle only the superficial problem of people polluting the river. The deeper, more important problem that needed to be handled was the fundamental belief system that prompted those actions.
For example there is a belief that taking a dip in Ganga washes away sins. People on the Ghats told us, “Ganga is holy; the soil on the banks of the river is very pure. Try having a bath with it and compare it with soap and you will see the difference.”
If one replaced the belief of taking a dip in the Ganga to wash away sins with the belief that the same can be achieved even by coming into close proximity of the river, pollution caused due to bathing in the river and using soap will be reduced. Here, religious authorities such as pundits can be taken into confidence to preach the alternative belief. This should not be too difficult as the Puranas themselves state that ‘a mere sight and name of the river is enough to wash away one’s sins’. This coupled with the provision of public toilets (part of the low cost sanitation scheme) for lavatory and bathing purposes could prevent people from bathing in the river. However, one should keep in mind that the drains pipes from these toilets should not go directly in the river (that would defeat the purpose of the whole scheme!) but through some treatment system.
There are a few potential conflicts that could come up such as people claiming that Ganga is ‘self-purifying’. Here, spreading awareness would be necessary
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about how even though Ganga may remain forever spiritually pure, she is being dirtied. This might take some time as the concepts of pure, impure and dirty are ambiguous. However, there are examples of people taking the initiate themselves of not bathing in the river. The aforementioned example of a man who started a club with fifty members, who vowed to stop bathing in Ganga or at least not using soap, could be used to encourage more people.
Another possibility of tackling the surface pollution arises with the Dhobis (washer men) on the Ghats. They use bleaching detergents to clean clothes. These liquids contain harmful chemicals. However, the Dhobis claim that even though they know it is polluting, they have no choice but to use those cleaners. Moreover, these Dhobis belong to a certain caste where for generations they have been involved in the livelihood of cleaning clothes. That is why they cannot even imagine shifting to another occupation. In such a case they could be provided with organic cleaners to wash clothes. This way one does not have to rid them of their livelihood and yet reduce the chemical disposal into the river. If organic cleaning material is provided to them at subsidized rates, there will be no resistance from their side. This would aid the success of the river front development plan of cleaning up the immediate banks of the river.
Almost all the rituals performed on the Ghats involve flowers to be put into the water. This is because of the belief held that once flowers are offered to God; they cannot be put on the floor. So, the only option is immersing them in Ganga. These flowers decompose only partially and remain as lumps and accrue on the river banks. In spite of being a ‘bio-degradable’ waste, they cause pollution. The Kashi Vishwanath Mandir started giving all its flowers to the Benaras Hindu University for solid waste management. Being the biggest religious authority in Benaras, if they encourage other temples to do the same, a large amount of flower waste in the river would be reduced. Moreover, people would see that it is alright to send the flowers for waste management in order to save the Ganga. Also, such actions by the temple could be advertised so that the message could reach out to many more people. By reducing this accumulation of waste in and along the river, the aim of the GAP of beautifying the river banks would also be met.
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One of the most apparent non point sources of pollution is the cremation of dead bodies and immersing ashes in the river. The astonishing number of bodies cremated on a daily basis (250, mentioned earlier), have turned the water around the two cremation Ghats black and extremely dirty. There are no plans in the GAP to deal with this issue. This is largely because cremation has religious beliefs as well as spiritual convictions attached to it. It is a practice not just limited to the belief systems of Benarasis but Hindus all over the world. For them attaining moksha becomes the core of all their activities. There are myths that propagate this belief saying that dying in Kashi and being immersed in Ganga liberates one from the cycle of birth and death and leads one to salvation.
However, the original myth actually mentions something a little different, showing that over time myths have been interpreted, re-interpreted and even mis-interpreted. In the original myth it is said that ‘In Kashi you get moksha; without knowledge there is no moksha’. Only the first line is remembered and rituals are formed based on it. However, it is important for people to know that just by dying in Benaras one does not attain moksha and Ganga will not wash away the sins of a thief, for example, just because his ashes were immersed in her waters.
It is difficult to expect people to break free from such an age old tradition. For this, the GAP could take involvement from the cremators themselves. From our interviews we got to know that almost all of the cremators were unhappy with their work. They would take up another job, if only society would allow that. If the younger generation of the Dom (cremator) community is offered jobs such as those of cleaning the river, one would be able to achieve more than one goal. Firstly, the society would see that the government is open to accepting the Dom into society and may also open up their minds to the idea. This would remove the social stigmas associated with the cremators. Secondly, if there are fewer cremators available to perform the cremation rituals (assuming that the young people would move onto other professions); people would have to look for alternatives. This might also encourage the use of electric crematoria and reduce the cutting of trees for pyre wood.
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Similarly people from the Kevat Jati (Boatmen caste) have a tough time in attracting tourists for a boat ride along the Ghats as many people prefer physically walking on them. It is common to see them hovering around tourists persuading and sometimes pleading them to take a boat ride. During our stay in Benaras we witnessed a much celebrated festival - Basant Panchami, where Goddess Sarasvati (Hindu Goddess of knowledge) is honoured. Large idols of the Goddess are immersed in the river on that day, by tons of people in Benaras. On the very next day, some people were observed removing bits and pieces of the idol from the river. These people were actually trying to reconstruct the entire idol so that it could be resold in the market. This highlights the fact that certain ‘indigenous cleaning mechanisms’ do exist amongst the people, off course they don’t do it with the intention of cleaning the river. The boatmen who are great swimmers and know the river really well can be employed by the government to do the very same thing. Since the immersion of idols cannot be prohibited because it clashes with people’s beliefs, these men can be employed to find the idols and bring them to the banks the very next day. If they are promised a fixed remuneration for it, all the boatmen on the entire stretch of the ghats can be got together for this cause.
Through our interviews with students from the Benaras Hindu University, we found out that Benaras was not a very popular choice for a city for pursuing their careers. Most of them wanted to leave. However, they all said that they would miss the city and of course the feeling of living with the blessings of Ganga Maa. They also expressed concern towards the increasing pollution levels in the river. This opens up a huge possibility. The GAP could employ students and thus create jobs for them. This would give GAP the youthful energy that it needs to execute its plans. GAP would then become a full proof agency with well planned strategies, support of the public, whose beliefs have been taken into consideration and the newly added vigour of the younger generation.
Large parts of Benaras are army cantonment areas. The army can be involved in cleaning cantonment stretches of the river. A major reason for GAP failure was the inertia in taking action due to which there were several delays. GAP could
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definitely use the support of the army support in making sure that certain actions are effectively taken and orders are successfully carried out.
The larger problem, as we are all aware, is the large amount of industrial, sewage and municipal waste being dumped into Ganga. If GAP succeeds in making an allowance for the religious beliefs and spiritual convictions of the people in Benaras while executing its plans, it would bring the people of Benaras together. It would make them environmentally conscious citizens, well aware of the consequences of their actions. Benarasis, known for their helpful nature, love the ‘apnapan56’ they feel in anywhere in Benaras. For them, coming together this way would only be natural. Collectively, the people would then be able to stand up against the industries and pressurise them to control the level of chemical waste disposal in Ganga.
The people of Benaras, along with the strategies designed by GAP, would then be able to stabilise the pivot on which Ganga is so precariously standing today.
When King Bhagiratha, asked Goddess Ganga to descend on the earth, she asked him, “What if my waters get sinned by the multitude of sinners on the earth.” Today thousands of years later, it is ironical how her fears have manifested into reality. Over the years this ‘holy’ river has been used and abused and now she stands on the threshold of her breaking point. It is time we realize that Ganga’s cleansing properties are diminishing and she herself needs salvation. The question we need to ask is how long are we going to take to realize that we have a problem? Do we need another twenty five years to make a change or are we ready to wake up from our seemingly ignorant sleep?
In Benaras today Ganga is living a horrible nightmare. Her voice is muffled by the pollution and her speed is slowed to a dead crawl. She is perhaps awaiting the day when she dies and escapes this world, like every other soul in Benaras. The day is not too far when Ganga will also burn on Manikarnika Ghat.
Unless…
56Apnapan – feeling of belonging to a larger community; feeling at home even with strangers
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APPENDIX
OUR PARENT QUESTIONNAIRE-(These are the overall set of questions from which many more stemmed out and many were improvised on field)
1. Do you believe in God? If yes, why? 2. Are you religious? If yes, how does it help you? 3. Which religion do you follow? 4. What does religion mean to you? 5. Does your religion give you strength? 6. How often do you go to the temple? 7. Do you do puja at home? How often? 8. Have you seen the Ganga Aarti? Do you go for it every day? 9. Do you bathe in the Ganga? If yes, why? If not, why? 10. How often do you bathe in the Ganga? 11. What will happen if you don’t bathe in her? 12. How do you worship Ganga? 13. What is Ganga’s importance to you? Why? 14. How would Benaras be without Ganga? 15. How would your life be without Ganga? 16. Do you think that Ganga is polluted? (What is your take on the Ganga pollution?) 17. Why do you think the pollution levels in the Ganga are increasing? 18. What according to you is the main source of pollution? 19. Is the government playing an active role in cleaning the Ganga? 20. Do you think that spitting paan in the Ganga is polluting? If yes, why do you still do it? 21. Do you believe in mukti/moksha? (liberation/salvation) 22. Do you believe that you would get moksha if you bathe in the Ganga or if your ashes are immersed in her? 23. Do you believe that you would get moksha because you live in Benaras? 24. Who in your eyes gets moksha? 25. Would a sinner also get moksha? 26. Benaras is called the land of Shiva. Do you feel that Lord Shiva’s blessings are with you? 27. When you are faced with a problem, do you believe that Shiva or your God will cure it? Is this because you are in Benaras or would you have the same belief in any other city also?
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28. Have you had any experience because of which your belief in God has increased? 29. If given an opportunity, would you like to leave Benaras? 30. Describe a typical day in your life. 31. What does (this) ritual mean to you? 32. Why do you perform this ritual? What will happen if you don’t do it? 33. If given a choice would you prefer getting cremated on wood or in an electric crematorium? Why? 34. Describe Benaras in 5 words.
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Ranking of States/UTs by Literacy Rate Among Persons, Males and Females, 2001 Census Persons Male Female Literacy Literacy Literacy Rank State/UTs State/UTs State/UTs Rate Rate Rate 1. Kerala 90.86 Kerala 94.24 Kerala 87.72 2. Mizoram 88.80 Lakshadweep 92.53 Mizoram 86.75 3. Lakshadweep 86.66 Mizoram 90.72 Lakshadweep 80.47 4. Goa 82.01 Puducherry 88.62 Chandigarh 76.47 5. Chandigarh 81.94 Goa 88.42 Goa 75.37 6. Delhi 81.67 Delhi 87.33 Andaman & 75.24 Nicobar Islands 7. Andaman & 81.30 Daman & Diu 86.76 Delhi 74.71 Nicobar Islands 8. Puducherry 81.24 Andaman & 86.33 Puducherry 73.90 Nicobar Islands 9. Daman & Diu 78.18 Chandigarh 86.14 Himachal Pradesh 67.42 10. Maharashtra 76.88 Maharashtra 85.97 Maharashtra 67.03 11. Himachal Pradesh 76.48 Himachal Pradesh 85.35 Daman & Diu 65.61 12. Tamilnadu 73.45 Uttarakhand 83.28 Tripura 64.91 13. Tripura 73.19 Tamilnadu 82.42 Tamilnadu 64.33 14. Uttarakhand 71.62 Tripura 81.02 Punjab 63.36 15. Manipur1 70.53 Manipur1 80.33 Nagaland 61.46 16. Punjab 69.65 Gujarat 79.66 Manipur1 60.53 17. Gujarat 69.14 Haryana 78.49 Sikkim 60.40 18. Sikkim 68.81 Chhattisgarh 77.38 Uttarakhand 59.63 19. West Bengal 68.64 West Bengal 77.02 West Bengal 59.61 20. Haryana 67.91 Karnataka 76.10 Meghalaya 59.61 21. Karnataka 66.64 Madhya Pradesh 76.06 Gujarat 57.80 22. Nagaland 66.59 Sikkim 76.04 Karnataka 56.87 23. Chhattisgarh 64.66 Rajasthan 75.70 Haryana 55.73 24. Madhya Pradesh 63.74 Orissa 75.35 Assam 54.61 25. Assam 63.25 Punjab 75.23 Chhattisgarh 51.85 26. Orissa 63.08 Assam 71.28 Orissa 50.51 27. Meghalaya 62.56 Dadra & Nagar 71.18 Andhra Pradesh 50.43 Haveli 28. Andhra Pradesh 60.47 Nagaland 71.16 Madhya Pradesh 50.29 29. Rajasthan 60.41 Andhra Pradesh 70.32 Rajasthan 43.85 30. Dadra & Nagar 57.63 Uttar Pradesh 68.82 Arunachal Pradesh 43.53 Haveli 31. Uttar Pradesh 56.27 Jharkhand 67.30 Jammu & Kashmir 43.00 32. Jammu & Kashmir 55.52 Jammu & Kashmir 66.60 Uttar Pradesh 42.22 33. Arunachal Pradesh 54.34 Meghalaya 65.43 Dadra & Nagar 40.23 Haveli 34. Jharkhand 53.56 Arunachal Pradesh 63.83 Jharkhand 38.87 35. Bihar 47.00 Bihar 59.68 Bihar 33.12
Table 1: Literacy Rates of States in India57
This table shows the literacy rates of states in India. Uttar Pradesh, as one can see, has one of the lowest literacy rates.
57 http://india.gov.in/knowindia/literacy.php
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