A recent article in The
New York Times lamented about the excellent
arrangements made for the Kumbha Mela at Prayagraj as something
abominable and done with the aim of catching votes! Even the development of
amenities, construction of roads and flyovers and ban on letting out tannery
effluents into the Ganga were commented upon by this newspaper as agenda-driven
to keep the Hindu vote bank in good humour. While this is nothing but an expression
of a sick mind, one accusation needs to be cleared to set the record straight
and also to keep the Hindus informed of how this event was managed in the past.
The report has termed this Kumbha Mela as ‘State
sponsorship’ of the religion of the Hindus. It ‘justifies’ this criticism
by quoting a figure of $600 million as having gone into the making of a number
of bridges, roads, flyovers, trashcans, toilets etc for the visiting
population. While this is nothing but long term investment benefiting the
entire region, what the newspaper had failed to understand is that this event
was not just Paraygraj-centric, but is celebrated all over India wherever there
are temples. And in all those temples, this event was sponsored by the kings
or/ and by the community living around the temple in olden days. Temple
inscriptions stand as evidence for ‘State sponsorship’ of this event in those
temples.
