The Divine, the Digital and the Political at Humanitys Largest Gathering

High above the millions of Hindu pilgrims walking the grounds of the Maha Kumbh Mela, Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India beams down from giant billboards and posters as far as the eye can see.Elsewhere, there are life-size cutouts of the leader, luminous at night, with his hands folded in greeting.The Maha Kumbh, a spiritual festival widely considered the largest gathering of humanity, is taking place this year in the city of Prayagraj, where the Ganges and Yamuna Rivers meet.

Hindus believe that a third, mythical river called the Saraswati joins them there.Throngs of devotees take a dip in the holy waters in the belief that doing so will purge them of sins and grant them salvation.It is a mesmerizing spectacle.

There are ash-smeared monks, naked ascetics, priests with vermilion paste on their foreheads, ordinary pilgrims, tourists with selfie sticks, awe-struck foreigners, entertainers, small vendors and big advertisers.It is also a feat of urban planning, an overnight megalopolis built on land borrowed from the receding Ganges in the state of Uttar Pradesh, with tents, toilets, roads, streetlights and even automated ticket vending machines.For Mr.

Modi and his close ally Yogi Adityanath, the hard-line Hindu monk who is the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, the Maha Kumbh provides a marketing opportunity like no other.It is a platform to show off India’s achievements — and therefore their own — before a rapt citizenry and a watching world.The political sensitivity of the event was apparent this past week when 30 pilgrims died and 90 were injured in a stampede, according to official counts.

Mr.Adityanath appeared to try to minimize the episode, as it took him nearly 15 hours to acknowledge that people had died and to provide a death toll.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.

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