Kumbh redefined

The most glorified and humongous kumbh mela in history is finally concluding. Kumbh melas have served as the plenary sessions of an unorganized and pluralistic faith spread across a subcontinent, for more than a millennium. It’s catholic nature is evident in the fact that sects formed as a protest against its dominant form like kabir panth and satnami panth are also a part of it and most modern godmen also manage to find a place for themselves. It has always been the biggest human assembly in the world and fascinated the world about how such huge gatherings were organized without any central institution or authority and represented the spiritual unity of humanity in itself. After independence the government has taken upon itself to organize it but not out of religious zeal but as a part of public order. For the first time the incumbent political regime has taken it upon itself to publicize the event and invite, persuade, facilitate, goad and even coerce people into attending it. As a result we have unprecedented attendance which people claim to be more than 600 million visitors and even a budget of more than 100 billion rupees with the entire state machinery proved inadequate to manage. However this gregarious event will be remembered as divisive of a people into the attendees and non attendees.