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Lessons from Kumbha, It defies Mass communication logic; creates a wonder at how people communicate
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By: Shivaji Sarkar
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Article published on IST
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Illiterates, semi-literates, uneducated, highly educated, able bodied, handicapped, pauper, poor and the stinking rich – congregate at Kumbha Melas. The recent Haridwar Kumbha has been no exception. Over four crore people across the country have come to have a “darshan” of the Ganga – the unifying factor for over 110 crore Indians and at least another 25 crore people from the Indian sub-continent or Jambudweep – Bhutan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka - as was known in the ancient times.
Even thousands of foreigners came to have an experience of this unique phenomenon. People from Pakistan were also there this time.
It defies logic. It devastates the so called proponents of various theories of mass communication. The mass communication is based on message sender, receiver, coding and decoding. Nothing happens here. Nobody knows who is sending the message but everyone in the sub-continent knows when this largest congregation is to take place. Even the man who cannot read, does not have access to radio, television or newspaper knows it. It unifies the people.
People reached Haridwar from mid-January to mid-April uninvited. They knew of each auspicious day and even their significance. They knew what a “shahi snan” is and landed on that small stretch of expanse around Ganga and its “Sapt Dhara” – the seven streams.
They endured the severe heat to trek almost 20 km to reach the ghats. Nobody reported that there was 55km-long jams on the highways around Haridwar – be it from Muzaffarnagar, Bijnaur, Roorkee or Dehradun. Several hour-long jams and everyone bore it without a whiff of a protest. They walked for miles after parking their vehicles and none is known to have rued it.
Lakhs stayed in and around Haridwar for the three months and except for a small stampede at one end of the mela that took seven lives on the last day nothing untoward is known to have happened.
It is a wonder. Is it tourism? Not really. Tourism needs promotion. It needs advertising. It needs lobbying. It is a business and has profit motive. Iceland tourism business had been promoting volcano tourism as the largest volcano erupted there about a year back. It was considered a massive success. How many visited Iceland? A mere 10,000. The business there had advisors to adopt various mass communication methods, launch messaging campaigns through all modes, including internet. Still only a few thousand had the knowledge and inclination to take the tour.
The Kumbha had not adopted any of these tricks to promote the congregation. The state governments, wherever a Kumbha takes place, are keen that fewer people reach the venue. Larger the congregation, bigger is the strain on the administration. They do not discourage but do not encourage people also to visit during the mela.
Still the poorest, illiterate person knows the significance of Kumbha and the purpose – Sun’s transition in one or the other rashi- zodiac sign. There were people whose living depends on daily wages, or toiling in someone’s farm, a construction site or dusty smoky mines to those who live comfortable lives in air-conditioned houses and cars. All those were there without a complaint.
Some may call it business. It generates some business for the local population. But it is peanuts in corporate terms. During the 2001 Kumbha Mela at Prayag – Allahabad some corporate houses tried to promote their products. Some big hoteliers and tourist agents tried to promote religious tourism. They had elaborate business plans equipped with the best of public relations, business promotion and armed with mass communication tools.
After the Mela, they all admitted that all their messaging had failed. The people coming in hordes through all modes of conveyance were not interested in their messaging. The messages were transmitted but it never reached the sender. As per mass communication theory the messages were never decoded. The business messages failed. The shops drew only average crowds and below average sales. Even government’s efforts at spreading social messages on health and other issues had limited success.
In many cases, it was reported that people shunned visiting commercial areas in the Mela unless they had some dire needs. Haridwar Kumbha has been no different.
While commercial messaging failed, the fervour of meeting people, staying together, and listening “pravachan” are a tremendous success. “Pravachan” is often translated as preaching. It is not. Preaching has an aim at converting people in a belief or spread a certain message. There is some give and take in preaching. Pravachan has none. It is largely a message for staying together harmoniously in the society in a selfless manner. The saints giving pravachan do not expect to receive anything. Yes, some people visiting them give whatever they can, mostly not more than a rupee coin. Most others do not.
Political parties struggle to get people to their meetings. Those reaching do not listen to their leaders.
Kumbha is a contrast. Thousands flock each of the massive pandals since morning to late in the night to listen to the saints. They listen in rapt attention. Anybody lacking manners is looked down. Nobody dares behave in a way other than the accepted one. There is no exception. Who gives that message? The mass communication theorists have no answer though they again may propound new theories.
The various akharas and their mahamandaleshwars do not advertise themselves. Still people know what they would be saying on a particular day. Accordingly they move from one pandal to another.
Even as a society is the only occasion, possibly in the world, when so many people come together for so long and nobody bothers about language, region or caste of a person taking a holy dip in the Ganga, Sangam in Prayag, Godavari in Nasik or Shipra in Ujjain, where Kumbha Mela takes place every 12 years.
It is much more than a melting pot. In a country, where politicians use or misuse caste, sub-caste, region, religion and languages, the phenomenon of bathing in the same river where next to someone bathing may be a social outcaste is unthinkable.
It is not restricted to that. At akharas – religious camps - they again sit together to eat “prasad” together again without bothering about material divisions like caste, language or sect. Akharas do not discriminate. The feeling of oneness is spread and that is the great success of Kumbha.
How does it happen? Is it the intrinsic strength of this ancient civilization, its traditions, spiritual values and behaviourial patterns? Modern sociology, mass communication is supposed to be its offshoot, may not analyse this. Someone may say it is how the Hindu way of intense messaging is.
But Hindu is not one. There are many sects and sub-sects of followers of Sanatan Dharma, as Hinduism is known among the devout. They are divided as Shaivite, Vaishnavite, Shakta, Jain, Sikh, Raidas, Vedantis and so many more. There are many branches of these and each has specific rules of their spiritual behaviour. Still no boundaries divide them during Kumbha and they visit each others akharas or camps to listen and even partake food together. Where political messaging has failed, something unique happens. Can that be deciphered?
The bonding is tremendous and it transcends automatically. It creates an invisible connection and a unique social phenomenon. The bonding is just not among the old who have got nothing but to renounce the world perhaps. The youth taking a dip or visiting the akharas for listening pravachans formed more than 70 per cent of the visitors. They were not bothered about living comforts. They slept wherever they found space – be it a roadside or beneath a tree or just on the banks of the Ganga.
Food is also not a problem. It is available free everywhere and is served with humility. The guest or “bhakta” – devout – is given a divine treatment. It is estimated that over 95 per cent of the people have this divine “prasad”. This explains why hotels and five-star tourist camps failed at Prayag. The distributor of “prasad” has no commercial aim. He is not expecting any return for the food he is offering. All visitors as Mahamandaleshwars – the head of the akharas - say are from the same family – the family of the Almighty.
They really behave like a family. Such a huge crowd but there is no impatience anywhere. Everybody awaits his turn either to take the holy dip or listen to a pravachan or partaking of “prasad”. It is too orderly a system that pervades the mela all over.
Yes, there are some crimes by gangs of thugs, mainly small stealing. But considering the number of people the number is too miniscule. Many organized gangs keep off fearing divine wrath. Is that also a systematized messaging?
There is one messaging. It is about everyone being one and the life being too ephemeral. So the message spread is not to be deceitful and to be as good as possible to others and available for help all the time. It also teaches the society to remain unified and vigorous. The Kumbha is the biggest insurance against jihadi attacks, political and secularist attempts at creating divisions. It gives the greatest power at sustenance of the Indian society. It creates a socio-spiritual bond that possibly keeps this nation survive many politico-religious-commercial onslaughts. A visit to the Mela fills one with a sublime feeling and joy. This is what energises the Indian society. This creates that feeling of tolerance and promotes the sense of accommodation and forgiveness.
No sociologist or mass communication expert ever would be able to break the code that makes Kumbha Mela the ethos of this country and its society and a sense of belonging.
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