The 1882 Maha Kumbh is today seen as an inflection point for India’s national consciousness. Will the 2025 event be regarded similarly in another 144 years?
Once every 144 years, a celestial event takes place in space and on earth. In sync with the movement of the planet Jupiter, brahman, the eternal ether, temporarily assumes physical form for a few weeks at Triveni Sangam in eastern Uttar Pradesh – the sacred confluence of three holy rivers, the Ganga, the Saraswati, and the Yamuna.
From every corner of this subcontinent, and thus drawing its hallowed boundary more firmly than any cartographer might ever aspire to, followers of the Dharmic way of life laboriously make their way to take a dip at this riparian junction. The tangible reasons may be personal, and hence, as transitory as human life, but the intangible, underlying driving force behind the impetus to undertake this pilgrimage is truly eternal. That is the force of Dharma, and the basis of karma: a human being’s duty as a social species to ensure the natural order of things, through right thought and right action. Only then might souls, otherwise bound in a cycle of rebirth, find salvation – moksha – and finally merge with brahman. And this is what is reiterated at every Kumbh, by free will, collectively, because we are nothing but the traditions we follow.
The Painful Past
144 years. That is a truly grand arc of history to trace. The last Mah! Kumbha in 1882, when Prayagraj was still very much Allahabad in multiple senses, was a pivotal time in our history. Look at some of the forces at work, or set to come into play.
1882 was the year in which the British conquered Egypt using Indian soldiers (they showed their mettle at the Battle of Tell El Kabir). The oil seeps of Digboi were also discovered that year.
India lay broken, battered, and nigh dead at the feet of the British Empire. The ‘Jewel’ in Queen Victoria’s crown had lost its worth to the locust-like depredations of her Raj. Dharma hung by a slender thread. The strand was set to fray. One more push, and the sole remaining ancient way of life on the planet would also become history. One more victim of relentless Abrahamic conquests which had been going on for almost two millennia.
It was truly the last straw. In preceding centuries, we had lost our cities to the Islamic invaders, and in the 19th century, colonialism ensured such utter devastation of our villages, that India was pushed into the worst resource crunch in its history. Even the drying of the Saraswati River wasn’t this bad, because people were able to migrate eastwards and settle fertile lands in the Gangetic plains. So, it is no wonder that this existential horror forced us to turn inwards, and survival instincts birthed divides in our society, with attendant caste prejudices, which sadly linger on into the present age.
We were treated like animals, humiliated, bled dry. Indeed, Christian missionaries in hordes were camped at Triveni Sangam itself in 1882, distributing pamphlets attacking idolatry and our devotional practices. While devotees took their holy dips in the river, Englishmen and their families watched the spectacle from boats. When pilgrims tried to protest against the presence of Christian missionaries, and the objectionable texts being distributed, the magistrates (either English or Muslim) merely chided the pilgrims for discrediting their own religion by being so rigid in their demands – a view which was duly echoed by the English language press as well.
In fact, it was official policy that Hindus should not be allowed to manage their religious events. Worse, we were forced to conform to laws made for us by foreigners who did not understand us. The principal victims of this outrageous situation were the Sadhus, who were frequently prevented from walking nude through the streets of Allahabad to the confluence. And yet, even if we were treated like animals, we didn’t turn feral. That solitary strand of Dharma, though frayed alarmingly thin, still held firm. And in its stead, a great stirring gradually arose out of that Mah! Kumbha; one, whose impact on subsequent socio-political developments, including the genesis of our freedom movement, and efforts to rekindle our right to follow our way of life, have not been documented or analysed adequately.
A Strong Fight Back
The push back was led by the Sadhus. They had the numbers, the moral right, and the right attitude, because they had nothing to lose. This was followed by a counter to the missionaries’ texts. Allahabad, already a major publishing centre, saw the printing of Hindu texts in response, often freely distributed to those who made the pilgrimage to the Kumbh – in 1882, and subsequently. And then, there were other forces coming into play. In 1882, Swami Vivekananda had just joined Ramakrishna Paramahansa’s order as a teenaged monk. Mahatma Gandhi was studying at Alfred High School in Rajkot. Motilal Nehru was preparing for the bar exam. Both Bidan Chandra Roy and Subramanya Bharati were born that year. Veer Savarkar was born in 1883.
And most significantly, Bankim Chandra Chatterjee published his seminal work Anand Math in 1882. It contained a poem called ‘Vande Mataram’. Both took our country by storm, and heralded a majestic classical literary phase in multiple languages. The job of recovering our pride, our worth, and our self-respect, was on. And there would be no looking back.
A limit was reached in the time of that Mah! Kumbh at Triveni Sangam, on how much indifference to, intrusion into, or contempt for our sentiments would be tolerated. And the message went back from the confluence to every corner of this sacred land. Is it any wonder then, that the British were thus forced to grudgingly accept the concept of self-rule for the natives, and create an outlet for these long-trammelled feelings, in the form of the Indian National Congress in 1885?
Present: 144 Years Later
Now, fast forward 144 years to the present Mah! Kumbh. Where do we stand? ‘Vande Mataram’ is our national song. Swami Vivekananda is a bright, enduring, guiding light on both the kind of society we must evolve into, as well as the key metaphysical underpinnings of the morality it will exercise. Faith is no longer an ugly spectator sport the colonialists had made it into by 1882. It is a way of life and we will lead it as per our ancient traditions, customs, and rituals, without interference.
One could even say that if Vivekananda is theory, then the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh is practice. Our legalities may by governed by the constitution and the courts, but our ethics are unequivocally derived from the distillates of Dharma – Vedanta. In 2025, while our colonial past may have become a part of our history, the rapine and the excesses of that age are still in the process of being exorcised from our society.
In the process, this inexorable civilizational awakening is slowly transforming India into a pivotal geopolitical force for good