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India is killing the Ganges, and Modi can do nothing about it

India is killing the Ganges, and the Ganges is killing India. The waterway that has nourished more people than any on earth for millennia is now so polluted it is a menace to public health

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Indian students collect waste on the banks of the river Ganges in Allahabad. Photo: AFP
On a hot April day in 2014, a fervent crowd of thousands surged through the streets of Varanasi to catch a glimpse of one man: Narendra Modi, the son of a Gujarati tea seller who had risen to become the charismatic leader of India’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). For the imminent general election in the world’s largest democracy, Modi had effectively abandoned his native Gujarat (where the BJP was already secure) and stood for parliament in Varanasi, also known in English as Benares. He had two reasons.
Indians search for reusable materials on the bank of the Ganges river in Allahabad. Photo: AFP
Indians search for reusable materials on the bank of the Ganges river in Allahabad. Photo: AFP
First, Varanasi lies in the middle of Uttar Pradesh (UP), India’s largest state, whose population of more than 200 million is comparable to that of Brazil. Second, Varanasi with its 5,000-year heritage on the holy Ganges is the cultural heart of India and of Hinduism and, it is said, the world’s oldest living city.

“He’s brilliant and he will make corruption disappear,” said Tanvir Singh, 32, a resident of Varanasi who runs a business selling car accessories. Crowds of young men, drenched in sweat in the early summer heat, chanted “Modi! Modi!” as their champion garlanded statues of Indian heroes and paraded through the streets atop an open van. “Varanasi is an extremely important historical, cultural, educational and civilisational centre,” said BJP official Navin Kohli. “In the 2014 elections it’s emerged as the political capital … The BJP felt that by Mr Modi standing from Varanasi – from UP and Varanasi – it would also have an impact on a very large part of the Hindi heartland.”

A Hindu performs a religious ritual on the banks of the holy river Ganges. Photo: AFP
A Hindu performs a religious ritual on the banks of the holy river Ganges. Photo: AFP
In a blog to mark his nomination, Modi promised to clean up the holy but heavily polluted Ganges, a popular cause in a city that depends on pilgrimages by devout Hindus who come to bathe in the river from its famous ghats, the stairways leading to the water. “The condition of the Ganga [Ganges] in several parts of UP is pitiable,” Modi said in his blog. “We can’t let this go on any more! Need of the hour is to work towards cleaning the Ganga and restoring it to its previous glory.” As he told the crowds in Varanasi: “When I was coming to this city I thought the BJP was sending me, but after I came here I felt mother Ganges had called me. I feel like a child coming to his mother. I want Kashi [Varanasi] to be the spiritual capital of the world.”

WATCH: Can Modi clean the Ganges, India’s biggest sewage line?

In the short term, Modi’s bet paid off handsomely. He won the constituency easily, while the BJP won 71 of the eighty parliament seats in Uttar Pradesh, and went on to win control of the country in the most sweeping election victory for a generation. He did not forget the river after his election triumph the following month. “Ma Ganga has decided some responsibilities for me,” he said at a celebratory meeting. “She will keep guiding me and I shall fulfil the tasks one by one. From her source to her end, Ma Ganga is screaming for help. She is saying, ‘there must be one of my sons who will come and pull me out of this filth’ … There are many tasks that perhaps God has set for me.”

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