VARANASI, India — For
centuries, Hindus have brought their dead to banks of the Ganges River in this
ancient city, with the promise that if their bodies are burned on the
riverfront, their souls will escape the constant cycle of rebirth and attain
moksha, or salvation. Transporting their souls is the goddess of the river,
whose ebbs and flows have run through thousands of years of civilization.
Now this city’s holy
waters are at the center of one of the most important elections in India’s
modern history as Narendra Modi, the front-runner in the race for prime
minister, has made the cleanup of the sacred river a metaphor for his campaign.
He says he wants to restore the river’s purity just as he will revive a nation
sullied by corruption and stalled by mismanagement and bureaucratic sloth.
There was a time in
living memory when the water in the river was clean enough to drink, said
Shyamlal Eshad, a boatman in his 50s. Today, three hundred million liters of
raw sewage mixed with industrial pollutants are dumped in the Ganges here every
day, according to B.D. Tripathi, an environmental scientist and an advocate for
cleaning the Ganges. The stench along the uneven cobblestone steps in parts of
Varanasi is overpowering, and Mr. Eshad laments his goddess in decline.
“I feel Mother Ganga has
called me to Varanasi,” Mr. Modi said to a sea of caps, masks and flags in
saffron, the color of his Bharatiya Janata Party, at a rally leading up to the
voting here on Monday. Results are expected Friday. “I feel like a child who
has returned to his mother’s lap,” he said.
Dr. Tripathi, an
environmental science professor at Banaras Hindu University and a member of a government
panel studying the Ganges, said the flow of the Ganges is being blocked by dams
for irrigation and electricity, limiting its ability to clean itself.
Ninety-five percent of the pollution comes from the raw sewage and industrial
pollutants pouring into it; the rest is half-burned flesh and religious items,
he said. Officials claim they lack the money to build proper water-treatment
facilities.
“We are converting a
river into a pond due to our actions,” said Dr. Tripathi, blaming mismanagement
for the many hundreds of millions of dollars invested in the river with little
to show for it. Like many here, he believes Mr. Modi is the only candidate
decisive enough to save the river.
“Modi’s approach with
Varanasi, is definitely for a lot of Hindus, a call to the ancient past,” said
Nilanjana S. Roy, a writer. “It’s an attempt to create a Hindu symbol and it’s
a call to clean up the pollution of the culture.”
