Content
- India’s Culture of Risk in Mass Religious Gatherings
- Chola Rule: Beyond Temples, A Governance Legacy
India’s Culture of Risk in Mass Religious Gatherings
Trigger Events & Pattern
- Haridwar Stampede (July 27, 2025): 8 pilgrims died after panic from a rumour of electrocution on temple steps.
- Ayodhya (July 28, 2025): 2 more died as overloaded monkey-proofing mesh caused sparks, triggering a stampede.
- Pattern: Both stem from poor electrical safety, lack of infrastructure audit, and overcrowding without escape mechanisms.
Relevance : GS 3(Disaster Management )
Practice Question : “India’s mass religious gatherings often turn into disasters waiting to happen.” In light of recent stampede incidents, critically examine the structural, legal, and administrative lapses contributing to such tragedies. Suggest robust reforms for safer pilgrimage management. (250 words)
Structural & Administrative Failures
- Temples lack basic disaster readiness:
- No automatic power cutoffs.
- Makeshift wiring and overloaded transformers common.
- Absence of real-time CCTV monitoring and underground cabling.
- Example: Mansa Devi temple had one entry/exit route—violating NDMA norms which mandate multiple, segregated access routes.
Poor Compliance with NDMA Guidelines
- NDMA’s crowd management protocol:
- Calculate carrying capacity,
- Stagger entry,
- Ensure real-time monitoring,
- Maintain emergency exits.
- Ignored across states, especially in hill temples.
Systemic Governance Gaps
- State’s role limited to providing priests, ignoring physical planning.
- Despite High Court and Supreme Court orders, states fail to adopt:
- Tech-based surveillance,
- Crowd certifications,
- Temporary infrastructure for seasonal surges.
- Darshan does not require certification, unlike sports events or protests.
Legal Loopholes & Risk Transfer
- In Uttarakhand & Uttar Pradesh, temples are exempt from NDMA norms under legal loopholes.
- Shrine boards often outsource management to under-trained volunteers.
- Victims are given compensation, but no accountability is enforced on management bodies.
Data Context (Supportive of Argument)
- India has over 1,500 major annual religious gatherings, many drawing crowds of 1–5 million people.
- 2013 Kumbh Mela: over 120 million visited, but crowd planning hailed only due to military-style command control.
- Between 2001–2024, over 900 deaths in India from stampedes — majority during religious events.
Comparative Insights
- Japan’s Shinto festivals cap visitors using electronic queuing systems.
- Mecca’s Hajj uses RFID wristbands, staggered timings, and AI heatmaps to avoid bottlenecks.
Way Forward
- Mandatory Crowd Management Plans: Enforce NDMA’s crowd control manual across all pilgrimage sites—crowd mapping, real-time monitoring, staggered entry.
- Infrastructure Audit & Modernisation: Compulsory audits for electric load, wiring, transformers; auto-cutoff systems for temples.
- Pre-certification & Safety Clearances: Mass gatherings must require certification on safety, crowd density, emergency exits, and basic life-support systems.
- Volunteer & Emergency Training: States must train and certify volunteers in crowd psychology, disaster response, and evacuation protocols.
- Stop Routine Mass Events Without Review: Avoid routinely held, unregulated large religious events; allow only those with infrastructure readiness.
- Legal Enforcement for Organisers: Penalise organisers of mass events for negligence—ensure personal and institutional accountability.
Conclusion
- India must move from ritualistic crowd gatherings to scientifically planned ones, ensuring electrical, civic, and structural audit before mass events.
- Crowd safety certification and NDMA compliance must be legally enforced, even at religious sites, to prevent repeat tragedies under the guise of faith.
Chola Rule: Beyond Temples, A Governance Legacy
Background
- Rajendra Chola I (reign: 1014–1044 CE) built the Gangaikonda Cholapuram Temple (UNESCO WHS).
- But Chola kings were also pioneers in governance, decentralisation, and water engineering.
- PM Modi’s speech (July 27, 2025) spotlighted these often-ignored aspects.
Relevance : GS 1(Culture , Heritage , History)
Practice Question : “The Chola legacy offers more than just temple architecture; it provides enduring models for water governance, structural resilience, and grassroots democracy.” Critically examine with reference to contemporary governance challenges in India. (15 marks, 250 words)
Advanced Water Management Systems
- Chola-era tanks, canals, and reservoir networks still influence Tamil Nadu’s irrigation.
- Data: 40,000+ traditional irrigation tanks still operational in Tamil Nadu (WRD, 2024).
- Emphasis on community-led tank maintenance under Kudimaramathu system — a model of participatory water governance.
- Editorial calls for reviving local water institutions in Cauvery delta suffering from mismanagement.
Earthquake-Resilient Infrastructure (Pre-modern Seismic Design)
- Brihadeeswara Temple (Thanjavur) and Gangaikonda Cholapuram have withstood 1000+ years, including seismic activity.
- Structural Engineering Institute (2023): Chola temples used interlocking stone masonry, flexible joints.
- Lesson: India has historic expertise in climate-resilient design; needs mainstreaming in modern public infrastructure.
Deeply Rooted Local Self-Governance
- Uttaramerur inscriptions (c. 920 CE) document village assembly elections, audit systems, and rotational leadership — a millennium-old model of local democracy.
- Key features:
- Eligibility criteria for village office.
- Lottery-based selection for impartiality.
- Annual audit and recall mechanisms.
- Today’s Reality: 73rd & 74th Constitutional Amendments remain under-implemented:
- Only 17 states have devolved all 29 functions to Panchayats (MoPR 2023).
- Urban local bodies lack fiscal autonomy.
Tokenism vs Real Reform
- While temples/statues are celebrated, Chola-era decentralisation models are ignored in policymaking.
- India needs:
- Real devolution of funds, functions, and functionaries to local governments.
- Learning from Chola institutional design for accountability and participatory planning.
Data-Backed Policy Takeaways
| Theme | Chola Era Benchmark | Modern India Challenge |
| Water Management | Community-led tanks, canal networks | Fragmented and neglected rural irrigation |
| Infrastructure | Earthquake-resilient stone structures | Poor maintenance of public infrastructure |
| Local Governance | Rotational, accountable village panchayats | Weak fiscal/political autonomy in PRIs/ULBs |
| Cultural Integration | Temples + Trade + Public Goods | Focus on heritage but neglect of institutions |
Data-Driven Inferences
- 1000+ years: The temples have stood resilient through centuries and seismic activity.
- 200+ years: Archaeological record of earthquakes in southern India (temples survived).
- 73rd and 74th Amendments (1992): Over 30 years later, grassroots governance still suffers from poor implementation, especially in urban India.
- >8.44 lakh cooperatives in India: Though not mentioned in this article, comparing grassroots institutions like cooperatives (from other sources) further underscores the weakness of elected local bodies.
Conclusion
- The Chola legacy offers not just cultural pride but actionable models for water governance, structural resilience, and grassroots democracy—urgently needed in today’s India.
- To honour their legacy meaningfully, modern India must revive their administrative ethos—not merely their idols.
