gangasagar mela pilgrimage and development at the sagar island

8/13/2019 Gangasagar Mela Pilgrimage and Development at the Sagar Island

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Gangasagar Mela:

Pilgrimage andDevelopment at the

Sagar Island

A Study conducted by SEED(Society for Socio-Economic and Ecological Development)

January 2014

Mohan Halder and Shanto Baksi


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Gangasagar Mela: Pilgrimage and Development at the Sagar Island

A Study conducted by SEED: January 2014 2

Table of Contents

Serial Titles Page

1. Acknowledgements 06

2. Foreword 073. Background 083.1 The Initial idea about the Study 083.2 The ongoing project at Sagar Island 094. River Ganga 115. Gangasagar / Sagar Island 166. Gangasagar Mela 196.1 Special Event / Incident 216.2 CBOs working in the management of Mela 256.3 The SPUM event at the Mela 267. Pilgrimage 277.1 Pilgrimage to Gangasagar Mela 277.2 Common People 287.3 The Sadhus 318. Development of the Sagar Island 348.1 ICZMP at Sagar Island 358.2 SEED as a part of ICZMP 359. Afterword 3710. Appendix 3810.1 The Study Team 38


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List of Acronyms

CBO Community Based Organization

DM District Magistrate

FGD Focus Group Discussion

GP Gram Panchayat

ICZM Integrated Coastal Zone Management

ICZMP Integrated Coastal Zone Management Project

IESWM Institute of Environmental Studies and Wetland Management

PHE Public Health Engineering

SHG Self Help Group

NGO Non-Government Organization

SEED Society for Socio-Economic and Ecological Development

SPMU State Project Management Unit


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Glossary

Ganga A river: in India the water of Ganga is considered as holy

water.

Gram Village (for land demarcation another term is used: Mouza).

Gram Samsad Is an elected village council; it can be Part of a Village /

sometimes 2 Villages can part of single Gram Samsad: a Gram

Samsad is formed / marked on the basis of voting population

of that locality.

Izara Contract

Izaradar Contractor

Lakh 1 Lakh is = 100 thousand

Lat / Lot An area taken in lease by an individual and after that he will

use laborers to do farming, cutting and selling timber and

other income generating activities.

Latdar Owner of a Lat

Lord Shiva Shiva, also known as Parameshwara (the Supreme God),Mahadeva, Maheshwar or, Bholenath, is a popular Hindu

deity.

Mela Fair / Carnival

Math / Matha A place / organization of followers of a religious sect or cult /

subsection of a religious order where followers stay together

and worship their chosen Deity / Idol.

Naga Sadhu Naga Sadhus are followers of a Shaiva sect, they are

considered as the representatives of Lord Shiva.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bholenathhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindu_deitieshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindu_deitieshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindu_deitieshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindu_deitieshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bholenath


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Odisha Formerly known as Orissa. On 4 November 2011, the English

rendering of the name Odisha was officially changed

from Orissato Odisha.

Panchayat A cluster of villages, also an electoral constituency.

Sadhu The word Sadhu is used for those persons who have chosen to

live a life apart from or on the edges of society to focus on

their own spiritual practices / beliefs.

Sagar Ocean

The section marked in this color represents the comments /

opinions from individual interviews.

The section marked in this color represents the comments /

opinions from FGDs.


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Acknowledgements

The wonderful people of Sagar Island, who has made us outsiders - feel like weare at home; and, all those millions of pilgrims who have traveled from their homes

to visit Gangasagar Mela, and made it one of the most spectacular religious eventsin the calendar of spiritual occasions / experience, and enriched the extraordinary

country like India.

Additionally all the administrative people who are permanently assigned for Sagar

Island and all those who have come / joined duties for this Mela period deserve a biground of applause for their stupendous efforts and commitments, to make this years

event an accident free event.


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Foreword

The word pilgrimage is linked as an inseparable part of Indian history, and thepilgrims / outsiders coming to Gangasagar Mela on the occasion of the MAKAR

SANKRANTI inspired us to planthis study. This event at the Sagar Island, called the Gangasagar Mela, takes place

every year around 13 / 14 / 15 January (the date is set according to Bengali Hinducalendar). It is a very popular auspicious occasion and millions of devotees come

from all parts of India and beyond to take part in this annual event.

The present study idea started as an impact assessment of a rural development project

but during the process, the issues related to the history of Sagar Island, pilgrimage,

religion and social mobilization of people in-and-around become more interestingfor the study team and therefore the study / process may have pushed the team to

explore areas about the Sagar Island and Indian society which was not a part of theprimary idea of this study.

Sometimes a creation can also inspire the process of its own evolution, and its not

necessary that the creators are always in total control of their creations; life is likethat: its a set of random variables continuously bouncing into each other and

creating new things.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Makar_Sankrantihttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Makar_Sankranti


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Background

The Initial idea about the Study

The present study was planned as an impact assessment of the multi-goal-orienteddevelopment project which is going on at the Sagar Island for more than 15 months

(since September 2012) and some of its targets have been achieved. An interestingpart of this effort is this that many components of the development effort is being

covered / implemented by different Government Departments in collaboration with

different Private / Civil Society Organizations (CSOs), and Non-GovernmentOrganizations (NGOs). Thus the overall intervention becomes a cosmopolitan

development initiative of social mobilization: rural development though SHG (Self

Help Group) / CBO (Community Based Organization) based intervention fordevelopment of rural infrastructure and income enhancement of rural people giving

an extra emphasis on making / promoting women entrepreneurs.

The study will try to capture the spontaneous opinions of the pilgrims and localpeople about what are the changes that they are noticing in the Sagar Island during

last 5 years.

Additional areas of queries will be about climate change, biodiversity etc.

We will try to divide the sets of respondents into 3 groups of people: 1) pilgrims

coming to the Gangasagar Mela for many years, 2) pilgrims coming to theGangasagar Mela for the first time and 3) the local people / residents of the Sagar

Island. Each group will be further sub-divided according to gender [male / female /

transgender] and age [children / adults / elderly people].

Nature of interview / interaction: -

Open-ended questions will be informally posed keeping in mind the goals of the

project (without any format): recording the responses and, later on transcribing the

responses.

At the time of collecting information the study team will try not to mention anythingabout the ongoing development project; to see naturally what has been noticed by

the local people and the outsiders as change in the Sagar Island, culturally / sociallyand, facility wise / infrastructure.


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Additionally we shall also be collecting information about the lives of thepilgrims and about their journey from home to the Sagar Island. Along with

their views about other places of pilgrimage that they have visited and try to

find information for a comparative analysis of similar places of pilgrimageunder these heads: infrastructure, safety, health and hygiene, etc.

The number of respondents can be very limited since the nature of the interactions

will be in-depth interviews: the number of respondents will also be less as thepilgrims stay for maximum 2 / 3 days at the Sagar Island for the Mela, and place

becomes very crowded for those 2 / 3 days.

The ongoing Project at Sagar Island

The development of the coastlines of India is a vast and ambitious project taken bythe World Bank. Now in India the World Bank is supporting interventions in 3 states:West Bengal, Odisha and Gujarat.

The Department of Environment, Government of West Bengal is the nodal agencyof Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM) project in West Bengal. The

Institute of Environmental Studies and Wetland Management (IESWM) is working

as the State Project Management Unit (SPMU) for Integrated Coastal ZoneManagement Project (ICZMP) in West Bengal. SPMU is responsible for

preparation, planning, implementation and monitoring of ICZM in West Bengal. InWest Bengal, the SPMU had selected Sagar Island as the most vulnerable area in the

Sundarbans of South 24 Parganas and coastal area of Purba Medinipur Districts.

The ICZMP in West Bengal is implemented through 6 NGOs and its for the

development of livelihood component of the project. One of the most importantaspect of the project is this that the development related interventions will be

directly done by the CBOs / GPs, and these 6 NGOs will play the role of facilitator/ supervisors to monitor the process of development at Sagar Island.


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The NGOs and the GPs where they are working: -

Sabuj Sanghaworking in GPs, Dhaspara SumatinagarI and Ghoramara1

Tagore Society for Rural Development working in GPs, Dhablat andMurigangaII

SEED2 (Society for Socio-Economic and Ecological Development) working in GPs, Rudranagar and MurigangaI

Nature Environment & Wildlife Societyworking in GP, Ramkarchar

Paribesh Unnayan Prishadworking in GP, Dhaspara SumatinagarII

Vivekananda Institute of Biotechnologyworking in GP, Gangasagar

The 2 main components / intervention logics of this project are called EPA (Entry

Point Activity) and IEP (Income Enhancement Plan); these interventions wereimplemented through CBOs.

EPA for improvement of infrastructure

IEP for growth of individuals income

1 This is another island geographically separated from the Sagar Island, but comes under the

administrative jurisdiction of the Sagar Block.

2 SEED (Society for Socio-Economic & Ecological Development), Registered Office: 17 / 1,Naktala Road, Kolkata700 047, West Bengal, India, Email: [email protected],Website:

-www.seedin.org
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]://www.seedin.org/http://www.seedin.org/http://www.seedin.org/http://www.seedin.org/mailto:[email protected]


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River Ganga

The river Ganga is an integral part of Indian society, mythology and folklores;writing anything about the Indian history is not possible without mentioning the

name of the river Ganga. The river Ganga has 108 names. The names are givenbelow in both Bengali and Devnagri scripts: -

---[ 108 ]

---

[108 ]

1. 1. 2. -- 2. --3. 3. -4. - 4. -5. 5. -6. 6. -7. 7. -8. - 8. -

9. 9. 10. 10. 11. 11. 12. 12. 13. - 13. -14. - 14. -

15. -- 15. --16. - 16. -17. 17. 18. - 18. -


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19. -- 19. --20. - 20. -21. - 21. -

22. 22. 23. 23. 24. 24. 25. 25. 26. 26. 27. 27.

28. 28. 29. - 29. - 30. 30. 31. 31. 32. - 32. -33. 33.

34. - 34. -35. 35. 36. - 36. -37. - 37. -38. 38, 39. 39.

40.

40. 41. -- 41. --42. - 42. -43. - 43. -


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44. -- 44. --45. -- 45. --46. 46.

47. 47. 48. - 48. -49. -- 49. --50. 50. 51. 51. -52. -- 52. --

53. 53. 54. 54. 55. 55. 56. 56. 57. 57. -58. 58.

59. 59. 60. - 60. - 61. 61. 62. 62. 63. 63. -64. - 64. -

65.

65. 66. - 66. -67. 67. -68. 68.


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69. 69. 70. 70. 71. 71.

72. 72. 73. 73. 74. 74. 75. 75. 76. 76. 77. - 77. -

78. 78. 79. 79. 80. -- 80. --81. 81. 82. 82. 83. 83.

84. 84. 85. 85. 86. 86. 87. 87. 88. 88. 89. 89.

90.

90. 91. 91. 92. 92. 93. - 93. -


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94. 94. 95. 95. 96. 96.

97. 97. 98. 98. 99. 99. 100. 100. 101. 101. 102. 102.

103. --- 103. ---104. -- 104. --105. 105. 106. 106. 107. 107. 108. 108.

/ / Source:

Jai Shree Mataji SAHAJA YOGA MANTRA BOOK (SHRI MATAJI NIRMALA

DEVI), quoted in: Dr. Rashmi Sanghi (Ed.), Our National River Ganga: Lifeline ofMillions, Heidelberg etc.: Springer [to be published in 2014]: 379-382.


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Gangasagar / Sagar Island

Its the last piece of land of the state of West Bengal, and its the meeting place ofriver Ganga (also known as river Hooghly) with Bay of Bengal: Ganga + Sagar =

Gangasagar.

30kilometers


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The journey to Sagar Island used to be a very

difficult expedition for all the people and the mostdifficult part was crossing the river. The present

boats are very reliable and safe, but previously

people used to cross the river in wooden boats andbecause of that many accidents have happened in

the past, and many people have died due toaccidents.

The development of this island was initiated byoutsiders and the present population at Sagar

Island is part of a migration. The popular belief / and fact is this that most of the

people of Sagar Island are originally from Medinipur, and it has also been noticedthat culturally the people of Sagar Island are connected / culturally compatible first

with Medinipur and after that with Orissa / Odisha.

British ships first noticed the SagarIsland on their way to Kolkata, and

decided to use this island for making

salt; at that time the island was full withwild animals; they captured those

animals and sent them to the Zoos and

Circuses in England.

The Britishers started to take permission

from the colonial Government to workat Sagar Island, one after the other, 7

such lease contracts of 10 years eachwere completed, and after that the

British contractors demandedpermanent lease to work at Sagar Island,

but the Government denied them that right; and that is why they became less

interested about this island. After the age of the British came the time Indian trader

turned zamindars or landlords (mostly from Kolkata), and they started to take thelease of this island.

This tradition continued almost till 1910 / 1915; after that the landlords of Medinipurcame into the picture. These landlords also brought people with them and its those

people who have made Sagar Island a suitable place for habitation.

Previously we have seenpeople are coming to SagarIsland on the boats, that was theonly way of communication, andwe have seen many boats big,

small different sizes and shapesare bringing people toGangasagar Mela ground; inthose days people used to landdirectly into the beach in front ofthe Kapil Muni Temple.

There is a myth that many years agoSagar Island use to be a place of a verymodern and cultured civilization, but due toa natural calamity that civilization wasdestroyed, and slowly Sagar Islandbecome a place of wild animals and oncewhich was a great civilization became a

jungle full with fearsome predators: till

today people in Sagar Island die due tosnakebite. The British chose Sagar Islandas a place of habitation and the jungle wascleared by people to make it a place ofresidence / habitation, but still one can findthe ruins of that civilization in many placesinside Sagar Island.


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Subsequently the landlords gave the right /

lease to several Latdars or sub-contractors touse the land at Sagar Island.

In time Sagar Island also become part of the

bigger Indian society and then the island was

divided into 46 villages, but unfortunately 3villages have gone under the sea, and among thepresent 43 villages 15 / 16 villages are in an

unsafe situation; and may be in future thesevillages will also go under the sea water.

The island was divided intoLats; and its the Latdars whobrought people from mainland toSagar Island and most of theseLatdars were from Medinipur. In

those days the water used to bevery salty and it was very difficultto drink it, people use to mixtamarind into water to make itdrinkable. The Latdars dug bigponds with a very highembankment so that therainwater can be stored in that;and it will also save therainwater from contaminationduring the floods in the rainy

season, and still you will seemany such ponds in SagarIsland.


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Gangasagar Mela 2014

The pilgrimage at Gangasagar Mela is the second largest congregation of people inIndia after the holyKumbha Mela.TheKumbha Mela is observed once in four years

at alternate locations in north, central and central-west parts of the country, butGangasagar Mela and pilgrimage is held annually on the Sagar Island, and that

makes Gangasagar all the more distinctive.

There are many stories / folklores about this Mela, Kapil Muni and its origin. Kapil

Muni or Kapila was a sage of the Vedic age .His name is associated with many Brahminical and Buddhist tales and places of

pilgrimage, such as Kapilavastu. Some people say that some other Kapil Muni came

to Sagar Island long before the year 1870 / 1875; the Sagar Island was chosen as aplace of habitation and jungle was cleaned by people to make it a place of residence

after the year 1875; so we can say that Temple was here before it became a place ofhabitation.

The first Temple of Kapil Muni was reportedly

constructed by some queen Satyabhama in 430AD. The existing temple was constructed in

1971; according some other sources it was

constructed in 1974. The present Temple is the

7thone, and all the previous ones have gone under

the sea due to the rise of seawater / sea level.

A popular belief is that Kapil Muni was from Uttar Pradesh (UP), and a proof of thatis the present management of the Temple is in the hands of a Math or Matha

, which has its origin in Ajodhya in UP. Thename of the Math is Hanuman Garhi Math / Hanuman Garhiya Pancham

Ramanandiya Nirbachani Akhara, popularly known as Hanumangari.

In the past many times problems have occurred among the people of the Math and

local Bengalis and the main reason behind that is the earnings from the Temple of

Kapil Muni, which goes to Ajodhya, and its not been used for the development ofSagar Island. In the year 1960 an injunction was issued about collecting donation

from pilgrims, since 2 rival groups were fighting over the control of the Temple andits donation, and pilgrims were suffering because of that. For a period of time

donation was collected by the Police, and all this had led to a legal battle between

In my childhood the place ofGangasagar Mela was 5 / 6kilometers down the beach, andall that have now gone under thewater, along with that manytemples of Kapil Muni have alsogone under the sea.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kumbha_Melahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kumbha_Melahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kapilahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kapilahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kumbha_Melahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kumbha_Mela


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the Math and the Government of West Bengal. The Math won that legal battle, and

since then the Temple is being run by the Math.

These days the Mela is functioning like a very well-oiled machine, and the credit for

that goes to the administration: all the Government departments and social welfareorganizations that are working wholeheartedly for its success.

During the Mela one ofthe main problems for

the administration ispeople getting lost at the

Mela ground / inside

Sagar Island.

The administration isworking very hard to

prevent people fromgetting lost, by putting

signboards with numbers

and directions towardsvarious areas inside the

Mela ground and also by

providing informationthrough signboards

about important places

like Bus stand, etc.

Now my age is 67 and I am going to the Mela since I was6 / 7 year old; at that time there were no permanent roads,and we used to walk from home towards the Mela ground,and came back also by foot. Now where there is a busstand from there up to the Temple of Kapil Muni all thatarea was like a jungle. The stories about the Temple beingsurrounded by animals like Tigers, Bears etc. are not truefor my time, because I have only seen Foxes in that jungle.

The small bridges that you see these days; none of themwere there. For crossing the canal before the Templemakeshift bridges used to made with banana plants. Inthose days the responsibility of organizing the Mela usedto be given to a contractor or Izaradar: some Mr. Ghose ofKolkata, and when I used to take interest about thingsbeyond my personal life around 1971, I saw that still thesame Mr. Ghose is getting that contract or Izara of theMela. In the year 1980 when Ms. Ranu Ghose took charge

as the District Magistrate(DM), she started to take interestabout the Mela and found out that in that year the Izara

was given against an amount of Rs. 44,000.00 to Mr.Ghose, and also that the Public Health Engineering (PHE)Department is the concerned department regarding theMela. At that time I was working in the Land RevenueDepartment, in the next year Ms. Ranu Ghose told us thatwe have to go to the area that is outside of this years Izaraand collect tax from the shops and businessestablishments of those areas; and we collected Rs.12,000.00 from there during the 1981 Mela. From the nextyear the Government took charge of the Mela in a plannedmanner with all concerned departments coming together

to do it in a proper way and since then the days ofIzaradars hold came to an end. In the year 1982 wecollected revenue of more than Rs. 200,000.00 from theMela.


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One Special Event / Incident

The area of Rudranagar, GP is the heartland of Sagar Island and on January 13, 2014

we found an elderly lady with some sort of difficulty in saying about what has

happened to her; she was wandering in the Rudranagar market area. The local peopleof Sagar Island helped her in a very spontaneous way, by calling her family at

Bardhhaman (another district of West Bengal) and arranging for her stay in a houseof a local resident. The family came from Bardhhaman after almost 12 hours and

took her back safely.

Note: -Incidentally this lady was from the village of the in-laws of Mohan Halder

one of the authors of this report - and he also took part actively in this effort to sendthis lady back to her home.

During the interviews with local people of Sagar Island we have heard about manystories of people being lost and found in the Mela, but we are really lucky to witnessonly one such incident with our own eyes, and its a proof about the nature / attitude

of the people of Sagar Island regarding outsiders coming for pilgrimage to the Sagar

Island.


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After a gap of 65 years, the holy Makar Sankranti

dip at Gangasagar, again tookplace during the auspicious evening hours. This has made this years Mela even more

significant for the pilgrims.

This year approximately 12 Lakh or 1.2 million people took the holy dip.

According to various persons who were involved with the management of this years

Mela, the number of people that have come to Sagar Island and gone back duringthe period of January 10 to 16, 20143is more than 15 / 16 Lakhs.

The synchronized / joint view of outsiders /pilgrims about development is: they had better

facilities and noticed better management of the

Mela.

3This is the period when a special price ticket was issued for crossing the river @ Rs. 40.00 per

person; normally the price of the ticket is Rs. 8.00 per person.

We are from Bihar and wecome to Gangasagar Mela afterevery 2 / 3 years gap, and this

time the facilities are very goodand its a big improvement formour last visit in 2010; the majorimprovements are in lighting andabout toilets.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Makar_Sankrantihttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Makar_Sankranti


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CBOs working in the management of Mela

One major emphasis of this development project (ICZMP) is empowerment of

women, so that they can be decision makers about their lives and can also influence

the lives of others who are in need of empowerment.

During this years Mela members of SHGs were given a specific responsibility ofrunning the ticket counter at Kachuberia Jetty used by people for crossing the river.

One member each from several SHG was joined to make a group call MurigangaI. The Panchayat administration of Muriganga I came up with this idea and the

SHGs members did a very good job during this years Mela: some of these SHGs

will also implement EPAs at MurigangaI as part of ICZMP.


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The SPUM event at the Mela

This year the SPMU also organized an awareness campaign during the Mela. It was

a campaign of information dissemination about protecting the nature by not polluting

the ocean during the Mela, especially not throwing the waste into the ocean;significantly the awareness campaign talked about the plastic waste, and that it

shouldnt be thrown into the ocean. SPUM had a kiosk in the Mela and organized arally as a part of an awareness drive / movement. The rally was very colorful and the

stilt-walkers made the event very popular among the people who came for the Mela.

Note: -A set of objects used for worshiping the river Ganga are packed inside a

plastic packedand most of the people who come for the holy dip throw that packedinto the sea as a part of the ritual. In pre-plastic days the packet was made of

biodegradable leaves of plants, now it is not.


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Pilgrimage

India is a country where people of many religions are living together in a commonsocial environment: officially India is a secular state with no state religion.

Char Dham: The four

temples of the Char Dhamsare: the Badrinath

Temple, Jaganntha Temple,

Rameswaram Temple,and Dwarka Temple. The

Char Dhams are often

considered the most reveredsites for Hindus that have to

be visited in one's lifetime.

After these famous fourtemples arguably the

Gangasagar Mela is one ofthe most famous place of

pilgrimage in India.

Pilgrimage to the

Gangasagar Mela

This Mela at Sagar Island is

considered to be a Mela of

the non-Bengalis; themajority of the people coming to this event are from Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh

(UP), Madhya Pradesh (MP), Bihar and Rajasthan. The pilgrims coming toGangasagar can be divided into 2 broad groups of people: -

Common people coming in search of blessing from god at a particular time ina particular place according to their understandings / beliefs in god.

The Sadhus: who follow the path of Dharmaof renunciation according totheir likings and choice; they mostly travel from one holy place to another astheir preferred life cycle.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dwarkahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dwarka


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Common People

The flow of people coming to Sagar Island for the Mela is like a big tidal wave

coming towards the seashore, and after landing on the riverbank they are kind of

running like blind people with a single point agenda to reach Gangasagar Melaground, then take a dip in the ocean and go back as soon as they can. Its kind of

madness / a frenzy / mob culture: going with the flow and not thinking too muchabout where I am, and what I am doing, etc.

People are willing sleep on the sea-beach, by the

side of a garbage dump, on the road, by the side

of running water tap and all the other placeswhere normally these people will not sleep, but

here no one is objecting about the situation.

We are coming fromNagpur, we are a team of 29persons, do you knowNagpur its the land of theOranges. I am a farmer, and

its my first visit toGangasagar Mela, from herewe will go to Puri and fromthere to Allahabad and otherholy places, we will travel for15 / 20 days and then back toour village.


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Its like a big, no very big refugee camp, which can be found in situations like war,

natural disaster or any other crisis like that, but here people have come willingly andin way naturally to be part of this holy event, therefore they are happy and thats the

most pleasing sight about this Mela.

We have also noticed that still with the

availability of very good transport servicespeople are walking to reach the Mela

ground, and walking back to the Jetty tocatch the boat for going back we have

met with 3 Sadhus, 1 of them was from UPand other 2 were from Bihar and they were

walking towards the Mela: the person fromUP was visiting Gangasagar for the first

time and the other 2 have visited the place

several times.

In our childhood we have seenpilgrims and Sadhus are walking thedistance of 30 kilometers fromKachuberia Jetty to Mela ground, andthey use to do it by chanting slogansabout god of their liking / according tothe liking of their group. The entry ofpilgrims into Sagar Island for the Melause to start 1 / 2 months before theMela. Pilgrims used to take more than1 day to reach Gangasagar Mela

ground from the bank of the river andduring the night they used to sleepbeside the road, and voluntaryorganizations used to make temporaryshelters / tents by the side of the roadfor pilgrims and also used to servefood for the pilgrims.


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We have noticed that a large majority of the pilgrims are elderly people reaching the

age of senior citizens4/ already have past that age. The most noticeable thing is thatthese older people are doing this hardship willingly without any complains and thats

the power of religion and religious belief which is the driving force for these people.

In the past history of humanity we have seen

numerous times people have used this power /energy of religious belief for idle distraction,

destruction [war; riots; partition] or construction[reforms;Jaina, Bauddha andBhaktiAndolan]

if only these could be used now to build a new

civilization in India all over again.

The Sadhus

A person taking on the path of Dharma of renunciation, living in a world of his own

with a set of rules and norms made by him / his sect and he is above the law and the

customs which are followed by majority of the common people of this country: thewandering monk.

Among the Sadhus the Naga Sadhus are most interesting / eye-catching and they arefor sure one of the most noticeable crowd pullers among all the Sadhus. These Naga

Sadhus are totally naked and their body is covered with ashes. They made smallhuts by the side of the Kapil Muni Temple, and they sat there waiting for people to

come out of the Temple so that they can bless them and ask for donation.

4The age of 60 years is considered as the age bar for considering a person a senior citizen, and thisis both socially and officially accepted all over India.

The pilgrimage towards SagarIsland have continuously keptthis area in the news and thesuffering that earlier peoplehave faced and the catastrophicprice that they have paid for theirpilgrimage to Gangasagar Melacontributed a great deal towardsthe development of SagarIsland, so we the people of

Sagar Island are sincerelyindebted to those who havegiven their lives for theirpilgrimage to GangasagarMela.


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The Sadhus are above the law, and the Naga

Sadhus are above the law among the Sadhus. Theothers Sadhus follow / listen to the administration

regarding rules and regulations about the Mela and

its management, but Naga Sadhus dont do thatand the administration also stays away from them,

because at times these Naga Sadhus can becomevery violent and even among themselves they

fight, and those fights are very serious fights,where a person can get hurt in a manner which

may lead to his death.

Overall these Sadhus add color to the atmosphereof the Mela, and the Mela is incomplete without

these Sadhus coming from all over India to be apart of Gangasagar Mela.

Once I took a plot of land onlease at the Gangasagar Mela;my intention was to rent it toshop-owners / pilgrims to earnmoney during the Mela. One

Naga Sadhu put his tent insidemy plot and he refused to movefrom there, so I complainedagainst him to the authorities,and whomsoever they sent toremove him he blessed themand sent them back, so finallythe Mela authorities decided therent of that portion where theNaga Sadhu has put his tent willbe excluded from the rent of the

plot which I have taken onlease.


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Development of the Sagar Island

The most significant change / development in thelives of the people of this island is the arrival of

electricity at the Sagar Island in the year 2011: aftermore than 60 years of Indian independence5.

The Gangasagar Mela is the blessing for the peopleof Sagar Island which has helped them to get much

deserved attention and its the sole reason for the

development of Sagar Island.

The Gangasagar Mela is one of the biggestsource of income for the people of Sagar

Island, and for a period of 15 days this eventprovides lot of income opportunities for theislanders: transport, food, shelter and various

services and accessories are required by thepilgrims and mostly the local people provide that to

the outsiders. Additionally some outsiders also

come for doing business during the Mela time, but

they mostly setup shops of various items andaccessories.

The Mela helps the people of Sagar Island to getextra facilities, since its a national event

Government always invest for the development ofinfrastructure in Sagar Island to make the Mela a

better one and that has a snowball effect over theentire Sagar Island and for its people.

If we sum-up the opinion of the all people of Sagar

Island that we have met during this study, then

according to them the most noticeable development is, Betterroads and availablewater supply. These are considered to be the two most significant areas of

development in the last 3 / 4 years in Sagar Island.

5The 15thof August 1947.

Electricity came to the SagarIsland for the first time aroundthe year 1965 / 66. A centralGenerator System was

installed and that too was forthe Mela, after the Mela wasover it was used to give uselectricity for 4 hours everyday during the evening; andthat too mostly for the marketareas, the villages didnt hadany light. The villages startedto enjoy the benefit ofelectricity around the year1995 / 96 when Solar Power

Systems were introduced inthe villages.

This is the most well organizedMela in history of Sagar Island,and about that there is no doubt.We think that since all theconcerned people / electedrepresentatives belong to one

political party the coordinationamong them is much better andbecause of that the Governmentofficials are also finding it easyto work, and not only the Mela,overall the Sagar Island is goingthrough a wave of development,and all the people of SagarIsland are getting benefits fromthis process of development.


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ICZMP at Sagar Island

To fight against pollution and sea erosion all over the world the approach of ICZM

is being followed, to improve the area and also the lives of the people who are living

in these areas. Biodiversity: harmony among flora and fauna.

The place of intervention of the ICZM for improvement of livelihood in West Bengalis the Sagar Island; the area is divided into 9 Gram Panchayats (GP), and it has 43

villages with a population of approximately 200,000 people; the main professions ofpeople living in the Sagar Island are agriculture, aquaculture and fishing.

SEED as a part of the ICZMP

SEED (Society for Socio-Economic and Ecological Development) is responsible for

development of the GPs of Rudranagar and Muriganga I. The intervention atRudranagar GP started in September 2012, and the intervention at MurigangaI GPstarted in November 2013.

At Rudranagar GP the intervention is done in 3 way approach / sets of activities; thebroad areas of these activities and major achievements / landmarks are given below:

-

SHG / CBO: formation, training and support regarding their income

enhancement. Total 47 CBOs have submitted 47 sets IEP proposals to SPMU.

EPA: development of rural infrastructure (Road, Tubewell, Re-excavation ofponds nearer to the Lodha community, Community Pay and Use Toilet andCommunity Center) For EPA roads 11, Tubewells 12, re-excavation of ponds

nearer to the Lodha community, community pay and use toilet 1 andcommunity center 1, total EPA 26 (4 EPAs are being implemented and 22

EPAs will be implemented).

Community Development: for empowerment of marginalized people /

Comprehensive development for the underprivileged Lodha people.Educational support to the backward Lodha children for bringing them out of

the cycle of vulnerability. The Lodhas are a backward tribe which needsexternal support for empowerment and social mobilization: investments in

education always pays decent dividends as the future generation comes out


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better prepared to face the world, and additionally skill building for Lodhas to

convert them into semi-skilled workers from unskilled workers.

At MurigangaI GP, the intervention is done in 2 way approach / sets of activities;

and the broad areas of these activities and major achievements / landmarks are givenbelow: -

SHG / CBO: formation, training and support regarding their incomeenhancement.

EPA: development of rural infrastructure (Road and Tub-well). For EPA 24

proposals have been submitted to SPMU9 for Roads and 15 for Tubewells.


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Afterword

As a study team we have only one regret that we didnt get enough opportunities totalk with the outsiders / pilgrims about their lives and their journey from home to

Sagar Island, beside that the Gangasagar Mela is an unexplainable experience, Ithink that its another reason in the line of series of reasons which makes

Gangasagar: -

ph abhl-hl

NpNl HLhl

Visit Gangasagar once in your lifetime, and it equals in merit to several visits to

other holy placesthis is the meaning of the Bengali sentence above, which is the

most popular slogan among the people and pilgrims coming to Sagar Islandthroughout the year and during the Gangasagar Mela.

On behalf of the team for this study and all the employees of SEED we are honoredto be part of this development effort at Sagar Island which gave us the chance to

prepare this report about the Gangasagar Mela.


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Appendix

The Study Team

For this research study the staffs of SEED for ICZMP were involved, and forcompleting the work and main responsibility for taking photographs6and writing the

script were given to Mohan Halder and Shanto Baksi, who shared the combinedresponsibility of conducting interviews and collecting data for the study.

Mohan Halder is associated with building entrepreneurship and socialmobilization for more than 28 years, since year 1985. He has worked in WestBengal, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Jharkhand and Odisha in the fields of

artificial fish breeding, providing training to Fish framers on Total FishCulture. In the area of social mobilization he has worked in different parts of

West Bengalto orient and train CBOs about income enhancement program.He is working for SEED under ICZMP as Training Coordinator.

Shanto Baksi is associated with development / humanitarian aid related workfor more than 12 years, since year 2000. He has worked for the rights of theSexworkers, Children of Sexworkers and minor Sexworkers, and also for the

Children living in the slums ofKolkata, for the Children of migrant brickfieldworkers in different places of West Bengal, for the Children of Fishworkers

in different places in Odisha, for alternative livelihoods for the traditional

Fishworkers of Odishaand Andhra Pradesh, also for income enhancementprogram in West Bengal for the rural poor. Additionally he has conductedtraining sessions about Project Cycle Management and Evaluation of various

organizations in West Bengal, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, the Andaman Islandsand, Gujarat. He is working for SEED under ICZMP as Managerial Support

Staff.

6Some of the photos about Gangasagar used in this report have been taken from the World Wide

Web.

gangasagar mela pilgrimage and development at the sagar island

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