The Gangasagar pilgrimage and fair is the second largest congregation of mankind after the holy Kumbha Mela at Prayag.
While it's clear that the world's sacred sites draw millions upon millions of visitors, travel to shrines, churches, temples, mosques or other holy place can come from a mix of motivations.
Tej Bahadur Yadav had posted four videos on social media in January, 2017, that showed him complaining about the unpalatable food at his camp along the Indo-Pakistan border in Jammu and Kashmir.
Only double vaccinated adults and children above the age of 15 who have taken at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine will be allowed to enter, they said, adding children below 15 years will not be permitted to attend the event.
Assembly elections to five crucial states will take place in a few months and the results will be decisive for the BJP, which is eyeing a third successive term at the Centre, in the forthcoming the Lok Sabha polls in 2024.
The latest among his donations was the initial corpus of Rs 2.25 lakh to the PM CARES Fund.
Solar eclipse brings Maha Kumbh to a standstill
A tribute to an incomparable photojournalist who was slain by the Taliban on Thursday night.
Warning that global warming and terrorism have become the world's biggest concerns, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said shedding the "holier-than-thou" attitude is the key to overcoming these issues and resolving conflicts.
In a move that has ruffled many feathers, the Mahanirvani Akhara of 'naga' sadhus has conferred the honorific title of 'Mahamandaleshwar' on controversial self-styled godman Swami Nithyananda.
"The death of two persons after falling in drain was run as breaking news by channels saying that deaths took place due to stampede in Kumbh. Due to this news, people started moving to the railway station following which pressure increased there," Khan told media persons on Monday night.
Home ministry asks IT ministry to order social media platforms to remove around 100 posts or URLs.
Every 12 years comes a mystical, mind-boggling phenomenon. It is the Maha Kumbh Mela. Harvard experts map the exotic and the mundane at the spectacle. Arthur J Pais reports
With 100 million pilgrims expected to come in from all over the country for this bathing festival on Friday, the Uttar Pradesh government faces an uphill task to get the things moving smoothly after the tragedy during 'Mauni Amavasya' holy dip.
'Suddenly you become part of a very large humanity.' Bathing in the Ganga at the Maha Kumbh Mela left a lasting impression on Harvard investigators, finds Arthur J Pais.
Billed as the largest gathering of humanity in recorded history, Maha Kumbh has commenced in Allahabad. Over the next few weeks, pilgrims will jostle to take a dip at Sangam the confluence of two polluted rivers of the country, the Ganga and the Yamuna. Bharat Lal Seth analyses why the rivers will remain dirty.
"Our party is stronger than the Congress in the state. While the Congress won 40 seats in panchayat polls, we scored a victory in 83 panchayats. AAP got over 40 lakh votes in these polls, where 1600 party candidates contested," Singh, AAP's UP in-charge and Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh said.
'They (BJP) can claim of winning even 82 seats, despite the fact that Uttar Pradesh has only 80 seats'
This is a national leadership gone so wrong that India's most powerful prime minister in four decades has personally taken charge of medical oxygen shortages, observes Shekhar Gupta.
The pandemic has changed the way people see the government. It has eroded trust in the administration's ability to tackle a crisis, any crisis, observes Devangshu Datta.
India displayed its military might and vibrant cultural heritage on Rajpath on Wednesday with the grandest flypast with 75 aircraft to mark the 'Azadi ka Amrut Mahotsav' celebrations being the highlight of the 73rd Republic Day Parade, which was drastically scaled down in view of the Covid pandemic.
Closure of tanneries pulls down domestic finished leather exports and local price of raw-skin.
Security has been tightened in Haridwar for the first day of the Shahi Snan (Royal Bath) on Friday, as thousands of devotees are expected to take a dip in the River Ganga to mark the festival of Maha Shivratri. Around 10,000 security personnel have been deployed in Haridwar to thwart any kind of untoward incident when devotees, including ash-covered Naga sadhus participate in the festivities
'...by combining religious and political missions -- to destroy the Babri Masjid and establish Ram Rajya.' 'Hindutva was successful in creating synergy with the aspirations of devotees,' Dhirendra K Jha, author of Ayodhya: The Dark Night, tells Kanika Datta.
"At least for 15 days if people stay strictly indoors, like last year, we may expect better results. Please advise your government," the high court said.
Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi would be 'stopped' if he indulges in politics during his visit to the ongoing Mahakumbh next week, a senior leader from the ruling Samajwadi Party said on Wednesday.
The stampede at Gandhi maidan in Patna added to India's notoriety for deaths due to such accidents, when sudden, uncontrollable crowds surge out of control Stampedes at temples and other religious places in India have claimed more than a thousand lives in the last 10 years in the country. Here is a look at some of the deadliest stampede to have happened in India.
It said there is no part of the country that he did not visit during the 125 days between December 25 and May 1 as he crisscrossed from Kashmir to Kanyakumari and Jamnagar to Silchar, while speaking to students to scientists, farmers, entrepreneurs, foreign heads of state and political workers.
Delhi on Monday sounded an alert of its depleting vaccine stock, with Health Minister Satyendar Jain saying that the national capital has only one day's Covaxin jabs left and its Covishield doses will last for just three to four days.
The Shankaracharya said the sadhus will begin their march to Ayodhya from Allahabad after Basant Panchami, which falls on February 10.
The task for RS Rawat to enter the assembly might not be easy, especially with the ongoing situation arising out of Covid-19, lack of vaccines and allegations of poor hospital facilities, reports Shishir Prashant.
We need to give a booster shot to all our frontline workers first as if they fall victim to Omicron, the health system will collapse, points out Ramesh Menon.
Governance strategies can take a back seat, but the last word hasn't been said on how the BJP leadership will address Dhami's lack of experience, reports Aditi Phadnis.
The move, said UP minister Siddharth Nath Singh, will help highlight Indian culture at international level.
BJP leaders also say it will be a very difficult task before the new chief minister pleasing the 56 party MLAs, reports Shishir Prashant.
Since the nation is now paying the price of such behaviour in terms of the long queues at the crematoriums and graveyards, the anxiety of the RSS is natural, especially if the BJP's main support base of the middle class turns away from it, observes Amulya Ganguli.
After 24 months of slowdown beginning in January 2018 before the pandemic and then 18 months of collapse since January 2020, we have become the world's worst performing economy, observes Aakar Patel.
Social media is reflecting a reality that the BJP does not want communicated. More people are saying things on social media that are upsetting the government, asserts Aakar Patel.
In her opening remarks, while chairing the meeting of the Congress Working Committee, Gandhi also accused the Centre of giving preferential treatment to some states while maintaining "thundering silence" on requests of states ruled by the Congress and opposition parties.
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