The Delhi high court on Wednesday sought the stand of the Centre and city government on a public interest litigation seeking a direction to the authorities to use the "proper meaning" of the term "religion' and not use it as a synonym of "dharma" in official documents.
Six decades and more later, we are now captives of our identities. Every poll is based on elaborate calculations of electability of candidates on the basis of their castes and other narrow definers. That, along with voter promiscuity, is what defines our political culture, which remains stubbornly resistant to any change, asserts Shreekant Sambrani.
The eight-week-long festival is beginning from Monday, in which thousands of devotees will bathe at the Sangam -- the confluence of the Ganges, the Yamuna and the mythical Saraswati rivers.
A devotee carries her belongings in a bag with an image of Prime Minister Narendra Damodardas Modi after taking a holy dip in the waters of the Sangam.
Five crore devotees took part in the Kumbh mela on the banks of pious Shipra river this year.
Since early Sunday morning, people from different parts of the city and adjoining areas were seen entering the nearly 30 bathing points (ghats) from four entry gates amid tight security arrangements by the administration.
While 14 bodies have been recovered, five were still missing, they said.
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
The Light and Sound show at Jyotisar, Sri Krishna Museum and Panorama Science Centres in Kurukshetra also remained open throughout the night for the convenience of the tourists.
The partial solar eclipse is being observed in several parts of the country with Srinagar witnessing the maximum obscuration of the solar disc at 55 per cent.
The occasion? The 417th anniversary of the installation of the Guru Granth Sahib at the holy shrine in Amritsar.
The four-day long Chhath festival ended on Thursday with millions, braving the chill and taking a dip in the river to offer prayers to the rising sun.
The airport has been stopping operations and rescheduling flights twice in every year for decades to enable the bi-annual centuries-old ceremonial procession of the famous Padmanabhaswamy temple in Thiruvananthapuram to pass through the runway.
Traditionally the biggest of all the sacred bathing days in the 50-day long Mela, Mauni Amavasya this time holds greater significance as it falls on a Monday and that too during the Kumbh - a rather rare combination on many accounts.
Delhi recorded a cold wave for the second consecutive day on Friday, with the minimum temperature at Ayanagar in southwest Delhi plunging to a numbing 1.8 degrees Celsius.
He also washed the feet of sanitation workers at the 'Swachh Kumbh, Swachh Aabhaar' programme in Prayagraj.
Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur on Thursday took a holy dip in Kshipra river during the ongoing Kumbh Mela in Ujjain.
Amid the shadow of the third wave of COVID-19, people of India marked different festivals across the country.
Mela Inspector General Sanjay Gunjyal also said the religious event formally began on April 1 by which time the second wave of Covid was already raging in states like Maharashtra and Haryana.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is on a two-day visit to Varanasi to inaugurate the Kashi Vishwanath Corridor project.
The proposed 18-day Bharat Gaurav Tourist train tour has its first stop at Ayodhya, the birthplace of Lord Ram, where tourists will visit Shri Ram Janmabhumi temple and Hanuman temple.
A sea of pilgrims converged at Sangam for a holy dip on Friday on the occasion of Basant Panchami joined by ascetics belonging to various sects for their third and last Shahi Snan of Maha Kumbh, where a sadhu was killed in a fire in the wee hours.
Deputy Chief Minister N China Rajappa and a host of other ministers also took a holy dip on the occasion.
Two persons were killed in a stampede at the Maha Kumbh Mela in Allahabad on Sunday as three crore pilgrims converged for a holy dip at Sangam on the auspicious occasion of 'Mauni Amavasya'.
Security measures have been heightened in Prayagraj and surrounding areas for the auspicious occasion.
The nine-day Mahamaham festival, known as the 'Kumbh Mela of the south', concluded In Kumbakonam in Tamil Nadu on Monday, with conduct of the most important event 'theerthavari', witnessed by lakhs of people.
Officials said almost all the ministers present at meeting took the holy dip.
Lakhs of devotees on Thursday thronged the Ganga banks in Haridwar, including Har Ki Pauri, to take a dip in the sacred river on the occasion of Makar Sankranti which also marks the first major bath of the ongoing Ardhakumbh mela in Uttarakhand.
More RT-PCR test reports are awaited and the trend shows that the number of infected persons in the Kumbh Mela Kshetra is likely to climb to 2,000.
Calcutta High Court ordered setting up of a committee which may recommend to the state a ban on entry to Sagar Island if there is any violation of health safety norms.
With relaxations in the nationwide coronavirus-induced lockdown, locals were seen strolling and jogging at roads and beaches of Mumbai and other cities on Sunday.
he one-and-a-half-month-long Kumbh Mela ended on Monday with devotees from different walks of life and parts of the country taking a holy dip on Mahashivratri.
"It is heartening to see us, common people, being acknowledged. 'Achha lag raha hai'," Ram Chand Kumar, a mason who hails from Bihar and has been working on the site for the last 5-6 months, hailed the prime minister's gesture.
A division bench of Justices A S Oka and V L Achliya said the state government will have to take prior permission from the court if it wanted to use the dam water for Kumbh Mela.
Even the saffron-clad Swami Hari Chaitanya, who was spearheading the much-hyped 'Clean Ganga' campaign, eventually gave up his boycott call.
The much-awaited annual event of Kumbh Mela, one of the largest religious gatherings in the world, is slated to be even bigger and better in 2019. Although it is usually spread over a 20 km radius, the Kumbh Mela -- set to begin on January 15 and continue till March 4 -- will be sprawled across 45 km this year. Authorities are expecting approximately 100 million visitors to come for a holy dip at Sangam, the confluence of the Ganges, Yamuna, and mythical Saraswati Rivers. Ahead of the festival, preparations are under full swing to construct 22 temporary pontoon bridges.
Since the historic judgment of the apex court that paved the way for the construction of a Ram temple by a trust at the disputed site in Ayodhya, and ruled that an alternative five-acre plot must be found for a mosque in the Hindu holy town, a large number of devotees have been flocking to Ayodhya, several among them making their maiden visit to the city.
Here are glimpses of some of the celebrations.
The 10-day long event, called Mahamaham, will take place in Kumbakonam in Tamil Nadu.
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