“Business is booming everywhere for everyone across our city,” said taxi driver Manoj Kumar, whose northern Indian home of Prayagraj has swelled from its normal seven million residents dozens of times over.
Religion, politics and the economy are deeply intertwined in India — and the six-week-long Hindu festival of the Kumbh Mela gives one of the clearest examples.
The Hindu nationalist government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has poured in funds for large-scale infrastructure upgrades.
“We are seeing an unimaginable transformation of our city,” 37-year-old Kumar said.
“There are new roads, bridges, additional flights and trains, new hotels and restaurants, and an unmet demand for workers.”
The Kumbh’s extraordinary scale provides a major job boost, with millions of visitors splashing out on accommodation, transport and food.
Kumar’s daily earnings shot up to around $250, roughly eight times as much as usual.
“I’ve had some of the busiest 18-20 hour workdays of my life with little or no rest,” he said. “But I am not alone in benefiting — this is a life-changing event.”
The state government — led by firebrand Hindu monk Yogi Adityanath, chief minister of Uttar Pradesh state and a key leader in Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) — controls lucrative service contracts for its running.
It is impossible to independently verify government statistics of a religious celebration that critics say is being cashed in on by Hindu nationalist leaders to burnish political credentials.
That includes the reported more than 435 million pilgrims to have taken a ritual river dip so far — with the festival running until February 26 — that organisers say is based on artificial intelligence assessments from surveillance camera networks.
It also includes the whopping $24 billion Adityanath projects it will contribute to the economy — that’s the equivalent of more than the population of the United States and Canada splashing out the entire annual GDP of Armenia.
They are staggering statistics even for the world’s most populous nation of 1.4 billion people.
Devendra Pratap Singh, president of Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand states, puts the figure as even higher — at about $30 billion.
“Our economy would obviously grow because of this mega event,” he told AFP. “We’re seeing its benefits at every stage, with impacts on transportation, hotels, food, and every other sector.”
With the festival funnelling religious tourism on a vast scale, local reports say the state also expects $3 billion in additional government revenues including taxes and fees.
“How gods drive India’s consumer economy,” The Economic Times newspaper said in a report last month.
“The Kumbh is the most visible part of a big driver of India’s economy, the festival cycle.”
Major household brands see the Kumbh as ripe for opportunity, setting up shops and pouring in advertising.
