The Ganga

This rather long post is part of an article I had written earlier. I hope you like it. If it gets a little too long, skip parts of it and move on to the pretty pictures!

For most people across the world, the Ganga is the first thing that comes to mind when they think of India. For most Indians, the Ganga is never far from their thoughts. Over the centuries, the Ganga has been India’s, giver of sustenance, spiritual guide, protector and means of contacting the outside world.
It is difficult to for the mind to encompass all that the Ganga is. We search for figures and facts to try and express the size of it, as if it were the chief thing that mattered. And yes, those facts inspire awe. The Indo-Gangetic plain covers a little more than 26% of the country’s geographical area in a graceful south-east sweep from the Himalayas to the Bay of Bengal. As it flows, it provides physical and spiritual sustenance to 370.2 million people. The numbers of animals- both individuals and species- that it nurtures have not yet been satisfactorily counted.
It is not just individuals that the Ganga sustains. This river is a shaper of civilizations. It is difficult to imagine the nation, or indeed the entire sub-continent without this bounteous giver of silt and water- the elements of life- and this inspiration to poets and kings. The abundance in the Gangetic plains led to some of the early civilizations being established there. The Ganga is first mentioned in the Rigveda and then receives increasing importance in the later three Vedas. It is also praised in the Puranas, and India’s great epic- the Mahabharata is set in it’s plains.
Today, the river means different things to different people. The pilgrim sees it as a ‘mokshdayini’ – as one with power to free the self from this painful cycle of birth and death. The planner sees in the Ganga an opportunity to increase the country’s GDP by providing water to far-off lands and electricity to the nation. Ecologists see it as a marvellous repository of endemic wildlife. The animals and river communities see it as home.
To the river-bank dweller, the Ganga is life itself. The communities that live on the banks have their lives intertwined with the Ganga as surely as if the two were braided together in Shiva’s hair. In the mountain communities that live along the Ganga, an already harsh life would be unthinkable if it were not for the river.
The Ganga has been flowing in the region before the Himalayas rose. How long it will keep flowing in a matter for speculation. The Ganga is beset by a number of threats today. Construction of dams on the upper reaches are leading to the death of the flowing river as we know it, and also threatening the lives of the mountain communities. Withdrawal of water for irrigation and industry is sucking the river dry. The unregulated discharge of untreated sewage into the river is poisoning whatever water there is left.
There are attempts being made, at the national as well as at the local level, to save the Ganga before it is too late. In recognition of the incredible significance of the river to India’s identity, it’s prosperity, its ecosystem and its people, the Ganga has been accorded the status of a National River. This will help motivate the administration to make the preservation of the Ganga a high-priority task. For most people, this is already a high priority area. Life would be unimaginable without this magnificent, multi-faceted sweep of water to revere, love, and seek sustenance and inspiration from.

Ganga