India hopes Mahakumbh will bring in investors, but economists are sceptical
Uttar Pradesh state has pumped in millions for the 45-day festival, which is largest gathering of Hindus every 12 years.
Prayagraj, India – Arvind Agrawal has been running a business supplying stationery items across India for four decades in Prayagraj in Uttar Pradesh state.
The city is currently hosting the Mahakumbh, often simply called the Kumbh, the world’s largest religious gathering of Hindus.
His mobile phone comes alive every few minutes with callers asking for the prices of key rings, calendars and diaries, all depicting an element of the Mahakumbh, a smart gimmick that has sent sales skyrocketing.
“I have hardly slept for more than four to five hours during the night over the past three months due to the massive demand for our items. The shop is kept open for longer than the normal schedule to dispatch the orders,” Agrawal tells Al Jazeera.
The extra demand is going to boost his annual revenues of about $570,000 to more than $660,000, he says.
Mahakumbh is held every 12 years in India in four sacred locations – Prayagraj, Haridwar, Nashik and Ujjain – on rotation depending upon the alignment of planets with the stars. Hindus believe that the festival is an opportunity for them to wash their sins away and seek spiritual liberation.
According to mythological beliefs, the festival is organised to celebrate the split of the elixir of immortality – the amrit – which fell on different places in India while the gods were protecting it from demons.
The event that began on the bank of the Sangam – the confluence of the Ganges, Yamuna and Saraswati Rivers – in Prayagraj on January 13 will end on February 26 and is expected to draw millions of Hindu devotees and saints.
The festival is being held on 10,000 acres (4,046