Images of the Aarti are the first in this series.

Enchanting and seemingly enigmatic, these scenes feature heavily in tourism advertisement and images shared by visitors. This ritual, conducted daily (and sometimes twice a day) on the Ghats, appears to be something straight out of an ancient past. The origins of this much publicized ceremony offer a different view however: the first Aarti was held on November 11, 1984 through the patronage of a former King. The Ganga aarti as choreographed ritual was started in 1992 by an NGO called Ganga Seva Nidhi. Since December 31, 1999 the Ganga Aarti, which was previously only performed on the occasion of two festivals, Kartik Purnima and Dev Deepawali, began to be performed regularly on Dasaswamedh Ghat and spread to other Ghats (Shah).

In fact, the making of a Hindu Varansi as it stands today can be attributed to a series of agendas by ruling groups ranging from Marathas who relocated Brahmins from western India to the region and began patronizing the building and maintenance of temples to British colonial orientalists who “in their self-styled role as preservers of Indian heritage... took over the task of patronizing Brahmin learning” (Desai). Madhuri Desai, in "Mosques, Temples, and Orientalists: Hegemonic Imaginations in Benaras", notes “To the colonial authorities communalism was conceived as a state of chaos that was only averted by the civilizing intervention of colonial authority. Communalism was therefore the opposite of colonialism.” Post-colonial nationalist further this narrative through hegemonic control of the spaces and introduction of rituals meant to commemorate a Hindu identity grounded in antiquity.
It is worth noting that: “A search for authenticity will always be nostalgic, and in turn propel the production of tradition. When tradition is produced in this way, however, the effect is to aestheticize a site by glossing over any real conflict that may be present.”(Desai)

Varanasi today has a rich mix of religious diversity with around 70% of residents following Hinduism, approximately 29% following Islam, and the remaining one percent divided into Christianity, Jainism, and Sikhism. The city is scattered with temples and mosques alike, and the stories of their origins are constantly being negotiated and re-negotiated based on current social and political dynamics.
While tourism is critical to the economy of this city, it is critical to analyze what the social and environmental costs of attracting tourist to the city are, especially if they impact the identity and welfare of the local people who depend on the river and who must live and thrive among the diversity they cannot escape even after tourists leave with images of a Hindu holy city.

The first of the images are of Maya and her sister, both migrants to the city who make money from washing the large vessels used in the aarti for Rs.50 per day and selling flower garlands to the teeming crowds.

Among the next images taken the following morning you see a 13 year old boy, Intizar Ahamaza, a muslim child selling garlands made by his mother. These garlands are given as offerings as a part of Hindu prayer rituals at the temples. Compelled by household poverty, he has been selling garlands here for three years. When asked about his future he replies that he will finish 12th and “bhagwan ki den hogi to use jyada pad lenge”. This translates into “If god wills it or offers the opportunity I will study more than that”. Intizar’s father is a weaver of the prized Benarsi silk but struggles to make ends meet.

You also meet Manoj Kumar Gupta, the flower seller who has inherited his business from his grandmother. He’s been selling flowers for 15 years but finds sales are restricted to the morning and evening hours when pilgrims buy flowers for religious offerings. He has been allotted the small piece of land on which he has set up by the government as his family has been setting up there for generations. The allotment is for 30 years and restricts new vendors from setting up on the Ghat. He informs me that he is restricted to selling flowers by the government and therefore cannot add new products or seek expansion. What appears as protection from competition in one instance, quickly begins to seem like control and restriction in another.

The government control of the Ghats and surrounding areas appeared innocuous until I learned that in India all temple donations and rental Income from temple-owned lands is controlled by state governments for Hindu and Jain temples under the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Acts. This does not hold true for Churches, Mosques, Gurudwaras and Baudha Viharas. While the supposed reason for this act is to curb the mismanagement of funds, ongoing government control links government and religious institutions in an inextricable way.

The following images are those of the boatsmen on the Gangas who belong to the caste Kevats. These boatsmen or Kevats were traditionally nomadic merchants that traveled across the Ganges to transport goods and people. Now, they are restricted to certain sections of the Ghats similar to the flower vendors. They may begin their journey from any Ghat but must end on their allocated Ghat which allocated based on ancestry. Depending on the season, they earn between Rs. 2000-10,000 per month. Akash Sani, the boatsman who ferried us told us proudly that it was the Kevats who helped Ram cross in the religious epic, Ramayan. Half of Akash Sani’s earnings go to an upper caste Thakur who owns 40 boats on the Ghats and from whom he rents a boat for his daily work. The ads painted on the side of these boats suggest supplementary income for the owner.

Some other images capture life along the ghats. Featured are dhobis or washmen: while visitors attempt to wash their sins, they wash clothes for affluent homes. Children dipping for coins tossed into the river and boatmen at ease among the water appear as well.

Pollution from upstream factories and an increasing in number of motor boats, trash and feces from visiting tourists, and often partially burned dead bodies sully the river that the temples and aartis claim to celebrate. While only the affluent who can afford the wood and rituals have the opportunity to be cremated on the two Ghats dedicated for this purpose, electric incinerators have been introduced to meet the demand for less able households. Being cremated at the Ghats is supposed to offer moksha or salvation. Whether electric incineration of

fers the same moksha, I cannot be sure. However, as bodies of unburned, privileged classes litter the river, it is largely lower caste communities such as the doms, kevats, and dhobis that depend on the river for their survival that must suffer the direct consequences of environmental degradation, social exclusion, and political control.


A paper on the socio-economic interface of the Ghats claims “The social structure lies mainly between the upper caste Bhramin and lower caste Boatmen, Doms, and Dhobis. Still they survive and even cooperate with each other. They try to dominate the space with myths and stories from the past. The later also helps them to justify their identity and occupations, which in turn is related to the socio-economic behaviors of the area. This phenomenon of struggle and coexistence makes this sacred regime much more valuable and incredible in the eyes of human civilization”(Singh). The story Akash Sani told me fits this pattern: people seek dignity in myths and stories that they are denied in their present reality. The attempt to preserve the Ghats based on myths and stories also preserves and furthers oppressive structures that these stories rely on. These stories are furthered by local social and political structures, shrouding oppression and exploitation in the aesthetics of nostalgia.



The Ghats often feature in images of India peddled to the rest of the world. This series of photographs invites visitors to Varanasi to dip below the surface to explore who these sites serve and how. In an age of images, we must be aware when we are being sold theater for reality.

Based on Hindu religious texts produced in the mid-14th century Varanasi is considered the center of civilization. Varanasi is also considered the birthplace of Parsvanath, the twenty-third Tirthankar, making it a prominent Jain pilgrimage site. Sarnath, where Buddha is supposed to have preached his first sermon post enlightenment, is a short 10km from Varanasi. The city is also the site numerous mosques such as the Alamgir Mosque which is a protected site and also lies on the Ghats. The city has given birth to or attracted numerous writers and artists across the centuries, and continues to feature in the imaginations of popular culture. As stories of the origins of various sites in the city are told and retold, they depict the struggles of various powers vying for prominence and control of the city. Beyond the surface however, the city itself continues to reinvent itself in pace with its diversity and evolving needs.