Maha Disaster at Maha Kumbh Mela: A postmortem

Written by: Aarthi Ramnath, Raghav Bikhchandani & Yash Budhwar

Maha Disaster at Maha Kumbh Mela: A postmortem

At least 30 people have been killed, and 60 injured, in a massive stampede/crowd crush. The tragedy occurred at the Sangam Ghat—where the Ganga, Yamuna and holy Saraswati rivers meet—when crowds gathered for a Shahi Snan in the early hours of Wednesday. The root causes: negligence, VIP culture and shoddy crowd management.

The locational context: A temporary infrastructure built for the Mela covers a massive area of 4,000 hectares, or 40 square kilometres. It includes 30 floating pontoon bridges that devotees must use to cross the waters and move around—especially during the six Shahi Snans—holy baths taken at specific locations. You can see the bridges below:

This was the second Snan—and the stampede took place right at the Sangam nose—as you can see in The Hindu map below:

The stampede: Here’s what happened according to the local police:

Around 1 a.m. and 2 a.m., before the Brahma Muhurat, a massive crowd built up on the Akhara Marg in the Mela area. Due to the pressure, barricades on the other side collapsed, and people rushed to the other side, trampling devotees who were waiting for the Brahma Muhurat Snan. Unfortunately, 30 devotees lost their lives while around 60 people suffered injuries,” said Deputy Inspector General Vaibhav Krishna.

As for the official cause: The UP CM Yogi Adityanath appeared to blame the devotees:

The chief minister said there was “tremendous pressure” from the crowds and that people had ignored advice to take the holy dip wherever they were along the river instead of trying to flock to the “nose” of the Sangam.

But, but, but, the reporting shows the blame lies elsewhere. As of now, there are three factors that caused this tragedy.

Blocked bridges: According to pilgrims, the pontoon bridges—essential to allow free movement had been barricaded for three days. They only had a single path to get to the Sangam location. Also this:

The crowds reaching Sangam gathered at one place due to the closure of these bridges, according to Sunil Kumar, an eyewitness. He further said that the entry and exit routes were not kept separate. “People were going back from the same route from which they were coming. In such a situation, when the stampede occurred, people fell on each other,” said Kumar.

Irony alert: “Police cited ‘crowd management provisions’ as the reason for closing all 15 platoon bridges.”

As for the police: They only made it worse:

Eyewitnesses said the police were pushing the devotees back with lathis and suddenly started hitting them with the batons, triggering a panicked rush in which people ran helter-skelter and fell on each other.

Delayed response: By 1am on Wednesday, the crowd had surged towards the location—where people were sleeping near the barricades to get a headstart on the holy bath. Chaos and casualties ensured—but safety announcements only began at 4am, and by then, it was too little too late: “Tens of thousands of people continued to proceed [to the Sangam]—and still were doing so, hours after the accident.”

The Amit Shah factor: Along with the bridges, the roads were also blocked—due to recent VIP visits. Specifically, that of the Home Minister:

Due to VIP arrivals in the last few days, roads were diverted in many areas. On 27 January, Union Home Minister Amit Shah had reached Prayagraj, due to which a large part of Sangam Ghat was closed by putting barricades. The diversion due to VIP arrivals was corroborated by Anita Kumari, a devotee who came all the way from Madhya Pradesh’s Rewa district on 27 January. “We have been walking for several kilometres. All the roads were closed,” she said.

Key point to note: “While common people endured overcrowded bridges and endless blockades, VIPs had unrestricted access to other routes.”

Data points to note: India leads the world in crowd disasters—especially on religious occasions. A 2023 study found that almost 70% of incidents in India between 2000 and 2019 were tied to religious events. And it hasn’t gotten better—over 120 people died in a man-made ‘stampede’ at a religious godman’s satsang in Hathras last July (see: our Big Story).

Reading list: BBC News recently flagged basic logistical issues ahead of the Mela. The Print, BBC News and The Telegraph offer the best postmortems on the disaster. The Wire has a must-read first-person account of what it felt like to actually attend the Mela̦ as an ordinary pilgrim. Indian Express explains the huge crowd size. This Big Story has more on our history of stampedes.

For absolutely no reason: other than the sheer size of his man boobs, here’s an older pic of Shah taking his big dip (with bestie Yogi for company). Yes we also made it our lead image—because it truly speaks volumes (pun fully intended):

Good Glamm Group is not doing so good

About Good Glamm: Founded by Darpan Sanghvi and later joined by Priyanka Gill and Naiyya Saggi, Good Glamm quickly scaled by acquiring beauty brands (MyGlamm, Sirona, The Moms Co.) and media platforms (POPxo, MissMalini, ScoopWhoop). The company raised over $400 million and peaked at a $1.26 billion valuation.

What happened now: Like many other Indian startup superstars, Good Glamm’s fortunes too have crashed. Reps of its biggest investors—Accel, Bessemer, and Prosus—have resigned from the board. This comes on the heels of a big layoff round axing 15% of its staff. Other signs of trouble:

Last year, founders of Sirona Hygiene and The Moms Co, along with investors from the Indian Angel Network (IAN) had issued default notices to Good Glamm Group for failing to make final payments as per the original agreements.

The group has also been struggling to raise money—although it claims to be close to sealing a round.

The biggest tell: is the exit of Good Glamm co-founders. Gill has joined Kalaari Capital—and Saggi plans to break out on her own.

What went wrong: The big plan was for a seamless content-to-commerce engine—much like BuzzFeed. But as former execs bluntly put it: “Content-to-commerce wasn’t working. Discounting was.” So the brand instead relied on deep and absurd pricing—selling products for Rs 1 while charging Rs 99 for shipping:

Obviously, the customer would buy. But the moment you stopped the discounts, sales would crumble. The minute you buy something for Rs 1, you will never buy it for Rs 300-400 ever again. That sends a terrible message; brand value gets tarnished. Could have recovered the cost but killed the brands.

Reading list: Morning Context (paywalled) broke news of the board exits—and has the best analysis—Economic Times and Inc42 offer an overview of its recent troubles.

A revealing survey of religious nationalism

The context: A new global Pew survey polled 55,000 people across 36 countries—to measure religious nationalism. Pew used four questions to measure the same:

How important is belonging to the majority religion to being truly part of your national identity?
How important is it to you for your national leader to share your religious beliefs?
How much influence do you think the dominant religion’s sacred text should have on laws?
When the sacred text conflicts with the will of the people, which should have more influence on the laws of your country?

What the survey found: Overall, middle income countries have a far more positive view of religion—than higher income countries—which in turn affects their view of its role in public life. In other words, there are more religious nationalists in middle income countries—including India. Fewer than 1% in Germany and Sweden, compared with more than four-in-ten in Indonesia (46%) and Bangladesh (45%). Not exactly surprising. What is surprising: Only 6% of Americans fit the criteria—though they are more likely to want the Bible to influence US laws.

The big picture looks like this:

Moving on to India: Overall, 24% of Hindus met the criteria of ‘religious nationalist’. But the results are a lot more skewed when we look at individual questions. A solid 79% believe it makes society better—and only 17% think it does more harm than good. More worryingly, 61% say their leader should have the same religious beliefs as their own—and 60% say this person should “stand up” for those beliefs. And 57% of Hindus say their religious texts should have more influence on Indian laws. That said, this is more pronounced in Christian countries like Nigeria:

There’s lots more over at the Pew Research Centre.

A new crackdown on independent Indian media

Indian tax authorities have cancelled the non-profit status of The Reporters’ Collective—an investigative news outlet that has done a number of exposés on government policy. The reason is astonishing: “journalism does not serve any public purpose and therefore cannot be carried out as a non-profit exercise in India.” What this means: The organisation will have to pay income tax—and will not receive any tax breaks, especially on donations—which are the lifeblood of a non-profit. The killer:

When an institute is converted into a form which is not eligible for registration or where the registration under Section 12AB is cancelled, then tax can be levied on the net worth of the institute. Under Section 115TD, accumulations that an such institution has made over the years, before the cancellation, can also be taxed… When registration (as a non-profit) is cancelled, tax at maximum marginal rate, which can vary between 30 to 42%, depending upon the quantum of income, will be levied.

The Collective has already issued desperate appeals for funds. Reminder: The government has cancelled the non-profit status of other pesky organisations—be it regional outlets like The File or NGOs such as Oxfam India, CARE India, Legal Initiative for Forest and Environment, and Environics Trust.

The big picture: Any government can kill press freedom by simply starving it of oxygen, i.e. money. NewsLaundry has loads more on the tax angle. Previous Big Stories have also looked at the raids on NewsClick and BBC India’s tax troubles.

what caught our eye

business & tech

Microsoft and OpenAI are investigating whether DeepSeek’s big AI breakthrough was facilitated by unauthorized access to OpenAI tech.
In related news, another Chinese company, Alibaba, has unveiled its latest model—Qwen2.5-Max—which supposedly kicks DeepSeek’s ass. Let the AI hunger games begin!
Bookworms, say hello to the newly launched Bookshop.org app which aims to be a “benevolent alternative” to Amazon for e-books.

sports & entertainment

‘Cigarettes After Sex’ canceled its concert in Bangalore less than an hour before the show due to “technical difficulties.” The city’s reputation for hosting events remains as stellar as ever (remember Trevor Noah?).
‘The Hack’—written by multi award-winner Jack Thorne and starring David Tennant—will focus on the infamous tabloid phone-hacking scandal.

health & environment

A new study shows that more than a third of the Arctic and surrounding areas are now releasing carbon instead of storing it—adding to global warming woes.
West Bengal reports its first suspected Guillain-Barré Syndrome deaths, with three fatalities and 17 others under treatment, as Maharashtra battles over 110 cases.

as for the rest

Historians Rajmohan Gandhi, Romila Thapar, Ramachandra Guha, and Irfan Habib—along with 160 academics—urged the release of Umar Khalid, marking 1,600 days of captivity.
The White House has scrapped a controversial order freezing trillions in federal funds after mass confusion, legal backlash, and a court block on Trump's attempt.
Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt announced that the Trump White House will open its briefing room to podcasters, social media influencers, and content creators—even reserving a front-row seat for them.
Spirit Airlines now bans "offensive" tattoos and revealing clothing—which could get you kicked off a flight.
An Air India flight sent a false hijacking alert to air traffic control shortly after its takeoff from Delhi. Authorities have launched a probe into the incident.
The city of Otaru in Japan has deployed security guards at Funami-za, a steep street offering scenic views of the port and sea. The reason: to prevent pedestrian traffic jams caused by foreign tourists. Our Big Story has more on the problem of overtourism.
A 1,900 year-old papyrus scroll has been newly translated, revealing details of a case about Roman tax fraud and forgery so gripping that it could’ve been a ‘Law and Order’ episode.
Scroll has a must-read on why the Supreme Court denied a church pastor a burial in his own ancestral village of Chhindwada in Chhattisgarh’s Bastar district.

Four things to see

One: GM Nodirbek Yakubboev refused the customary handshake with Vaishali Rameshbabu—Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa’s sister—before their match at the Tata Steel chess tournament. Point to note: He shook hands with GM Divya Deshmukh in 2023. The Uzbekistan Grandmaster later tweeted: “With all due respect to women and Indian chess players, I want to inform everyone that I do not touch other women for religious reasons”—and said that his decision to shake other women’s hands in the past was “wrong.” (Indian Express)

Two: Boom just made history with its XB-1 aircraft—which is the first private jet to break the sound barrier since the Concorde retired in 2003. Pilot Tristan “Geppetto” Brandenburg hit Mach 1.1 (761 mph) over the Mojave Desert during a test run. You can check out the feat below. This test flight paves the way for Boom’s supersonic commercial jet, Overture, which promises to cut flight times in half—think Miami to London in under five hours. (Morning Brew)

Three: A new video game—the CAMI (Computerized Assessment of Motor Imitation)—uses motion-tracking technology to accurately identify children with autism, ADHD, and other neurotypical conditions. In a study with 183 kids, ages 7-13, CAMI correctly distinguished autism from neurotypical children 80% of the time and from ADHD with 70% accuracy. You can see it in action below. (Medical Xpress)

Four: All hail, Japan—the new Pastry World Cup champions! The tournament is a biennial event where chefs compete to make the best “once-in-a-lifetime” gourmet dessert. This year’s theme: national heritage. The home players, France, came in second—followed by Malaysia, China and Belgium in the top 5. You can see Japan’s incredible creations below.

Here’s France’s entry—which we admired as well. (CNN)

Needed: Your feedback on the new Data Protection Rules!

The all-important Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Rules 2025 are open for public feedback until February 18. The folks over at Civis have created an easy way to share feedback. Just send us ‘DPDP’ on WhatsApp to 8976926914 or simply use this link. No sign-ups required!

What is Civis: Civis is a non-profit organisation which works towards building inclusive laws in India by encouraging citizen participation in lawmaking. It gathers public feedback on draft laws and policies and shares this feedback with the government. Since 2018, Civis has worked on 1000+ laws and gathered feedback from citizens in 770+ cities across the country.

What the rules say: Here’s a brief overview:

Transparency and control: Data fiduciaries (DFs)—anyone collecting your digital data—must clearly explain how they’re using your data, seek your consent and provide an option to withdraw it, and set up mechanisms to address complaints.
Data breaches: If your data is compromised, DFs are required to notify you about the breach and the steps taken to address it within 72 hours, in addition to informing the Data Protection Board of India.
Children’s data: Handling children’s data will require verifiable parental consent, which can be confirmed using virtual tokens or platforms like Digilocker.
Exemptions: Certain provisions don’t require full compliance in cases related to judicial or regulatory functions, enforcement of legal rights, or the prevention of criminal activities. Specific categories like startups, research organisations, clinical establishments, educational institutions, and childcare facilities may also be exempt in specific situations.

There is a lot more to the rules, and you can read more about them on the Civis platform.

Why this matters: These rules affect everyone—whether you're a small business, a large corporation, or an average citizen using the internet. Whether you want stricter controls, better accountability, or have specific concerns, you can share your views with the government.