The Ganga or the Ganges

The Indian name for the holy river is the Ganga, but in Western ears it is the Ganges. It is a trans-boundary river which flows through India and Bangladesh. The river at 1,569 miles rises in the western Himalayas in the state of Uttarakhand and flows south and east through the great Gangetic plain of North India into Bangladesh, where it empties in the Bay of Bengal. At that stage in India, it has become the Sundarbans and it is the third largest river by discharge.

The main stem of the Ganga begins at the town of Devprayag and is a confluence of the mainstream the Alaknanda and the Bhagirathi which is the source stream of Hindu mythology. Ganga is considered to be the Daughter of the Himalaya. The river is a lifeline to millions of people who live on its banks and in its basin and rely on it for their daily needs. Indeed the silt from the river feeds the surrounding farmlands annually. So many great cities and ancient capitals were built on the banks of the holy river, places like Pataliputra (modern day Patna in Bihar), Munger (Monghyr as I knew it and grew up partially in this ancient place) Murshidabad, Baharampur and others, and of course Kolkata located on the banks of the Hooghly as it is known by then.

The river has approximately 140 species of fish, ninety species of amphibians and reptiles and mammals including the critically endangered gharial crocodile and the South Asian River dolphin (which I have had the pleasure of sighting).

The Ganga is threatened by severe pollution from when it enters the plains of India most especially in Uttar Pradesh around Kanpur where the leather tanning industry is a huge consideration. The river there is quite simply filthy or was. The levels of faecal coliform bacteria from human waste in the river near Varanasi are more than a hundred times the Indian Government’s official limit. It is so good that the Ganga Action Plan, an environmental initiative to clean up the river is happening; however, there is a controversy about how much positive change it has achieved. I am aware that Mr Modi as Prime Minister made the restoration of cleanliness of ‘Ma Ganga’ one of his election pledges in 2014.

My memories of Varanasi are special. We went out for the sunrise and then again to experience Aarti in the evening. We had the same boatman from the morning experience as he was a kind decent man who spent the time telling me how irritating his family is – he was a widower. In between we watched the sun come up and bathe the great river in the carmine rays which was magical. In the evening it was a noisy crowded but interesting time observing others in their trance and fervour. I reflected that perhaps it could be described as the detritus of millennia and the stench of history that assailed our nostrils.

For me personally I have happy memories of this great wide and usually calm river with all of Indian life that continues on her banks. I grew up with sights of washing, bathing, praying, elephants cavorting in the water, camels being brought to quench their thirst, bird life and the spirituality that is part of the holy river. My first view of the water close to the source was in 1959 and made a deep impression as a child, startling blue turquoise. In those days Rishikesh was of course a spiritual destination but for a child quite impressive because of the hundreds of lepers that lined the paths which was overwhelming. When I returned in January 2008 that was not the case. Thankfully, the holy Ganga still looked wonderful there, but it was very very cold.

We had spent two days at Hardwar and participated in Aarti in the evening which was intriguing and moving to see the hundreds of devotees hugely comforted by their participation; one couple were conveying their feelings to their grown-up son in Italy by mobile so he too could benefit! For me on the other hand an incredibly special experience was to follow. In our Hari Ganga Haveli, they had a resident priest and small temple. The following evening, I was passing the tiny temple and the priest was starting his chanting. I wished him in Hindi, and he said ‘Come Child, you too are of this land we will do Aarti together. So, we both went down through the haveli on its marble steps to the banks of the Ganga, it had its own private ghat. We stood in the icy freezing water, and he prayed, and he blessed me. It was a moving spiritual moment.

At Calcutta or Kolkata as it now is, the Hooghly is the tributary which once was deep and huge cargoes came up from the delta; I recall Royal Naval destroyers paying courtesy visits in the early 1950s and as an excited child going to a children’s’ party on board. The Hooghly has a bore which used to come up the river periodically like the one on the Severn down in England. It was quite a sight in my childhood. Now a visit to the banks of the Hooghly shows the enchanting world’s largest flower market, men bathing and praying and country boats plying their trade. Then when one travels to the Sundarbans the vastness of the delta becomes apparent. I am a resolute supporter of a tiger conservation charity which also started and runs a village school for a Sundarbans village. We had the pleasure of visiting there in February 2018 and lived in the village for four nights and made an extensive journey on the river. The world’s largest delta and the people who survive on the banks of these waterways are severely threatened by climate change.

India has many challenges and as a child of India I fervently wish her to conquer them all, but it takes time with a population of 1.3 billion people. The Restoration of the Ganga to purity or near to purity, the Swachh Bharat initiative to clean up the country of litter and rubbish are two great endeavours that must succeed. Wildlife, Bird life, River life and the Peoples on the banks of the Ganga will ALL benefit if this can be achieved.

Aline Dobbie

www.thepeacockscall.co.uk 2021