Beyond religiosity

1. At a Glance

• What it is: The Hindu's editorial "Beyond religiosity" (19 Oct 2026) argues that better crowd regulation could have prevented a fatal stampede at a Durga Puja pandal in Kolkata. It contrasts the political display of the festival with weak administration on the ground. [1]
• The disaster type: NIDM treats a stampede as a human-induced and preventable disaster. Its two main behavioural drivers are anxiety and panic, and "all that stampedes need is a small trigger caused by panic." [4]
• Heritage angle: Durga Puja in Kolkata has been on UNESCO's Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) of Humanity since December 2021. That makes crowd safety at the festival a heritage-governance issue as well. [9][10]
• UPSC relevance: It links GS-III Disaster Management, GS-I Culture, GS-II Governance and GS-IV Ethics, where the question is whether officials are accountable for safety or for spectacle.

2. Why in the News

• 19 people died in a stampede at the Girish Park area of Kolkata on a Saturday. The editorial reporting it is dated Monday, 19 Oct 2026. [1]
• The pandal was the Chorbagan Sarbojanin Durgotstab, with the theme "Beyond Sound". It had a narrow entry and exit so the designers could control the light falling inside. [1]
• The surrounding lanes were narrow city gullies that cannot hold two cars at the same time. Rain with heavy thunder and lightning hit India's east coast, which was unexpected during the retreat of the monsoon. [1]
• This was the first Durga Puja after the BJP formed the government in West Bengal. CM Suvendu Adhikari pointed to a 25% rise in pandals over the previous year, to more than 57,000. Union Home Minister Amit Shah was also in Kolkata. [1]
• Both the police and the puja organisers failed to anticipate the sudden surge of the crowd. [1]

3. Background & Evolution

• The festival: It is a ten-day worship of the goddess Durga. Clay images are made from Ganga river clay and immersed in the river at the end. [9]
• Track record: Puja pandals, like Mumbai's Ganapati installations, have generally been accident-free despite very large crowds. [1]
• Milestones:
• May 2014: NDMA issued "Managing Crowd at Events and Venues of Mass Gathering — A Guide for State Governments, Local Authorities, Administrators and Organizers." [2][5]
• 2017: An NDMA two-day conference on crowd management in Kerala said its discussions would feed into a revision of the 2014 guidelines. The searches found no evidence that a revised version was published. [5]
• Dec 2021: UNESCO's Intergovernmental Committee, at its 16th session in Paris (13–18 Dec 2021), inscribed "Durga Puja in Kolkata" (file 00703). This raised India's ICH tally to 14. [9][10]
• Aug 2024: An NIDM workshop with the Rajkot district administration recommended clearly marked, separate entry and exit points at large events. [7]
• 2025: The Karnataka Crowd Control (Managing Crowd at Events and Places of Assembly) Bill, 2025 was introduced. It is an example of a state making its own crowd-control law. [8]
• Dec 2025: An NIDM course on disaster risk management stressed CCTV, public address systems, crowd tracking, and token or ticket-based access. [6]
• Sept 2026: The West Bengal government joined the UN India–UNESCO initiative to make Durga Puja accessible. [11][12]

4. Core Static Facts

Item	Fact
Nodal guideline	NDMA, Managing Crowd at Events and Venues of Mass Gathering, May 2014 [2][5]
Training and capacity body	NIDM, which runs training modules on managing crowds at large congregations [4]
Behavioural drivers of stampedes	Anxiety and panic [4]
Systemic failures NIDM lists	Poor understanding of crowd behaviour, weak coordination, unclear roles and responsibilities, poor planning by organisers [4]
Permit-related lapses	Casual issue and renewal of permits, too few staff in permit-granting bodies, and untrained private security hired to save costs [4]
Recommended controls	Separate, marked entry and exit [7]; CCTV, public address, crowd tracking, token or ticket access [6]
Personal safety advice (NDMA)	Stay close to escape routes. Don't stand still or sit down in a moving crowd. If you fall, curl into the foetal position and cover your head. Avoid being pushed against walls, fences or barricades [3]
UNESCO ICH	Durga Puja in Kolkata, inscribed 2021, file 00703, India's 14th element [9][10]
How UNESCO describes it	"The best instance of the public performance of religion and art" [10]
2026 scale	More than 57,000 pandals in West Bengal, up 25% on the previous year [1]

5. Multi-Dimensional Analysis

Administrative

• The police and organisers both failed to anticipate the surge. Planning that ignores crowd behaviour is the recurring failure NIDM identifies. [1][4]
• Approving a narrow single entry and exit in lanes too narrow for two cars points to weak checks at the permit stage. [1][4]
• A 25% jump in pandals in one year stretches the police and permit staff, which echoes NDMA's concern about too few staff in permit bodies. [1][4]

Ethical / Governance

• The editorial argues that showing off religiosity and the efficiency of the administration is no substitute for actually regulating crowds. Spectacle was put ahead of safety. [1]
• Accountability is shared among the state police, local bodies and the puja committee as organiser. NIDM flags unclear roles as a cause of stampedes. [4]

Disaster Management / Scientific

• Weather: unexpected thunderstorms during the monsoon's retreat may have contributed. This argues for linking IMD nowcasts to event crowd plans. [1]
• Technology: CCTV, crowd tracking, and token or ticket access allow monitoring in real time. [6]

Social / Cultural

• UNESCO recognises puja committees, families, priests, drummers, artists and craftspeople as the bearers of the tradition, so safety failures harm a living heritage. [12]
• UNESCO also noted the festival's efforts to involve marginalised groups and women. Accessibility work since 2026 extends this to persons with disabilities, who are most at risk in a crush. [10][11]

Legal / Federal

• No crowd-safety law applies nationally. NDMA's 2014 document is a guide, not a binding statute, and states are moving to legislate on their own, as Karnataka did with its 2025 Bill. [2][8]
• Note: "Police" and "public order" are State List subjects, and NDMA was created under the Disaster Management Act, 2005. These are standard static facts and were not retrieved in the searches for this note.

6. Recent Developments (last 12–18 months)

• Saturday before 19 Oct 2026: the Girish Park stampede in Kolkata kills 19. [1]
• 2026 Puja season: pandals in West Bengal pass 57,000, a 25% increase. [1]
• Sept 2026: West Bengal joins the UN India–UNESCO initiative on accessible Durga Puja celebrations. [11][12]
• April 2026: NIDM holds its 1st Comprehensive Course on Disaster Risk Management for the year, keeping DRM training going. The searches did not show whether it covered crowd safety. [13]
• Dec 2025: NIDM's DRM course highlights technology-based crowd monitoring. [6]
• 2025: Karnataka Crowd Control Bill, 2025 introduced. [8]

7. Prelims Hooks

• NDMA's crowd guide is titled "Managing Crowd at Events and Venues of Mass Gathering" and was issued in May 2014. [2][5]
• NDMA's 2017 crowd-management conference, held in Kerala, was meant to feed into revising the 2014 guidelines. [5]
• NIDM classifies stampedes as human-induced, preventable disasters. [4]
• NIDM names anxiety and panic as the two main behavioural drivers of stampedes. [4]
• NDMA advice if you fall in a crowd: foetal position, arms covering the head. [3]
• Durga Puja in Kolkata was inscribed on UNESCO's ICH Representative List in December 2021. [10]
• It was inscribed at the 16th session of the Intergovernmental Committee, in Paris. [10]
• With this inscription India had 14 ICH elements. [10]
• UNESCO's ICH file number for Durga Puja in Kolkata is 00703. [9]
• Clay idols are made from Ganga river clay and immersed at the end of the ten-day festival. [9]
• The Karnataka Crowd Control (Managing Crowd at Events and Places of Assembly) Bill, 2025 is a state-level crowd-control law. [8]
• The pandal at the centre of the 2026 tragedy was the Chorbagan Sarbojanin Durgotstab, with the theme "Beyond Sound". [1]

8. How a Design Choice Turned the Pandal into a Trap

• The pandal was built for the light effect, and safety came second
• The Chorbagan pandal had a narrow entry and exit so the designers could control the light falling inside [1].
• NIDM's own advice, from its 2024 Rajkot workshop, is the opposite: clearly marked, separate entry and exit points at large events [7].

• When one opening is both the way in and the way out, people going in and people coming out push against each other. A small shove is enough to start a crush.

• The street outside gave the crowd nowhere to spread

• The lanes around Girish Park cannot hold two cars at the same time [1].

• A crowd that cannot spread out cannot ease the pressure. People at the back keep moving forward while people at the front cannot move.

• A sudden storm is exactly the 'small trigger' NIDM warns about

• NIDM says "all that stampedes need is a small trigger caused by panic" [4].
• Heavy thunder and lightning arrived without warning during the monsoon's retreat [1].

• A weather shock on top of a narrow single opening is a known danger. Nobody planned for the two arriving together.

• The permit stage is where this should have been caught

• NIDM lists "casual" issue and renewal of permits, and too few staff in permit offices, as causes of stampedes [4].
• With more than 57,000 pandals [1], a permit officer cannot visit every one. A design that would have failed a site check went through.

9. Same Failure, Different City: Hathras, Kumbh and Bengaluru

• Crowds bigger than the permission are the usual starting point
• At Hathras (July 2024), permission was given for 80,000 people. More than 2.5 lakh came, and 121 people died [14].
• The SIT (Special Investigation Team, a police team set up to probe one case) held the organisers responsible for not arranging crowd control [14].

• Permission is given for a number, but no one on the spot counts people or stops entry once that number is reached.

• Blame passes between the organiser and the state

• After the Bengaluru stampede (June 2025, 11 dead), the Karnataka State Cricket Association said it had no role in managing the gates or the crowd [16].
• The police report blamed a large and "unexpected" turnout [16]. In Kolkata too, both police and organisers "failed to anticipate" the surge [1].

• NIDM names unclear roles and responsibilities as a cause of stampedes [4]. When nobody owns the crowd, everyone can say the crowd was not their job.

• Junior officials are punished. The system is not changed

• After Hathras, the local SDM, circle officer, tehsildar and police outpost staff were found negligent, and officials were suspended [14].

• Suspensions do not change permit rules or require crowd counts. Within a year, the Maha Kumbh at Prayagraj saw a stampede that killed 30 people (Jan 2025) [15].

• The 'it has always been safe' record is itself a risk

• Puja pandals have "generally been accident-free" [1].
• A long safe record makes planners treat each year like the last. A 25% jump in pandals in one year [1] means this year was not like the last.

10. Why Counting Pandals Is Not the Same as Counting Safety

• The government measured success by size
• The CM pointed to 57,000+ pandals, a 25% rise, as an achievement [1].
• No equal figure was announced for crowd capacity checked, permits inspected or marshals trained.

• What a government chooses to count shows what it cares about. The editorial's point is that religiosity was put on display while crowd regulation was neglected [1].

• More pandals means more crowds for the same police

• Each new pandal is one more place where crowd flow must be planned and staffed.

• NIDM warns that organisers save money by hiring untrained private security [4]. Fast growth makes this more likely, because organisers compete for the same small pool of trained people.

• The ethical question (GS-IV)

• A public official owes the duty of care (the duty to prevent harm that can be foreseen) to the people who come, not just to the image of the event.

• Stampedes are human-induced and preventable [4], so deaths at a permitted event are a failure of that duty, not 'fate'.

• Heritage status raises the bar, it does not lower it

• UNESCO lists Durga Puja as the "public performance of religion and art" [10]. Crowds of the public are part of what makes it heritage.
• West Bengal joined the UN–UNESCO initiative on accessible puja in Sept 2026 [11]. Accessibility means nothing if a person in a wheelchair cannot get out of a single narrow exit.

11. Would a Tough Law Fix This? The Case Against Karnataka's Model

• The strongest case against a strict crowd law
• Karnataka's 2025 Bill needs permission for events of 5,000 or more people, a ₹1 crore indemnity bond (a money guarantee to pay for any harm), and up to life imprisonment if a crowd disaster causes deaths [8].
• PRS points out that organisers are liable even when they were not at fault, and the liability has no upper limit [8].

• Most Kolkata pujas are sarbojanin, which means run by a local community committee, not a company. A ₹1 crore bond and the risk of life imprisonment could push small committees to shut down, or to stay below the 5,000 limit on paper only.

• What the critics get right

• PRS notes the Bill does not say which officer of an organising company is liable. The Disaster Management Act, 2005 does name responsible employees and gives a due-diligence defence (protection if you can show you took proper care) [8].
• The Bill gives compensation for deaths but not for injuries [8].

• PRS also asks whether the permit-giving authority and the agency that certified the venue should share liability [8]. Kolkata shows why: the pandal's design was approved before anyone came.

• Why some binding rule is still needed

• NDMA's 2014 crowd document is only a guide [2]. The revision promised in 2017 was never published [5]. Advice that no one has to follow did not stop Hathras, the Kumbh or Girish Park.
• The answer is a law that sets clear duties for both organisers and officials, with fines in proportion to fault, not a law that only makes punishments heavier.

12. Who Should Do What Before the Next Puja

• West Bengal government: no permit without separate entry and exit
• Make NIDM's Rajkot recommendation of clearly marked, separate entry and exit points [7] a permit condition for big pandals.

• Fix a crowd limit for each pandal based on how wide its lanes are, and write it on the permit.

• Kolkata Police: manage the busiest pandals like ticketed venues

• NIDM's Dec 2025 course lists CCTV, public address systems, crowd tracking and token or ticket-based access [6].

• Token entry lets police stop the flow once a pandal is full, which is exactly the check missing at Hathras [14].

• NDMA: finish the revision promised in 2017

• The 2017 Kerala conference said it would feed into revised guidelines [5]. Nine years and several major stampedes later, the 2014 guide is still the base document [2].

• The revision should include weather triggers, since the Kolkata surge came with an unexpected storm [1].

• Any state writing a crowd law: require insurance, not just punishment

• PRS suggests compulsory insurance for mass gatherings [8].

• Insurance pays victims even when the organiser is a small committee with no money. The insurer will also check safety before agreeing to cover the event.

• Puja committees: train volunteers, not hire cheap guards

• NIDM flags untrained private security as a cause of stampedes [4].
• NIDM already runs crowd modules [4]. The state could make a set number of NIDM-trained marshals a permit condition for the largest pandals.

13. Anchors for Answers

• Data: 19 dead at Girish Park, Kolkata, during a season with 57,000+ pandals (up 25%) [1]; Hathras 2024: 121 dead, crowd of 2.5 lakh+ against 80,000 permitted [14]; Maha Kumbh Jan 2025: 30 dead [15]; Bengaluru RCB parade June 2025: 11 dead [16]
• Report/Committee: NDMA, Managing Crowd at Events and Venues of Mass Gathering (2014) [2]; Hathras SIT report (2024), which blamed organisers and found local officials negligent [14]; PRS analysis of the Karnataka Crowd Control Bill, 2025 [8]
• Law/Case: Disaster Management Act, 2005 (names responsible officers and gives a due-diligence defence); Karnataka Crowd Control Bill, 2025 (permits for 5,000+ crowds, ₹1 crore indemnity bond, up to life imprisonment) [8]; Police and public order are on the State List
• Comparison: Karnataka's punishment-heavy Bill vs PRS's suggestion of compulsory event insurance [8]; NIDM's separate entry and exit norm [7] vs Kolkata's single narrow opening [1]
• Scheme: UN India–UNESCO accessible Durga Puja initiative, which West Bengal joined in Sept 2026, so safe exits are part of accessibility [11][12]

14. Mains Relevance

• GS-III: Disaster and disaster management.
• GS-I: Indian culture, including salient aspects of art forms and festivals.
• GS-II: Government policies and interventions, and the role of local bodies.
• GS-IV: Accountability and ethical governance, and the ethics of public administration.
• Possible questions: 1. Stampedes are human-induced and preventable disasters. In light of recurring tragedies at religious gatherings, critically examine the adequacy of India's crowd-management framework. (250 words) 2. Should crowd safety at mass gatherings be governed by binding legislation rather than advisory guidelines? Discuss with reference to recent state initiatives. (150 words) 3. Spectacle over safety: discuss the ethical responsibilities of political executives and event organisers in managing large religious festivals. (GS-IV, 150 words)

15. Related Topics to Study Next

• Disaster Management Act, 2005, and the NDMA/SDMA/DDMA structure: the institutional basis for crowd guidelines.
• Sendai Framework for DRR (2015–2030): the global disaster risk reduction framework that India follows.
• UNESCO ICH list for India (Kumbh Mela, Garba, Ramlila and others): Kumbh Mela is another heritage gathering where crowds are a known risk.
• Earlier stampede cases (Hathras 2024 and other religious-gathering tragedies): to see patterns of failure.
• Seventh Schedule: police and public order: explains why states lead on crowd control.
• IMD nowcasting and the monsoon's retreat: weather as a trigger at outdoor events.
• Accessibility under the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016: relevant to inclusive and safe festival design.

16. NCERT Concepts to Revise

• National Disaster Management Authority (Geography): NDMA issued the 2014 crowd-management guide the note relies on; know its role and why it is advisory.
• National Institute of Disaster Management (Geography): NIDM supplies the training modules that classify stampedes as preventable and list the systemic failures.
• Disaster Management Act 2005 (Geography): This Act created NDMA and NIDM, so it is the legal basis for crowd-safety guidance.
• State List (Polity): Police and public order are State List subjects, which is why states such as Karnataka legislate on crowds.
• Accountability (Polity): The editorial asks whether officials answer for safety failures or only for spectacle; the concept covers that question.
• Kumbh Mela (History): Another UNESCO-listed mass religious gathering where crowd risk is well known; useful for comparison in answers.

17. Common Errors / Trap Areas

• Guide or law: NDMA's 2014 crowd document is an advisory guide, not an Act. The searches found no published revision after the 2017 conference. [2][5]
• ICH year and count: Durga Puja was inscribed in 2021, making India's tally 14 at that time. Don't confuse it with Garba (2023) or Kumbh Mela (2017). [10]
• The list: it is the Representative List, not the "Urgent Safeguarding List" and not the World Heritage List. [10]
• NDMA vs NIDM: NDMA issues guidelines, while NIDM handles training and capacity-building through modules and courses. [2][4]
• Venue name: the 2026 tragedy was at Girish Park and Chorbagan, not one of the better-known pandals. [1]