Sacred Waters

In all the politicking that will undoubtedly ensue,the great fear is that the real cause for which this activist sacrificed himself will be entirely neglected.

I have had the opportunity to film the Ganga,as also the Narmada,several times over the past twenty-five years and am appalled at just how polluted our two holiest rivers have gotten,despite much vaunted efforts to save them.

I have always found distended corpses of infants,adults and animals floating on the Ganga every time I filmed in Varanasi. It is widely believed that any person who is cremated here is ensured a direct passage to heaven. However,since the cost of cremation is so high,the poor can afford to only char their deceased and then simply immerse the body into the holy Ganga.

Children under five,holy men,lepers,pregnant women,and snake-bite victims are not cremated but offered directly to the river,which ironically gets further polluted whilst washing away the sins of all mankind.

Bathing,washing,defecating are all carried on in these sacred waters by devotees who see no contradiction in contaminating the very rivers that sustain them.

Recently,I made a film on the Narmada,considered even more holy than the Ganga since she is the maiden daughter of Lord Shiva. Legend has it that the Ganga,in the guise of a black cow,comes once a year to bathe in the Narmada waters for her own purification. Unfortunately,when I filmed at the source of the Narmada,in Amarkantak,a verdant mountain hamlet in Madhya Pradesh,I was astounded to find that the sacred tank from which this river emanates is polluted everyday with hundreds of floating diyas made of aluminum foil.

I realised that if the river considered most pure in India is being contaminated at its very source then there is very little hope for keeping the rest of our water bodies clean.

Plastics,chemicals and other effluents are dumped into our rivers on a daily basis,resulting in irreversible environmental damage. Illegal mining and quarrying is rampant and vested interests ensure that nothing is done towards checking this ecological menace.

In association with Mukul Kasliwal,who also feels strongly on this matter,I decided to make a public service film to raise awareness on river pollution. The legendary Pandit Jasraj graciously offered his support and the fruit of our collaboration can be viewed on the link(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6JBJ0G-ffc).

After years of cynical complacency,we are finally beginning to get pro-active as a people. Perhaps the Swami’s death will not be in vain,after all.

Fahad Samar is a filmmaker,inveterate traveller and intrepid chronicler of society (samarofdiscontent@gmail.com)