![image: [ BBC Correspondent: Mike Wooldridge ]](/olmedia/images/wooldridge.jpg)
Several million Hindu pilgrims have converged on a town on the banks of the River Ganges in Northern India to take part in the last Kumbh Mela or mass bathing ritual of this century. But the gathering in Haridwar is taking place against the background of tension between rival Hindu groups and in a last minute move, the authorities have banned them from staging processions in an attempt to avert trouble. From Haridwar, our South Asia correspondent Mark Wooldridge reports:
The ban on the processions is believed to be unprecedented in the long history of these religious gatherings in Haridwar, one of four places in India where a Kumbh Mela takes place every 12-years. But it follows clashes here at the end of last month between different groups that were formed to defend Hinduism, clashes in which more than 100 people were injured.
All attempts to patch up their quarrel over which group should have the right to bathe first have failed and, fearing further violence over this period which marks the climax of this last Kumbh Mela of the century, the authorities stepped in and told the groups they would not be able to stage their traditional processions to the bathing ghats.
If honoured, it's a decision which will deprive the Kumbh Mela of one of its most distinctive and colourful elements not least because some of the Sadhus, their bodies smeared with ash.
But it's clear that the authorities were also worried that in the confined spaces along the banks of the Ganges with so many pilgrims present, any trouble that erupted around such a procession could also provoke a stampede; several dozen people were killed in a stampede at the last Kumbh Mela in Haridwar.
None of these anxieties though seem to have had any obvious effect on the families who've come from far and wide for one of the greatest shared religious rituals in the world which they believe will cleanse them of their sins. They stay in rest houses, tented encampments or simply out in the open in this town that calls itself The Gateway to the Land of the Gods.
Kumbh Mela at the Indian Express
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