In India, religious tourism is not a new thing, but the upsurge is unprecedented, leading to a very evident mixing of religion and politics, where temple reconstruction is one of its features. Power is exercised and manifested through religious tourism, encouraged and supported by the government, especially by the central government, which also inaugurated the Ram temple in Ayodhya just before the general elections in the country.
Not all religious tourism is for the purposes of pilgrimage and salvation, but there is an increasing emphasis on promoting old and new sites as places of redemption, like the recently concluded Maha Kumbh. Tourism in the 21st century is also a form of consumerism and the relationship that exists between tourism and religion is complex and cannot be viewed from a binary perspective. For instance, despite the long-drawn court battle after the demolition of the Babri Masjid in 1992 in Ayodhya and the eventual construction of a grand Ram temple there, the BJP lost the Faizabad seat in the 2024 general elections, of which Ayodhya is a part.
The hybrid form of religious tourism leaves us with a lot of questions about its exponential growth. In India, predictions by the tourism ministry put the growth in this sector at around five lakh crore rupees by 2030.
Many sites arouse curiosity too and can be categorised as cultural tourism hubs. A few sites are meant solely for religious purposes, like Mecca, which also has all the attributes of a tourist destination, but does not project itself as one. Non-Muslims are forbidden to enter the holy places of Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia.
In 2019, two women entered the Sabarimala temple in Kerala, almost three months after a Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court said that women of all ages must be permitted entry to the temple라이브 바카라 sanctum sanctorum. In 2020, the state government and the Travancore Devaswom Board, which manages the temple, announced that “females and other gender (trans) less than 50 years and above 65 years won’t be allowed for darshan.”
Prohibitions exist on all sides and include gender, caste and religion in many public spaces dominated by religion across the world, often with the support of state agencies.
The revival of religious fundamentalism promises paradise and redemption as opposed to pleasure that tourism tends to evoke.
Secular tourism now seems to be a shrinking space in the face of such aggressive promotion of religious tourism, which has also mutated to appeal to all kinds of people, including the rich and the poor.
The next issue of 바카라 looks at the phenomenon of religious tourism in the country in the wake of the Maha Kumbh and the various concerns it raises in an atmosphere charged with Hindu nationalism.
This article is a part of 바카라's March 21, 2025 issue 'The Pilgrim's Progress', which explores the unprecedented upsurge in religious tourism in India. It appeared in print as 'Religious Itinerary'.
