Harmony Lessons of the Hindu Kumbh Mela

[Guest guest]

ALLAHABAD, India (Feb. 2, 2007): The largest single gathering of

people on Earth could hold the secret to how big communities can

live together in harmony, according to researchers.

 

Psychologists have completed a three-year study into the 30 million

strong Kumbh Mela - a Hindu festival in Allahabad, Northern India.

 

It involved experts from St Andrews, Dundee and Lancaster

universities.

 

The team said its work at the event on the banks of the Ganges

overturned many old beliefs about crowd behaviour.

 

The month-long Mela brings together the equivalent of six times the

population of Scotland in one place, yet there is virtually no

disorder, crushes or rioting.

 

The researchers found that even though people at the festival came

from different castes and social backgrounds, there was a strong

sense of common identity.

 

'SERENE AND PEACEFUL'

 

They said this positive outlook stemmed from a lack of the "them-and-

us psychology", which was often the root of social conflict.

 

Professor Steve Reicher, of St Andrews University, said: "Despite

the fact the Mela seems designed to increase stress in every way -

it is very noisy day and night, very unhealthy, and very packed -

what we found was that actually people feel serene, peaceful and

unstressed.

 

"These various findings raise very important questions about the

nature of collective participation and how it can affect both

individual wellbeing and social cohesion."

 

The academic said a distinct division existed in Western society

between, for example, immigrants and non-immigrants.

 

He said it was the responsibility of everyone to avoid doing

anything to entrench a "them-and-us mentality" between communities,

disrupting social cohesion.

 

Prof Reicher's colleague, Dr Clare Cassidy, said: "Many people argue

crowds are bad for you.

 

"But in the Mela we found that people become more generous, more

supportive and more orderly rather than less.

 

"This is the opposite of a 'walk-on-by society', it is a community

where people are attentive to the needs of strangers."

 

The researchers collaborated with colleagues from a consortium of

Indian universities.

 

SOURCE: BBC NEWS

URL:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/edinburgh_and_east/632259

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