By Manoj Singh, ex ACS, Govt of Uttar Pradesh
Lucknow: The Kumbh Mela, one of the largest religious gatherings on Earth, brings together millions of pilgrims in India to take a ritual bath in sacred rivers. Traditionally understood through the lenses of faith, religious practice, and cultural heritage, this massive event can be reinterpreted through the philosophical framework of Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, particularly their concepts of rhizome, assemblage, nomadology, and deterritorialization.
1. Kumbh Mela as a Rhizome
Deleuze and Guattari’s idea of the rhizome contrasts with hierarchical, tree-like structures. Rhizomes spread horizontally and can grow from any point—non-linear, non-hierarchical, and multiplicity-driven.
Kumbh Mela is a rhizome: There is no single center or authority governing the experience. Pilgrims come from diverse castes, sects, classes, regions, and even nations, forming horizontal connections. The crowd does not move with a central plan; rather, it flows organically, much like a rhizomatic root system. Saints, vendors, devotees, and tourists create temporary connections that disperse after the festival.
2. Assemblage of Bodies, Beliefs, and Infrastructure
According to Deleuze and Guattari, an assemblage is a network of interacting elements—human and non-human, material and expressive. The Kumbh Mela is a perfect socio-spiritual assemblage: human bodies, religious icons, police control rooms, medical camps, floating bridges, rituals, chants, drone surveillance, and mobile apps coexist to create the experience.
This temporary city, often referred to as the largest ephemeral urban space on Earth, is an assemblage not just of physical structures but also of affects—devotion, fervor, sacrifice, and spiritual yearning.
3. Nomadology and the Pilgrim
In A Thousand Plateaus, Deleuze and Guattari valorize the nomadic over the sedentary. Nomads are not defined by fixed territory but by movement and becoming.
Pilgrims at the Kumbh are nomads, both physically and spiritually. They journey across vast distances, often without fixed plans, staying in temporary tents, living off the land and community hospitality. The very act of pilgrimage becomes a nomadic disruption of the urban-sedentary life—a moment of becoming-other.
4. Deterritorialization and Reterritorialization
Deterritorialization involves breaking away from traditional structures or spaces, while reterritorialization is the formation of new structures or meanings.
Kumbh Mela deterritorializes the idea of a city. A floodplain becomes a massive urban landscape. Farmers, shopkeepers, ascetics, bureaucrats, and tech experts inhabit a shared, fluid space. After the Mela, the city disappears—reterritorialized back into silence, sand, and memory.
Even religious practice is deterritorialized: While grounded in ancient scriptures, Kumbh accommodates modern performances—digital darshans, televised sermons, and social media discourse—giving the festival new meaning.
5. Bodies without Organs (BwO) and the Sannyasi
In Deleuze and Guattari’s view, the Body without Organs is a body stripped of organization, resisting structure and hierarchy. The naga sadhus at the Kumbh—naked, ash-covered ascetics who renounce possessions and social conventions—embody the BwO.
They refuse the structured life of the ordinary world. Their bodies, free from social coding, become spaces of spiritual experimentation—experiencing pain, ecstasy, and transcendence outside conventional frameworks.
A Machine of Desire and Belief
For Deleuze and Guattari, desire is productive, not just a lack. The Kumbh Mela is a desiring-machine—a confluence of longing, belief, tradition, and chaos. It cannot be explained by logic or managed through centralized control. It flows, transforms, connects, and dissipates.
By viewing the Kumbh Mela through their post-structuralist lens, we recognize it not merely as a religious gathering, but as a living, moving, dynamic process of becoming—a sacred rhizome that momentarily blooms and disperses, leaving traces in bodies, memories, and the landscape itself.
