In Baba-Land

The advent of social media changed life in the sleepy town of Gadha, where a 28-year-old Dhirendra Krishna Garg aka Bageshwar Baba, has amassed an unbelievable following who believe he has supernatural powers

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HE'S a fair-skinned young man with bright black eyes and a wide grin that never seems to fade. You can't miss Dhirendra Krishna Garg, aka Bageshwar Baba and his androgynous aura, as his interminable stare greets you in photographs the moment you step into Bageshwar Dham in Madhya Pradesh's Chhatarpur district.

Sometimes he's in aviators. Sometimes he's in a turban fit for an 18th-century Maratha king. On days he does not wear elaborate headgear, his flowing hair flops over his forehead and when it overgrows, his jet-black mane spills over his collar. His face is everywhere: on walls, road signs, posters, T-shirts and tote bags hawked in the temple's bustling marketplace.

Of Faith & Followers

To say that Bageshwar Dham, located in the jurisdiction of Gadha village, is built around Garg would be an understatement. The locals will tell you he built this city, transforming it into a hub of religious tourism. Quite like the Dera Sacha Sauda in Haryana, which transformed from a modest spiritual commune into a virtually self-sustaining town. Faith-driven tourism fuelled its expansion as roads, schools, hospitals and markets followed. Devotees poured in, funding infrastructure, businesses and a full-fledged economy built on religious fervour.

"Before Corona, there was nothing here—no roads, no hotels, no jobs beyond farming or construction labour," says Gadha Sarpanch Arun Shukhla. In January this year, residents protested after a nearby railway station, about three kilometres from the Dham, was renamed from Duriya Ganj to Dariya Ganj. They argued that both names had Islamic origins and demanded that the station be renamed Bageshwar Dham Railway Station instead.