Godmen and Mortal Women

Women, girls, workers, Dalits, mothers, daughters, sisters, wives, babies, followers: who were the victims of the Hathras satsang stampede?

- Rakhi Bose

BY himself, Lala Ram would never have attended Baba Bhole Nath's satsang on July 2, 2024; he isn't a believer. His wife Kamlesh was, and wanted to go after hearing of Baba's healing powers. The Rams had a toddler who'd been sick. The last time he saw either alive was while dropping them off to the segregated women'sonly area of the event.

"It was the biggest mistake of my life," the 28-years-old rued between sobs, a day later.

Only 22 and married five years, Kamlesh and her toddler died in a stampede that broke out at the end of the satsang. The dead have thus far been counted as 121 devotees, which include 114 women and seven children.

Waiting at Hathras’s Bagla Combined District Hospital to pick up his family’s corpses, Ram lamented that he “was there. And yet, (I) could not save them.” Later on the same night, he buried his little girl and cremated his wife’s body. Ram’s only living family now is his son, whose eyes darted between his weeping father and the flames that consumed his mother.

Documenting a Disaster

A stuffed bear floated, face down in a puddle of muddy water under the tented venue of the satsang held on the

side of GT Road in Phulrai Mughalgadi village. A day after the fatal stampede, abandoned belongings, left behind in the pandemonium, floated as ominous reminders of the tragedy that had unfolded: broken spectacles, half-eaten tiffin boxes and discarded dupattas, hastily forgotten slippers, even a heap of crumpled wedding invitations, offerings from devotees to Bhole Baba in exchange for blessings for a match, had moulded.