The Ghats of Delhi: Sacred, yet struggling to survive

The ghats on the Yamuna serve as integral spaces of interaction between the river and the residents of Delhi. At the same time, they have become hubs of pollution, with most ghats caked with waste

- Paras Singh and Jasjeev Gandhiok

NEW DELHI: Historically, socially and culturally, riverbanks have been the beating heart of cities built along rivers in the Indian subcontinent.

The sacred steps at these ghats serve as the stage for life's most profound moments prayers at dawn, farewells at dusk, and the mystical glow of the ceremonial flames flickering against the river's dark expanse. They are where faith meets the flow of time, where the living seek blessings and the departed find release.

Perhaps that is why, just hours after taking the oath as chief minister on February 20, Rekha Gupta and her council of ministers left the Delhi secretariat and headed straight to Vasudev Ghat near Kashmere Gate for a Yamuna aarti.

The red sandstone steps, built less than a year ago, now host a Varanasi-style aarti every week. That evening, as devotional chants and the rhythmic clang of temple bells filled the air, a quieter scene unfolded just 900 metres downstream.

At the older, crumbling ghats of Yamuna Bazaar, boatmen and priests watched anxiously. These ghats, long forgotten by planners and politicians, were once the lifeblood of river rituals.

Now, they are trapped between a past they cannot let go of and a future that may not include them.

"While we are hopeful our ghat too is transformed like Vasudev Ghat, this may mean demolition of the houses built along the ghats," said Ganesh Pandit, a 30-year-old Yamuna Bazaar resident.

The ghats, which are a flight of steps leading down to a river, form an integral space of interaction between a river and its people. Derived from the Sanskrit root "ghatta" meaning "a landing place", ghats are steps built parallel to the river flow.

There is a story and a purpose behind every ghat-they serve as the people's connection to the river.