Outlook's next issue The Pilgrim’s ProgressPhoto: Artwork by Vikas Thakur and Saahil Outlook's next issue The Pilgrim’s ProgressPhoto: Artwork by Vikas Thakur and Saahil

Pilgrimage has long been one of the earliest reasons people travelled—driven by faith, endurance, and the hope of finding something greater than themselves. It once meant days of travel on foot and facing hardships along the way. Today, religious tourism is no longer just about faith; it is an industry. Roads carved through mountains, VIP lanes at temple gates, and grand reconstructions—faith is now a spectacle, and the faithful, an ever-growing crowd. 

Religious tourism in India is not new, but the upsurge is unprecedented. As shrines become destinations, as faith and politics walk hand in hand, we look at what this upsurge means. Outlook's next issue The Pilgrim’s Progress looks at the phenomenon of religious tourism in the country in the wake of the Maha Kumbh and the various concerns it raises in an atmosphere charged with Hindu nationalism.

Journalist and author Snigdhendu Bhattacharya writes that the global rise in pilgrimage and religious tourism is not just the growing religiosity across societies, but also choices made by governments on the kind of infrastructure to develop. This trend has the backing of a market-driven push for commodification of faith and the Right-wing strategy of religion-based mass mobilisation. 

Outlook’s Avantika Mehta reports on how the advent of social media changed life in the sleepy town of Gadha, where 28-year-old Dhirendra Krishna Garg aka Bageshwar Baba, has amassed an unbelievable following that believes in his supernatural powers. Despite claims of divine insight, his popularity thrives on a well-organised system of crowd control and ritualistic participation.

Historian Sanjay Sharma observes that small is no longer beautiful. Now big is beautiful, better and best. This was best exemplified by the recent Maha Kumbh,betef casino aggressively promoted as a once-in-a-lifetime event. The whole country was invited. Tourism industry, limping back from the COVID slump, lapped up the opportunity. Groups of devotees eager to visit the Maha Kumbh from far-flung areas were turned into willing customers by travel agents.

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This trend exists beyond India. Record gatherings are also being witnessed in all major traditional pilgrimage sites like the Vatican, Mecca, and Lumbini, as well as at newer miracle-oriented Christian sites and even the disputed city of Jerusalem, sacred to Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

The business of religious tourism is booming, often at the cost of the sanctity of sacred spaces. As faith becomes an industry and temples turn into economic powerhouses, what is the true cost of this progress?

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Read these and more in the latest issue of Outlook.betex1