1954 Prayag Kumbh Stampede: When Nehru’s Visit Was Blamed For Over 800 Deaths – News18

Last Updated:January 09, 2025, 07:57 IST

Jawaharlal Nehru, who was grilled over the Maha Kumbh tragedy in Parliament, is criticised to this day. PM Narendra Modi also brought it up at a rally in 2019, comparing how BJP and Congress handle the Kumbh

The then PM Jawaharlal Nehru looking out at the crowds attending the Prayag Kumbh Mela in February 1954. (Image: INTERCONTINENTALE/AFP)

The Maha Kumbh 2025 at Prayagraj, set to be the largest Hindu religious congregation in the world, brings into focus the sheer scale of such an event. And with it come challenges and memories, including the massive stampede of February 3, 1954, which claimed more than 800 lives – the worst such tragedy in the recorded history of kumbh melas.

The then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru was at the centre of this tragedy in Prayagraj, which was then Allahabad, as his presence was widely condemned as being a factor. Inquiries later listed several reasons, such as the Ganga changing its course and the concentration of too many devotees on one ghat, but largely exonerated Nehru and the political setup.

WHAT IS THE NEHRU CONNECTION?

Nehru, who was admittedly not far from the very spot of the stampede, had to face tough questions within Parliament and outside – immediately and for years after.

Even as recently as 2019, Prime Minister Narendra Modi brought it up at a rally in Kaushambi, Uttar Pradesh, comparing how the BJP and Congress governments handle the Kumbh. He praised the arrangements made by the state government for that year’s kumbh mela while referring to the 1954 stampede.

Accusing Nehru of “insensitivity”, he had said: “When Pandit Nehru was the Prime Minister, he once came to the Kumbh Mela. At that time, there was a Congress government from the Panchayat to the Parliament. Then due to chaos there was a stampede in Kumbh, thousands of people were killed. But this news was suppressed so that Pandit Nehru is not tainted.”

While the BJP and Modi allege that the news was “suppressed”, Nehru was grilled in the Rajya Sabha. He expressed deep sorrow – the House even observed a minute’s silence too – but first argued that it was “essentially a matter for the Uttar Pradesh government”. He added, though, “Undoubtedly it is, in another sense, a very important national matter, a national tragedy…in which all of us are interested.”

As for where he was at the time, he said: “I was present not at the spot where the tragedy occurred but not very far from it. I was there in the mela itself on the occasion and I can never forget the tremendous concourse of humanity, consisting of probably 40 lakhs of people, on either side of the river (Ganga).”

The inquiry panel appointed by the UP government later did not find a direct link between VIP presence and the stampede, according to reports.

DAY OF THE STAMPEDE: IN FIRST PERSON

The 1954 Prayag Kumbh Mela was the first of its kind after Independence. That is why Nehru and the then President Rajendra Prasad were among the visitors.

While Prasad took a holy dip, Nehru was primarily there to monitor the management when the stampede occurred between 9 and 10 am on Mauni Amavasya – one of the days considered most auspicious for a ‘snan’ (purifying dip) in the Sangam, the confluence of the Ganga, Yamuna, and mythical Sarasvati.

Photographer NN Mukherjee shared an eyewitness account in a magazine in 1989. “I get goosebumps even today recalling how I took photographs by criss-crossing over the bodies of dying or dead men, women and children, who had fallen on the ground after a collision between two groups,” he wrote.

“The then Prime Minister (Jawaharlal Nehru) and President Rajendra Prasad were to come for a bath at Sangam on the same day. Thus all the police and administrative officers were busy making arrangements for their arrival,” he added.

Mukherjee, who was then working with the newspaper Amrit Bazar Patrika, wrote that a barrier was put up for VIP cars to pass through, and crowds stood on both sides. After Nehru and Rajendra Prasad went past, “a large number of onlookers, who had been stopped on both sides of the barrier, began breaking past the barriers down towards the ghat”.

“A procession of sadhus was moving on the other side of the barrier. The procession went awry due to the influx of the mammoth crowd. When the mob came crashing at the slope of the barricade, it appeared like waves made by standing crops when a storm strikes just before they tumble. Those who fell could not rise again. The cries of ‘save me, save me’ rented the air,” he wrote, adding that officials were largely ignorant towards the scale of the tragedy till around 4 in the evening.

In fact, Nehru and the then UP government faced questions over this alleged delay in information and response at the time.

Mukherjee further claimed that the day after the stampede, the administration “made mounds of bodies and set them on fire”. He said photographers were not allowed, but he posed as a bereaved villager and managed to secretly enter with a camera. He took a photo of the burning pile that was published the next day, he added.

FIRST, BUT NOT THE LAST…

The 1954 stampede may have been among the most prominent such tragedies at the Kumbh, but it was not to be the last. Despite elaborate arrangements, stampedes occur regularly at this massive religious congregation.

In February 2013, the last reported stampede, 42 people were killed after a foot overbridge collapsed at the Allahabad railway station causing panic.

In 2003, at least 39 people were killed in the Nashik Kumbh Mela during a stampede reportedly triggered by a sadhu throwing silver coins at pilgrims. Many of those crushed to death in a narrow alley were women, who were on their way to take a holy dip.

In 1986, at the Haridwar Kumbh Mela, at least 47 people were killed in a stampede as 20,000 pilgrims rushed to cross a bridge from Pant Dweep to go to Har Ki Pauri after waiting for a long time.

Stampedes at the Kumbh have been recorded during pre-independent times as well, with a major one in 1820 that reportedly left 435 people dead in Haridwar.

Stampedes at religious gatherings are not uncommon in India with the latest in claiming six devotees at Tirupati on Wednesday night (January 8). Officials said the incident took place with hundreds jostling for tickets for Vaikunta Dwara Darshanam at Lord Venkateswara Swamy temple on Tirumala Hills.

Last year in July, 121 people were killed in a stampede during the “satsang” organised by the followers of Surajpal alias Bhole Baba in Fulrai Mughalgarhi village of Hathras district in Uttar Pradesh. The incident was the result of poor arrangements made by the organisers, who purportedly sought permission for a crowd of 80,000 people but 2.5 lakh turned up at the venue.

In 2011, at least 106 people were killed in a stampede at Pullumedu near Kerala’s Sabarimala temple. The incident, which was declared a ‘national disaster’, took place after an SUV toppled over.

In 2008, a stampede over the side of a ravine at the Naina Devi shrine in Himachal Pradesh claimed at least 146 lives. The incident took place as people started panicking over a rumour of a landslide in the area.

In 2005, at least 300 people were killed in Maharashtra’s Mandher Devi temple in Satara district. Close to 3 lakh people had converged at the temple for an annual pilgrimage. A fire at a shop and a cylinder explosion reportedly caused panic in the crowd as scores were crushed to death while some others were charred on the steep path to the temple.

Location :

Prayagraj, India