Maha Kumbh now a Harvard case study
The Maha Kumbh Mela, considered
the largest public gathering in the world, will be the subject
of a case study at Harvard University, which will study the
logistics and economics behind it and the "pop-up mega-city"
that comes to life in Allahabad during the religious event.
A team of faculty and students from Harvard's Faculty of
Arts and Sciences (FAS), School of Design, Harvard Business
School, School of Public Health, Harvard Medical School,
Harvard Divinity School and Harvard Global Health Institute
would travel to Allahabad for the project 'Mapping India's
Kumbh Mela'.
They would undertake different researches at the Maha
Kumbh, which draws millions of pilgrims from across the world
every 12 years.
Harvard said a temporary "pop-up mega-city" is created
for the Kumbh Mela that would house pilgrims and tourists for
the over month-long duration of the religious gathering.
"This city, laid out on a grid, is constructed and
deconstructed within a matter of weeks," it said.
Creating this huge encampment entails multiple aspects of
contemporary urbanism, including city planning and management,
engineering and spatial zoning, an electricity grid, water
lines and sanitation systems, food and water distribution
plans, hospitals and vaccination centres, police and fire
stations, public gathering spaces, and stages for
entertainments and plays, the university said.
"This is probably the first time that Harvard is doing
something like this, where we've pulled together ... different
disciplines in a way that all faculty and students are going
to be together to look at a phenomenon," Associate Director of
Harvard's South Asia Institute, Meena Hewett, said in a
statement.
The Harvard team would seek answers to the "question of
'How on earth is an event of this size possible'," city-based
writer Logan Plaster, who would be part of the team visiting
the Kumbh Mela, said. "To fully grapple with this question,
the scale of the Kumbh needs to be put in perspective."
The Maha Kumbh Mela, considered
the largest public gathering in the world, will be the subject
of a case study at Harvard University, which will study the
logistics and economics behind it and the "pop-up mega-city"
that comes to life in Allahabad during the religious event.
A team of faculty and students from Harvard's Faculty of
Arts and Sciences (FAS), School of Design, Harvard Business
School, School of Public Health, Harvard Medical School,
Harvard Divinity School and Harvard Global Health Institute
would travel to Allahabad for the project 'Mapping India's
Kumbh Mela'.
They would undertake different researches at the Maha
Kumbh, which draws millions of pilgrims from across the world
every 12 years.
Harvard said a temporary "pop-up mega-city" is created
for the Kumbh Mela that would house pilgrims and tourists for
the over month-long duration of the religious gathering.
"This city, laid out on a grid, is constructed and
deconstructed within a matter of weeks," it said.
Creating this huge encampment entails multiple aspects of
contemporary urbanism, including city planning and management,
engineering and spatial zoning, an electricity grid, water
lines and sanitation systems, food and water distribution
plans, hospitals and vaccination centres, police and fire
stations, public gathering spaces, and stages for
entertainments and plays, the university said.
"This is probably the first time that Harvard is doing
something like this, where we've pulled together ... different
disciplines in a way that all faculty and students are going
to be together to look at a phenomenon," Associate Director of
Harvard's South Asia Institute, Meena Hewett, said in a
statement.
The Harvard team would seek answers to the "question of
'How on earth is an event of this size possible'," city-based
writer Logan Plaster, who would be part of the team visiting
the Kumbh Mela, said. "To fully grapple with this question,
the scale of the Kumbh needs to be put in perspective."
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