Poll-time lens reveals decade of transformation in Kashi
The most remarkable facet of transformation is palpable at the Kashi Vishwanath Temple (KVT) complex post its renovation and expansion as the Kashi Vishwanath Dham.
The ancient and timeless city of Varanasi is also now a city of change, hurtling forward on the development fast-track with its spiritual ethos, growing beyond its charming bylanes to stand out in the poll time as a symbol of the present and future, emerging from the womb of the past.
The most remarkable facet of transformation is palpable at the Kashi Vishwanath Temple (KVT) complex post its renovation and expansion as the Kashi Vishwanath Dham.
Such is the rush that at 10pm, one needs 50 seconds to take 25 nifty steps with great caution to cross the road in front of KVT. At that hour, shops in alleys of the temple town are either closed or shopkeepers are busy checking their locks and performing fire worship to keep stock safe for the next day’s business.
“My shop remains open till 11 pm,” says an employee at a shop opposite the main gate of KVT, in the hope of more customers purchasing flowers for worship at his shop or in need of a locker to keep a cellphone, which is not allowed inside the temple complex.
Not an inch of space is left on the street. Vendors have set up shops even on the covered drains, selling items required by pilgrims.
The Kashi Vishwanath Corridor has made an impact on three layers of society directly.
The first ones are those whose houses and shops were taken for widening the temple complex for making the corridor. They were allotted shops in return along with compensation.
The second are the ones who started new ventures of selling of items used in worship and souvenirs, including Banarsi sarees, around the temple complex. The third layer gained due to indirect business from the increased tourist inflow.
While homestays are new, the number of hotels increased from 800 in 2019 to over 1500 at present.
“Despite bring new, homestays are the most popular. Rooms are never vacant. I started with a mix of domestic and foreign tourists/pilgrim who booked their rooms online,” says Amit Kapoor owner of a homestay near the Hanuman temple.
The increase was gradual between 2014 and 2019, but gained momentum after the temple complex was renovated and expanded along with the Kashi Vishwanath Corridor from the Ganga in 2021.
“Earlier foreign tourists were an attraction and hotels were decked up according to their need. Today, the number of hotels has gone up. Homestays are a new feature in the ancient city, all focusing on domestic tourists,” says Kunal Rakshit, a Varanasi- based member of the Indian Association of Tour Operators, a national body of tour operators.
“Domestic tourism has taken over strongly. This is the basic reason why various segments related to religion and religious tourism bounced back, more than anywhere else, in Varanasi,” Rakshit adds.
“Expansion of Kashi, Banaras or Varanasi from its original radius of 6-km to 12-km today has brought major infrastructural changes and several issues too before people,” says Ratnakar Tripathi, a political analyst based in Varanasi.
The KVT’s expansion has brought a sense of continuity and rootedness as Kashi Vishwanath Dham is uniquely sacrosanct for Hindus.
A walk on the road from Godowlia crossing towards KVT reveals the essence of how Varanasi has transformed.
At the beginning of the one-kilometre stretch you find shops of all types, doctors’ clinics and street vendors selling souvenirs. The pattern is similar to the road from the Godowlia crossing towards Dashaswamedh Ghat, the key point for visitors in Varanasi.
But as you walk about a 100 metres from the crossing, the scene changes. Souvenirs are replaced with flowers. A little further down the stretch, cars are not allowed. Now each shop is selling items for pilgrims. Almost every shop now has food, flowers and items used for worship of Lord Shiva and lockers to keep cell phones, bags and other items that are not allowed inside the temple complex.
While Banarsis (as locals are called here) prefer a rich diet, the entire street is filled with billboards displaying rates for idli, dosa, Vada, uthappam with a pure “veg” label. This is because pilgrims from South India now visit Varanasi round the year. Earlier, it was limited to six months (March to May and August to October). Business is booming and nothing else is sold in front of the KVT’s main gate.
Even before you reach the Godowlia crossing, you find the city’s two oldest cinema halls -- Mazda and Saraswati -- converted into parking place and commercial complex.
In 2023, Varanasi welcomed 12,94,05,720 tourist footfalls, including 12,91,82,767 domestic and 2,22,953 foreign tourists, according to tourism department data. The total number could be even more as many visited the city but did not spend the night here.
In the same year, Ayodhya received 6,30,01,612 tourists, including 8,564 foreign and 6,30,10,176 domestic visitors and Prayagraj got 5,39,30,466 tourists (4,853 foreign and 5,39,35,319 domestic).
The rise in tourist footfall explains why religious tourism has jumped every month here and people have invested in it, directly or indirectly, month after month.
The shift from all sorts of business to just religious tourism and hospitality became obvious.
In 2017, Varanasi had a total of 1,84,44,613 tourists. There were 2,00,83,978 tourists in 2018, 2,07,61,307 in 2019 and 88,93,239 in 2020. In 2021, the city received 68,84,084 tourists and in 2022 there were 7,17,01,816 tourists (7,16,12,127 domestic and 89,689 foreign), according to the tourism department data.
The numbers are the reason why people from diverse businesses such as hardware and small scale machine tools ventures run their outlets on the one-kilometre road from Godowlia to Sonarpura, Tripathi says.
‘Katras’ (a local term used to describe shops inside a commercial complex) have been converted in to lodges of up to 7-8 rooms and they remain occupied round the year, giving more income than the earlier businesses, says Rakshit, who has been in the tourism sector for over a decade.
Urban transformation affects the landscape and this is visible here too. For instance, Chashma Ghar, the lens shop near Kanhaiya Chitra Mandir, another iconic cinema hall that was closed to be replaced with a commercial complex.
Among other popular old shops that are now missing are Arora Tailors and Bombay Dyeing cloth store on Bansfatak.
Also in the list is the seven-decade old Bright Studio, where generations of families in Varanasi have got their pictures clicked for school, college admissions and even for marriage.
Varanasi has expanded too in the past 10 years.
The new elevated road from the airport to city limits, some 10-km from Godowlia, has brought major infrastructure change. The entire 18-km stretch that had a few houses and barely a tea stall till 2014 is buzzing with activity. Homes, hotels, stores of branded goods, schools, and chai shops keep the connecting road busy till late in the evening.
“In 2014, when it was built, the average speed of vehicles was 70 km. Today, it is down to 50 km, because of the growing traffic and infrastructure development. Earlier, you could buy farmland. Now, there is just no land for sale,” says Kapoor, explaining how fast Banaras has expanded in the past 10 years.
Sarnath, the place where Lord Buddha gave his first sermon after enlightenment, is a busy place today. Till 2014, there were hardly any tourists in the peak summer months of May and June.
But now hundreds of pilgrims can be seen even between 1pm and 4pm, when the heat is at its peak, entering the deer park site after visiting the archeological museum.
It is the oldest on-site museum of Archeological Survey of India with 6,000 artefacts, including the magnificent Lion Capital carved from a single block of Chunar stone and part of a giant Ashokan Pillar.
“Watching visitors at Sarnath at present is a surprise in view of the scorching heat. But this trend has developed in the past few years,” says Vishwanath Gokarn, a resident of Sarnath near the Central Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies, who moved out of the old city area to avoid daily hustle and bustle.
Visits to Ramnagar fort and Mirzapur are also on the itinerary of tourists, the trend fuelled by road connectivity.
Ramnagar is known for the world famous “Ramleela” that is recognised by UNESCO as Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
This over 200-year-old Ramleela is staged in the light of lanterns without any electricity.
With polling in Varanasi scheduled for June 1 in the last phase of the seven-phase Lok Sabha election, the candidature of Prime Minister Narendra Modi for a third time is in focus.
“There are people who wish him to continue as Varanasi MP and India’s PM. And there is a segment that does not want. Banarsi voters speak on both national and local issues but who will decide on what is not known till the end,” says Ratnakar Tripathi.