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With 10-fold jump in tourist footfall, Varanasi balances tradition and change

A Nandi statue faces the Kashi Vishwanath temple at the centre of Varanasi’s Godowlia crossing, continuing the centuries-old tradition of the guardian deity pointing in the direction of Lord Shiva’s abode. Just behind, a massive screen plays a cola commercial, the flickering images fading into a call to buy advertising space. Benares, as the city […]

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With 10-fold jump in tourist footfall, Varanasi balances tradition and change

A Nandi statue faces the Kashi Vishwanath temple at the centre of Varanasi’s Godowlia crossing, continuing the centuries-old tradition of the guardian deity pointing in the direction of Lord Shiva’s abode. Just behind, a massive screen plays a cola commercial, the flickering images fading into a call to buy advertising space.
Benares, as the city was once known, is “older than history, older than tradition, older even than legend”, Mark Twain famously wrote. But the fabled city of temples, ghats and soul searching is transitioning – tradition and modernness in tow – into a centrepiece of the government’s promotion of religious tourism.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in a recent Mann Ki Baat address, said the recent jump in the number of tourists in Varanasi, reflects a “cultural reawakening.”
Since the inauguration of the corridor in December 2021, Kashi Vishwanath Temple Trust CEO Sunil Verma reported an astounding 10 crore tourists having visited the iconic temple. This corridor, sprawling over 5 lakh square feet, has sparked a tourism surge in Varanasi.

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