बेबाक · Editorial
Ayodhya's Tenth Deepotsav: A Civilisational Spectacle That Should Also Account for Itself
A festival of light on 56 ghats of the Saryu deserves pride, and that pride is best served by honest counting, open accounts and a welcome extended to every Indian.
What happened
Ayodhya has marked the tenth edition of Deepotsav by lighting earthen lamps across 56 ghats along the Saryu, with a Hindi-language report also naming Ram ki Paidi. One English-language report puts the count at more than 36 lakh lamps and says it surpassed the previous record-setting edition. A Bengali-language report gives 30 lakh, and the Hindi report says more than 30 lakh and calls it a new world record. The event included a light and sound show, cultural programmes and a ceremony depicting Lord Ram's coronation. Thousands gathered on the ghats, and the Vice-President attended among other dignitaries. The festival has been reported in Hindi, Bengali and English. That alone suggests Deepotsav is becoming a national occasion and not only a regional one.
Pride, rightly held
There is much here worth celebrating. The diya is among the oldest symbols of Indian life. It is humble, handmade and shared across regions and communities. Lighting lakhs of them along a river turns a household ritual into collective art. Reaching a tenth edition also shows sustained organisation, which Indian public events do not always manage. Behind these numbers sit potters, volunteers, artisans and performers. For many of them a festival of this size can mean work and recognition. A confident nation should be able to take joy in its civilisational inheritance without apology.
The question of numbers
Pride should not excuse loose counting. The reported figures vary between 30 lakh and 36 lakh, a gap of up to six lakh lamps. The figures may still be consistent, since 36 lakh is also "more than 30 lakh". But a record claim needs one verified figure, not a range spread across headlines. Until an independent count is published, the precise number should be treated as unsettled. This is not pedantry. Records lose their meaning when each year must outdo the last by a figure that no one has checked. Competing in scale can also crowd out the quieter question of what the festival leaves behind for the city and its people.
Weighing both sides
The strongest case for the festival is that culture is a public good. On this view, heritage tourism brings livelihoods, and the presence of constitutional offices honours a tradition that millions hold dear. The strongest case for caution starts from the Republic's own principle that the state has no religion. Wherever public money, officials and machinery support a faith's festival, that support should be transparent and comparable with what other traditions receive. Both concerns are legitimate. Neither cancels the other. A secular state can celebrate culture. What it cannot do is spend in secret or treat one tradition differently from others.
A way forward
Three steps would add to the festival's dignity. First, organisers should publish a verified, audited lamp count and the method used to arrive at it. Second, whichever public bodies support Deepotsav should disclose, in one accessible statement, the expenditure, its sources, and the share paid to local potters and artisans. Third, the waste after the festival should be handled seriously: clay, oil and wicks along the Saryu need a clean-up and disposal plan that is announced in advance and reported afterwards. A river honoured with light deserves to be left cleaner than it was found. With open records, Deepotsav can be the shared inheritance of every Indian.
A record is only as good as its count, and a lamp lit in the public's name deserves a public ledger.
What this editorial rests on
Drawn from our live multi-newsroom feed — read the reporting at source.
An editorial is the considered opinion of the Aad Tak desk, argued from the sourced reporting above and written under our published persona, बेबाक. We name institutions, not parties. If we are wrong, we will say so. How we work →