Slow Violence of Sacred Waste

Such sights of river Godavari carrying religious offerings is common in Nashik. The city administration has been experimenting with multiple ways to reduce such instances and induce a behavioral change in the religious practices of people. But, regrettably, it is continuously failing to do so. The religious offerings or in Irene Stengs terms ‘sacred waste’ is “material residues and surpluses that cannot be disposed of as just garbage (or rubble), but neither can be kept or left alone. Its ambiguous nature, charged with a religious, moral, or emotional value on the one hand, but at the same time a kind of leftover for which no proper destination exists, makes sacred waste precarious matter, and hence often a ground for conflict and contestation” (Stengs 2014: 235). In Hinduism, apart from sacredness of rivers, they are also seen as an appropriate resting place of sacred waste. With scientific advancements, the make-up of religious offerings gradually shifted from biodegradable to non-biodegradable elements like plastic, thermocol, etc (also visible in the image). These practices are creating toxic and polluted geographies and (re)producing the riverscape as a product of ‘slow violence’ (Nixon 2011) of sacred waste. Besides, the slow violence is not evident as a form a threat to the people whose everyday lives revolve around the religious cosmos of the Godavari.

This visualization is part of the Visualizing Toxic Places collection. It is also part of the Sacred Toxic: Narratives of Visible and Invisible Toxicities of Godavari River photo essay.