Impacts of Processional Pilgrimage on Host Communities: Insights from the Palkhi Pilgrimage in India

Abstract

This chapter presents a discussion on a processional pilgrimage called Palkhi, specifically examining how it intersects with the host communities on its route. Palkhi refers to a pilgrimage tradition in the western state of Maharashtra in India, where pilgrims enact the journeys of poet-saints from their native places to the place of the deity the saint worshipped by carrying the replicas (icons) of their feet in a procession. The most popular palkhi is the one devoted to a poet-saint called Dnyaneshwar which begins from the pilgrim-town of Alandi (where the saint had spent most of his life) and traverses 210 kilometers to reach the town of Pandharpur- a place dedicated to Vithoba (an avatar of Vishnu) whom the saint worshipped. Every year, in the months of July–August (Ashadh) hundreds and thousands of devotees participate in this Palkhi: the procession covers the journey in about 21 days making night halts at 14 places (these vary from 1 to 3 nights). This chapter examines the impacts of the Palkhi pilgrimage on host communities in these places by focusing on three types of settlements that are commonly found on the route: city, town, and village. To illustrate the differences and similarities in impacts, Pune, Saswad, and Walha were selected as places representative of each typology, respectively and a study was conducted in 2016. In this Palkhi, it was estimated that close to half a million pilgrims walked throughout the length of the route, stayed in more than 1000 tents, and were accompanied by more than 2000 trucks. It was found that environmental impacts differ across types of settlements owing to spatial layout, and administration. Since the Palkhi stays for only a maximum of two days in one place and is a fleeting movement of pilgrims, its economic benefits are almost negligible as compared to those experienced in a traditional economy of a pilgrimage center. However, the Palkhi could be considered as causing a powerful tangential effect on the villages as they take pride in being a stop on the pilgrimage and because of this contact, these settlements acquire a unique socio-cultural identity within the pilgrimage landscape.