Mother Ganges

Richard Schiffman reports from Benares, India on the banks of the Ganges River on the essential role the river plays in people’s daily lives which includes drinking, washing, bathing in Hindu religious rites, and even as a destination for cremated human ashes. Pollution is a problem along the river and a subtle campaign of clean-up awareness, stressing inhabitants’ sacred relationship to their “River Mother, ” is afoot.