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 ALLAHABAD, India (AP) - Among believers, the river has many names: The Pure. Destroyer of Sin. Light Amid the Darkness of Ignorance. But mostly they call it "Ganga Ma" — Mother Ganges — and they worship it with a blinding intensity.
They worship it despite the islands of garbage that float down its path, and the tons of chemicals dumped in it. They worship it despite the quarter of a billion gallons of sewage poured into it every day, spreading illness among the 350 million people — some one-twentieth of the world's population — who live in its watershed.
For Hindus, the Ganges is a living goddess, capable of washing away sin. But its troubles are as epic as the river itself, and as millions of people filled a vast tent city on the floodplains outside this north Indian city, gathering for a Hindu festival that pays homage to the river, it was the goddess' troubles that grabbed attention.
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