The Ritual of Stampedes

The reason we lose so many people to stampedes is because we’re a nation that lacks discipline.

Last week, two people were killed and some 15 injured in a stampede—the Government called it a ‘trip-up’—at New Delhi railway station, caused by last minute platform changes. Most newspapers attributed the tragedy to callous planning by Indian Railways. A Times Of India op-ed called it ‘a reflection of the state of affairs in Indian Railways’. But why blame only the Railways? We have a history of running over each other in all sorts of places, on all sorts of occasions. Indeed, a stampede is almost an Indian ritual. It’s about time we accept a basic truth about ourselves: we are as undisciplined and myopic as a herd of wild buffaloes.

A cowboy must manoeuvre his herd in a way that prevents them from running over a cliff or into a river. We are no different. No Kumbh Mela occurs without sacrificing a few devotees to a stampede. Two years ago, 147 people died at Chamunda Devi temple in Jodhpur in an early morning stampede when a wall regulating the queue fell, and people tried to jump the line through the empty space created. In this country, we’ve seen temple stampedes, stampedes during distribution of freebies, during recruitment drives, even stampedes caused by rumours. In less than a decade, some 750 lives have been lost in temple stampedes alone.

And it couldn’t possibly just be the fact that we coexist with a billion others in this country. A few years ago, at Zurich airport, I saw Indian travellers surround airline staff at the departing gate for a flight, refusing to obey instructions to stand in a single file and allow old people to go first. Unlike on local trains, boarding a plane isn’t a fight for survival: the passenger is assured a seat, a meal, free booze, newspapers, and more. But we still jump the queue.

The unfortunate, but inevitable, consequence of this tendency to shove is tragedy. Even schoolchildren have no idea how to walk in a line. Last year, five Delhi schoolgirls lost their lives when students were asked to go down a narrow staircase during heavy rain. Someone spread a rumour that touching the walls would cause electrocution, and all hell broke loose. Contrast that with what happened during 9/11. A survivor, who was in tower two when the plane hit tower one, attributes his escape to a prompt fire drill-like evacuation. Although people were getting impatient, everyone was respectful and did the right things on the way down, he said, even before the second plane hit tower two.

Late last week, Railways Minister Mamata Banerjee called for an inquiry into this latest incident. What we really need to learn is walking in a single file.

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