Varanasi, India – “Hum paani ke jeev hain. We are water creatures,” says Vishwakarma Sahni, 29.
Sahni belongs to Varanasi's community of about 8,000 Malas. Boatmen live a life deeply connected to the Ganges River, which is considered a sacred river in India and is deeply revered.
For them, the Ganges is more than just a river. It's their lifeline.
Heading east from the Himalayas, the Ganges River traverses more than 2,500 km (1,550 miles) before emptying into the Bay of Bengal in the northeastern Indian Ocean. Along the route, you will pass through several regions including the ancient city of Varanasi, also known as Kashi or Banaras in Hindi. 'Banaras' comes from the Pali word 'banarasi'.
Varanasi has long fascinated historians, anthropologists, artists and storytellers and is well known as one of the world's oldest inhabited cities. Coincidentally, this is also the constituency of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who won power in 2014 on a promise to transform Varanasi into a Kyoto-style smart city and is up for another election later this month. Varanasi's boatmen continue to be largely overlooked, they say.
In 2018, the Indian government granted three private cruise ships permission to operate along Varanasi's ghats (small steps leading down to riverside wharves and crematoriums), despite widespread protests from the local community.