After 1,300 deaths, the Hajj pilgrimage needs a thorough review

The deaths of more than 1,300 Hajj pilgrims, including 49 from India, reportedly because of extreme high temperatures in Mecca and Medina, are the latest disaster in a series of man-made tragedies to hit Islam’s holiest pilgrimage attended by millions of devout Muslims from different corners of the world.

The fact is that the Hajj has become almost synonymous with such incidents. Its recent history is littered with accidents that have caused loss of lives and often provoked diplomatic rows with other countries over allegations of mismanagement by Saudi authorities.

All religious pilgrimages are prone to accidents, including our own India (for instance, Amarnath Yatra and Kumbh Mela — latest being a fatal stampede in Hathras), but Hajj is particularly vulnerable because of the size of the congregation and the duration of the pilgrimage.

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And time is ripe for the Muslim world, especially Saudi Arabia which organises and supervises the mammoth congregation, to seriously rethink the way it is run now. At the heart of any such review should be a willingness to prioritise safety over religious dogmatism and fervour.

By the way, the 1,300 figure of casualties is a conservative official estimate, and the unofficial toll is likely to be considerably higher.

Meanwhile, there have been allegations of mismanagement and lack of proper facilities to protect vulnerable pilgrims from the effects of unprecedented heat.

Many Indian Hajjis have joined the chorus of criticism. Pilgrims from Kerala, Hyderabad and Kashmir have been particularly vocal in voicing their anger over allegedly inadequate facilities and official indifference to their concerns.

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Similar allegations have been echoed by Pakistani pilgrims. A video posted by purports to show “extremely poor arrangements in the scorching heat".

More details of the real scale of the tragedy and whether it could have been avoided are likely to emerge in the coming days and weeks. A time-bound independent inquiry is needed to establish facts and identify factors other than extreme temperatures that might have contributed to such a high toll.

To the dismay of the bereaved families, Saudi authorities have sought to effectively disown any responsibility — blaming the tragedy on allegedly “unauthorised” pilgrims and unscrupulous travel agents who helped them.

Saudi Health Minister Fahd bin Abdurrahman Al-Jalajel said that 83 per cent of the 1,301 fatalities were unauthorised pilgrims who walked long distances in soaring temperatures to perform the Hajj rituals in and around the holy city of Mecca.

Egypt, whose nationals accounted for more than half the casualties has revoked the licenses of 16 travel agencies that helped unauthorised pilgrims travel to Saudi Arabia. But that has failed to assuage public anger and feelings reportedly continue to run high.

What has happened has happened but the big question to be asked is whether the 1,000 plus deaths will change anything. Will things be better after this tragedy?

The answer, on the basis of past experience, is: unlikely.

Now, a quick recap of the tragedies that have marred the Hajj pilgrimage over the years:

In 2015, a stampede killed some 2,300 worshippers in what is still regarded as by far the deadliest Hajj disaster. It happened during the “stoning of the devil” ritual in Mina, near Mecca.

It came close on the heels of the death of more than 100 people when a crane toppled onto Mecca’s Grand Mosque on the eve of the pilgrimage.

The accident touched off a furious public row with Iran whose nationals accounted for more than half the casualties. Its Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khameini accused the Saudis of “mismanagement” and called upon all Islamic countries to challenge “the management of Mecca and Medina”.

Deaths caused by stampedes during the “stoning" ritual in which worshippers throw pebbles at three headstones to symbolise their rejection of Satan also happened in 2005 and 2006.

Other major accidents include a fatal crush in 1990 inside a pedestrian tunnel leading out from Mecca towards Mina and the Plains of Arafat causing killing 1,426 pilgrims; in 1975 a gas explosion in a tented accommodation housing pilgrims claimed 200 lives; and a tent fire in 1997 left more than 300 dead.

The tents have since been belatedly made fireproof. An elementary precaution that, if taken earlier, would have saved many lives.

To put it in perspective, the Saudis have over the years taken a number of measures to improve pilgrims’ conditions and crackdown on unruly behaviour but clearly a lot still needs to be done in the areas of safety and crowd control.

As pointed out earlier, the main problem is the sheer scale of Hajj enterprise, its nearly month-long duration and nature of its complicated rituals which include running (yes literally running between Safa and Marwa mountains to commemorate a seminal moment in early Islamic history; throwing stones at the “devil” and walking around the Kaaba).

And compounding all this is the scramble to touch the sacred black stone or kiss it though it is considered un-Islamic.

Try imagining nearly three million people fired up by religious passion and carried away by the significance of the event vying with each other at the same time to complete all these rituals. Older and frail people often struggle and some lose control as their fitter peers try to elbow them out.

“At densities above six to seven persons per square metre, individuals cannot move, groups are swept along in waves, individuals jostle to find breath and to avoid falling and being trampled, and hundreds of deaths can occur as a result,” says a Wikipedia entry.

The situation is tailor-made for accidents. Given the size of the congregation, no amount of crowd control can really avert the risk of something going wrong at some point.

Despite widespread concerns, there has been no serious debate on how to deal with the problem because of religious sentiments associated with Hajj.

But time has come to find creative ways of making the pilgrimage safer and less physically exhausting, especially for older people, without ruffling religious sensitivities.

Broadly, there are broadly four aspects that need a fresh look: Reducing the long duration of the pilgrimage; dispensing with primitive rituals like stoning the “devil”; restrictions on approaching Kaaba; and capping the number of pilgrims to a more manageable size.

True, there have been attempts to cap pilgrim numbers by reducing country-wise quotas but these have largely failed in the face of demands for more quotas, and complaints of discrimination from smaller countries.

The result is a year-on-year increase — rather than decrease — in Hajj quotas.

Recently, India had its quota raised under the Bilateral Hajj Agreement for 2024 following heavy diplomatic lobbying including a major intervention by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the highest level.

Thanking the Saudi government, Modi said had said that he “requested the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia to increase the Haj quota for our Muslim brothers and sisters in India" as previously due to a smaller quota, “only the influential people would get the chance to go for Haj”.

This is how the system works to make everyone happy: The host country, its friendly international allies and wannabe Hajjis. And, of course, it is good for businesses, travel agencies, touts, hoteliers, transport companies and tourism honchos.

But after the latest tragedy, it can’t continue to be business as usual without risking more loss of lives. Any delay in reforming the existing system is a sure prescription for more avoidable tragedies.