(The column first appeared in The Economist on December 18, 2021)
- For much of the year Pusegaon, six or seven hours’ drive from Mumbai, is an unremarkable village of fewer than 10,000 people. But every winter its population swells several times over when it hosts a mela, or fair. Religion, commerce and entertainment meet at such fairs, which are common throughout India. In Pusegaon cattle traders show up, and so do pilgrims to the Sevagiri temple…