The Spiritual Disconnect In Today’s Commercialised Pilgrimages

Historically, most indigenous and traditional societies viewed religion as a sacred space—as an animate, spiritual force often embodying deities, ancestors, or cosmic principles. The deep understanding of nature’s primacy as the ultimate sacred force, as well as the evolving perception of the relationship between man and nature, has been revered. However, this sacred reverence has been increasingly eroded with the advent of industrialisation, scientific rationalism, and modernity.

Today, nature is often seen through a utilitarian or mechanistic lens, valued primarily for its resources rather than its intrinsic sacredness. Climate change, ecological degradation, and the Anthropocene era have further complicated this relationship, prompting a renewed interest in eco-spirituality, deep ecology, and indigenous wisdom. Movements like biocentrism and environmental ethics attempt to restore the reverence for nature’s agency. Still, the contours of this sacredness continue to evolve under the pressures of technology, urbanisation, and global capitalism.

Largely deviated from the ecological sensitivity inherent in earlier pilgrimage traditions in the Indian context, modern religious tourism has been deeply intertwined but delinked and de-souled from natural resources such as rivers, mountains, caves, and forests linked to deities, ancestors or cosmic forces and regarded as sacred entities. However, the paradigm shift in attitude and behaviour driven by commercialisation, mass tourism, and infrastructural expansion has led to the lowering of the sacred as the guiding central principle for the pilgrimage.

The once-revered natural elements, seen as divine in themselves, are now increasingly treated as mere backdrops for human-centric religious activities rather than as active participants in the sacred experience. It has also led to environmental degradation manifesting in pollution of holy rivers, deforestation around pilgrimage sites, and an overall disregard for ecological balance. As a result, the loss of environmental sanctity mirrors the diminishing role of the sacred in defining the ethics and purpose of religious journeys, transforming them from deeply immersive spiritual experiences into transactional, consumption-driven practices.

Traditional pilgrimage sites such as the Char Dham (Puri, Badrinath, etc.); riverbanks (Varanasi, Haridwar, etc.); forests; and caves were historically seen as living embodiments of the divine. Nature was not just a backdrop but an active, sacred force. Rivers were goddesses (poet laureate Vidyapati asks for forgiveness in one of his immortal songs for having touched Ma Ganga with his feet; such were the ideals!); mountains were deities; and forests were sanctuaries of rishis and yogis. Pilgrimage was deeply connected to asceticism, self-purification, and communion with the elements.

Adi Shankaracharya can be regarded as one of the earliest proponents of interconnectedness and religious tourism in India, as he established the four dhams in the four cardinal directions and revived pilgrimage traditions to unify Hindu philosophy. However, unlike modern religious tourism, Shankaracharya’s approach did not disturb the ecological equilibrium. His philosophy was deeply rooted in Advaita Vedanta, which emphasised the oneness of all existence, including nature, and upheld the sanctity of sacred landscapes. Pilgrimage in his time was austere, involving self-discipline, minimal resource consumption, and deep reverence for the natural world. Unlike today’s infrastructure-driven mass tourism, his vision promoted spiritual journeys that harmonised with nature rather than exploiting it. The contrast highlights how contemporary religious tourism, shaped by economic and political imperatives, has largely deviated from the ecological sensitivity inherent in earlier pilgrimage traditions.

Most religious sacred places have traditionally upheld their own sacred codes, norms, and prohibitions to preserve their sanctity and ecological integrity. These include rituals of purification before entry; restrictions on behaviour; prohibitions on certain activities (such as meat consumption, loud noise, or pollution); and deep respect for the natural elements that constitute the sacred space. Such norms historically ensured that the spiritual and environmental essence of these sites remained intact. However, with the rise of mass religious tourism, these sacred codes are increasingly challenged by overcrowding, commercialisation, and infrastructural expansion, often leading to environmental degradation and the erosion of traditional reverence. The tension between preserving sacred norms and accommodating mass accessibility continues to shape the evolving character of religious sites in India.

There has been a visible shift in contours in the sacredness of religious tourism as the British colonial approach to nature was largely extractive and administrative, leading to the bureaucratisation of pilgrimage sites (control over temple lands and forest reserves). After Independence, tourism policies expanded accessibility but often prioritised infrastructure over ecological balance. With economic liberalisation (1990s onwards), religious tourism became increasingly commercialised. The focus shifted from spiritual immersion in nature to convenience-driven mass visits. Even governments have often viewed religious tourism primarily as a revenue-generation activity.

The construction of roads, hotels, and mass pilgrimage facilities, while making it easy to access many sites, has altered the traditional ecological sanctity of these sites. The devastating flood at Kedarnath (2013) and Vaishno Devi has been traced to ecological degradation, deforestation, and waste accumulation. The Char Dham highway project may have “innovatively” bypassed the environmental impact assessment laws, but the impact will surely be felt.

There is a growing recognition of the need to restore nature’s sacred agency. Efforts such as declaring the Ganga and Yamuna as “living entities” (2017), banning plastics in pilgrimage zones, and promoting eco-friendly yatra (pilgrimage) practices indicate an attempt to reestablish nature’s primacy. As ecological crises intensify, there is a renewed effort to reintegrate traditional wisdom with sustainable tourism, acknowledging nature not merely as a resource but as a living, sacred entity. This conflict lies at the heart of religious tourism in India, where the sacredness of pilgrimage sites rooted in ecological and spiritual reverence, clashes with the profane, consumerist nature of mass tourism. Traditional pilgrimage demanded asceticism, effort and deep communion with the sacred landscape, reinforcing the sanctity of place and ecology. However, modern tourism, even when religious, prioritises convenience, speed and human-centric facilitation, reducing sacred spaces to destinations to be conquered rather than realms to be revered. The rush to reach, control and commercialise these sites often undermines their spiritual and environmental integrity, turning pilgrimage into an experience of logistical efficiency rather than sacred immersion. This tension continues to redefine the man-nature relationship in contemporary religious travel.

The political realm, driven by power dynamics and revenue targets, often seeks to collaborate with and control sacred spaces, shaping religious tourism through policies, infrastructure and mass mobilisation. It tends to maximise visibility, accessibility and influence over sacred sites, sometimes at the cost of their ecological and spiritual sanctity. In contrast, the social sacred—rooted in lived traditions and deep spiritual immersion, leans toward “Brahmalin”, symbolising dissolution into the divine rather than expansion or conquest. While political interests commodify and regulate sacred spaces, the essence of the social sacred is to experience, merge, and surrender rather than dominate or extract. This divergence reflects the growing tension between institutionalised control of religious tourism and the intrinsic, immersive spirituality of the sacred landscape.

The economy of religious tourism operates with an intrinsic drive to maximise profits, often devoid of its own ethical framework, as it prioritises capital accumulation over the sanctity of sacred spaces. This economic logic aligns with the European post-Reformation shift, which decriminalises wealth-making, normalising profit as a virtue rather than a sin. Through colonial modernity, this ideology was transmitted to India, embedding itself as an acceptable social and economic ideal among the colonised. As a result, religious tourism today often mirrors capitalist expansion—commodifying pilgrimage, commercialising sacred experiences, and transforming sites of spiritual austerity into hubs of economic opportunity. This shift challenges traditional sacred codes, where spiritual merit was once valued over material gain, deepening the tension between economic imperatives and the intrinsic ethos of religious sacredness.

With science and technology becoming integral to religious tourism as part of state responsibility, the sacred is undergoing a process of reinvention within the complexities of post-industrial capitalist economies. Infrastructure development, digital pilgrimages, real-time crowd management, and AI-driven religious experiences are transforming the ways in which people engage with the sacred. This technological mediation alters the meaning, behaviours, and identity associated with pilgrimage, shifting it from an arduous, immersive spiritual journey to a streamlined, accessible, and State-regulated experience. While this reinvention makes religious sites more inclusive and efficient, it also risks diluting the ascetic rigour and ecological sanctity historically associated with them. In this evolving landscape, the sacred negotiates between tradition and modernity, redefining itself in ways that align with the demands of a technologised, consumer-driven world while attempting to retain its spiritual essence, a deeply personal and ecological engagement with the divine.

But then sacred is the new profane, maybe, or as some Indian sociologists tried to see, the sacred-secular in a continuum appears to be the new mantra behind the reinvented mass behaviour sans depth. Clearly, religion is a provider of new solace to the industrialised, complex human psyche living on the edge in the new world order where life goals of purusharth (dharm, arth, kama, moksha), have emerged with disproportionate reliance on arth (economic pursuits), salvation or emancipation has acquired new destinations altogether. And religious tourism has moved from the spiritual to the transactional.

(Views expressed are personal)

Savita Jha teaches history and tourism management at Delhi University

This article is a part of Outlook's March 21, 2025 issue 'The Pilgrim's Progress', which explores the unprecedented upsurge in religious tourism in India. It appeared in print as 'Status Change'.