In 1827, Mirza Ghalib wrote Chirag-e-Dair (Lamp of the Temple), a eulogy to the temple-town of Benaras, often described as “perhaps the greatest secular poem ever written by an Indian”. Nearly two centuries later, another temple-town, Haridwar, hosted an event that seemed to echo Ghalib’s prophetic couplet in his iconic poem—“The goodness and faith, fidelity and love, have all departed from this sorry land.”