The Ganges: A Journey into India India's holy Ganges River travels 1,550 miles from the Himalayas and across the plains of north India before spilling into the Bay of Bengal. A five-part series explores life along the river: its extremes of ancient and modern, rural and urban, and rich and poor.

Special Series

The Ganges: A Journey into India

A five-part series explores life along the river, the complexities of modern India.

Friday April 6, 2007

Where the Ganges Meets the Sea, a Journey Ends

April 6, 2007 • Our Ganges journey ends on Sagar Island, where the river meets the sea. Once a year, millions of Hindus come here to worship the river and to toss coins into its waters. It's a spot where the income gap between rural and urban India is evident.

Where the Ganges Meets the Sea, a Journey Ends

Listen

Download
Embed <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/9402937/9403016" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
Transcript

Thursday April 5, 2007

Reporter's Notebook

Poverty, Idyllic Beauty Coexist on Sagar Island

April 5, 2007 • At the end of his Ganges journey on Sagar Island, Philip Reeves meets a man who lives in limbo between the "new India" of the rich and the ranks of the profoundly poor. He also meditates on the idyllic beauty of the place, and the hard lives its people live.

Reporter's Notebook

Calcutta: Habitat of the Indian Intellectual

April 5, 2007 • Philip Reeves recounts his experiences in Calcutta, a city known for its militancy, poverty and red tape. He enjoys the view from a floating hotel and visits a legendary coffeehouse, where he spots a native species: the Indian intellectual.

Calcutta's Industrial Ambitions Clash with Tradition

April 5, 2007 • As the Ganges River's journey nears an end, it passes through Calcutta, one of India's great cities. Renowned for its slums, militancy and red tape, Calcutta is changing, as it remakes itself into an IT hub. But the change has met with resistance.

Calcutta's Industrial Ambitions Clash with Tradition

Listen

Download
Embed <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/9362046/9363230" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
Transcript

Wednesday April 4, 2007

Reporter's Notebook

From Varanasi to Bihar: Meeting the Divine, Criminal

April 4, 2007 • In this installment of his Reporter's Notebook, Philip Reeves recounts meeting religious pilgrims in the holy city of Varanasi — and criminals in the poor state of Bihar. He also contemplates the role of religion among middle-class Indians.

From India's Hindu Center to Heart of Darkness

April 4, 2007 • In the third of a five-part series on the Ganges, Philip Reeves visits Varanasi, one of the holiest cities in Hinduism, where religion and domestic life coexist. Then he travels to crime-plagued Bihar, one of India's poorest states.

From India's Hindu Center to Heart of Darkness

Listen

Download
Embed <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/9312926/9317471" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
Transcript

Tuesday April 3, 2007

Ganges Reveals Sublime Luxury, Polluted Wasteland

April 3, 2007 • India has overtaken Japan as home to the most billionaires in Asia. Yet it also has the world's largest population of hungry people, as one reporter's continuing journey down the Ganges River reveals.

Ganges Reveals Sublime Luxury, Polluted Wasteland

Listen

Download
Embed <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/9296019/9303197" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
Transcript

Monday April 2, 2007

Reporter's Notebook

Devprayag, Rishikesh, Kanpur: The Journey's Start

April 2, 2007 • Philip Reeves recently traveled the length of the Ganges River and reports on the people and places along the way: a holy man living in a case, the wild roads of India, and a luxury spa amid abject poverty.

Exploring the Sacred, Modern Along the Ganges

April 2, 2007 • India's holy Ganges River provides sustenance to more people than the population of the United States. A 1,550-mile journey along Mother Ganga offers a unique glimpse of what lies behind the complexities of India today.

Exploring the Sacred, Modern Along the Ganges

Listen

Download
Embed <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/9252214/9255847" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
Transcript