PHOTOGRAPHY: Brides of Krishna

The Brides of Krishna

In India, a widow's life can be unbearable. These women are often shunned by their families and frequently blamed for their husbands death. Even in these modern times the idea of remarriage is a taboo and rejected by their husbands family they beg in order to survive. Many flee their homes voluntarily, fearing they'll be abused and become a burden others are lost or abandoned at religious fairs or pilgrimages like the Kumbhamela. At the end of the mela in 2002, a tent city was created to look after hundreds of abandoned widows. Most of these widows end up living in India's holy cities.

The idea of widowhood in the West doesnot hold the stigma it carries in India, one can continue with life, find a new partner or live alone but with dignity. The widows in India were once daughters, sisters and mothers, today they are ghosts who haunt the streets forgotten by the very ones they loved and nutured.

The holy city of Vrindvan, Utter Pradesh, is a pilgrimage site for Hindus. It is one of many "Tirthas", a metaphysical crossing point between Heaven and Earth. To die here is to transcend the cycle of reincarnation, to gain Moksha, a central belief in Hinduism.

It is also known as "The City of Widows", Vrindavan has a population of over 3000 widows living in the city. In some ways it has become a place of sanctuary, yet a more sinister tale of corruption and greed lies just below the surface. The women live in appalling conditions. The tiny rooms that they live in have no sanitation, electricity or water. There are instances of 8-10 women sharing a room. Landlords demand exhorbitant deposits for renting out the rooms. each day at dawn, widows make their way to one of the 4000 Hindu temples and Bhajan Ashrams, where they chant for eight hours to the Hindu diety Krishna. The ashrams recieve large donations from rich Hindus hoping to receive blessing from the gods. The widows are employed to chant mantras on the donors behalf . For doing this in the name of charity they receive 10 rupees and a cup of rice. The money they earn through chanting and begging pays for the bare minimum of accomodation and food.

In many ways the widows have become slaves to the ashrams without which they have no real way to survive economically or by means of a mutual support structure amongst the widow community. The population of the town see the widows as a burden upon their business of faith, whilst others see them as something to exploit either financially or sexually. The health of the women detoriates the longer they spend in the city and in contrast to the promise of a peaceful place to spend the remaining years of their lives, they live in fear and deprivation.

The project explores the ideas of Motherhood, Family and Religion. What makes children, extended family and society abandon their mothers to a life without dignity, love and a struggle for daily life.