As the U.S. reaches an important milestone in its COVID-19 vaccination program and the Center for Disease Control and Prevention issues new guidelines on masking in public, it is worth remembering that the pandemic is far from over. As of April 28, 2021, India is being overrun with COVID-19, reporting a staggering 1 in 3 cases worldwide. Everything from medications to hospital beds and even oxygen is in short supply in India, with concerns that their medical industrial complex, the multibillion-dollar enterprise consisting of doctors, hospitals, nursing homes, insurance companies, drug manufacturers, and hospital supply and equipment companies, is on the verge of collapse.
In the midst of all this, the Indian Government confirmed that it would allow the pilgrimage to the sacred Amarnath cave shrine to go forward this summer after canceling it because of the pandemic in 2020. The concern? An estimated 600,000 people attend the pilgrimage each year. That is 600,000 people gathering together . . . during a pandemic. The implications of such a gathering could force us to shine our sociological spotlight on health, a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being, and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity, or even herd immunity, a population’s ability to resist a disease because of a high percentage of its members being immune. Instead, let’s turn our attention to the behaviors often seen when large groups of people come together.
The first thing to consider when analyzing a large group of people gathered in one location is the carrying capacity, the number of people a geographic location or the earth’s ecosystems can support without deterioration. While the Indian government is considering building makeshift facilities and shelter for the pilgrims, the sacred destination itself is, in fact, a 130 ft. high cave located over 12,000 above sea level. In this situation, one could expect the large crowd to engage in spontaneous and unstructured behavior, sociologically known as collective behavior. In fact, the specific nature of the gathering speaks to convergence theory, crowds forming due to like-minded individuals coming together. Of course, like-mindedness is a pull factor that draws followers to the event. By being drawn together with a common purpose, the pilgrims establish a sense of solidarity or group unity that feeds into their religiosity, the beliefs and behaviors associated with transcendent or spiritual concerns.
The problem, though, is that this will all take place against the backdrop of a pandemic. In large crowds, like those found during a pilgrimage, deindividuation, a loss of individuality, often occurs with people ignoring fundamental health guidelines, like wearing a mask and social distancing. Emergent norm theory, where members of the crowd serve as a reference group and new norms emerge that legitimize the behavior as appropriate, leads us to look at other examples of large gatherings to see how people behave. In a decidedly less sacred space, one just has to look at the Spring Break mega crowds that packed U.S. beaches in recent months. Crowds in an emotional fervor don’t always remember to take safety precautions, even during a pandemic.
