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Ganges Flowers, Varanasi, India, 1996

"Floating offerings of flowers and candles are sold in Varanasi to light the way for pious rituals. But locals also use the river in ordinary ways, doing laundry or washing hair. Devout Hindus are reluctant to believe that a river as holy as the Ganges is 'polluted.' Some environmentalists use softer language to suggest that Mother Ganges is 'suffering.'"

(Text from and photograph shot on assignment for, but not published in, "India: Fifty Years of Independence," May 1997, National Geographic magazine)

Photograph by Steve McCurry