For Heart and Soul, Katie Burningham produces two programmes about the spiritual life of the River Ganges, a place of pilgrimage and worship for millions in India and around the world. The first programme is set in Haridwar, where thousands of pilgrims will bathe in the Ganges at a Hindu festival called the Kumbh Mela. In the second programme, people who live off and worship the river in the holy city of Varanasi explain how the Ganges remains vital to them, despite its dangerously high levels of pollution.

Repeated on Saturday 23rd and 30th July on BBC World Service

Press

"The programme unfolded against evocative soundscapes that were chaotic, multi-layered, mesmerising and always fluid. [Katie Burningham] described the vivid, extraordinary scenes in front of her, emphasising the colour and scale of what she saw." Elizabeth Mahoney, The Guardian, 9th April 2010