Paper short abstract:

Considering microbiological research and religious rituals in the Ganges River I explore the infectious cycles connecting humans, microbes, and gods to speculate on the possibilities of cure coming from contaminated water.

Paper long abstract:

The Ganges River in North India is notorious for its sacred-yet-polluted waters. Whilst people pray, bathe, and drink Ganges water for subsistence and religious purposes, gallons of raw sewage and other waste materials flow into the river every day. This combination is the perfect breeding ground for antibiotic resistance and recent research has confirmed the presence of highly virulent resistant bacteria (ESKAPE pathogens) in the river. However, with these bacteria come their own viral predators—bacteriophages—that are being studied as treatment for bacterial infections called phage therapy.

Based on ethnographic research among microbiologists and Hindu priests in Varanasi, I follow interactions with the river and transformations of Ganges water in between science and religion to explore the current toxic assemblages in the Gangetic ecosystem. Looking at river water through the frame of the pharmakon, a substance that is both cure and poison, I propose thinking with rituals and phages in the Ganges allows to reconsider human relationships with microbes and toxic environments.

I argue phage therapy can be a useful tool in reconfiguring the complex issue of antibiotic resistance, but it is not by itself a solution to larger problems in biomedical practice, pharmaceutical industry, and waste management that have led to current ecological cycles of “unwellness”. Speculating with the experience of COVID-19, I suggest the relationship between laboratory, clinic and environment needs to be made more dynamic if phage therapy is to be successful in democratising feasible treatment of infections without becoming part of the problem.