A man applies coats of glass powder to kite strings ahead of the Hindu festival “Uttarayan” in Ahmedabad on December 21, 2023. (Photo by Sam Panthaky/AFP Photo)

Goats covered with cloth are tied next to a hut on a cold winter morning in New Delhi on December 26, 2023. (Photo by Arun Sankar/AFP Photo)

A woman dressed in traditional attire participates in a procession to mark Gudi Padwa or the Marathi New Year in Mumbai, India, Tuesday, April 9, 2024. (Photo by Rajanish Kakade/AP Photo)

A rag picker carries recyclable materials amid cows and greater adjutant storks at a disposal site in Boragaon on the outskirts of Guwahati on June 5, 2024. (Photo by Biju Boro/AFP Photo)

A bride gets ready during a mass wedding ceremony in the old quarters of Delhi February 20, 2015. A total of 12 couples took their wedding vows on Friday during the mass wedding ceremony organised by a Hindu religious organisation, an organiser said. (Photo by Ahmad Masood/Reuters)

A member of India’s Dongria tribe faints in trance during the two-day long Niyamraja Festival atop the Niyamgiri hills near Lanjigarh in Kalahandi district, Orissa state, India, Sunday, February 22, 2015. Every year, members of this indigenous group celebrate this festival sacrificing animals and birds in worship of their deity. (Photo by Biswaranjan Rout/AP Photo)

A young Hindu girl sits for a ceremony where she and other girls are worshipped as “Kumari”, or living goddess, during Ram Navami festival, at a temple in Kolkata, India, Saturday, March 28, 2015. Ram Navami marks the birth of Hindu God Rama. (Photo by Bikas Das/AP Photo)

An Indian man stands dressed like Hindu god Shiva to attract alms from devotees during the Ambubasi festival at the Kamakhya Hindu temple in Gauhati, India, Sunday, June 22, 2014. The annual festival where hundreds of holy men from an esoteric form of Hinduism, gather to perform rituals at the temple begins on June 22. (Photo by Anupam Nath/AP Photo)