Masaan Index

Rapid urbanization has turned cremation grounds into real estate goldmines. In cities like Lucknow, Kanpur, and even parts of Delhi, ancient shamshan ghats have been encroached upon, shrunk, or relocated to city limits where it's impossible to carry a body. The Masaan Index reveals the physical absence of space to die.

The Masaan Index borrows its central metaphor from the film’s narrative, which revolves around characters in Varanasi, the city of the Ganges river. In the film, a character metaphorically describes Varanasi as a place where life is governed by two forces: the River, which represents the masses, the flow, and the journey to the ocean; and the Sky, which represents the heavens, the infinite, and spiritual liberation.

Blume Ventures applied this analogy to the startup economy: masaan index

Let’s break down the name first. Masaan (or Shamshan) is the Hindi word for crematorium or burning ghat.

The Masaan Index is an informal, grassroots metric that measures the availability (or scarcity) of firewood and pyre space in a city’s cremation grounds. In simple terms: How easy is it for a poor family to give their deceased a dignified farewell? Rapid urbanization has turned cremation grounds into real

When economists look at a city’s growth, they look at skyscrapers and malls. The Masaan Index looks at the opposite end of life. It asks:

A "high" score on the Masaan Index is bad. It signifies a crisis of dignity. A "low" score means the city has humane, accessible cremation facilities for all, regardless of caste or class. A "high" score on the Masaan Index is bad

When we measure a country’s progress, we usually reach for standard economic indicators: GDP growth, inflation rates, FDI inflows, and the Stock Market Index (like the Sensex or Nifty). These numbers tell us how fast an economy is moving. But they are notoriously bad at telling us where it is going, and more importantly, who gets left behind.

Enter a grim, unofficial, but brutally effective metric: The Masaan Index.

If you haven’t heard of it, you are not alone. It is not taught in business schools. You won’t find it in the World Bank’s database. But for millions living on the fringes of India’s cities, the Masaan Index is the only statistic that truly reflects the gap between policy promises and ground reality.

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