How Puri’s Rath Yatra gave us the word ‘Juggernaut’

The Rath Yatra of Puri, a significant Hindu festival honoring Lord Jagannath, profoundly impacted the English language. Colonial observers misinterpreted the event’s scale and fervor, leading to the term “juggernaut” to describe an unstoppable force. This transformation reveals how cultural misunderstandings can shape language, detaching a word from its sacred origins and imbuing it with new, often negative, connotations.