With the rise of the Bharatiya Janata Party in West Bengal, the celebration of Durga Puja has come into Bengal's political discourse several times. It was indeed unnecessary but looking at the complex origin and evolution of Durga Puja, I can say it was inevitable.
To the Bengalis across the globe, Durga Puja is more about a celebration of cultural diversity than just religiosity. But the history of Durga Puja has not been so diverse. On one side the Durga deity has its root in Bengal's tribal culture; on the other side Durga Puja has Brahminical roots with the history of zamindars in Bengal. Moreover, later on, we can find Goddess Durga as an integral part of the discourse related to India's nationalism movement.
However, today the recognition of Durga Puja is not only important because of its cultural heritage but also because it is one of such festivals which is celebrated across the globe. Apart from the three countries of the subcontinent, Durga Puja is not a recognised festival anywhere else. Wherever there are Bengalis in the world Durga Puja is performed but it had no acceptance as a festival at the global level. This has happened across the globe because UNESCO has never recognised this festival of Bengalis before.
But now Kolkata's Durga Puja is part of United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)'s 'Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity'.
The UNESCO has noted, “During the event, the divides of class, religion and ethnicities collapse as crowds of spectators walk around to admire the installations.” After the recognition of Durga Puja by UNESCO, today this festival has come on the list which includes cultural festivals like the Rio Festival of Brazil. This recognition stresses the fact that the Durga Puja in today's form is beyond religiosity.
But to understand today's form of Durga Puja it is important to look into its complex history. It is very difficult to find out the exact origin of the Durga Puja. A section of historians believe that from around the sixth century onwards the existence of Durga can be traced within tribal deities. Historians have observed that the origin of the Brahmanical deity of Durga and the Durga Puja can be found during the 18th century.
Several historians have opined that after 1757, when the battle of Plassey took place, the zamindars of Bengal used Durga Puja to showcase their political influence and administrative control. Later with the formation of the urban class in Kolkata, Durga Puja played an important role in the portrayal of the influence of this class.
Historians have observed that this particular urban class used Durga Puja to showcase their influence not only to the Bengalis but also to the British rulers. Another section of historians has observed a shift within the celebration of Durga Puja from a tool to showcase administrative influence in the late 19th century and at the beginning of the 20th century. This is the time when in Bengal nationalism movement was at its initial stage and here Durga became the symbol of strength.
Several historians have also observed that this is the time when in the nationalism movement, people started portraying Durga as the mother to send the message that it is the responsibility of her sons, which is the general public, to rescue her when she is under possession of the British. In the year 1882, noted Bengali novelist Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay wrote his celebrated novel Anandamath, wherein he associated Durga and the nation.
This is the same novel where he wrote Vande Mataram which became the song of India's nationalism movement. In 1905, when the British wanted to divide Bengal, the Durga Puja played a major role in the Swadeshi Movement.
There is no doubt that Durga had a Brahminical origin but today the evolved form of this celebration is more diverse and beyond religiosity. This evolution started after Durga Puja became “Barawari” – which means a puja organised by the community.
The democratisation of the Durga Puja started around 1909. In the neighbourhood of North Kolkata, a group of people organised a community Durga Puja for the first time. And this was the iconic “Bagbazar Sarbojonin Puja” – Sarbojonin means for the public. This very nature of the Durga Puja transformed the celebration from a puja (ritualistic) to sharodotsav (autumn festival).
From 1909 the number of community Durga Pujas started increasing. Several noted freedom fighters from Bengal, including Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, were actively associated with organising Durga Puja.
They believed Durga Puja was a space to unite and motivate people. Art became an integral part of Durga Puja from around 1930. Post-independence Bengal witnessed more use of art based Durga Puja; but from the 1990s the new dimension of the theme Puja was introduced. This completely changed the idea of this festival. With time Durga Puja became more diverse, art-centric and cultural.
Today, thousands of artisans, labourers, shopkeepers and others are completely dependent on Durga Puja. It is that time of the year when these people get an opportunity to earn the most. It is a festival that transcends race, religion, country, time, rich and poor. Durga Puja will now go beyond Kurmortuli (where idols are made), Patuapara and decorators of Chandannagar (who decorate the pandals with lights).With this recognition by UNESCO, the cottage industries of rural Bengal, devastated by the pandemic, will again come back to life. Recently Bengal has witnessed a massive polarised election.
The Bharatiya Janata Party desperately pushed their Hindutva agenda in Bengal to win the election. However, the result told a different story.
Today, it is time to understand that the religiosity of Bengal is very different from the other parts of India. Every Bengali household considers Ma Durga as their own daughter and the whole celebration is a story where the daughter visits her parental home, and after spending her days, on the last day – Bijoya Dashami – she returns to her husband.
The recognition of Durga Puja by UNESCO upholds this diverse cultural aspect of the festival. Historian Tapati Guha Thakurata – an honorary professor at the Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Kolkata, and author of the book “In the Name of the Goddess” – very accurately described Durga Puja as “a festival inadequately religious, not entirely about art and also inadequately secular”. She stated this line to journalist and author Snigdhendu Bhattacharya for his story published in The Wire.
I believe that this one line summarises Bengal's Durga Puja in the best way.
(The author is an independent journalist based in Kolkata and former policy research fellow at the Delhi Assembly Research Center. Views expressed are entirely personal)
