With the onset of the season of autumn the nature embraces a new appearance, with mist and cold in the air and with it, the dwellers of India welcome the festive season. In this period of time, if one carefully notices, even the sky dons a new outlook with milky clouds giving a vibe of purity and spirituality. As such this season also displays the prepossessing beauty of mother nature. Furthermore the vibe and spirituality of this season gets enhanced with the many festivals that people of India celebrate, especially, the Sarodio Durga Puja that mostly the people of Bengal and Assam celebrate.
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Durga Puja over the years has also become a symbol of cultural unification, where people irrespective of caste, creed and religion come out in huge numbers to make themselves a part of this cultural extravaganza. In fact, this festival encompasses a variety of aspects including mythology, history, spirituality, economy, art and skill and also cultural confluence. With each passing year, the popularity of this festival has only kept on increasing with more and more people dancing to the sounds of dhol and dhak being played during the time of this festival alongside making themselves a part of pandal-hopping to seek the blessings of Goddess Durga. However, in the present era, it is also important to know and understand the evolution of this festival, which has now become a point of discussion globally as well.
In fact, in 2021, Durga Puja of Kolkata was inscribed on the UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) of Humanity, thus becoming the first festival from Asia to achieve the feat. The inclusion itself signifies the importance of Durga Puja in promotion and protection of old rituals, traditions, performing arts, social practices etc that are passed from one generation to another. In Durga Puja, one also witnesses the mastery and skill of the artistes who devote days and nights to design the best Durga idols possible.
Moreover the different pandals that are decorated in a distinctive way with lights and paintings further showcase the artistic brilliance of the people involved. The important thing that needs to be appreciated here is that even with the passage of time and the impact of globalisation, the people at large involved in celebrating the puja have been successful to a great extent in preserving and promoting the rich cultural heritage and tradition related to celebrating Durga Puja.
If one flips over the pages of History, one can understand that there are different anecdotes related to the first Durga Puja celebration in India. A few opine that the first was one done by a Zamindar namely, Nabakrishna Deb who had hosted a lavish Puja at his mansion in Shobhabazar of Kolkata after the battle of Plassey to thank the Goddess for Robert Clive’s win. Clive was the one who defeated Nawab Siraj ud- Daulah with the help of some local zamindars. This event had a significant impact upon the political, social and economic structure of Bengal and gave rise to a new class of Zamindars in Bengal who were loyal to the British. However many still believe that the story related to Nabakrishna Deb is a fabricated one as the only source of it is a painting which might have been also commissioned. Nonetheless the class of Zamindars became the main organisers and sponsors of Durga Puja, who even invited the British to be a part of the celebration to display their wealth, status and loyalty to the British and also to enhance the friendship. However not all Zamindars were in favour of the British. There were many revolutionaries who performed the Puja as a means of uniting people to protest against the British Raj. For instance, Bipin Chandra Pal organised a Swadeshi Puja to protest against the partition of Bengal by Lord Curzon and urged people to boycott foreign goods and use only indigenous items during the festival.
Durga Puja still remained a celebration for the elite class of Zamindars, where common people were excluded. However, the first barowari (community) Puja was held in 1790 at Guptipara by twelve friends by using their resources and the first Sarbojanin Puja was held in 1910 in Bagbazar in Calcutta by Sanatan Dharmotsahini Sabha, and thus Durga Puja soon became a community festival or the people’s festival. In fact, Durga Puja became a medium for the freedom fighters to mobilise the Indian people against the British rule as well. In the festival itself, awareness was also spread amongst people via posters, pamphlets etc to oppose the British policies and glorify the nation and its heroes. Thus the festival also played a significant role in generating the idea of nationalism amongst the Indians.
From there on, Durga Puja evolved into a community festival with more and more people getting involved in it to decorate and design the Durga idols and the pandals in a traditional manner having an aesthetic view. The unique presentation of the celebration of Durga Puja has over the years also attracted the tourists to visit the places where it is celebrated thereby also enhancing the economy. In fact, in 2019 when the British Council conducted a research to determine the importance of West Bengal’s unique creative industries during Durga Puja, it found that the economic worth of creative industries around Durga Puja in West Bengal at Rs. 32,377, crore which is the size of economy of many smaller countries across the globe. As such, it won’t be wrong to conclude that Durga Puja also contributes significantly to the state GDP of West Bengal where it is celebrated in the grandest manner.
As such the celebration of Durga Puja just shouldn’t be seen as a festival celebrated in the season of autumn but it should be portrayed as a festival that defines the unity in diversity factor of India and its vivid traditions and cultural heritage. The government from time to time should also formulate better policies to further popularise the Durga Puja celebration globally so as to create India as a cultural hub. In fact, in the recently held 9th BRICS Culture Ministers’ meeting at St. Petersburg, an official from India stated that culture was the key to unlocking economic growth, as such, in this regard, the cultural aspect related to Durga Puja can just become the game-changer.
(The writer is an Advocate, Gauhati High Court)