By Tirthankar Mitra
Durga Puja brings out the creative best among the idol makers of West Bengal. Their artistic enthusiasm does not leave untouched the hardy craftsmen who build palatial pandals in which the goddess and her entourage rest during their ‘stay on earth’.
However, with the change in government in West Bengal, the wishes of the newest powers that be have had its deleterious impact on the mega festival the Bengalis hold the dearest to their hearts – the Durga Puja.
In Bengali folklore and tradition, the goddess is looked upon as a dear daughter who has come to her parental home with her children. The design of the idol of the goddess and the decoration of pandals draw joyous applause from the crowds and critics all over the world. Durga Puja has been granted the UNESCO world heritage status, because of its sheer size, majestic artistry and exploration of themes that often fuse art, aesthetics with thinly-veiled political statements, often in the left-liberal tone.
The outburst of creativity in terms of themes and pandal construction will sadly be missing this year. The West Bengal government, led by the BJP Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari, has dictated that the Durga idols and pandals be crafted as per ‘sanatani’ standards.
Already, CM Adhikari has had to face multiple bouts of embarrassment when the BJP shared an image of Durga with 11 arms on its various social media handles, and also when Bengalis collectively resisted Hindutva monk Dhirendra Shastri’s “no non-veg near pandals” sermon.
Heading the first BJP government in West Bengal, CM Adhikari apologized for the Durga with 11 arms fiasco, and promised appropriate action against those responsible for the curious lapse. The advertisement has been withdrawn. But nothing more has been heard about the promised punitive action against the erring government functionary.
The images, pandals and themes, CM Adhikari has commanded, should not be such that they hurt the religious and cultural tradition of Durga Puja. Aesthetic representation of the deity must be showing ten arms and a rounded face.
Before the BJP era, puja organisers prided themselves in taking liberty and experimenting with the Durga visage and the presentation of the idols.
Some organisers went to the extent of asking the idol-maker to spare no effort so that the deity’s face resembled a popular heroine. It certainly added to the footfall in the pandals, where there were idols of Durga’s children resembling a silver-screen heart throbs and even sporting legends, particularly from cricket and football.
One distinctly recalls a pandal resembling a famous temple in another part of the country, or a palace/monument in Europe. So exquisite were the pandal structures, dismantling them would be heart-breaking.
Now, however, under the BJP government in Bengal, stipulations about how a Puja is to be conducted are in place. Perhaps, the powers that be have missed the woods for the trees by forgetting the way the goddess has been worshipped in Bengal all these years.
The new set of rules apparently seek to rectify the erstwhile inclusiveness, light-hearted variety, warmth, beauty that had long enveloped the puja culture and the reverence that went with it.
The BJP dispensation surged to power with the slogan “bhoi noi, bhorsa”. In other words, it sought to replace fear with dependability.
But “bhorsa” is the last thing the idol-makers of Kumartuli, the hub of idol-making, and other parts of Kolkata where idol-making is pursued, can associate with the saffron dispensation. Instead, it is “bhoi”.
Fearful of the unspoken consequences if creativity overlaps tradition, the artisans are playing it safe. The last thing they seek is to rub the state government the wrong way.
There are not too many orders. Orders for theme-based idols have been very, very few. Creativity has been reined in. Ditto for pandal-makers and light designers.
A muted mood prevails. There is an overhanging apprehension that the earnings in what was the most lucrative season for them would nosedive.
In a state starved of business and investment, over the years, Durga Puja stood out as a destination for both. But under the BJP government led by CM Suvendu Adhikari, the economic turnover of Durga Puja has been hit hard in a bid to separate rituals from the idea of festival.
A rethink in the corridors of power is unlikely. Both aesthetics and economy are going to be hit by the new puja stipulations. (IPA Service)
