By Tirthankar Mitra
KOLKATA: Time was when Durga Puja, the biggest festival of Bengal was performed at the ancestral houses of zamindars and big traders, both of whom had made their fortunes in the services of the British East India Company and used the occasion of worship to curry favours with their overseas patrons. The later years saw prominent political leaders associate themselves with community pujas whose footfall far exceeded that in the family pujas.
The rich and the famous living mostly in north and central parts of Kolkata competed to outdo each other in pomp and paegantry. Inviting Englishmen especially if they held positions of importance was considered an act in outdoing a rival grandee.
Small wonder, it was a social coup on the part of a zamindari Nabakrishna Dev who ensured presence of Robert Clive and Warren Hastings at a Durga Puja at his Sovabazar mansion. He owed his name and fame as a backroom boy in the victory in the battle of Plassey.
The tradition of showing subservience to the rulers with the Durga Puja providing an ideal occasion continued in this family even after the passage of a century. The victory of the English when it crushed the uprising of Indian soldiers in the “first war of Independence” in 1857 was also celebrated in this palace.
In the march of time, grandees made way for the political leaders as the freedom struggle gained momentum. Subhas Chandra Bose yet to become Netaji was associated with Simla Bayam Sanity’s community Durga puja.
But then it was the outpouring of patriotic fervour which was at the centre stage of this puja and similar ones. The tradition of being associated with one of the greatest sons of India continued even after he left the country in a mission to shatter the foreign shackles on his country. Bose had parted ways with Congress and founded Forward Bloc. A big community puja is still organized near Kalighat fire station. under the auspices of Forward Club.
During the last Congress dispensation between 1972 to 1977 marked by bloodshed and state repression no less violent, came up Ekdalia Evergreen in Ballygunge off Gariahat junction patronized by the then youngest Cabinet minister, Subrata Mukherjee. He continued to be the driving force of this puja during the decades of Left Front rule and in the Trinamool Congress regime till he passed away.
Somen Mitra had no direct link with the community puja at College Square near Calcutta University. But he had the last word in it for years before being elbowed by Trinamool leaders.
The goddess and her worship did not quite gel with ideology of CPI(M), the biggest Left Front partner. But it did not prevent its Sports and Youth Affairs minister Subhas Chakraborti from being associated with the puja of Sribhumi Sporting club.
One of the biggest community pujas if the city and certainly a huge crowd puller, it was organized by Sujit Bose, close to Chakraborty. If the atheist comrades did not participate in the worship, it did not pose any mental bloc to put up stalls near pandals selling party literature and a few odd books by Munshi Premchand and Lenin.
The recently concluded Trinamool dispensation saw a burst of ministers’ association with community puja. If Sujit Bose, who had switched over to Trinamool Congress at the helm of his old puja, he had company.
Suruchi Sangha in New Alipore became synonymous with minister Arup Biswas, while city Mayor and minister, Firad Hakim enjoyed an identical status at Chetla Agrani. Incidentally, the then chief minister, Mamata Banerjee made it a point to draw the eyes of the goddess at Chetla Agrani, giving it brownie points.
The end of Trinamool dispensation did not mark a dissociation between puja and politics. It ought to be so, as BJP made Hindutva its poll agenda.
A, placard at Hazra crossing prominently displays that chief minister Subhendu Adhikari is the patron-in-chief of a community puja at Rupchand Mukherjee Lane. This puja is within the chief minister’s constituency, Bhowanipore.
Sujit Bose is marking time behind the bars but Sribhumi Sporting puja continues. It was inaugurated by chief minister Adhikari a day before the Mahalaya.
Sribhumi puja is now headed by Dr Sharadwat Mukherjee who defeated Bose in elections. The Puja is big an occasion to display political influence and patronage.
That is why BJP MLA Sourav Halder is heading the Suruchi Sangha puja. State industries minister Tapas Roy has replaced former Trinamool Congress deputy Mayor Atin Ghosh at north Kolkata’s Hatibagan Sarbojonin.
The government of the state has changed in May this year. So have the patrons of some of the big community pujas of the city as the festival offers a unique opportunity of public contact. With the break up of Trinamool Congress after its defeat in 2026 assembly elections, the earlier Trinamool organisers of puja throughout the state have been ousted and replaced by the BJP leaders.The BJP thinks it as its right to take control of the biggest Hindu festival in Bengal. There has been very little resistance. TMC big shots are sulking during puja days, many of them have gone out of the state. It is now BJP all the way in Bengal’s biggest annual festival. (IPA Service)
