By Tirthankar Mitra
The ultimate cultural heartbeat of Bengal, the Durga Puja, is inching closer, promising to transform the days of the festival into one of joy and communal harmony. Pandal-hopping and tucking into the delicacies from the food stalls not far from the goddess and her entourage have been part and parcel of the puja celebration for decades.
The Durga pujas are the high point of the festivals in West Bengal. Origin of idol-makers and artists can be traced to a wide-ranging institutions and communities.
They may be the usual idol-makers from Kumartuli and Patuapara in Kalighat, as well as, an eminent alumni of Government Art College, whose community does not worship idols. Yet, when his services were engaged to make an idol for a community puja in south Kolkata years ago, few eyebrows were raised and eyelids batted.
Organisers of the ‘sarbojonin’ (collective) Durga Puja come from all religions and communities. It hardly matters whether they are from major or minor religious groups.
Durga Puja welcomes not only those who can contribute to its creation, but anybody can drop into the pandals. The joy of sharing is uppermost in Durga pujas.
It gets a social edge from the plethora of themes. Religious rituals performed before goddess remain unchanged.
Durga Puja in Kolkata was inscribed on the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity on December 15, 2021. It became the first festival in Asia to receive this specific recognition from UNESCO, that honored the festival for being an exceptional public performance of religion and art, where social, class, and religious barriers break down.
But Vishwa Hindu Parishad leadership seeks a change of scene. Its words, which sound like a diktat, state that the Durga pujas should be organised and held only by “sanatani Hindus”.
The VHP’s intent found expression at a meeting held with the Forum of Durgotsav. It represents 500 major pujas.
It was stated by VHP representatives that people of another religion should have no part in the organisation of the puja. The fact was brushed aside that over the decades all residents of a locality irrespective of their religion were part of the puja.
Traditional religious rituals and customs should be strictly adhered to, the VHP added. One wonders whether the VHP is stating in so many words that Durga Puja in Bengal was being conducted without keeping intact the religious rules.
The diktat continues that images should have no distortions and should be properly clad, thereby inviting broad hints of impropriety. Any sane individual would bin this as rubbish and there are many such persons in the state.
Food stalls selling non-vegetarian fare will be allowed only outside the puja venue. After the hullabaloo raised over food during the poll campaign, VHP seems to be treading cautiously.
But it has slipped as soon as it stated that the food in these stalls be “satvik” meaning pure. The mark of purity would of course be stamped by the VHP activists.
Such discordant notes had not been heard all these years, until now. The champions of “sanatani Hindus” were conspicuous by their absence during this time span, when the writ of the Left Front and the Trinamool Congress ran.
But with the BJP in power in West Bengal for the first time, the VHP is trying to make its presence felt. Though it is not a political organisation, it lays down rules on all occasions when the governance is run by BJP.
Durga Puja in West Bengal has provided the VHP with an opportunity to flex its muscles. The biggest festival of the state has provided it with a spacious field to control the religiosity of the populace.
The VHP has taken into consideration the percentage of votes which had been cast for the BJP in this year’s Assembly elections. But even if the numbers are in favour of the BJP, those who supported it in the elections may have second thoughts if they find themselves being coerced to follow the VHP’s diktat during the celebration of the biggest festival of Bengal.
With the civic elections in Kolkata and Howrah round the corner, the populace thus compelled to go by VHP’s choice can change their mind while exercising their franchise in the civic polls. This apprehension does not seem have appeared in the VHP radar.
Politics and religion are not quite compatible in Bengal. The BJP won the last election making poor governance of Trinamool Congress dispensation and not religion as its principal campaign ammunition.
As for the diktats on Durga puja, the VHP seems to have overlooked that the spirit of the festival is dynamic. It cannot be stifled in the name of rigidity which has little to do with religion and is more concerned about hegemony.
The VHP diktat will drive the people apart. It is against the spirit of the Durga pujas which brings the people together. (IPA Service)
