Bengalis will be praying for a Durga who acts to finish the rapist demon in the state
By Devasis Chattopadhyay
As Terence McKenna said that culture is a mass hallucination, likewise the annual festival of Durga Puja is typically an immersive carnival of food, music, community get-togethers and cultural programmes that holds West Bengal in its thrall for five hedonistic days and nights. With Kolkata as its epicentre, the jamboree is celebrated all over the globe – from Lucknow to London, and from Bahrain to the Bahamas. Bengalis everywhere revel in gaiety during these days. This year, the festival spans from October .9 to 12.
Outlandish marquees, brought to life with shimmering lights and dioramas, depict an array of contemporary themes all across the city of Kolkata. The scale of the celebration is breathtaking. A couple of years ago, a 145-foot-tall marquee that Bengalis call pandal dazzled one and all with a replica of Dubai's iconic Burj Khalifa. In the process, it dazzled even pilots flying overhead with its laser lights.
But will the same Puja revelry be repeated this season? People are out on the streets in Kolkata, demanding justice for a young woman doctor, who was brutally raped and murdered in a medical college and hospital last month. It's been over seven weeks, and a protest initiated by junior doctors has turned into a tsunami of anger against corruption and intimidation. The people of Kolkata have had enough. Even Ma Durga is not pleased said the civil society of Bengal.
The August 9 rape and murder has cast a pall on the city – and the citizenry has spoken. The shopping in markets and department stores is low-key, and restaurants are waiting for patrons who aren't coming to dine in. The razzle-dazzle of the community pandals, in all probability, will definitely suffer a blow too as the corporate sponsors are yet to show much enthusiasm for the fear of public backlash.
This year the festive season which is just about two weeks away couldn't have commenced on a more sombre and subdued note. The 9th August incident this year marked the most crucial moral challenge to this celebration in the history of Independent India. Most of the 10-crore inhabitants of West Bengal, of which Kolkata is the state capital and economic nerve center, are passing through a socio-political and socio-economic moral dilemma.
Over time, Durga Puja has become commercialized, at least in the last two decades, so much so that it has partially eclipsed the spirit of the spirituality within the festival. Brands spend colossal sums on advertising, while community pujas get generous state-sponsorships for the celebrations. Besides, shopping and eating out is big in Kolkata during the period, and for five days and nights, the revelry doesn't stop.
It's when marketers spend enormous sums on brand campaigns and product rollouts. It's also big business for corporate sponsors, and entrepreneurs involved in catering, music, decorations, lighting, transport, security and other economic activities relating to the celebrations. As a result, capital inflows balloon.
A study commissioned by the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (Assocham) about a decade ago in 2015 calculated that the total spending during all the festivals put together stands at around Rs 20,000 crore, with a projected growth of around 30 percent each year. Assocham had, at that time, described the money-spinning Indian festival as “recession-proof”. A decade later that prophecy might be in a quandary. In another research, commissioned by the British Council in India along with the Department of Tourism, Government of West Bengal, it was estimated in 2019 that the economic worth of the creative industries around Durga Puja in West Bengal was at Rs 32,377 crore (GBP 3.29 billion, USD 4.53 billion), which is the size of the economy of many smaller countries across the world. Durga Puja accounts for 2.58% of the state GDP and is a weeklong festival. Other studies currently pegged the Durga Puja economy at Rs.50,000 crore.
This year the puja festivity and the related economic activities have hit a difficult speed bump because of the tragic incident of the of August 9. The ambient economic music is downbeat. Community puja organizers are struggling to raise funds as corporate sponsors are afraid of a public backlash for anything celebratory. Even the average residents of the state of West Bengal, and more so of Kolkata, are feeling gloomy. What was to be a colossal economic activity, according to current data, it will lose half its volume presumably. The people are saying, “When Kolkata has lost a daughter, how can we celebrate?”
The blame for it is placed on the shoulders of the state administration. Their response to the gruesome incident of August 9 was not only half-hearted and callous but they miserably failed to stop the subsequent vandalism a couple of days later on the scene of the crime which allegedly led to the destruction of valuable pieces of evidence. The young medical students went on a warpath supported by the civil society. Though the junior doctors have now partially resumed their work, yet they are still agitating which caused hardships to the poor and common people who depend only on government healthcare systems. And, now, add the unforeseen flood devastating a section of the state.
Bengalis are very opinionated and emotional. They have a point of view on everything. And, especially, when Bengali ‘Middle-Class' – the Bhadralok and the Bhadramohila – get out of their stupor it is dangerous. History has witnessed it many times.
What matters most and needed most for the strong emotional comfort of the public at large, at this juncture, is empathy. Also required are the efforts of the state administration to hold the hand of the community at large to make them feel connected and loved during the festival and not issue threats. Not even veiled ones. The ‘Threat culture' – as the civil society is earmarking this obnoxious coercive behaviour of a section of the ruling party members of the state of West Bengal – should stop immediately. There is an urgent need to start rejuvenating the society and the civic facilities including healthcare and economic activities of the state. These requires good governance as well as maturity on the part of the administration and not intimidation and coercion.
Mythology narrates that king Ramchandra invoked Devi Durga for her propitiation. Pleased, Devi appeared before Ramchandra and blessed him with victory. Armed with a weapon granted to him by Durga, Ramchandra emerged victorious and rescued his wife – queen Sita. Further, as per Hindu scriptures, the festival marks the victory of goddess Durga in her battle against Mahishasura, the demon. Thus, the festival of Durga Puja epitomizes the victory of good over evil, though it is also in part a harvest festival celebrating the goddess as the motherly power behind all of life and creation.
According to some scholars, the worship of the fierce warrior goddess Durga, and her further manifestation as goddess Kali, became popular in Bengal during and after the medieval era, when the country was at the cusp of the decline of Mughals and emergence of the western imperialism; when the country was steeped in coercion, corruption and intimidation. Whichever way we want to interpret, the festival points us towards renewal of life, towards pledges of upholding good and defeating evil.
In the current context, all of us need to understand that our Durga is distressed, and her city is looking for redemption. We need to provide honest permanent solutions through good governance and not by clever demagogy or coercive behaviour by our administrators.
(IPA Service)
