What's Ma Durga doing in St. Peter's Basilica?

Kolkata: The theme for the Golden Jubilee Durga Puja of Sreebhumi Sporting Club in Calcutta is the Vatican City, where the Goddess and her entourage are residing blissfully with the icons of Christianity. More specifically, it is the Basilica with the iconic ceiling, the 17th century Renaissance architecture replicated lovingly in Lake Town by a battery of skilled craftsmen.

Just last year this Puja Committee had replicated the Burj Khalifa while in 2022, the vision of the founders is to give locals a flavor of this legendary Italian landmark. The Chief Minister inaugurated this exceptional edition rather early in the piece, blessing the efforts with a fervent request to ensure routine traffic movement. It is widely predicted that adoring crowds, across religions, will swarm the premises with reverential glee for almost a week, with the usual prediction of an odd stampede or two.

So, where does this discussion logically lead to? As to how the state of West Bengal is so delightfully secular and deeply inclusive? Or perhaps, a possible destination can well be the fraternal relationship between Bengali Hindus and the most popular festival, more carnival and less religion, as well noted by UNESCO. My trajectory is truthfully neither, instead, it dwells sharply on segmentation of divinities, as gently nudged by the ages and practised sincerely by current generations.

To understand contextually, one must step back in time to 1757, when Lord Clive became victorious at the Battle of Plassey. To ‘celebrate’ this milestone, Raja Naba Krishna Deb of Shobhabazar (now in North Calcutta) organized the first ever Durga Puja, with the Englishman as the much venerated Chief Guest. Rather quickly, this became a pattern with the fawning rich of Bengali, this set of festivities a wonderful means to entertain the foreign masters, with nautch girls and lavish feasts, yet on a comforting foundation of Hindu tradition.

It took till 1919 for the first Barowari (literally twelve friends) Durga Puja to take place in Baghbazar, demolishing the feudal control over the festival and making it a public affair. Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose and other nationalists were keenly involved and the Durga Pujas soon emerged as a potent symbol for the freedom movement, rapidly spawning multiple versions across the state and soon the country. An adjunct sub-culture was the demonstration of important sociocultural milestones, like the death of Bagha Jatin and Mahatma Gandhi, initially through street theatre and eventually via the lighting maestros of the present day. Over time, the mantle of the organization shifted to politicians, leading citizens and eventually corporate patrons.

The deeply simple point I wish to make, and do call it simplistic, is that traditional religious motivations have always been a secondary priority for the Durga Pujas in Bengal, whether for the shameless Quislings or the passionate nationalists. Unlike say the devotion of Goddess Lakshmi for wealth, Goddess Saraswati for knowledge, Goddess Kali for enlightenment or liberation and even the Satya Narayana Puja routinely performed to alleviate problems or difficulties. In all of the above, the strict conformity to traditions is sacrosanct, and the food culture is committed to restraint, piously vegetarian for the most part with a deferred concession to indulgence. Ma Durga is a ‘generalist’ Goddess, literally and figuratively a multi-tasker, while the specialists continue to perform their defined duties.

It is plainly apparent that the Durga Pujas have historically been driven by community considerations whether the treacherous affiliations of the 18th century or the patriotic fervor of the early 20th century, as a societal adhesive and not a ritualistic millstone. While most naturally, it has its share of regimented time-bound traditions, like the specific purohit-orchestrated ceremonies and the ‘anjali’, they can never supersede the priorities of celebratory integration, effortlessly multi-racial and colorfully spontaneous.  This pattern comes to life even more evocatively in the ‘expat’ Pujas, whether in India or abroad, where its finest alibi is to be a refresher course in inclusive Bengali-ness.

So, if you are still wondering why St. Paul’s Basilica is the preferred destination for Ma Durga, I do hope you get the timeless drift. The tale of effortless secular participation spans centuries and is not the concoction of recently elected Governments, or any such forces claiming undue credit. It is indeed the mother of all celebrations that has an open invite for the world at large, and it is heartening to note that UNESCO is delighted to join the party.