It is that time of the year when the Durga Puja festivies are back in the air. The place I come from i.e. from Kolkata (formally known as Calcutta), Durga Puja is not just a festival spiritually but a social festival where for three days when the not only Kolkata but the whole of Bengal is in a festive mood. Being a student of history a question which arises in my mind is that as to why is Durga Puja such a big festival and in the same logic as to why is Ganapati such a big festival in many parts of Western India because if we trace back or go back in history we would see that these festivals were something which were started not because of some spiritual reason but as a way to bring the society together. I always believe that any type of puja and especially something like Durga Puja is not something which is not spiritual but when people come together and enjoy and it is more of a social festival and so it questions as to how did this social festival evolve and how did it impact us.
The Durga Puja which is practiced at this time i.e. in the month of October is actually known as “Akaal Bodhon" as the real puja of Durga as per the scriptures is during I which roughly overlaps with the months of March or April but the present puja is done in the done in the month of September – October which is also known as Sharadiya (Autumnal) Durga Puja.
As per the Myth, logically the story goes as that “Lord Rama” evoked Durga to get her blessings to defeat Ravan, who was the king of present of Sri-Lanka and who had kidnapped his wife Sita and that during the four days of puja was actually the fighting between Rama and Ravan which ended with Rama killing Ravan and that day is celebrated as “Dusshera”, which is also the last day of Durga – Puja. The killing of Ravan over Ram has always being used as win of good of evil.
Coming back to Durga Pujas in Bengal, Durga Puja where practiced by the Zamindar’s (owners of the land), and they can be various names like “Goswami Barir Pujo in Serampore”, "Chapdani Mukherjee Barir Pujo", "Saborno Roy Choudhury Barir Pujo" (the owners of Sutanuti, Govindapur and Kalikata and who leased the lands to Jobe Charnok and these three villages formed Kolkata and the puja in Saborno Roy Choudhury is considered the oldest puja of Kolkata) but the oldest puja is considered to be Guptipara Puja and this puja is said to be started during the time of “Chaitanaya” and is considered to be started by one of the teachers of “Chaitanaya” but as time changes so does the age-old traditions and after 1857 there was rise of a class known as “Babus” who also started Durga Puja. “Babus” can be considered the first bureaucracy class which was established by the “Britishers” to run the country.
One of the first “Babus” can be considered to be Maharaj Nabakrishna Deb Bahadur , who was the dewan of Lord Clive and organised Durga Puja which co-incided with the victory of Lord Clive in Plassey over Nawab Siraj –ud Daula (this victory had established East India’s Company Rule over Bengal) and later many “Babus, started organizing Durga Puja and this started the unique culture of “Babu Culture”, where these babus used to spend money like anything like on kite flying to marrying their pets and organizing parties with pomp and flare which show their status in the society.
These “Babus” where actually a challenge to the age-old traditions of Zamindars as they where some-one who was challenging them in each and everything and fighting with them for status and to show to their status and pomp, they started to organise Durga Pujas. There were many “Babus” pujas and to name a few “Chatthubabu Lattubabu Pujo”, “Hatkhola Dutta Bari”, “Thantahania Dutta Bari” and they were many more but with time they have gone away in the wind.
The Puja which was practised in “Thantahania Dutta Bari” is very much unique as there the puja is not about Durga – Mahishashur but of Shiva – Durga and the reason that Durga is originally a form of Parvati (who is the wife of Lord Shiva) and that Parvati is the daughter of earth and when a married daughter comes to her father’s house after marriage she will not come alone but with her husband and with her children and the puja is not of someone who is savior of earth but as to of a daughter and as a lady in those times could not come out in open public there used to be purdah or a chick before the idol. This practice of puja is very much prevalent now as there are many houses which still have maintained this type of puja and that this type of Durja Puja is very much unique and is only found in this part of Bengal.
Apart from these there were certain sections of the society like “Rani Rashmoni Pujo”, “Chunder Pujo”, where the puja was actually done to form a base from where nationalism movements were preached and one of the best examples is the famous story where “Rani Rashmoni” brought the land adjoining Ganga and a huge part of Ganga itself so that the people to conduct Durga Puja without continuos intervention of the Britishers.
In Bengal we use the term as "Barwari Puja"(the term is a hybrid of baro meaning 12 and yar, which means friends) or Sarbojanin Pujas (Community Puja), which was started as a protest to all the home Durga Pujas where only a few selected persons were selected and not everyone could come and enjoy and thus pujas where started by community where any one of the community could come and enjoy and anyone could come and participate and enjoy the festivities. "Barwari Puja" is done by collecting of "chaanda" (donations), from the community as a whole so that it is participation of the community and it was started roughly in the in between the late 19th century and the early 20th century and it was started by 12 friends which is why the name "Barwari Puja" and the friends started the pujas because they were not allowed to enter the pujas of some zamindar house or Babus puja (I am not sure), i.e. when they thought of coming up with a puja where each and every one could enjoy and the first "Barwari Puja" was not Durga Puja but “Jagadhatri Puja”.
This act of making a puja which was in the form of the protest sparked a social revolution and was one the first social revolutions which were started not by some leaders but some common people and it is a shame our bad fortune that the name of those 12 friends who started this puja because now most of the pujas are in the form of “Barwari Puja”.
This small act of making a puja was start of social revolution as the concept of community has started to evolve at that time, as we are talking of the period of 19th and 20th century when for the first time as to what was India was being thought and evolving and that the idea that India did not belong to a few persons only was coming up and what could have been more revolutionary than the concept or the thought that “GOD”, did not belong to a few but to the community as a whole and that the seeds of socialism and democracy was been sowed then back in the 19th and 20th century.
A "Barwari Puja" was nothing less than a revolution because it defied the age-old beliefs that “GOD”, “COUNTRY”, “LAND”, belonged to a few but to the whole community (and that struggle which is still going on) and the seeds of these thoughts were started by these small movements which have gone unnoticed and not documented and it is time that we take start steps where we revive back and bring into knowledge of these revolutions to our future generations and make them understand that as to what is India and from where did the concept of India evolve.
