Journal of Southern African Studies

Spaces of Recognition: Puja and Power in Contemporary Calcutta Author(s): Anjan Ghosh Source: Journal of Southern African Studies, Vol. 26, No. 2, Special Issue: Popular Culture and Democracy (Jun., 2000), pp. 289-299 Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2637495 . Accessed: 03/08/2013 08:33
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Volume Journal of Southern African Studies, 26, Number 2, June2000, pp. 289-299

Spaces of Recognition:Puja and Power in Contemporary Calcutta

ANJAN GHOSH
forStudiesin Social Sciences,Calcutta) (Centre

As themost popularreligious festival, Durga puja has becomeiconicof modern Bengali ritualto an Hinduidentity in WestBengal,India. Its transformation froma rural family on theemergence urbansecularone overthelast 200 yearshighlights theconstraints of a publicspherein post-colonial India.

Introduction
of the mother Durga puja or the worship goddessDurga is the mostpopularreligious festivalof the Bengali Hindus.1Observedannuallyin the autumnmonthof Aswin to mid-October), thefour (mid-September daysof thepuja evokea universal holiday spirit in the stateof West Bengal and especiallyin its capital city, and festive atmosphere are setup Calcutta. Thousands ofpandals (makeshift clothand tarpaulin bamboo, shelters) all over the city,wherethe deityis housedduring the festival. out Worshipis carried in thepandals by brahmin thefestival and theplatform on which regularly during priests theidol of thegoddessand herchildren are placed acquiresthesanctity of sacredspace the festival. The pandals are locatedin any open space in the neighbourhood. during Sometimes thelack of suchspace can lead to somepandals beinglocatedon theroad or thus a temporary closure thedaysofthe oftheroadfortraffic carriageway, effecting during festival. The transformation of publicspace intoritual and ceremonial space makesDurga puja a verypublicfestival. Publicfestivities overthelast200 years. associated withtheDurgapuja have emerged Before theBritish conquered Bengalin themid-eighteenth century, Durgapuja was a rural institution was observed oftherural primarily which within thehousehold precincts gentry. But as theportcityof Calcutta becamethecapitalof theBritish Empirein India,urban social lifeburgeoned. The emergent urbancomprador their elite who prospered through services to theBritish soon instituted theDurgapuja amongtheir household rituals. But thepuja gave riseto elaborate festivities ritual and different forms alongwith observances, of popularentertainment in the evenings. in therevelry Even as the massesparticipated to the bawdy songs or folk performances, listening those by professional singersand to invited thebabus (gentlemen dancing girlswererestricted guests including bourgeoisie), their The urban festival soon becamean iconicinstitution of the peersandEnglish patrons. and contestation. In this paper,I trace Bengalis and a space for public performances thecourseof thismodemmarker of Bengaliidentity in Calcutta. historically

1 The word to bothbig annualpubliccelebrations liketheDurgafestival andto more and puja mayrefer private actsof worship and devotion. family-contained ? 2000 Journal ISSN 0305-7070print; Studies 1465-3893 online/00/000289-11 ofSouthern African

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290 Journal ofSouthernz African Studies

and Public Spheres Modernities

The emergence of the public sphere is associated with capitalism and modernity.Two of national and territorial aspects of this,the formation states and the rightsof citizenship, have an important bearingon the making of the public sphere.Habermas characterizesthe public sphere as one which mediates between state and civil, where 'private people come togetheras a public', 'a realm of our social life in which somethingapproachingpublic discourses opinion can be formed'.2But public opinion is informed by the rational-critical of citizens. As sovereign individuals, citizens have rightsand responsibilitiesand it is through theirexercise of choice thatpublic opinion is formed.Habermas claims that'access is guaranteedto all citizens' to the bourgeois public sphere. However, this access is of course dependenton being familiarwith the world of lettersand the printcultureof the time, hence being informedof the rightsof the citizenry.For - as Habermas notes - the bourgeois public sphere first develops in the world of lettersbeforebeing appropriated by the public in the political realm.3 of the public in India underBritishrule duringthe nineteenth has The trajectory century a different genealogy. This difference is well articulatedby Chatterjee: of The way in whichthe history of our modernity has been intertwined withthe history we have neverquitebeen able to believethat there existsa universal domainof colonialism, freediscourse, unfettered of race or nationality. by differences Somehow,fromthe very we have made a shrewd betweenmodem beginning guess thatgiventhe close complicity and modern of power, we wouldforever remain consumers of universal knowledges regimes neverwouldwe be takenseriously as its producers.4 modernity; This anxietyabout the colonial genealogy of the modernand the capacity to reproduceit, has constantly in India are plagued public consciousness. The contradictions of modernity in Chatterjee'sstatement, 'The same historicalprocess thathas taughtus the value reflected of modernity has also made us the victimsof modernity.'5 It is this ambiguitywhich lies at the heartof the modernin post-colonialIndia, makingfora fraught and contestedpublic culture,distinctfromthe 'publicness' and public opinion of the bourgeois public sphere. In this era of globalization - along with the circulation of commodities - ideas of have also gained currency.Modernityas a conditionof existence is no longer modernity epitomized by a singularset of attributes manifestin particularlocalities of the West. As aspirations of people in disparate locations, certain values of rationality,democratic participation,secularism and market exchange have become normative of the modem. Transnationalflows of information and images between nations have led to a universal recognitionof these norms,though not necessarilyany compliance with them. Historical modernitiesinvariablyincorporateelements of tradition and are scarcely counterposedto them. Increasinglyre-visionedas bricolage, the outcome is vernacularmodernities. In India - even thoughpeople emerged as a 'population', enumeratedand classifiedby the colonial government throughits census and other taxonomic exercises - this did not yield the 'public sphere' of Habermas. Individuals were not clearly demarcatedfromtheir and persons not only representedthemselves but often stood for theircomcommunity, munity.Until the early twentieth century,an additive idea of the nation as comprising different communitieshad prevailed in India. The nationwas conceived as a collection of
2 J. Habermas, 'The PublicSphere:An Encyclopedia Article', New German Cr-itiqlue, 1, 3 (1974), pp. 29-38. 3 J.Habermas, The Str-uctur-al Transfor-mation of thePulblic Sphere, translated by ThomasBurger (Cambridge, Mass., MIT Press,1991),p. 49. 4 P. Chatterjee, inP. Chatterjee 'OurModernity', (ed),ThePrese7t History ofWestBenigal (Delhi,Oxford University Press,1997),p. 204. 5 Ibid.,p. 210.

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Spaces of Recognition 291

communities: Hindu, Muslim, Christian, Parsi and Sikh. But by the 1920s, this was notion of a nation composed of 'citizens'. This thenwas the time displaced by a different to civil society.6It was also the period when,underMahatma of transition fromcommunity Gandhi's leadership,the Indian national movementacquired a mass following. The communitarian contesting of public domains since the end of the nineteenth century created a space between the state and society that served as an arena of ritual acts and performances. This has been characterizedby Freitag as a 'public arena'. Public arenas in India did not emerge as a resultof social transformations like the coming of national and territorial conditionedby access states,nor were theybased on free and equal participation to information. Public opinion foundarticulation underthe colonial regimeas performances and symbolic enactments.Freitag definesher notion of public arenas as: a world of ritual,theatre and symbol.It is a universethat sometimes reinforces hierarchy, ... and at other timesexpresses conflict amongunequals;it mayeven do bothsimulof its Most important, it is a worldtiedcloselyto thesocial and political contexts taneously. locale and henceaccommodates and reflects change.7 thatthe will of the public was Clearly it was in the realm of the symbolic and performative articulated undercolonialism. Along withthe land question,public disputations increasingly ranged widely over religious observances and culturalperformances. Controversiesranged fromhook-swingingduringfestivalsto the observance of the Ganapati festivalstartedby to the performance India.8 BalgangadharTilak in Maharashtra, of the Rama-Lila in northern In all this a language of speaking to the British and with the other 'natives' was being fashioned.Public opinion undercolonial rule was manifested only in a limitedway through institutionalized political channelslike the courtsand legislatures.Only a small elite section of the people had access to these. On the otherhand secular and religious festivities were able to attract Hence nationalistmobilizationsalso foundit necessary popular participation. to have recourse to such popular festivities. With the withdrawalof colonial rule the confines of public arenas have expanded. Presently, the public opinion of citizens findsdemocraticexpression not only throughthe media but also throughthe ballot. Universal adult franchisehas dissolved the restrictions of property imposed on votersundercolonialism. Yet the question remainswhether the gap between citizens and subjects has been drasticallyreduced in post-colonial India. Exclusions fromthepublic spherecontinueapace through mechanismsof development stratifying and the market.As social and economic inequalities widen, those who remain marginalto the institutionalized apparatusesof power hardlyfindtheirviews included in public opinion. In other words, the bourgeois public sphere is able to accommodate only those who articulatewithinrecognized folds. For the others- the victimsof the developmentprocess thatbuttressesthe 'modern' - the vocabulary of rightscarries littleresonance. Instead, as theirsocial space through moral appeals and on Chatterjeesuggests,theyseek to constitute humanitarian grounds,forminga different domain fromcivil society.9This separate but contingent sphere is characterizedby him as 'political society'. The contestednatureof the public sphere in India is further demonstrated in Kaviraj's recent exploration of public space in Calcutta. Taking the example of a park in south
6 G. Pandey, The Construlction of Communialism in Colonial Nor-th India (Delhi, Oxford UniversityPress, 1990), 7 S. Freitag,PlblicArenias and theEmergence of Comuzltialismn in Nor-th India (Berkeley, University of California

p. 210.

Press,1990),p. 19. 8 N.B. Dirks,'The Policing ofTradition: in SouthIndia',Comparative Colonialism and Anthropology Stuidiesin andHistory, Society 1997),pp. 182-212;R. Cashman, Myth ofthe 39, 1(January Lokmanya (Berkeley, University of California Press,1978). 9 P. Chatterjee, 'Community in theEast', Economic and PoliticalWeekly, 7 February 1988.

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292 Journal ofSouthern African Studies Calcutta (Deshapriya Park), he analyses how different conceptions of the 'public' are culture.The defianceof civic mapped on to the uses of common space in a highlystratified normsby the poor not only violates the middle classes' notion of the properutilizationof public space like parks,but also articulatesa distinctnotion of common good. As he puts it, it is interesting in [the]commonest of violation to readtheprecisemapping of ideas involved a bourgeois of civicrules... It showsin everyday order ofthemiddle form thecontest between class and thosewho flout its rules.10 Similar appropriationsof public space have been evident in regard to the Durga puja in festivalwhen poorerneighbourhoods have taken over the roads and public thoroughfares order temporarily to install theirpandals and Durga images. Such appropriation of public notionof the public sphere spaces like pavementsand parks gives expressionto a different than the one spawned by Habermas. Kaviraj himself notes the historical specificityof Habermas's idea. He writes, Habermas'swork shows precisely how a specificconfiguration of the idea of the public in themodem ofhiswork has thisquality ofhistorical emerged West.Paradoxically, specificity beenwidely with oftheidea ofa 'publicspace' ignored, scholars striving to showtheexistence in widelydissimilar of Habermas's cultures. It seems to contribute to the greatpopularity at thecost of seriousmisunderstanding.11 argument However, in such practicesof defiance,Kaviraj does not findthe prospectof revolutionary but only a representation transformation, of anger and resentment against the elite. That of survivalforthe urbanpoor plebeian angerand recrimination is also a negotiating strategy is glossed over by him. It allows the downtrodden a certainleverage against the state and at the same time extends a moral appeal for support among the middle classes. The of the urban poor is a bit of both - defiance and complicity. self-expression The cultureof the modem has become - as Hannerz puts it - a 'culture in creolisation'.12Arguing against the idea of a homogenous modernity, he remarks, of uniformity. It is marked of diversity No total rather than by an organization by a replication of systems of meaning has occurred, nordoes it appearlikely homogenization and expression of social thattherewill be one any timesoon. But the worldhas become one network andbetween itsdifferent is a flowof meanings as well as of people relationships regions there and goods.'3 The interconnectedness of global modernity and the transnational flows thatcharacterizeit in the work of Appadurai.14 Emphasizing the flow of images through is also foregrounded he electronicmediationand of goods and people throughthe marketand mass migration, calls attention to the porous and multi-sited natureof the global culturaleconomy and the of modernity in particularlocalities. This promptsAppadurai and Breckenridge specificity to remarkthat 'Modernityis now everywhere,it is simultaneouslyeverywhere,and it is interactivelyeverywhere'.'5 Considering that modernitiesare not merely imported but produced and reproducedthey note that,

10 S. Kaviraj,'FilthandthePublicSphere: Concepts of Practices AboutSpace in Calcutta', PublicCulture, 10, 1 (1997), p. 84. 11 Ibid.,p. 86. 12 U. Hannerz, 'The Worldin Creolization', Africa, 57, 4 (1987), pp. 546-559. 13 U. Hannerz, 'Cosmopolitans andLocalsinWorld Culture', inM. Featherstone (ed),GlobalCulture (London, Sage, 14 A. Appadurai, Modernity at Large (Delhi,Oxford University Press,1997). 15 A. Appadurai andC. Breckenridge, 'PublicModernity inIndia',inC. Breckenridge (ed), Consuming Modernity: Public Culture in Contemporary India (Delhi,Oxford University Press,1996),pp. 1-20.
1990).

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Spaces ofRecognzition 293 of modernity and as their Most societiestodaypossess the meansforthe local production and inflect members move aroundthe world,these experiences inform one another, thus makingeven the paradigmatic modernity of the UnitedStates and Europe (itselfnot an no morepristine.'6 unproblematic assumption) However, what this discourse of global culture omits is the unequal nature of power throughthe working of relations among global partnersand how these were constituted colonial difference.Its implication for post-colonial formationslike India and the deep ambivalences of the modem subject to modernity thereinremainsunnoticedby Appadurai and Breckenridge. It is this spirit of contestationin the public world that prompts Appadurai and Breckenridgeto propose the concept of 'public culture' in a globalized context. Shifting attentionfrom the Habermasian 'world of letters' and 'public opinion' to the mass 'consumptionof culture' and idiom of one-upmanship, theyconceive of public cultureas: in a variety ofhistorical setof arenas that haveemerged conditions andthat articulate thespace between lifeandtheprojects where different socialgroups domestic ofthenation-state (classes, identities of mass mediated ethnic groups, genders) constitute their forms by their experience in relation to thepractices of everyday life.17 By detachingthe notion of 'public' fromits institutional connotationthey seek to expose a 'zone of culturaldebate'. Envisaged as a zone withinthe process of globalization, they contend thatthe: of publicculture has muchto do withthetensions and contradictions contestatory character between national sitesand transnational cultural processes.18 In their overt attentionto transnational flows, they are less attentiveto the implications withinthe nation. For as the notion of public culturedraws attention to the productionof betweenthose who consume and meaningthrough consumption, it also creates a distinction those who do not. The imperative of cultural consumption,largely confined to urban a mode of differentiation thatexcludes a large body of people in India centres,constitutes fromits purview. As sites of contention, an insightinto the rhetorics public cultureaffords of the modern - like the ban against sati or the practiceof Bengali self. The introduction of social reform widow immolation at the funeral pyre of Hindu husbands'9 and the spread of English education in Bengal - have led commentators to invoke the image of a Bengal Renaissance.20 Critical historical scrutinyhas subsequentlyunderscoredthe frailtyof such an analogy, as Westerneducation was largelylimitedto urban Hindu middle class males who came principallyfromthe rent-receiving classes and were complicitin maintaining British colonialism. Consequently modern Bengali self-fashioning has been overtly restrictive, along caste, class, gender,religious and regional lines.2' Recogundergoingfragmentation nition of this fissive process is manifestedin the post-colonial era in institutionalized culturalpractices.These practiceshave not remainedconstantbut undergonechange as they have been appropriatedand contested by the marginalcollectivitiesto speak to different

16 Ibid. 17 Appadurai and Breckenridge, in India',p. 4. 'PublicModernity 18 Ibid.,p.5. 19 The limits ofthediscourse ofreform havenowbeenbrilliantly interrogated inLata Mani,Contentious Traditions (Delhi,Oxford University Press,1999). 20 See thediscussion on theBengal Renaissance in P. Chatterjee, and the Colon2ial World Nationialist Thought Zed Books, 1986). (London, 21 For an account of some of thesefragments, see P. Chatterjee, TheNationt and its Fragmenits (Princeton, NJ, Princeton University Press,1994).

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294 Journal ofSouthern African Studies purposes. Thus - as the key festivalof the Bengali upper caste Hindus - Durga puja has increasingly become a secular and hybridentity, incorporating widespread popular participation fromdisparatecastes and classes, and enabling women to emerge fromthe seclusion of theirdomestic sphere to inhabitpublic spaces duringthe period of the festival. By consideringDurga puja as integral to the public cultureof Bengalis, I interrogate the changes that have occurred in the societal structureand expanded the horizons of participationamong the people. The popularityof the festival has enhanced its festive aspect while eroding its ritual features.This has to an extent 'secularized' the worship of a Hindu goddess into a cosmopolitanfestival.Further, it has displaced the elite imagination from constituting the festivitiessolely in its own image. The attributes of conspicuous consumption,display and status have now been appropriatedby the non-elitesections of society as well.

The Worshipof Durga

Puja means worship and comprises a part of everyday life in temples and many Hindu households. It is a show of respectand honourfora deitybut also refers to 'a formof ritual, a series of actions, and a set of attitudes'.22 Puja can also signify - as in the case of Durga when a particular puja - an annual festival,23 deityis worshippedand the legends associated with it evoked. of the lunarmonthAswin. Durga puja takes place in autumnduringthe bright fortnight It continuesfor four days at the end of which the images of the deities are taken out in public processions and immersedin the river.Durga is a powerfulgoddess and the consort of Lord Shiva. The formin which she is worshippedis known as Chandi (her fieryand warlike mode). She is depicted as slaying the buffalo demon astride her lion, hence her - the slayerof the buffalodemon. This formof hers is not othername Mahishasuramardini unique to Bengal but well known in otherpartsof India like Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and AndhraPradesh.24 But in Bengal, Durga is not a singularfigure. She is accompanied by her fourchildren, Lakshmi (the goddess of wealth), Saraswati (the goddess of learning),Kartik She is thus (the general of the army),and Ganesh (the elephant-headedgod of prosperity). perceived as a benevolent motherfigure,who visits her parental home annually for four the yearningsof days with her childrenin tow. In a sense, the figureof Durga represents to theirnatal families and be free fromthe young Bengali brides of yore, piningto return constraints of theiraffinal stifling homes. The legend of Chandi which is invokedduringthe worshipof Durga clearly bringsto the fore the 'other' side of the benevolentmother.Her furyis neithervengefulnor random,but protective.As the legend has it, Once a fierce a thousand battle thegods and thedemons, ragedbetween lasting nearly years. The mainadversary of thegods was Mahishasura, buffalo who had nearly demon, wipedout thedivinearmy. At last he managed all thegods. to defeat Drivenout of theirheavenly abode the divinepersonages wentto Brahmaand sought Brahma a dazzling protection. emitted from hismany assumed theform effulgence limbswhich of a woman.She lookedawesomeand powerful and whenthegods saw herthey tookheart. Theneach of themcreated replicasof their own special weaponswithwhichtheyequipped
her.25

22 A. Oster, Play oftheGodsAmong Men (Chicago,University of ChicagoPress,1982),p. 4. 23 C. Fuller, The Camnphor Flame (New Jersey, Princeton University Press,1992),p. 62. 24 C. Berkson, TheDivine andthe Demoniac: Mahisa's HeroicStruggle with Durga(Delhi,Oxford University Press, 25 S. Bhattacharji, Mother GoddessesofIndia (Calcutta, K.P. Bagchi,1995),pp.32-33.
1995).

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Spaces ofRecognition 295 In the battle that ensued between the goddess and Mahisasura, she destroyedhis forces before confronting him. Whenshecharged, he gave up theshapeofa buffalo andturned intoa lion.The goddessstruck a man came out of the decapitated offits head but immediately lion, swordin hand.The goddessslew himin no timebutthenagain an elephant appearedin his place. She chopped in great and stampeded overall creation offitstrunk at which itresumed theshapeofa buffalo fury. Now, the thirsty goddess drankher fill of wine and smiled with eyes reddenedin hillsand mountains intoxication. The buffalo demonwas uprooting and hurling themat her. and said, 'You fool,roarand yell as longas and smashed them withherarrows She pierced I drink. WhenI destroy you thegods will roarand shout'. himwith herspikeand struck offhis head.26 Withthisshe leapeduponthedemon, pierced The worship of Durga epitomizes this search for protectionand the benevolence of the a formof thanksgiving goddess. Considered as a harvestfestival,Durga puja represented fora bountiful in the ruralareas by individualelite families, harvest.Worshippedprimarily the puja in pre-BritishBengal representeda mode of vertical integrationof the rural community. While the puja would be organized by the village landlord,it would involve a wide section of the people in the village with the service castes providingtheirservices forthe successfulcompletionof thepuja. The entirevillage would be fed on particular days of the festival and the village populace could join in the festivitiesby having darsana (seeing) of the deity. Darsana or gazing upon the image of the deity has a special significancein Hinduism, for it is not a passive gaze. Justas the devotee gazes upon the image the deityalso gazes upon the devotee and thereoccurs an 'exchange of vision'.27As it is believed thatthe deity is in the image, this exchange of vision enables the devotee to absorb the shakti (power) thatflows fromthe goddess's unblinkinggaze.28 In this way the people in the village who come to view the image of the goddess are blessed by herpowers.

Originsof Durga Puja

Durga puja in its present form of an annual festival was initiated in 1580 by Raja Kansanarayanof Taherpur(now in Bangladesh). He was soon emulatedby Raja Jagatnarain of Bhaduria in Rajshahi district to note why Raja (also now in Bangladesh). It is significant Kansanarayan startedthe worship of Durga. He is said to have begun it as a form of his forhis sin of bringing about the downfallof the Nawabs of Bengal through repentance, alliance with the Moghul emperorAkbar. This led to the end of independent Bengal as it came under Mughal rule. Regrettinghis action, Kansanarayan summoned his Brahmin adviser Ramesh Shastriand asked him how he could atone forhis action. The latteradvised him to perform Durga puja, which was accomplished with much pomp. The puja became more popular under Raja Krishnachandra Roy of Nadia (1710-1782) who celebratedit on a grand scale.29 During his times the puja 'was a grand but private affairin the elegant thakurdalan (courtyard of the deities) of the palace' .30 It was the exclusivityof engaging in this kind of worship that attracted othernotables. In Calcutta, the Sabarna Choudhuris of Barisha startedtheirown familypuja in 1606. In the rural areas of Bengal before the advent of the British,puja was an occasion to
26 27 28 29 Ibid. D. Eck,Darsana (Chalmersberg, AnimaBooks, 1981),p. 6. Fuller, The Camphor Flame,p. 60. M. Das, 'Changing Pattern oftheDurgaPujaFestival inBengalfrom theEstablishment ofBritish RuleinBengal in 1757 tillIndependence, 1947', Unpublished PhD thesis, Calcutta University, 1993,p. 12. 30 J.Chaliha andB. Gupta, inS. Chaudhuri TheLiving 'DurgaPujainCalcutta', vol.2 (Calcutta, (ed),Calcutta: City, Oxford University Press,1990),p. 331.

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296 Journal ofSouthernl African Stuidies reaffirm the social solidarity of the village and division of labour among the different castes. The elaborate preparations requiredfor the puja engaged the efforts of a large familyand members were not only allotted tasks but had a share in the puja. This elicited its as solo-ana-puja (sixteen annas made a rupee). The rupee epitomizedthe holism description of the family or kin community.3'In a sense the deity representedthe whole of the communityin its relation to the family of the local landlord. As village solidaritywas maintained,the landlord enhanced his status throughhis redistributive capacity.32

CelebrationBecomes Public
The transition fromhousehold worshipof the mothergoddess to baroari (public) worship was made in the last decade of the eighteenth century, when twelve brahminsformeda committeeto conduct theirown Durga puja. The coming together of twelve friends(hence baroari) in a committeeled to the first public worshipin 1790 at Guptipara,a village near Santipurin Nadia districtof West Bengal.33 The committee collected public subscriptionsfrom the neighbouringvillages and like swang performeda glittering ceremony along with various kinds of entertainment (critical mimicry), puppetry display,jatra (folk theatre)and half akhrai (a formof bawdy withthe public worshipof singing).There was a strongassociation of public entertainment the goddess and Durga puja increasingly became a time of celebration.The baroari pujas rapidly proliferated during the early decades of the nineteenth centuryin the whole of Bengal. But its emancipation from the confines of elite households did not lead to the decline of household celebrations of puja. In effect,both flourishedconcurrently as the comprador babus of Calcutta now began to engage in status display through their sumptuous celebration of Durga ptuja. The baroari pujas by going public also elicited Thus in 1821 a caste disputeeruptedat the Joynagar public conflicts. baroari puja in South 24 Parganas on the outskirts of Calcutta,over an invitation extendedto a man fromthe low weaver caste (tanti) to participatein the proceedings. The upper caste members of the locality attacked the principalorganizerfor defilingtheirpuja.34 Sectarian disputes also arose in regardto the public worshipof Durga. In Chinsurah,a Dutch settlement near Calcutta, a dispute arose between the Vaishnavites and the Saivites (two denominated sects within Hinduism) over animal sacrifice at the puja in 1837.35 till about the fourth Dispute and contentions apart,the baroari pujas were able to flourish a decline with decade of the nineteenth afterwhich such public worshipunderwent century, and diminishedglamour.Only a few of the baroari pujas survivedtill fallingsubscriptions the early years of the next century.Atul Sur reminiscesthat duringthis childhood in the therewere few baroari pujas. Durga puja was carried early decades of the presentcentury out with great pomp and pageantry in the households of the urban elite in Calcutta. MahendranathDutta - an old Calcutta resident - also remembersthe puja in leading households duringthe first decade of the century.36
31 In thesenseof thesixteen annasmaking up a rupee. See M. Togawa,'RitualTowards Totality: Solo-ania-puja, the Ritual Organisation ofDurgaPujainRural ofthe Research Bengal',inSteering Committee Project Institutions, Networks and Forcesof Changein Contemporary SouthAsia (eds), Ritualsas Popullar Cultulre:Towardsa and Culture, Science,Sports 1999),p. 60. 32 B. Ghose,'Gentooder DurgaPuja'(Babu's Durgapuja), in B. Ghose,KolkataShaharer Itibritta(History of the Bak Sahitya, Cityof Calcutta) (Calcutta, 1975),pp. 320-321. 33 A. Sur,'Baroari PujarSekalEkal' (ThenandNowofCommunity DurgaPulja), Saptahik Bar-tarnan, (30 September 1995),pp. 8-10. 34 Ibid.,p. 9. 35 Ibid. 0 Pratha(Old Stories 36 M. Dutta, Kahinii andCustoms ofCalcutta) KolikatarPurzatani (Calcutta, 1929;republished 1975),pp. 109-111.
Historico-AnthropologicalUnderstandingof Modern IndiantSociety (Tokyo, Japanese Ministryof Education,

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Spaces ofRecognition 297 In the latterhalf of the nineteenth century, Durga puja increasingly became associated with the gentoos or babus of Calcutta. These were people frommodest caste backgrounds who by virtueof theirservices as banians (money lenders) and gomasthas (accountants)to the leading BritishEast India Company officialsand merchantswere able to amass huge the familyDurga puja in Calcutta. Alongside fortunes. They were the ones who instituted the urban parvenus were the well-establishedold landlords like the Sabarna Choudhuris who also performed the puja with pomp and ceremony. In these performances While the worshipof the of thepuja thereremaineda difference. landlords of the southernpart of Calcutta Sabarna Choudhuris- who were the traditional - was marked by tradition,dignity and aristocracy with the ceremonial rituals being performed withdevotion,thepuja of thegentoos was characterized by glitter, gimmickand excess. The religious aspect of the worship was overshadowed by lavish, licentious and Such entertainment bawdy entertainment. by dancing girls and bawdy singers continued the nightduringthe festivedays. Some of this was thrownopen to the public throughout and the populace enjoyed the bawdy reparteesof the half-akhraisingers.But the songs by professionalsingersand dancers were oftenmeant exclusively forthe babus ('gentlemen') and theirEnglish masters.PearychandMitra in his sketches of nineteenth-century life in Calcutta scathingly depicts the indulgence of the babus, their craven but ineffective emulation of the English and their constant attemptto ingratiatethemselves with the colonial masters.37 By the second decade of the twentieth century,an assertive Bengali nationalistself left its imprint on the celebrationof Durga puja.

Nationalism and Community Festivals

The baroari Durga puja gave way to the sarbajanin ptuja by the second decade of the twentieth It is said thata few distinguished century. gentlemenin northCalcutta had been insulted when they visited a familypuja. This promptedthem to set up a community association and conducta sarbajanin (community) puja. The first such community worship was begun in Baghbazar (a localityin north Calcutta) in 1918. During its early years,some of the prominentsarbajanin pujas were associated with the nationalistmovement. The Baghbazar sarbajanin or its neighbouring Simla Byam Samiti puja had connections with - who believed in the underground extremists of the national movement.The extremists - worshippedDurga as the embodimentof shakti(power) and promotedthe armed struggle of gymnasiumsfor the cultivationof physical culture.38 establishment Organizers of these triedto smuggle in nationalistsymbols among the decorationfor the pujas surreptitiously the ire of the Britishgovernment who banned the Baghbazar puja goddess. This attracted for some years. Even beforeIndependence in 1947, the community puja or the sarbajanin Durgotsav had become popular. Durga puja now represented the cohesion and distinctiveness of the para (locality or neighbourhood). The greater the fanfare,decoration and designer lightingfor the pandals became, the higher the esteem of the neighbourhood. However, the familypujas still continue in some of the elite families,but the decline of diminishedtheirnumber.Yet - even today - some of the well-established familyfortunes and seek to emphasize the religious aspect of familypujas continueto maintaintraditions worship.

37 P. Mitra, Hutum PanicharNaksha (Sketches ofHutum) (Calcutta, Basumati Prakashani, 1862;republished 1982); R.P. Gupta, 'Hutomer Chokhe Baroari Puja' (Community DurgaPija as Observed byHutum), Saptahik Bartaman, (30 September 1995),pp. 11-1 4; B. Ghose,'Gentooder DurgaPuja'. in WestBengal',Journal 38 J.Sarma,'Puja Association ofAsianStudies, 28, 3 (1969), p. 583.

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298 Journal ofSouthern African Studies

Table 1. Yearwise increasein the number of community Durgapujas in Calcutta Year 1954 1962 1968 1969 1977 1979 1994 1995 No. of community pujas 300 650 759 901 1003 990 1104 1120

Sources: Banerjee, 'SarbojoninDurgotsabin in West Calcutta'and Sarma,'Puja Association Bengal'.

In the post-colonial era, the numberof communityor sarbajanin pujas has increased rapidly. Table 1 gives some idea of numbersin Calcutta. In multi-ethnic neighbourhoods(paras), Muslims, Christiansand dalits (untouchable) in the organizationof the puja - as for instance in the Park Circus, have also participated Wellesley Streetand Ripon Streetareas.39The increase in the numberof community pujas has meantthatthereis keen competition among localities to attract large numbersof people to theirpandals to have darsana of the deity. As a result,innovationsare carried out in the makingof the image, decorationand lightingof thepandals and music played over the loudspeakers. In an effortto catch the public eye, huge amounts are spent on the construction of the pandal and lighting.The escalation in the cost of sarbajanin Durga pujas can be gauged when we note that,in 1969, a major community puja would cost about Rs37,000, whereas in 1995, theirbudget would range in the vicinityof Rsl-1.5 million. This money is no longer raised through the collection of individual subscriptions fromthe locality, as had been the practice earlier. Instead 'mega'-pujas obtain sponsorshipsfrom advertisements attachedto puja souvenirs.Usually large-scale advertisecompanies through mentsare obtainedby politicianswho are knownto patronizeparticular community pujas.40 Durga puja is associated with many aspects of Bengali life. It is not only the most annual event.The propensity to buy new important religiousfestival,it is also an important clothes or other goods for the festivalseason means that it is a time of intense business as popular singers tryto release their It is also a time for culturalcreativity transactions. new songs and recordingsfor the festiveseason. Newspapers and magazines publish their annual numbersat this time withwriters vyingto outdo each otherin theircreativeoutput. As has been argued recently by Bose,41Calcutta becomes a wonderlandduringthe days of the Durga puja as communitypuja organizers design theirpandals in the form of the Mysore Maharajah's Palace, as a Paris cathedral,or as a famous Hindu temple fromSouth India. These wondrousconstructions transform Calcutta duringthepujas into a heterotopic space. The juxtaposing of incongruous objects and symbols in the decoration creates a mystique,which may have more to do with desire than with the occasion at hand. Durga

39 B. Banerjee,'Sarbojonin Durgotsab in Calcutta: A Preliminary of thePujas in 1969', Folklore, Report 14, 9 (September 1973),pp. 347-353. 40 Banerjee, 'Sarbojonin Durgotsab'; P. Acharya, 'DurgaPuja EkhonSponsor Nirvar'(DurgaPuja Now Sponsor Dependent), Saptahtik Bartaman, (30 September 1995),pp. 15-18. 41 P. Bose, 'PujorKolkatar ofCalcutta Bikalpalok' (TheWonderland During DurgaPuja), Baromnas, specialDurga puja issue,October 1997.

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Spaces ofRecognition 299 puja allows all this to be expressed in public. It is a time when incongruity is permissible and enables the masses to appropriatepublic space to give vent to theirimagination. From the portals of the local landlords to the festivities of the urban populace, Durga It is a timeof festivity and consumption, puja has become iconic of Bengali Hindu identity. which transgresses religiousbounds. Public spaces are taken over by the people who enjoy a temporary licence to transform the mundaneinto the spectacular.Yet this does not invest the populace with subjecthood,but ratherenables the masses to inhabitthe public domain without being its determinant. Durga puja has retainedits imprint of middle-classreligiosity and of imposing culturalhegemonyupon the population. ANJAN GHOSH Centrefor Studies in Social Sciences, R-1, Baishnabghota-Patuli Township,Calcutta-700 029, India

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