10-19-2007, 12:49 AM
Pioneer, 19 Oct., 2007
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Why should Puja too be secular?</b>
Priyadarsi Dutta
This is the third day of the greatest of Hindu festivals; and the whole of Hindu world is in highest transportation of exhilaration": Thus read the first line of a lengthy essay Origin of the Durga Puja published in the Calcutta weekly Hindu Patriot on October 19, 1874.
This year's Durga Puja almost coincides with the dates of that year, but anybody in Kolkata would hardly describe it as the 'greatest Hindu festival' today. <b>Durga Puja has for long been 'secularised' into being the 'greatest Bengali festival'.</b> The media glamorises it only in that way unless there is an uncomfortable mention about its celebration in the neighbouring Islamic republic of Bangladesh. Then alone, one is forced to acknowledge that Durga Puja is more a function of Hinduism than Bengali speakers.
<b>It's been 250 years since the first publicised Durga Puja, instituted in 1757 by Raja Nabakrishna Deb in his newly constructed mansion, Rajbari, at Shovabazar took place. Lord Clive, the architect of the British victory in the battle of Plassey was invited as the chief guest.</b> As Nawab Siraj-ud-Daula had demolished the Church of Calcutta during his attack on the city, Clive had no place for thanksgiving. So, Deb invited Lord Clive for thanksgiving to the "Universal Mother".
Earlier, Deb had acted as Munshi to the acting Governor of Calcutta, Roger Drake, and a Persian tutor to Lord Warren Hastings. <b>The British found his sound counsel precious in overthrowing the 550-year old Nawabi rule from Bengal.</b> Despite being proficient in Persian, Arabic and Urdu, he did not publicise Bengali secularism much. However, today's elders of Shovabazar like Aloke Krishna and Amal Krishna Deb cautiously avoid mentioning Clive in connection with the Puja.
The Hindu Patriot article traces the origin of Durga Puja from the Vedas: "...the great Durga festival of Hindus takes place in autumn... its vitality has been as it were co-extensive with the nationality of Hindus". <b>The newspaper run by Harish Chandra Mukherjee of Bhowanipur, although critical of many British policies, treated the rule by foreigners as deliverance for Hindus who, according to it, constituted a nation. </b>Thus it played a leading role in arguing against the 1857 uprising, which Mukherjee saw as undoing the gains Hindus have made since 1757. Mukherjee did not see West Bengal's pre-Puja secular madness of Rizwanur Rehman in the 250th year of Bengal's great deliverance.
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<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Why should Puja too be secular?</b>
Priyadarsi Dutta
This is the third day of the greatest of Hindu festivals; and the whole of Hindu world is in highest transportation of exhilaration": Thus read the first line of a lengthy essay Origin of the Durga Puja published in the Calcutta weekly Hindu Patriot on October 19, 1874.
This year's Durga Puja almost coincides with the dates of that year, but anybody in Kolkata would hardly describe it as the 'greatest Hindu festival' today. <b>Durga Puja has for long been 'secularised' into being the 'greatest Bengali festival'.</b> The media glamorises it only in that way unless there is an uncomfortable mention about its celebration in the neighbouring Islamic republic of Bangladesh. Then alone, one is forced to acknowledge that Durga Puja is more a function of Hinduism than Bengali speakers.
<b>It's been 250 years since the first publicised Durga Puja, instituted in 1757 by Raja Nabakrishna Deb in his newly constructed mansion, Rajbari, at Shovabazar took place. Lord Clive, the architect of the British victory in the battle of Plassey was invited as the chief guest.</b> As Nawab Siraj-ud-Daula had demolished the Church of Calcutta during his attack on the city, Clive had no place for thanksgiving. So, Deb invited Lord Clive for thanksgiving to the "Universal Mother".
Earlier, Deb had acted as Munshi to the acting Governor of Calcutta, Roger Drake, and a Persian tutor to Lord Warren Hastings. <b>The British found his sound counsel precious in overthrowing the 550-year old Nawabi rule from Bengal.</b> Despite being proficient in Persian, Arabic and Urdu, he did not publicise Bengali secularism much. However, today's elders of Shovabazar like Aloke Krishna and Amal Krishna Deb cautiously avoid mentioning Clive in connection with the Puja.
The Hindu Patriot article traces the origin of Durga Puja from the Vedas: "...the great Durga festival of Hindus takes place in autumn... its vitality has been as it were co-extensive with the nationality of Hindus". <b>The newspaper run by Harish Chandra Mukherjee of Bhowanipur, although critical of many British policies, treated the rule by foreigners as deliverance for Hindus who, according to it, constituted a nation. </b>Thus it played a leading role in arguing against the 1857 uprising, which Mukherjee saw as undoing the gains Hindus have made since 1757. Mukherjee did not see West Bengal's pre-Puja secular madness of Rizwanur Rehman in the 250th year of Bengal's great deliverance.
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