Durga Pujo 2024: Looking At Kolkata's Women-Focussed Pandals

In Bengal, we worship Goddess Durga much like our revered mother and much like the celebrated daughter who returns to her paternal abode victorious and triumphant with her children. It is a celebration of the joy and success of the female force and the female energy. Once again we pray to the power of the feminine "Shakti.”

Kolkata transforms into a city of lights and the pandals (temporary structures made of bamboo and other sustainable materials) become a canvas for innovation, art and articulating the various social issues through public art. Men and women artists come to the fore and this year Durga Puja is all the more special that despite the protests and in the face of tragedy Bengal still emerges triumphant despite all obstacles to bring together multi-religious celebrations in the true spirit of Kolkata as we have seen through the past years.

UNESCO’s heritage status encourages Bengal’s artists and artisans to excel now and we see through their extraordinary efforts how art and technology have improved exponentially. 

Durga Pujo 2024: Looking At Kolkata's Women-Focussed Pandals

In North Kolkata Kashi Bose Lane has the most hard-hitting issues of violence against women every year, last year was a vivid depiction of Human Trafficking which is geographically not located very far from Sonagachi. Almost for the last 12 years, Durga Puja has been celebrated in its own unique way with unique rituals in Sonagachi (South Asia’s most notorious red light area). 

This year Kashi Bose Lane has early child marriage as their theme with stalwarts like Vidyasagar and Raja Ram Mohan Roy figures whose tireless campaigning led to many laws being passed about the abolition of Sati and Remarriage of Widows in India during colonial times.

Art indeed is an imitation of reality where the Benarsi saris hanging from the ceilings are symbolic of a married woman and it is the quintessential sari worn by an Indian bride at a wedding. Much like the traditional red and white sari-clad Bengali women, symbolic of the Durga Puja season, wading through a cavalcade of rituals and traditions embracing social themes are emerging this year.

In Aranyak (means forest in Bengali) pandal, gender and sustainability go hand in hand. Ma Durga’s idol is represented by a woman (girl next door) from the Sunderbans at Behala Club. Behala was an extension of Sunderbans many many generations ago so this is a tribute to their motherland. With this Indigenous girl holding up her mask, she is one with the Goddess Durga, with her mask off, she is the regular woman next door- again our Daily Durga - a survivor.

The photographs reflect the human plight in this region where husbands face danger in the forest collecting honey or firewood. They live in the face of danger and co-exist with tigers and snakes ensconced within that flora and fauna embracing nature, so they worship Bonobibi (their Indigenous Goddess). This is symbolic of women emerging as a survivor from the onslaughts of challenges thrown at them much like the wife saving her husband from natural disasters or wild animals.

Even the children of Maa Durga, Ganesh, Saraswati and Laxmi all look unique not the typical light-skinned “beautiful divine form of Ma Durga” with sharp features decked in finery and jewels. 

Bosepur Sitala Mandir depicted women harvesting memories and women hoarding or saving money much like the cyclical process of saving and renewing comes from the feminine energy. Women save their belongings and treasure memories so memories filled in cupboards as mothers and grandmothers. 

Dum Dum Park Tarun Sangha is inspired by Tagore 'Muktodhara'. The dangers of harnessing nature such as damming rivers indiscriminately and interfering with the natural course are evident. Everything is included from references to Brazil to Narmada Bachao Andolan, starting with the rivers and tributaries. In India, rivers are symbolic of the female energy again. 

24 pally in South Kolkata with a brass Durga is a permanent fixture in Kolkata, it has been standing like a proud Ma Durga statue for what we stand for in Bengal. As we usher in the next few days of puja we hope you will celebrate the Daily Durgas in each one of you. Major community pujas have commissioned women artists to make idols and create themes related to women. Aditi Chakraborty has been a veteran in the field for example.

After so many years of enjoying the true spirit of Durga Puja, I am ecstatic to see the saree being the central focus of women’s narratives especially when young girls prefer wearing western outfits. During such trying times saree remains a theme which aims to focus on UNESCO’s theme of intangible heritage and culture much like a pandal dedicated to the popular art of Jamdani saree making, an intricate interplay of patterns and tradition is a woman’s struggle to keep an almost extinct artform alive, since it has its roots in Bangladesh. Another pandal talks of the weaving of the traditional muslin cloth. 

KOI Worldwide, Sharbamangala Durga Puja has the unique concept of eradicating illiteracy for the girl child in Bengal with the idea that the Right to Education is a human right and women and girls are lagging. Illiteracy is related to early child marriage so the themes are interrelated and fall within the scope of the UNESCO mandate. 

We celebrate the women in Bengal through the Daily Durgas as artists, artisans, weavers and farmers, doctors and so on. We live on as Durgas every day, beyond the parameters of celebration. 

Views expressed by the author are their own. All photos provided by the author.