What Hindutva could not do: How Durga Puja became Bengal's Festival for all
Durga Puja evolved from an elite religious ritual into Bengal’s inclusive cultural festival through caste struggles, Partition, refugee resettlement and agrarian change. This article explores how a shared celebration challenged social hierarchies and became an expression of Bengali identity and pluralism.
There are countless devotees of Kali. But in Bengal, it is difficult to find devotees of Durga in quite the same sense. Ramprasad, Kamalakanta and Nazrul transformed Kali into the mother and daughter of the household, someone with whom people could converse intimately, sharing their everyday troubles, grievances and disappointments. Although Goddess Durga arrives on a specific occasion, the evolution of Bengali society has transformed her into the centre of a much larger collective celebration—o...
