A rare vein of anger & protest in Durgotsav
In the face of societal horrors, such as the tragic incident involving the rape and murder of a young doctor, artists have transcended the traditional boundaries of expression during Durga Puja in Calcutta. They have bravely transformed the festival into a powerful platform for protest and solidarity, challenging the notion of artistic futility.
“Beauty is truth, truth beauty”—that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.”
—John Keats.
Keats expresses his futility in trying to sum up the true nature of beauty in just twenty or more syllables.
When artists endeavour to creatively respond to horrendous happenings in society, it transcends the realm of art and attains a rare universality. They put aside the theory of futility while expressing their feelings.
If one is willing to strain oneself to have a taste of that rare universality, my humble recommendation would be to visit a few selected Durga Puja pandals across Calcutta where artists and organisers have demonstrated a rare courage to row against the tide this year.
Ever since the City of Joy erupted with a never-seen-before outrage in the wake of rapacious murder and rape of a 31-year-old doctor in one of the oldest hospitals in north Calcutta on August 9 last, the centuries-old biggest festival of Bengalis has been thrown into the throes of an unprecedented upheaval.
Well, when artists dare to espouse the ongoing protest and successfully turn the same into a spontaneous outrage, Ma Durga seems to bow down to those bravehearts, not in reverence, but in awe!
Notwithstanding an all-pervasive threat in the air against capitalising on the theme of “Justice for R G Kar” rocking the city and elsewhere for a couple of months, some of the organisers have decided to put their foot down and vowed not to ditch the justice-seekers.
And the result is there for all to savour; Tala Prattoy, Bagha Jatin, Arjunpur Amra Sobai ( All of Us at Arjunpur), Kakurgachi Sarbojonin to name a few, have come up with either discrete or bold themes expressing solidarity with the those demanding justice.
In fact, this is for the first time in the history of Bengal’s community Durga Puja that this biggest street festival of the eastern region has encountered a mass wave of street protests over the dastardly rape and murder of the young doctor.
At Tala Prattoy club in north Calcutta, the image of Durga is barely a big face sans a body; three big flickering candles placed in descending order symbolise the protesting society and undiminishing life force of the Goddess.
The visual artist Sanatan Dinda and his team who have given a scintillating shape to the theme, took a detour from their previous ‘incarnation of the goddess’ in the wake of the R G Kar incident.
Having quit the state government-awarded post in protest, Dinda who changed the theme in consultation with the organisers, has brought in his signature a significant variation; it now reads ‘Sanatan Tilottama Dinda’ and is boldly displayed at the pandal.
At Bagajatin in south Calcutta, Durga is menacingly aggressive, with the lion making a violent dash out of her chest; all the ten arms of the idol have sharp spears to slay the monster.
However, to recreate the scene of horror at the R G Kar Medical College & Hospital, the walls surrounding the idol have been painted with a poignantly devastating picture of the torture of anguish and protest of naked women and animals which are rendered in red, black and white.
Meanwhile, daring to wade into the political controversy that erupted in the wake of heinous crime, a puja committee in Kakurgachi in North Calcutta, has ensured the idol covers her face in ‘Lojja’ (shame).
To remind the viewers about the horrendous nature of the crime, the lion has been placed for a constant vigil near a woman whose ‘lifeless’ body is wrapped with a white sheet. (Tilottama’s body too lay on the hospital floor wrapped with a blue sheet)
Another puja committee neighbouring the previous one, has gone a step ahead. The entire pandal has been dedicated to the bereaved family of the victim; an elaborate tableau depicting one of the rooms where the victim’s mother is seen sitting on the bed and father working at a sewing machine, seeks to capture the drooping mood of the parents.
In the background, the picture of their only child – the fallen doctor – hangs out, reminding the revellers to pause for a while and ‘pine for what it not’.
Tilottama, her parents would continue to fret before the media, was the one who started worshipping Durga barely a year ago in the family. Plans were also afoot for a grand celebration of the Pujas this year in view of her marriage later in 2024.
“But my Durga will no longer come alive to worship the goddess,” her mother sobbed before the newspersons couple of days back, “Tolottama r bishorjon hoye geche bodhoner aagei (Tilottama has been immersed before the formal ritual of awakening Devi)”.
At Arjunpur Amra Sobai Club, an all-women endeavour, the Indian Constitution and some of its legal provisions artistically displayed around the Goddess, seek to symbolically urge Devi to intervene in the current goings-on in the society where crimes on women are in the spurt despite constitutional guarantees.
In fact, the issue of justice and subsequent protest rallies that have rocked several parts of the city and the country besides abroad have taken many an organiser off-guard; with an ‘invisible noose’ tightening around them, several of them have perforce to toe the ‘prescription’ dished out at the behest of the powers-that-be.
Yet, kudos to those who have dared to defy and ushered in an element of outrage and protest in this famous Durga Puja festival that ‘was (earlier) never there on sea or land’.
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