Circa 1893. The great freedom fighter,
statesman and writer, Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak, was pondering ways and
means of getting people together and spreading the message of freedom among
them.
To keep the colonies in check, the British
had discouraged all sorts of political and social gatherings, thus having
political rallies was extremely difficult.
In Pune, from where he published his
Marathi daily, Kesari, and English weekly, Mahratta (Maratha), Lokmanya Tilak
saw the celebration of Ganeshotsav at the homes of certain families. While this
festival was mainly a family affair, certain influential families were
celebrating it as a public festival, where people were encouraged to visit
their ‘waadas’ (palatial family homes) and the immersion procession was taken
out on the roads with public participation.
Lokmanya Tilak saw the potential of this festival
as a good opportunity to get people across castes and communities together for
not one, but ten days without significant interference from the British, and in
1894, established the first Sarvajanik Ganpati (public Ganpati) at
Vinchurkarwada, Pune.
This became a significant point in India’s
freedom struggle, because large numbers of people were now gathering together
for a cause, and the British could do precious little about it.
The movement quickly spread to various
cities over the next decade or so. And the Ganeshotsav – apart from being a
religious festival – became the hub for political gatherings, interactions
between communities, intellectual discourses, folk arts etc.
With the British leaving India, the
festival ideally should have gone back to being a family affair, but as it had
now incorporated a lot of the social elements to it, it continued.
Till the late 1980s, the basic fabric of
the festival remained as Lokmanya Tilak envisaged it – a community festival to
encourage people to get together and celebrate it in the spirit of simplicity.
I still remember seeing the Ganesh
festivals where people used to play ‘lezhim’, sing songs, have group dances and
generally celebrate these as socio-cultural gatherings. I also remember seeing
the music and dance stop whenever the procession used to approach any religious
place of another community, and move on after exchanging pleasantries. The
approximately 30 meter area around any masjid or church used to be a silence
zone enforced by the participants themselves (I have personally seen this
numerous times at Byculla, Lalbaug, Mazagaon and Parel).
However, with the emergence of another Bal
(how ironic!), this festival quickly degenerated over the next few years, and
how!
Today, all we can associate Ganeshotsav
with is pollution. Pollution of every kind.
Noise pollution: Just a couple of days ago,
we read about the glass windows of a popular eatery in Mahim being shattered
due to the noise of the music being played by a procession. We’ve also seen all
the reports of noise touching 115 decibels. And I have cotton stuffed in my ears,
despite the windows being closed, as I write this!
Environmental pollution: The use of Shaadu
Mati (earthern mud or clay), natural colours (haldi, gulab etc.) and other
natural ingredients to make idols was relevant, as the idols being immersed at
the end of the celebrations represented the cycle of nature. The harmful
effects of the increasing use of PoP, chemical colours etc. are too many to
enumerate.
Cultural pollution: Starting from electronic
music, to DJs and Trance Music, what next! Does anyone even remember lezhim?
Communal pollution: Instead of religious
areas of other communities being silence zones, they are actually increased
noise and slogan shouting zones. We are the living witnesses of the
consequences of such activity.
Political pollution: What else do we call
it when the cutouts of so-called ‘social workers’ and their acolytes are larger
than the statues of Ganesh themselves.
And finally, Religious pollution: It is
amazing how certain Sarvajanik Ganpatis and certain other idols have acquired
amazing powers over the past decade or so, especially in terms of being able to
acquire multi-crores of income for their mandals or trusts.
Anyway, Happy Anant Chaturdashi, folks!
Sources:
Wikipedia, ekmev.com, maharashtraspider.com, Kesari
