DECODING KOLKATA'S DURGA PUJA

A compilation of the study of the Doctrate thesis on the subject, captures the essence of the unique annual festival, while exploring the idea of it being a great example of a participatory community design on an urban scale, with a high democratic and inclusive spirit

- Neeraj Bhagat

December 2021 would mark an important cultural highpoint for the people of Kolkata, for it was when UNESCO formally inscribed the ‘Durga Puja in Kolkata’ to its list of intangible cultural heritage—an elite list of traditional cultural practices from across the world. The inscription, even though one of the highest global milestones, may still pale in comparison to the actual, long, intense association that the people of Kolkata hold with their centuries-old cultural practice, one that remains deeply etched into the city’s socioreligious and cultural consciousness. Since the turn of this century, the Puja festivities that remained a closely knit community event for so long have witnessed a meteoric rise in scale and proportions that have acquired an altogether new aesthetic and artistic dimension unparalleled in their long and rich history. As per an estimate quoted in this book, the annual economic worth of Durga Puja in Kolkata had reached a whopping INR 40,000 crores, or 2.58% of the state’s GDP, in the year 2021—a significant amount by any standard for an event that lasts for a mere five days in a year! The metamorphosis of Kolkata’s Durga Puja from a set of modest local religious-cultural festivities a few decades ago into a grand, larger-than-life citywide phenomenon of huge economic proportions certainly warrants academic studies, research, and discussion on the subject.