TTT NEWS NETWORK
KOLKATA, 13 OCTOBER 2023:
In Bengali cinema, one of the recurring themes is Durga puja.
The theme occurs in many movies produced and directed by as tall as Satyajit Ray and as young as Rituporno Ghosh.
For more than four hundred years, Durga puja is celebrated in Bengal right from tiny villages to urban metros. Durga puja, to Bengalees, is not a simple religious celebration but a social festival.
A kind of celebration where art, craft, music mingle and there is an exchange of emotional experience of familyhood.
Tied to this is history. A cultural history . A tradition.
Post Permanent Settlement in 1793, the Zamindars of Bengal were ensured of regular flow of income. And this ignited them to dabble in activities which will bring name and fame and satisfy their quest for vanity.
Thus was born Durga puja by the Zamindars of Bengal. After the Zamindari Abolition Act passed in the year1956, the zamindars gradually lost their economic wealth and financial power. Many of them were compelled to abandon high voltage events and celebrations like Durga puja.
Yet, a few families still could continue. One such family is the Ghosh family of Baharan, a village near Katwa – an old town in the district of East Burdwan in West Bengal.
Sumit Ghosh, a senior member of the Ghosh family said ” Originally we come from Chhattisgarh in Madhya Pradesh. Migrated to Bengal, we are now 28 th. generations.
Initially settled in a village called Joijan, in Murshidabad district, Ghosh’s family moved to Baharan.
Krishna Mohan Ghosh, who migrated to Baharan, we are told, worked at the Murshidabad Court and started Durga puja. Having seen such festivities in high end Zamindar families of Murshidabad, the one time capital of Sube Bangla, Krishna Mohan started Durga puja in Baharan.”
To commemorate 350th. in the year of Durga puja celebration, the Ghosh family has brought out a photo album which portrays the nostaljia and magic of Durga puja .
Soumya Ghosh, another senior member of the Ghosh family speaks of how Durga puja and our family deity Sridhar have firmly held the family bond and interpersonal relationships. A rare thing now.
The next generation of Ghosh family — surprisingly — is equally emotive and attached to the puja – though many of them stay away from West Bengaland are settled in Bangalore, Dubai or New York.
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