City pandal depicts how NRC may affect people's lives

KOLKATA: Barisha Club Durga Puja Pandal in Behala has depicted apprehensions regarding the National Register of Citizens as a part of the Puja pandal theme. The goddess is shown as a helpless mother with her children being taken to a detention camp in a vehicle.

According to the organisers, the theme highlights how people will suffer if NRC is implemented in the state. "The pandal's structure resembles that of a jail where the Goddess is seen protecting her child, so that her children are not sent to detention camps. The Goddess has been portrayed as a lady, helplessly trying to protect her children," a senior member of the club said. According to the members of the club, barbed wires have been created in the pandal which depicts those who have crossed the borders will have to settle in the detention camps if NRC is implemented in the state.

Last year, the organisers had depicted the plight of migrant workers during the lockdown. In 1610, the first Durga Puja in Kolkata was supposedly celebrated by the Roychowdhuri family of Barisha.

Though it was a private affair, community or 'Baroyari' Durga puja was started in Guptipara, in Hooghly by 12 young men when they were barred from participating in a family Durga Puja in 1761. Since then, community Pujas in Bengal came to be known as 'Baroyari (while 'Baro' means 12 and 'yar' refers to friends.) The Indian freedom struggle also had an influence on the Durga Puja in Kolkata. In 1926, Atindranath Bose initiated the first 'Sarbojanin' Durga Puja in which anybody, irrespective of caste, creed, and religion, could participate in the festivities. This was consciously done to instil a feeling of unity.