Ganesh Festival, Mumbai: A Religious - Cultural Saga that Exemplifies the Cosmopolitan nature of the City.

 

Ganesh Festival, Mumbai: A Religious - Cultural Saga that Exemplifies the Cosmopolitan nature of the City. 

After two-years of COVID pandemic restrictions, the Ganesh Festival (Sarvajanik Ganeshotsav) - the socio cultural, religio-spiritual tradition, celebrated with great fervour across Mumbai and Maharashtra, the history of which goes back to the late 19 the century that has subsequently spread to most other parts of India – a ten-day mega festival will be celebrated without any restrictions or limitations in Mumbai and other parts of Maharashtra. The Ganesh Festival is celebrated by the devotees of Lord Ganesh, the god of wisdom and good fortune, to mark “his birth” during the Chaturthi Tithi of Shukla Paksha of Bhadrapada month (August or September). This year, the Ganesh Chaturthi has fallen today - August 31, Wednesday. Accordingly, the Ganesh Visarjan will take place on Anant Chaturdashi, September 9, Friday. Ganesh Chaturthi is also known as Vinayaka Chaturthi and is celebrated with much enthusiasm across Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Goa and Kerala, among other states.

The announcement of the decision to remove all the restrictions in organising the Ganesh Festival this year had motived the organisers of the Ganapati Pandals (Sarvajanik Ganeshotsav) to make a beeline at the BMC seeking approval for their respective mandals for organising the Ganesh festival. The Mumbaikars, who could not celebrate their favourite Ganapati Bappa festival in the last two years, in that quintessential manner that Mumbai is known to celebrate this festival, are eagerly waiting to celebrate this year’s Ganesh festival with great religious fervour and fanfare. The organisers of the Sarvajanik Ganapati Mandals in Mumbai are once again vying with each other to bring out their creative best in attracting as many devotees as possible to their respective Pandals. Approximately some 3490 applications were received by BMC for the erection of Ganpati Pandals this year, and 2284 mandals have been given permission. This almost matches to the pre pandemic level when in 2019, BMC had received 3723 applications out of which 2483 pandals were approved for erection.

This year’s Sarvajanik Ganesh Festival has a special significance since it owes its genesis to Indian independence and this year marks the completion of seventy-five years of our independence – Azadi Ka Amrut Mohotsav. Therefore, it is apt to recall how the Ganesh Festival began to be celebrated as a community festival owing its genesis to the freedom struggle. The Sarvajanik Ganesh festivals have played their role in freedom movement by uniting all sections of the Hindu society to gather under one platform as devotees of Lord Ganesh and to seek his blessings for a free India. The Genesis for the celebration of the Ganesh Festival in public goes back to the nineteenth century – 1893 to be precise.

The first battle of Indian independence fought in 1857, which the British had dubbed as the Sepoy Mutiny, had given an impetus for the freedom movement in India. A communal flare up between the Hindus and Muslims in 1870 and the fear that it can adversely affect their governance, the British Government in the year 1892 imposed a ban on any gathering of native Indians more than 20 in number. This had made it difficult for the nationalist leaders and reformers to address any gathering and create any socio- political awareness. The ban however, allowed only the public gatherings in form of ​Namaj or Muharram ​taboots procession by the Muslim community, who are known for offering of their prayers in public. The British were clever not to hurt the religious sentiments of their subjects, more so Indians who are largely religious.

The use of public gatherings to create an awareness in the society was first used by the social reformer, Mahatma Jyotiba Phule. He founded Satyashodhak Samaj (a society of truth seekers) under whose auspices he encouraged public gatherings - called Jalsas. These Jalsa’s had proven to be an effective medium to take socio- political messages to all cadres of society. Realising how adversely the 1892 ban was impacting the public gathering and how impartial the ban was towards the Hindus, Bal Gangadhar Tilak conceived an innovative idea to bring Lord Ganesh out of individual homes and onto the public space. Moreover, Tilak needed a platform where he could bring together all the Hindus, who were a fragmented society divided on the caste lines - this division was encouraged by the British who believed in the policy of divide and rule.

Tilak was aware that Lord Ganesh was a God of the masses in Pune and Maharashtra and that Lord Ganesh was worshipped by all sections of the Hindu community. The city of Pune, from where the movement for Sarvajanik Ganesh festival started, was ruled by the Peshwas who served as the Prime Ministers to the Maratha kings.  Peshwas worshipped Ganesh as their kul devta and therefore it is no wonder that Poona is surrounded by Eight Temples of Ganesh - Astha Vinayak. Incidentally even today the Ashtavinayak Yatra or pilgrimage covers the eight ancient holy temples of Ganesh which are situated around Pune. Each of these temples has its own individual legend and history, which is distinct from each other.

The history of the annual worshipping of Ganesh - by consecrating the statue of lord Ganesh and offering Pooja in individual houses - actually dates back to at least 16th century in Maharashtra. However, the Ganesh Festival was mostly observed in the aristocratic individual households of the Peshwas - the Prime Ministers in the Maratha regime, who were also responsible for making Ganesh the God of the masses.

In 1892, the year when the British imposed a ban on public gathering, Bal Gangadhar Tilak wanted to defy this order but lawfully. He knew how intricately Lord Ganesh is connected with the people of the region. Tilak conceived of an idea to bring Lord Ganesh out of the individual royal households and onto the public space to channelise, unite and ignite a divided Hindu society for a larger national sentiment against the oppressive British rule. Incidentally, this movement also helped lord Ganesh to become Lord Ganapati, the God of the masses. Bal Gangadhar Tilak had commissioned two newspapers, Kesari, in Marathi and Mahratta in English, which were published from Kesari Wada, Pune. Tilak used the loop hole in the 1892 ban imposed by the British, which exempted the Muslims from their Friday prayers, to appeal to his readers to start the Sarvajanik Ganesh Festival. He was sure that this being a religious festival the British would be afraid to ban it. More so since the British had permitted the Friday prayers of the Muslims. Tilak used his Kesari Marathi paper to drive home this message among the Hindu community and he appealed to the people to organise community Ganesh Festival.

This was a well thought out decision. Tilak knew how religious the Indian society was. He was therefore sure that the British, who were successfully managing to crush the freedom movement, particularly gathering of large number of people on the streets with that inhuman and barbaric force that is associated with the colonial rule in India, would not succeed in disrupting a religious gathering of people. He knew that the call for the Sarvajanik Ganesh Festival would serve two purpose, first it would unite the divided Hindu community under single platform and second the platform could be used in strengthening the freedom movement by creating a sense of cultural unity among the people. The Ganesh festival provided the much needed impetus for the freedom struggle and ever since the Ganesh Festival has come on to the public space in Mumbai and Maharashtra and has also spread across different cities and towns in India. The Ganesh Festival, particularly in Mumbai, connects to people of all faith and is considered more a cultural worship space. One can witness this across different section of society in Mumbai, which I am privy to for several years.

The first Public Ganesh Mandal - Keshavji Naik Chawl Sarvajanik Ganeshotsav Mandal at Girgaum - in Bombay, as it was known then, was commissioned in 1893 and ever since the Ganeshotsav Mandal in Girgaum has been celebrating this auspicious Ganesh festival in the same traditional way each year. Lord Ganesh, the moorti of the elephant god, comes in varying sizes and in different shapes and styles, which depend on where the lord is commissioned for the worship. The Girgaum Ganesh pandal does not use loudspeakers nor expensive lights, or any of the modern day style pooja traditions, which are observed in most of the Ganesh Pooja pandals across Mumbai and other cities in the country. The Keshavji Naik Chawl Sarvajanik Ganeshotsav Mandal in Girgaum has continued this tradition for over a century now.  However, there are other public Ganesh Pandals, across the city including the famous Lalbaug ka Raja and so also in various other cities in India - Pune, Bengaluru, Hyderabad etc.- which celebrate the Ganesh Pooja and the festival with modern day fanfare with DJs and lights and sound and crackers and what have you. This year all this will be back to its peal in Mumbai and Maharashtra, owing to the removal of Covid restrictions. 

Post-independence, the festival has undergone a change and during these 10 days of celebration, the economic activity gets accentuated leading to increased employment, income and production of variety of goods and services. In that sense the Ganesh Utsav has become a ‘cultural product’ of the city, which has great economic and market value. Today, the Sarvajanik Ganesh Utsav is one of the most celebrated festivals of Mumbai. One of the primary reason for the success of the auspicious Ganesh Festival in Mumbai is the Mumbaikars - the rich and mighty, the powerful and powerless, the poor and the insignificant, the lettered and unlettered, sheltered and unsheltered, the males, females and the transgender, the believers and non-believers, Hindus, Muslims, Parsis, Sikhs, Christians, Jains, Buddhists, the religious and non-religious, young, middle aged, old and the very old. That undying spirit of unity in diversity in India gets exemplarily played out during this festival in Mumbai.

The Ganesh Festival in Mumbai has now become a ‘cultural product’ that has large economic impact. It includes goods and services bought for reasons other than those that are used purely for the utilitarian purposes as envisaged by Abraham Maslow. Interestingly, festivals such as the Ganesh Festival in Mumbai, are among the fastest developing cultural events in the world. Currently, festivals are treated as an important element in promotion of cities and regions which attract tourists and encourage them to spend their money. In that sense we must all encourage celebration of the Ganesh Festival, which besides being spiritual and religious in nature it also serves as a catalyst for the economy and job creation. The economic imprint of the Ganesh Festival is evidenced in a study conducted by ASSOCHAM (2015). The study revealed that the annual revenue from Ganesh festival was around Rs. 20,000 crores in the year 2015, growing annually at CAGR of 30%. The GSB ​Seva Mandal​, known to be the richest Mandal in Mumbai, sought an insurance coverage of Rs 300 crores in the year 2018 for their Pandal, which further evidences the market value of the festival.

According to the Brihanmumbai Sarvajanik Ganeshutsav Samanvay Samiti (BSGSS), a Ganesh Mandal coordination committee in the city, a single major Ganesh Mandal normally spends about 3 crore rupees for the 10-day spectacle. An estimated fifteen to twenty lakh visitors visit a single idol, ​Lalbaugcha Raja, ​ over ten days, with as many as five lakh visitors on a single day, contributing about 25 crore rupees in cash as their offerings, while a similar amount is also raised by the auction of gold- silver and presents, which are also offered by the devotees to Lord Ganesh. The scale of operations of this 10-day Ganesh Festival event was constantly increasing until Covid played spoilsport, during the last two years. It is so heartening to note that the enthusiasm among the public and also the organisers will ensure that the years lost due to Covid will more than be compensated this year and the years thereafter and that no untoward incident happens.

The economic impact of the Ganesh Festival is also seen in the opportunities of employment and income generation that this festival offers for the Mumbaikars around the ten days of the Festival. The Festival creates demand for the music industry - in terms of composition and productions of devotional music albums. It creates market opportunities for the Gold, silver and gems & jewellery - both for the purpose for offerings to the Lord Ganesh as well as for personal use. The flower and decoration markets experience a much larger turnover during these ten days. The sale from food industry – primarily sweets - increases many more times than regular. The city enjoys higher number of offers for sale and discount from the real estate sector and financial sector. A conservative estimate of all these economic activities are destined to give a push to Mumbai’s economy to the tune of Rs. 25 thousand crores for which owe our reverence to Lord Ganesh.

Whether a sombre pooja or an ostentatious collective celebration, one thing remains central to this Ganesh Festival, which every Mumbaikars and Maharashtrians celebrate - the festival is celebrated with Shradha and Bhakti. This in essence is the very spirit of India - the socio, cultural and spiritual land that is home to most religions of the world. The administration and all other stakeholders, including the public, who ensure that this extraordinary 10 days Ganesh Festival passes of peacefully with the immersions of the Ganesh murthis and the festival becomes a grand success time after time and festival after festival, must be saluted for their efforts to make this grand festival successful.

In the CSMVS Museum campus, where we are currently staying, Mr Sabyasachi Mukherjee, DG, CSMVS, organised a community Ganesh Pooja for the families who are residing in the staff quarters - inside the campus - and we all had the honour to celebrate the Ganesh Festival in a traditional Maharashtrian way with devotional songs and offerings for the Lord of wisdom. Incidentally every year we also celebrate the Ganesh Festival at home, bringing home Lord Ganesh. It was on this Ganesh Chaturthi day in 1958 that my elder son was born and ever since our family has been celebrating the Ganesh Festival brining home Lord Ganesh.   

May Ganapati Bappa bless us all and may he guide this nation to ever increasing heights with peace and prosperity and may the people living in the bottom of the pyramid and all other disadvantaged section of the society continue to be blessed to lead a happy life.

Ganapati Bappa Morya.