Opinion | Ma Durga, Didi & The Politics Of Bengali Superiority |
On the night of September 22-23, Kolkata was hit by a deluge of mammoth scale. In just six hours, some parts of the city received over 330 mm of rain, with most areas averaging more than 250 mm. To put it in perspective, Delhi recorded a total of 903 mm of rain for the entire monsoon season this year. By daybreak, much of Kolkata was more than knee deep in water, its infrastructure teetering on the brink of collapse, hundreds of thousands of livelihoods deeply damaged or destroyed. At least 12 people were dead, 10 of them by electrocution from free-hanging wires.
It will, of course, take time to gauge the full economic cost of the downpour, but Nature’s fury could not have been unleashed at a more unfortunate moment. Devipaksha, the fortnight of waxing moon that marks the Durga Puja, the biggest annual celebration in Bengal, had begun on September 21, and Mahashashthi, the day when the goddess’ idol is revealed to all, is on the 28th.
Festivities had already begun. More than 3,000 puja pandals, hundreds of them built with blockbuster budgets ranging from Rs 50 lakh to over Rs 5 crore, were up and crowds had started gathering. Many of these structures now lie half-submerged and dark, with their power supplies disrupted or shut down for safety reasons. More rains are predicted on the 27th.
The Puja is crucial to West Bengal’s economy. It is estimated that in 2023, total business transactions were at least Rs 100,000 crore—more than 5 per cent of the state’s gross domestic product, generating between three and four lakh jobs. And the numbers grow every year at a rate faster than the state’s GDP.
According to data from the Union Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, the state, once a dominant player in India’s economy, has seen a consistent decline in both its share of India’s GDP and its relative per capita income over the past six decades. In 1960-61, West Bengal contributed 10.5 per cent to the national GDP, ranking third among Indian states, but this share has shrunk significantly to 5.6 per cent in 2023-24, the sharpest drop among all states. Over the same period, per capita income has dropped from 127.5 per cent of the national average to 83.7 per cent. The state sorely needs Ma Durga’s blessings every year.
The Puja is also a key part of Mamata Banerjee’s strategy to stay in power. In 2019, the government spent Rs 61 crore on........