Uncertainty over Durga puja in strifetorn Darjeeling this year

GORKHALAND STIR With no road map for defusing tension in sight, some organisers decide to cancel events

The ongoing political turmoil in Darjeeling hills where an indefinite bandh has paralysed life for the past 57 days has also put Bengal’s biggest festival, Durga puja, into great uncertainty. With no road map for defusing tension, some community puja organisers have already decided to cancel the pujas.

The pujas will be held between September 26 and 30. The entire north Bengal hills are observing a shutdown called by a number of political parties of the hills that are fighting for a separate state of Gorkhaland. The agitators have vowed to continue the bandh until their demand for a separate state is considered.

Among the oldest pujas is the one organised at Raj Rajeswari Hall in Kurseong’s Down Hill Road. The British era heritage hall run by Bengali Association of Kurseong was set ablaze in the wee hour of July 19 by miscreants. “This year the people of Kurseong will miss the puja,” said Arun Mohan Ghosh, secretary of Bengali Association of Kurseong.

“The entire hall is totally gutted, we don’t have a place to organise puja,” he added. This venue used to be the main attraction in Kurseong during Dussera festival.

This community puja was once patronised by the families of Subhas Chandra Bose and Rabindranath Tagore. The fate of the oldest puja organised at Nripendra Narayan Bengal Hindu Hall (NNBHH), Darjeeling, is also uncertain. Raju Biswas, one of secretaries of the puja committee said, “Printing of invitation cards should have been over by this time.”

“We are not sure whether we will be able to organise the puja this year. We will meet in 10 days and decide,” said Biswas. The puja completed its centenary in 2014. “Though the pujas were organsied by the Bengali Association, it was non Bengalis who participated in the pujas with all the enthusiasm and devotion,” said Ganesh Pradhan, a resident of Kurseong.

Even Muslims contributed for the puja in Darjeeling town. Last year’s budget was about ~4.5 lakh.

In Tindharia, 27 km from Siliguri, the organisers appeared determined to hold the puja that entered in its 96th year this year.