After changing the name of Ramdhenu (Rainbow) to Rongdhenu, Mamata Banerjee’s secularism has found a new target: Durga Pujo. In the Republic Day parade, the theme for West Bengal’s tableau was christened ‘Sharod Utsav’ instead of the much more familiar and much more appropriate name, Durga Pujo. Although Sharod Utsav is an alternate name for the most important festival for Bengalis, calling it anything other than Durga Pujo at an official event of the state and one of the most important days of the country reflects a greater malaise.
Mamata Banerjee’s penchant for minority appeasement needs no special introduction. On numerous occasions, Hindus have been the victims of unprovoked aggression by members of the peaceful community. And the state machinery has been so utterly inefficient in securing the lives of Hindus that one begins to question their very sincerity. Meanwhile, Didi’s party swept it all under the rug insulting the victims by labeling every incidence of riot a Sanghi conspiracy.
In West Bengal, not only are Hindus under the threat of direct physical attack by a specific section of the society across large sections of the state, Bengali Hindus are also now bearing the brunt of an assault on their culture.
If changing the name of Ramdhenu to Rongdhenu was outrageous, addressing Durga Pujo as Sharod Utsav is nothing less than atrocious.
The real face of Indian secularism is nowhere as prominent as it is in Bengal, it is very obvious that in the name of secularism, the most vicious attacks are perpetrated against Hinduism and every effort is made to undermine the ethos of Dharma for the sake of votebank politics.
Mamata Banerjee’s assault against Durga Pujo have been many. In a certain village in Bengal, Hindus were denied the right to celebrate Durga Pujo for several years by the authorities due to objections made by the same minority community. In another instance, the Bhashan during Vijaya Dashami was postponed because the dates clashed with Muharram. The latest instance where Mamata Banerjee has taken Maa Durga out of the name of the most important festival for Bengalis is just another blatant attack against the religious symbolism that is essential for Dharma to flourish.
Attempts are already underway to secularize Durga Pujo. Many among the liberal crowd who are not mentally equipped to comprehend and appreciate the religious fervor of Durga Pujo claim that Durga Pujo is not a religious festival but cultural. One can only imagine the mental gymnastics liberals have to perform to perceive the celebration of the most powerful Goddess as not religious but one can only sympathize with their rusty mental faculties. Alienating Maa Durga from Durga Pujo by addressing it as Sharod Utsav undermines the religiosity of the festival and that is the precise objective of the act. By taking Maa Durga out of Durga Pujo, Mamata Banerjee seeks to paint the most important festival of Bengali Hindus as not religious but cultural, thus separating the festival from its Hindu identity and thus in the long run, emphasize on a Bengali culture outside of Sanatana Dharma.
One may call me paranoid at this point but if one observes carefully, it has been the general trend for a while now. In recent times, we discovered that Yoga isn’t Hindu, which is an outrageous claim, that Ramleela isn’t Hindu and one particular author writing for a certain left liberal outlet went so far as to claim that Lord Rama wasn’t Hindu and attempts were being made to Hinduize Lord Rama.
According to the author, Lord Rama is Imam-e-Hind for Indian Muslims and Sanghis were making an attempt to Hinduize him. It’s absolute sacrilege. More recently, we discovered that Jallikattu wasn’t a Hindu festival. I am getting tired of saying this but just because people of other religions celebrate a Hindu tradition or festival, it doesn’t make it any less Hindu. Thus, Jallikattu and Yoga are definitively Hindu. There is a lesson to be learnt here, there is a coordinated attack under way to separate all traditional Hindu festivals from Hinduism and secularize them to curb the flow of Dharma.
And although it might seem innocuous at the moment, if Bengali Hindus continue to display the remarkable callousness they have shown thus far, they will wake up one fine day to discover that people are yelling, “Sharod Utsav is a cultural festival, it has nothing to do with Hinduism!” If that were not enough, the Supreme Court would soon then be regulating the height and design of the Pandals and regulating the preparation of the Idols of Maa Durga and before its too long, environmental groups will soon get involved to enforce new laws to restrict the celebration of the festival. Now, if that’s a future you are looking to avoid and wish that your children and the children of their children have the opportunity to witness Maa Durga in all her glory, then unite under one banner and resist. Bengali Hindus, you have slept for far too long already, time has come for you to wake up from your Kumbhakarna slumber.