Turning the pages of history, we find that Durga Puja was celebrated in Delhi for the first time 175 years ago. Bhavani Majumdar and a few other wealthy Bengalis from Rajshahi (now in Bangladesh) had come to Delhi some time in 1842 on an administrative mission in the durbar of the then Mughal Emperor. Since their work in Delhi had been delayed and the Durga Puja season was almost round the corner, they decided to worship Mother Durga in Delhi itself.

It was no doubt an extremely difficult task but being wealthy and influential, they managed to procure the idol and all other items of worship all the way from Bengal despite there being no railways or road transportation except bullock-cart and horseback. Sadly, no other details of Delhi’s first Durga Puja are available. It was 68 years later, in 1910, that the first community Durga Puja started in Delhi,although on a humble scale, in a nondescript Dharamshala of present day Ballimaran. It was organised by a group of Bengali enthusiasts, mainly traders in the Walled City. The idol had to be brought all the way from Benares.

This Puja was later shifted to Lala Laxminarayan’s Dharamshala near the Fatehpuri mosque and then to the Kashmere Gate Polytechnic lawns, where it was held till the early 1960s. Ultimately, the venue of this oldest Durga Puja was permanently shifted to the premises of the Bengali Boys Senior Secondary School, Alipur Road, (near I P College), where it is held with all pomp and grandeur even today. This Puja is held under the auspices of the Delhi Durga Puja Samiti but is popularly known as the Kashmere Gate Puja since it is organised by the members of the century-old Kashmere Gate Bengali Club.

The puja pandal draws huge crowd from all over the Capital, as much to participate in the Puja rituals as also to taste the mouth-watering delicacies on offer. Maintaining its century-old traditions, the idol of this puja-pandal is carried to the Yamuna for immersion on a bullock-cart followed by scores of drummers and shehnai-players.

This Puja celebrated its centenary in 2010. In 1911, the Capital of India was shifted from Calcutta to Delhi in the Civil Lines area, lying north-west to the old city of Shahjahanabad. This involved transfer of a large number of Bengali government employees, who were accommodated in the newly-builtquarters in Timarpur. Hence, Delhi’s second oldest Durga Puja started at Timarpur in 1913. With the transfer of the Government of India Press to Delhi, its employees started a separate Puja at Timarpur in 1919, which was later shifted to Minto Road in 1941, when the Press itself shifted near Minto Road. These old Pujas are still in existence today.

With the establishment of New Delhi, the Capital moved out of Timarpur in 1921 along with all the government-servants, who were now housed near the present-day Gol Market area of the Delhi Improvement Zone (DIZ area). With the advent of more and more Bengalis from Calcutta and other places, Durga Puja started in New Delhi for the first time in 1921.

This Puja was held in rotation in Dalhousie Square, Edward Square, Baird Square and Sikandra Place till 1935, after which it was shifted permanently to the premises of the Newly-established New Delhi Kali Bari on Reading Road, now Mandir Marg, near the Lakshmi Narayan (Birla) Temple.

Saga of idol

In those days, it was difficult to get the Durga idols modeled in Delhi. Hence, it had to be procured all the way from Benares, from where it was carried to Mughal Sarai station and then transported by rail or road. The priest too came from Benares and the Puja articles, including lotuses and other mandatory flowers, were procured from Calcutta.

Even the “Calcutta-style” waterproof pandals and the “Chandannagar-type” fancy lightings were imported. It was much later that groups of clay modelers and artisans started coming to Delhi from Kumartuli, Krishnanagar and other places in West Bengal to make the idols, as did the drummers (dhakis)from Midnapore and Calcutta.

Some of the pioneer idol-sculptors of Delhi were Gour Pal, Shambhu Pal, Amal Chakraborty, Noni Nath, Salil Bhattacharya, and Bankim Pal. Their numbers have since multiplied with the proliferation of community Durga Pujas all over Delhi NCR.

Expanding city

With the shifting of various other government offices from different parts of India to New Delhi in the mid- 1940’s, especially after the cessation of hostilities after World War II, more community Durga Pujas started in New Delhi ~ the most notable among them being those at Lodhi Road (1944), Karol Bagh (1947), Darya Ganj and Mata Sundari Road (1948), Vinay (Sarojini) Nagar and Moti Bagh. By the early 1960’s community Durga Pujas had proliferated into Defence Colony, Ramakrishna Puram, Kailash Colony, Shahadra, Kamala Nagar, Tilak Nagar, Palam, Chanakya Puri, Hauz Khas, Green Park, Lajpat Nagar, Pandara Road and Patel Nagar.

The 70’s and 80’s saw more Pujas in Safdarjung Enclave, Badarpur, Pashchim Vihar, Nivedita Enclave,Vasant Kunj, transYamuna localities, NOIDA, Faridabad and Gurgaon. With the expansion of Delhi into the National Capital Region, the number of Durga Pujas also multiplied and crossed the 400 mark by the year 2014 with the inclusion of localities like Dwarka, Mayur Vihar,Vasundhara, Indirapuram and Kaushambhi.

Apart from the community pujas, Durga Puja is also held in many homes (Barir Pujo), albeit on a much smaller scale. Special mention must be made of Chittaranjan Park or “Mini Bengal”, where Durga Puja was celebrated for the first time in 1970 at the J-Block Park near Market No 1 by a handful of enterprising local residents despite heavy odds.

This has now multiplied into more than 12 mega Pujas in the locality, of which the Puja held at the Chittaranjan Park Kali Mandir Complex is widely regarded as the most notable. The other pujas, organised at the Mela Ground, Cooperative Ground, B-Block, Pocket-40 (Navapalli), D-Block and Pocket-52 are also mega events with thousands of people thronging them every day.The security enforcing agencies naturally have a tough time regulating the huge crowds and vehicular traffic that descends in the area amid all the merriment.

While we all await the first sound of the dhakand chanting of the Pushpanjali mantra by the priest, let us acknowledge our debt of gratitude to the founding fathers, due to whose untiring efforts Durga Puja in Delhi has reached commanding heights today