By Sunita D
As the Durga Pooja 2025 begins, the scent of incense mingles with fresh paint on Maa Durga, devotees stand in queues outside the pandals to fulfill their longing for darshan. Titled “Ami Banglai Bolchi” (I speak in Bengali), a Chaltabagan Sarbojanin Durya Pandal opens in Kolkata.
Durya Puja pandals in Bengal have frequently echoed current debates. This year’s festivities take place against a difficult backdrop: since May, Bengali-speaking Muslim migrant labourers have been purportedly driven across the border into Bangladesh, provoking heated arguments about language, citizenship, and belonging.
The dispute heated up in August, when Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee attacked a Delhi Police circular for referring to Bengali as a “Bangladeshi language.” She then accused the BJP of being “anti-Bengali” during a state assembly discussion on migrant workers.
The BJP has long criticized Bengal’s Durga Puja traditions, arguing that organizers degrade Hindu rituals by changing goddess idols, consuming meat during the celebration, and incorporating experimental themes.
In response, a number of community pujas this year have featured themes that reestablish identity and heritage. Located in Baguihati, the Aswininagar Bandhumahal Puja maps the migration and prosperity of Bengalis as they settled in the river systems of Bengal.
Their theme, “Bangla O Bangalir Samriddhir Adyopanto” (The Complete Story of Bengal and Bengalis’ Prosperity), compares the migration experiences of Bengal and people around the world.
The State Bank Club Puja in Thakurpukur returns to the archaeological site of Moghalmari in West Medinipur, where a Buddhist monastery dating from the sixth to the twelfth centuries was discovered. With the subject “Protno Kotha” (Old Tales), the pandal calls for attention to be paid to Bengal’s long history.
From migrant workers’ sacrifices to Bengali pride and historic memory, this year’s Durga Puja pandal’s reply to the state reaffirmed the festival’s role as Bengal’s most powerful cultural voice.