GUWAHATI, Oct 16: On a dimly lit screen in Railway Colony, ‘Mahisasur Vadh’ unfolded before hundreds of spectators. For a young college student named Ajoy Kumar Dutta, who watched the show in 1960, it was a spectacle that would remain etched in his memory for decades.
Theatre artistes, armed with basic electrical equipment, had brought a novel form of entertainment to Guwahati. Excited by the prospect, Dutta and his friends first stopped at what he recalls as the only jalebi shop in Panbazar before making their way to the show.
More than six decades later, Dutta, now a prominent social figure and Padma Shri awardee, remembers a time when Durga Puja was as much about neighbourhoods and shared experiences as it was about worship.
“Puja in the 1960s was a very pristine and community-oriented affair. You could tell each family from the other, as each group of siblings would wear clothes of the same colour and design,” he recalled.
Those celebrations belonged to a different Guwahati, where community participation, cultural performances and shared rituals defined the festival. Elaborate pandals had yet to become the principal attraction, while aarati competitions, travelling jatra troupes from Kolkata and neighbourhood gatherings added to the festive spirit.
According to Dutta, the evolution of community Durga Puja in Guwahati can be traced to the period following the events of 1826, when the Ahom royalty left its capital and settled in the city. While the worship of the goddess at places such as Kamakhya and Ugratara has a much older history, community celebrations began taking shape around 1828. Uzanbazar Barowary Puja, along with celebrations associated with Hari Sabha and the Ramakrishna Mission, became part of this tradition.
Until the 1970s, he recalled, visarjan was a major citywide event, bringing together idols from different neighbourhoods.
“On the day of visarjan, all the idols from the nearly 80 pujas of the city were first taken to Judges Field. Everyone bowed their heads, and then the idols were taken to Kachari Ghat for visarjan,” he said.
For Dutta, the subsequent transformation has been about more than bigger pandals and grander decorations. It reflects a shift in the emphasis of the festival itself.
“Now the pujas are divided into two different parts – devotion and spectacle,” he said.
While traditional centres such as Ugratara, Hari Sabha, Ramakrishna Mission and Uzanbazar Barowary continue to uphold established forms of worship, he feels that the growing competition among Puja committees has increasingly placed spectacle at the forefront.
With committees spending lakhs of rupees, and sometimes Rs 30-40 lakh or more, on pandals and decorations, Dutta questions whether the spirit of compassion and giving has kept pace with the expenditure.
“Ma Durga doesn’t come alone; she visits with her family. So what about our family, our society, our brotherhood?” he asked.
“We spend Rs 30-40 lakh and even more on pandals in the name of God, but what about those living gods – the needy, whose needs are the responsibility of those who can afford it?”
He cited the Ramakrishna Mission’s annual distribution of around 1,000 sarees during Durga Puja as an example of extending worship beyond ritual. The tradition of offering bhog at some of the city’s oldest pujas, he added, also keeps the festival connected to the community.
Dutta is concerned that religious ceremonies are increasingly taking a back seat as pandal-hopping becomes an evening leisure activity. He also rejects the perception that Assam’s Durga Puja is merely an extension of traditions practised elsewhere, pointing to the State’s longstanding Shakti Peetha heritage.
He considers the worship of ‘Nabapatrika’, in which nine plants are worshipped together as a representation of the goddess, particularly significant. The ritual, he believes, reflects the festival’s deep connection with nature, an aspect that risks being overshadowed by the pursuit of grandeur.
Dutta does not suggest that Durga Puja should remain unchanged. Rather, he believes that its expanding scale should not come at the cost of devotion, generosity and community bonds.
For him, the memory of the 1960 show in Railway Colony endures not merely because of the spectacle on the screen, but because it recalls a time when families celebrated together, neighbourhoods gathered for rituals and the festival brought people closer.