In a country where a rape is reported every 15 minutes, violence against women is a horrifying reality that is difficult to set aside even during the festive season.
Yet seldom has it occupied centre stage in a festive space as it does at Sadanga Durgoutsav Samiti.
The pandal on Raja Rajballav Street, between Shyambazar and Bagbazar, stops visitors in their tracks with a tableau: a partially disrobed woman in a sari, her hair falling loose, her eyes shut on a pale face, a smear of vermilion on her forehead. Behind her, faces of elderly men, their expressions vacant, are painted on a flat, concave backdrop. One of them appears to be blind, offering a clue to the woman’s identity.
An installation of Draupadi’s disrobing from the 'Mahabharata', with the Kaurava elders, including blind king Dhritarashtra, looking on
“Yes, that is Draupadi being disrobed in the royal court in the Mahabharata. Even then, the Kaurava elders remained silent. Today, as Draupadis continue to be humiliated, society continues to watch in silence. Nothing has changed,” said Ritam Sinha, a committee member of the puja.
At the entrance stand three owls: one that speaks no evil, another that hears no evil and a third that sees no evil, echoing the proverbial three wise monkeys. “They are symbols of society. Crimes of violence against women happen day in and day out. Unless a major incident occurs, we gloss over them. Until we, as a society, take a stand, this festering wound will continue to rot,” Sinha said.
Theme-maker Indrayudh Sen has an even more hard-hitting tableau in the sanctum sanctorum. A young woman lies unconscious on the sacrificial altar before a vacant throne, the anchal of her blood-red sari askew. Yet she, too, bears a mark of divinity: a third eye on her forehead.
“We worship Durga as a living virgin during Kumari Puja, yet we cannot put an end to this curse. I am showing how, with every such crime, we pull the goddess down from her altar and dishonour her,” Sen said.
He has kept the idol in muted sepia tones, denying it the customary bright colours. “I want the focus to be entirely on the violated woman,” he said.
An owl at the pandal entrance holds a sign that reads: Come, come, see how dire the state of our society is
On the way out, visitors find themselves surrounded by a gallery of traumatised faces of girl children painted on the walls. A mirror stands directly ahead.
“You see your own reflection surrounded by these girl children. The silent question they ask is: will you remain silent, too, when you witness such crimes? This puja is a wake-up call to society,” Sen said.
He has titled his theme ‘Hutom Pyanchar Naksha’, a nod to Kaliprasanna Singha’s mid-19th-century work, in which the owl serves as a social commentator.
The puja has a long history of artistic experimentation. It was founded 49 years ago by Ashok Gupta, a pioneering artist who had conceived path-breaking iconography for the neighbouring Jagat Mukherjee Park puja before embarking on his own artistic journey at Sadanga.
As visitors leave, Mallika Sengupta’s Kanyaslok — a feminist ode to everyday women fighting systemic oppression — lingers in their ears through the sound system and catches their eyes in quotations painted across the walls.