Bikram Majhi, 25, an artisan from Purba Bardhaman district in West Bengal, is finding it difficult to focus on his work even though he has been working on Durga Puja pandals for many years now. Reason? Many of his close relatives find themselves missing from the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam, and that is worrying him.
“My uncle and his family have been living in Assam for decades, but they are are facing an uncertain future,” Mr. Majhi told The Hindu. “Today this has happened in Assam, what if it happens in Bengal tomorrow?”
The anxiety of many such workers will reflect in the Durga Puja at Haridevpur in south Kolkata. Through designs created with wood and bamboo and with music scored exclusively for the occasion, the Haridevpur New Sporting Club plans to depict the plight of workers whose relatives in Assam do not figure in the NRC.
“When we were discussing ideas for an exciting interior for the pandal, we overheard the artisans discussing their problems related to NRC. It struck us that we could possibly use the festival to highlight their anxiety,” said Mani Nandi, a member of the Club’s puja committee.
The initiative, however, is not connected to politics, the committee claimed.
Several bamboo figures, depicting workers’ traditional tools like the hammer and saw, will decorate the 90-ft long passage leading to the main stage where the goddess and her family will be placed for five days.
“The tools are being showcased to make the visitors aware that it is these workers who make Durga Puja possible and it is poor people like them who are suffering because of NRC,” said Animesh Das, the artist constructing the pandal.
Nrisingha Prasad Bhaduri, an Indologist and expert on Bengal’s religious festivals, said: “If issues like the environment or famous monuments in other countries can be taken up as themes, why not NRC.”