Post-Covid, Bengalis revive almost 5-decade-old Dol jatra

Nagpur: The Bengali community’s ‘Rong khela’ (playing with colours) will take off on Tuesday on a pious note at Kala Mandir hall in Motibagh railway colony where Dol jatra or Dol purnima programme, started in 1975, would resume after a three-year break caused by the Covid pandemic.
The ‘Dol jatra’, which is also the last festival of the year as per the Bengali calender, was started by a group of Bengalis settled in Nagpur at a time when there were less opportunities to mingle. Celebrating the festival among other efforts had helped the community to remain well-knit to fight insecurity in a land away from home.
The community had formed a ‘Hari Sabha’ for Dol Jatra, which organized dramas, jatras (a form of folk drama) and other programmes throughout the year.
The programme mainly focussed on ‘sankirtan’ or songs praising the god, followed by various rituals, worshipping Krishna and Radha, a simple feast of ‘khichdi’ or ‘dal bhaat’. Earlier, the programmes went on round-the-clock for two years with kirtaniyas or Kirtana singers brought from Betul in Madhya Pradesh.
In the 70s, the programme was a desperate attempt by Bengalis to cling on to their socio-religious tradition as old as the Vaishnavi Saint ‘Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’ of the 15th century. The Dol jatra also marked the birth centenary of Mahaprabhu who had spread the culture of Sankirtan in India.
With the enthusiasm now seemingly restricted to mostly the older generation, it is learnt the crowd is thinning underlining a fading interest in the present generations.
Ranjanendu Luha, 84-year-old secretary of Dol jatra, said the first programme was held in Motibagh Railway Colony by Bengalis from various backgrounds. “We went around in the localities with the Krishna and Radha idols in rickshaw with Kirtaniyas following us. The Bengalis would donate cash, grains, vegetables and so on which were used for the feast,” he said.
“Many are no longer alive, many have shifted while some stopped coming,” said Luha.
JK Majumdar is the president of the committee now. “Shankar Sen, Sukumar Sarkar, Haren Hazra, Malay Chakraborty and some of us had formed the Hari Sabha which organizes the programme,” said Luha.
Ranjanendu’s son Divyendu too had been a regular attendee. “I will take my children (third generations) to the programme to introduce them to Bengali culture and Rong Khela,” he said adding the programme would be now an one-day affair and the puja has already started.
Aseema Kundu, a housewife, said she is trying to make her children aware of dol jatra. “I can recall the Nagar Kirtana (Kirtana groups going around in localities), donations by families which is history now. The original fervour of the programme remains,” she said.
Deepak Choudhury said has circulated messages in different WhatsApp groups to attract the community to the programme.