I see all Ganesh Mandals around and now some have even included Lokmanya Tilaks pic in their pandals. I wonder whether these organisers are following Lokmanya Tilaks vision? Today, community Ganesha festivities is no longer a platform for gathering people to listen to and participate in discourses on nationalistic, pro-Independence issues that Tilak created. Once India became Independent, this platform could have been used for more important purposes to further social well being, development, etc. But it remained as a tradition but only in its run as an annual event. It has, of course, a political content, but rather the perverse one. Many mandals, or at least most of them, have political patronage, visible or invisible. The festivities are actually fund generators for individuals, groups, politicians. How much is collected is known to none outside of their sphere, how much is spent is never disclosed except for the offerings counted publicly at Lalbaugh’s Ganapati. In nearly most of the mandals, no one knows how much is actually collected—it is called vargani in Marathi, chanda in Hindi—and actually spent. One aspect of this readying-up is the fund collection. House to house, retail shop to retail shop the groups move, fixing a minimum contribution below which they would not accept it. In a way this has become an extortion racket with religion and god as a facade / front. I had myself faced this extortion some 3 years ago and had to take the goons heads on, instead of bowing down to them and paying them protection money. But then, once you are hooked onto a tradition, never mind its other features, then you remain hooked.
Posted on: Thu, 28 Aug 2014 13:56:43 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015