From Distrust to Reconciliation The Making of the Ganesh Utsav in Maharashtra Dinesh Thite or the last twenty-five years, collecting contributions, as happens in Ganapati festival celebrations and his Imam Moiddin Khan has been some other mandals where young men enthusiastic participation in Hindu Fthe president of the Guruvarya employ strong-arm tactics to extract religious rituals, he said he saw no Jagobadada Vastaad Talim Trust – one funds from local citizens. Nor does this contradiction between being a good of Pune’s oldest and most respected mandal play the ear-shattering pop Muslim and playing an active role in Ganapati mandals. He became the music common in several other Ganapati festivities. To prove his treasurer of the Trust at the young age mandals. During the Ganesh Yaag, on point, he tells you that his three of fifteen and he has handled all its the birthday of Ganapati, the mandal daughters and two sons are all married economic affairs for the last fifty years, arranges food for around fifteen hun- and well settled. Had there been any especially after he became its dred people. Reciprocally, as Imam opposition from his community to his president, by unanimous vote, in 1978. Khan told us, Hindu members of the involvement with the festival, it would Since then, he has also been mandal organise a celebration to hon- have been difficult for their family to responsible for the Trust’s celebration our Moula Ali Kandhuri every year in find grooms for their daughters and of the Ganapati Mahotsav, the annual the Marathi month of Aashadh. brides for their sons. The father-in-law Ganapati festival, including Imam Khan’s Muslim neighbours, of one of his daughters, Gulab Bhai preparations for the Ganesh Yaag and near his home in Nana Peth, are proud Ghodewale, even proudly displays the the immersion procession of the of his being the President of the newspaper photograph of Imam Ganesh tableau – all strictly per Hindu Guruvarya Jagobadada Ganapati Moiddin Khan receiving the best ritual tradition. While he remains a Mandal. When he was asked whether mandal award to fellow villagers in faithful follower of Islam who offers other Muslims object to his leading the Jejuri. Gulab Bhai himself is an active namaz regularly in sharer in cross-faith the Jama Masjid, festivities – Jejuri is one of Pune’s most important to important mosques, Maharashtrian it is under his presi- Hindus because it dency that this houses the temple of mandal has received Khandoba and, awards for three yearly, it is Gulab consecutive years Bhai’s horse that for organising the leads the Khandoba most disciplined immersion proces- procession. sion in the city. The Sabina Mujawar members of the studies in the seventh mandal never misbe- standard in the have. All religious Aanandibai Karve requirements are Kanyashala. She met in full. There is lives in the locality of no compulsion or Iman Moiddin Khan, President of Pune’s Guruvarya Jagobadada the Ahilyadevi Mitra coercion while Vastad Talim Trust with the mandal’s Ganapati idol . Mandal in Mahatma No.139 19 Phule Peth. Everyday, she offers a But this scenario contrasts with the caused a strong reaction across the certain red flower to the Ganapati idol circumstances in which the Ganapati Hindu community and public meetings of the Mandal – a flower considered festival as a public celebration was were called to air the community’s dear to the god. She fasts, along with started a century ago. concerns. It was during such other Ganapati devotees, on Chaturthi, Riots and Reactions gatherings that the concept of the fourth day in the Hindu monthly It was after the first Hindu-Muslim celebrating the Ganapati festival in a calendar. Nobody in her house or in communal riots in Bombay (now public manner was put forward and the locality finds it odd that a Muslim Mumbai) in 1893 that the Ganapati finalised, in a deliberate attempt to unite girl has such an attachment to festival as a public festival was Hindu citizenry. Ganapati. Sabina’s brother Sameer is started in Pune. These riots were the Celebrating the Ganapati festival one of the mandal’s office bearers. first of their kind, though clashes as a domestic religious event was a This mandal too has a long history of between Muslims and Parsis had well-established tradition in local Muslim participation; one of its occurred in 1850 and again in 1874. Maharashtra; its festivities saw great senior-most members is a Muslim, The riots began in Prabaspattan, in fervour in the days of the Peshwas, Mannubhai Daudkhane. The mandal Gujarat, and then spread to Bombay. the Brahmin Prime Ministers of the also celebrates the Muslim festival: On 11th August 1893, a major communal Maratha chieftains of old. But it was the Ramzan Id. According to its riot broke out – the Shiva temple in in 1893 that mass participation became activists, there has never been any Hanuman lane was attacked; reprisals integral to the observances. The communal tension in their locality followed the next day. Tensions nationalist leader Lokmanya Tilak was despite the mixed population of Hindu spiraled out of control for the next two the one of the leading lights of this and Muslim communities. It is the days; life and property remained at risk novel attempt and, thanks to his outsiders who create tension, they for nearly a week and it took a month intellectual sponsorship, this public said. for the violence to abate. About festival took root and made deep These two examples of the seventy-five people were killed and inroads across Maharashtra. participation of Pune’s Muslims in the three hundred and fifty were injured; There are various versions of the famous Ganapati festival are not ultimately, around twelve hundred beginnings of the Ganapati festival unique. The festival is celebrated all people were arrested. Thousands fled as a public event. According to over Maharashtra for ten days in the the city. In Pune, these incidents Wolpert, in the aftermath of the months of August-September. vitiated the atmosphere and led to Bombay riots Pune’s Hindu Ganapati mandals are groups of local uneasiness in the relationship between population had been urged by its people who organise celebrations in the Hindu and Muslim communities. orthodox leaders to boycott the their neighbourhoods with money (Kelkar, 1988 [1923]: 332-339) The riots Muslim Moharram festival, which, gathered through local contributions. There are about forty thousand such mandals in Maharashtra, with about four thousand in Pune alone. During the festival, the Ganapati idol is brought in a procession to be established in the mandal’s pandal. Each pandal is elaborately decorated with tableaus. Hundreds and thousands in each neighbourhood witness the daily rituals and cultural programmes organised during the festival. At the end of ten days, the idol is taken out in a procession for immersion in water. Wherever there is a mixed population of Hindus and Muslims, and where Muslims are not a preponderant majority, the participation of Muslims in the Devotees in their thousands converge for the annual Ganapati procession. Ganapati festivals is fairly common. 20 MANUSHI until 1893, had been celebrated jointly Tilak believed that such a display of devoted to Tilak. In 1893, in the by adherents of both religions. In unity should be dramatic and take month of Shrawan (this month in the 1893, a separate Hindu festival was place under the guidance of Brahmins Indian calendar precedes the month begun, designed to wean the Hindu as the traditional and natural leaders of Bhadrapada, in which the lower classes away from festivals of society.” (Courtright, 2001: 233) Ganapati festival is celebrated), a honouring a ‘foreign’ deity by Tilak’s Contribution meeting of Pune’s leading providing them with an equally Wolpert has noted that personalities was arranged in the attractive alternative. Strengthening Annasahib Patwardhan provided the house of Bhau Rangari. It was communal consciousness in this way inspiration and Tilak the publicity decided in discussions here that the served to bolster Hindu Ganapati festival be nationalist aspirations. celebrated as a public (Wolpert, 1962: 66) Each event. Accordingly, Bhau September, Hindus now Rangari, Ganapatrao marched in throngs behind Ghotawadekar and giant images of their own Nanasaheb Khasagiwale god, instead of joining the installed Ganapati idols and procession of the Muslims took out an immersion who carried the tabuts, the procession on the day of colourful replicas of the Anantchaturdashi. Tilak Karbala tombs of appreciated this idea and Mohammed’s martyred wrote an article supporting grandsons. (Wolpert, 1962: it. (Karandikar, 1953:3 [part 66-68) 1]) However, his name is It may appear that the not mentioned among Ganapati festival was those present in the propagated with the sole meeting and it is very clear purpose of developing a that Tilak was not one of deterrent to the Muslims, the festival’s founding but, in fact, the festival has fathers though he played many roles, supported it and in 1894 becoming a platform for himself installed an idol of various social, cultural, Ganapati for the public religious and political festival in Winchurkar developments. Raising Wada. (Karandikar, 1953: the occasion to a public preface p. 9) event bridged the Ganapati on his way through the crowds. Kelkar has provided a increasing gap between different version in his Brahmins and non-Brahmins. Tilak which catapulted the Ganapati biography of Tilak, widely is said to have devised this plan celebration from a purely private considered to be one of the most with an eye to organising the religious function to the most reliable. According to him, one day, Hindu community and developing important and best-attended public while public opinion about the riots a grass-roots level integration.