The UNESCO tag has given our Durga Puja an international stature and definitely boosted the economy, says former culture secretary Jawhar Sircar.
The UNESCO application
Tapati Guha-Thakurta, cultural historian
I was approached by the ministry of culture, Government of India, in 2018 to put together a dossier on Durga Puja. A joint secretary of the ministry had come across my book In the Name of the Goddess: The Durga Pujas of Contemporary Kolkata and that is how they thought of contacting me. They wanted to submit an application to UNESCO for the inclusion of Durga Puja in India in the list of Intangible Cultural Heritage.
The joint secretary told me that the government at the Centre had applied for the listing earlier, but without success.
I accepted the offer after some thought. We had four months to prepare. The application form runs into 30 pages with questions such as “Is there any part of the element that is not compatible with existing international human rights instruments or with the requirement of mutual respect among communities, groups and individuals, or with sustainable development?” Another question reads — “How would human creativity and respect for cultural diversity be promoted by the inscription of the element?” Each answer has a word limit!
My book was the product of many years of research, so in a sense I knew the answers but there was also a need to update some things.
To start with, I picked a bunch of researchers. We pored over the previous
applications and samples of successful ones. We needed to convey in our appli-
cation that this event is a public performance of religion and art and involves
the community.
The ministry’s representatives were keen on listing Durga Puja of India in the UNESCO list. But I argued that the festival has evolved into a unique community event rooted in Calcutta over the past two centuries and that it was Durga Puja in Calcutta that would tick all the requisite boxes.
We needed signatures from various community stakeholders. This was a requisite of the application. We met idol makers, artists, families hosting Durga Puja for generations, representatives of Puja committees, corporate sponsors, media, councillors and government officials. This bit of getting people to sign endorsements was a challenge.
In December 2021, “Durga Puja in Kolkata” was inscribed on UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. UNESCO authorities have a provision for periodic status checks to safeguard the basic elements of Intangible Cultural Heritage — inclusivity, diversity, openness and aesthetics.
Internships, sponsorships
Jawhar Sircar, former culture secretary
From the beginning of the new millennium, UNESCO came up with quite a few conventions or regulations to guide nation states in the restoration of antiquities or cultural properties. There were several successful efforts in the area of tangible heritage. But not much had been done till then to preserve intangible heritage.
UNESCO selected and approved the first lot of intangible heritage inscriptions in 2003. At the time, Atal Bihari Vajpayee was the Prime Minister. India was awarded the intangible heritage tag for Ramlila, Vedic Chanting, Kutiyattam, Ramman and Nowrouz. In 2008, UNESCO revived the convention with a modified procedure. As the Union secretary of culture, I participated in this process at the UNESCO. I learnt a lot about presenting professional proposals to the UN body.
China had obtained approval for 36 inscriptions of its ancient cultural practices. We too decided to get our act together. In 2009, India submitted 10 to 12 such dossiers.
By then we realised that the central government has its limitations when it comes to identifying things in a country as diverse as India. And so we decentralised it and involved the states. In 2016-2017, the Government of India decided it would choose the subjects and then get the dossiers prepared by those best suited for the job.
The UNESCO tag has given our Durga Puja an international stature and definitely boosted the economy. Tourism is just one benefit, it has also opened up new avenues for artists. Students from art colleges find opportunities to intern, pandal design has become a more structured affair and with the increase in footfall, more sponsors have come forward.
By Moumita Chaudhuri
Theme, preview, carnival
Bhabatosh Sutar, artist
In 2013, I went to Paris. It was my first trip abroad. Nobody knew me. No sooner than I touched down, my friend took me to an art gallery. An exhibition had been inaugurated that very day. A woman came up to me, introduced herself and addressed me by my name. I was taken aback. Eventually I learnt that she knew of me from Tapati Guha-Thakurta’s book. Though the UNESCO tag was yet to come, that day I had a preview of how international recognition of Durga Puja would translate for all involved in this effort.
My first Durga Puja was at Barisha, followed by Behala… That was at the turn of the millennium. Much has changed since. Words like theme, preview and carnival have been added to the Durga Puja lexicon. The art factor has acquired a different dimension altogether.
The UNESCO tag has meant even the smaller pujas have been catapulted into this collective fame.
If you ask me, Durga Puja right now is only just coming into its own as an art event in the global scene. It will blossom as time goes by.
By Moumita Chaudhuri
Tourism booster
Atri Bhattacharya, former state tourism secretary
I have long believed that Durga Puja is West Bengal’s biggest tourism property. And tourism is a very important economic driver for a state like Bengal. While heavy industry comes at a price in an agrarian region, tourism must be developed to supplement industrial investment.
When I worked in the state tourism department, we did our best to promote Durga Puja as the world’s greatest public festival. The UNESCO proposal made a case for the economic importance of Durga Puja.
The state government and the British Council had commissioned a study to evaluate its economic importance. According to the 2021 report, annual estimated Durga Pujarelated profits are ₹32,000 plus crore. Today, it is estimated at close to ₹50,000 crore.
The tourism department did its best to publicise Durga Puja worldwide. We managed to get coverage in international publications and also flooded the Internet with attractive audio-visual modules. We conveyed the sheer scale of the festival.
A lot has happened after the UNESCO tag but I think only 50 per cent of Durga Puja’s economic potential has been tapped to date. The tourism potential should be fully realised. This will then have a ripple effect on other sectors of the economy. I hope the new government accepts that while Durga Puja is a rich aspect of religion, it is also a social, cultural and economic phenomenon.
By Prasun Chaudhuri
Rural employment guarantee scheme
Purnendu Dey, artist
Iwas born into a family of carpenters in Channa near Burdwan. For generations,
our family made Durga Puja decorations for the royal family of Burdwan. The royal family’s puja centres around the worship of Pateshwari Devi, a patachitra represen-
tation of Durga.
I learnt to paint in childhood but my formal training was at Kala Bhavana, Santiniketan, and Calcutta’s Government College of Art and Craft. I arrived in Calcutta in 2003 and started taking up Durga Puja-related assignments. I started to build a team of artisans, farmers, farm labourers and students from art colleges. To date, I hire traditional wood carvers from Notun Gram in Burdwan to execute intricate installations. In addition, I train rural workers in fibre casting, sand casting and ceramics.
These indigenous artists bring to their work an innocence and sincerity, a worship-like quality. Although some of them belong to marginalised communities, everyone works as a cohesive unit. The team lives, cooks, eats and works together for three months in the pandal like a family.
Durga Puja is a traditional employment guarantee scheme. For centuries, it used to be sponsored by traders and zamindars across Bengal’s villages. Every year after the cultivation of the aman crop in July-August, most farm labourers would have no work. Between then and harvest time, the puja generated work and kept the wheels of economy turning.
In 2019, I was one of the many artists whose inputs were sought by the team of researchers who filled the UNESCO form. I pointed out that Durga Puja has been providing our rural population with more than 100 days of work.
By Prasun Chaudhuri
Art avatar
Arijit Maitra, general secretary, Samaj Sebi Sangha
In 1969, the directorate of tourism introduced the concept of awards during Durga Puja. Bagbazar topped the list, second was Samaj Sebi and Gouriberia came third. In 1976, the government introduced another award wherein people’s choice and involvement were given weightage.
The Asian Paints award of the 1980s was a game-changer. Awards began to be given for idol, pandal and lighting. I remember Adi Ballygunge, Broad Street and Bondel Road would bag the prizes for their idols, while Mudiali and Jodhpur Park would be winners in the lighting category.
Artists such as Bhabatosh Sutar, Susanta Paul and Amar Sarkar brought in the concept of theme puja in the late 1990s.
When research for the UNESCO tag began in 2019, installation art was making a debut. The festival had already become more structured. Durga Puja is now an artists’ affair, with light and music directors, theme composers, mechanism technicians, projection operators and curators all roped in.
By Moumita Chaudhuri
Before the beginning
Ruby Palchoudhuri, president emeritus, Crafts Council of West Bengal
My journey of presenting the Durga Puja of West Bengal to the global audience began many years ago. I call it my Durga yatra.
In the 1990s, I took artisans from across Bengal to the UK, Europe, the US and Australia. They made Durga idols there. It was my attempt to show the world how much we invest in Durgotsav.
Wherever we showcased our work, I would choose a theme. In 1995 at the Peabody Essex Museum, Massachusetts, US, master craftsman Nemai Chandra Pal from Krishnanagar and his assistant Biswajit Chakraborty built a 10 by 8.5 feet idol of Durga. Nemai Pal is not only an ace sculptor, he knows our culture well. He followed the description in our shastras while creating the image of the goddess. The programme was inaugurated by Siddhartha Shankar Ray, the then ambassador to the US. The Smithsonian Institution funded the whole programme.
In 2002 in Scotland, at the National Museums Scotland, Nemai Pal built a Durga using clay from River Tay. The Scottish Arts Council, now called Creative Scotland, sponsored the event. In 2006 at the British Museum, we created an 18-foot Durga protima. Gurupada Chitrakar painted the chalchitra and held workshops with school children. Our artists had great fun with the staff of the health and hazard department. They had to use scaffolds and ladders to work on the top part of the idol. They were ordered by the officials to wear boots whilst working on the ladder. Our artists were uncomfortable. When the health and hazard staff were not looking, they would take off their boots. Such are the cultural differences!
The last Durga yatra I organised was in 2007 in Australia. It was titled Goddess: Divine Energy and hosted at the Art Gallery of New South Wales museum, Sydney.
The UNESCO tag has made Durga Puja relevant and empowered artists and all those involved in this cultural festival.
By Moumita Chaudhuri
City turned art gallery
Sunanda Sanyal, professor emeritus of art history
I left India in 1988 for higher studies and eventually settled down in the US. For two decades, I did not have the opportunity to visit Calcutta during Durga Puja. In 2007, when I did, I saw how the festival had undergone a metamorphosis. I made a documentary film called A Homecoming Spectacle.
Part of it focused on a select group of theme artists and their creations. These creators — modern visual artists — had bridged the gap between highbrow gallery art and popular, large-scale public spectacles. They transformed the city into an open-air art gallery every Durga Puja.
Four years later, in 2010, I saw another big shift. I captured this in a sequel A Homecoming Spectacle: Issues. That year, the trend was to showcase folk arts and artists in the Durga Puja pavilion. Some pandals were criticised for going “overboard”, taking unlimited creative license. An image of the asura as Osama bin Laden and a pandal showing a train wreck were criticised.
In 2019, when Tapati Guha-Thakurta was asked to fill out the UNESCO application form, I was among the many people who supported the effort. Two years later, when UNESCO granted the heritage tag, we were excited. We expected the inscription would enhance the already growing international face of Durga Puja and add a new dimension of artistic creativity.
By Prasun Chaudhuri
A package deal
Shailaja Mundra, Kolkata unforgettable
About 15 years ago, when no one was thinking about a UNESCO tag, my husband Sudarshan and I would go around pandal hopping come Durga Puja.
We met the organisers, spoke to the artists and labourers and gathered stories from the people of the city. We discussed themes and took photographs of the Durga idols. I created albums on my social media page. Our event management company started getting the occasional enquiry from people outside of Bengal about Durga Puja.
Post the UNESCO tag, things changed dramatically. Three years ago, a group of eight people from New Delhi contacted me. They wanted to come to Calcutta to experience Durga Puja. They wanted a luxury travel experience, avoid crowds
and queues while still soaking in the spirit of the festival.
We went around looking for luxury buses but nothing was available. So we decided to book cars. Then we roped in Khelat Bhavan of Pathuriaghata, where we organised a 45-minute dance drama wherein we showcased all the rituals of Durga Puja from agomoni to pushpanjali to sindur khela to bisarjan. It was an interactive programme.
In 2024, this number went up to 240 and in 2025, 600. People come from Mumbai, Kochi, Visakhapatnam, Hyderabad, Ludhiana, Delhi, Chennai, Indore…We customised our tour plan. Included dance dramas and cruises on the Hooghly, heritage walks, visits to the Kalighat Temple, a taste of Bengali food.
My daughter Vasudha Pachisia is planning to take our effort forward. She says artists from Bengal are now being called to Bengaluru to set up studios.
By Moumita Chaudhuri
From Tallah to Times Square
Abhishek Bhattacharya, Forum for Durgotsav
Durga Puja is a huge industry, running into thousands of crores; one crore households benefit from it. But it is a completely unorganised sector. There are no official documents to show the spending. There are no GST bills. Payments are made at various levels. There are labourers, decorators, lightmen, idol makers, dhakis, purohits, electricians, the stalls outside the pandals… The list is long. People shop more during Durga Puja. Even the car manufacturing industry gets a boost.
The UNESCO tag means a lot for the artists. The competition among them has increased so much that they now plan, coordinate and work year-round for Durga Puja. The moment one puja ends, the organisers start planning for the next year. The artists are booked a year ahead.
Earlier, the puja carnival had foreigner footfalls. Recently, we learnt that a pre-Puja event will be organised at the Eden Gardens this year. This too is likely to draw tourists.
It is important that Calcutta gears up to entertain this crowd in terms of infrastructure and traffic management.
The UNESCO tag has done its bit. Last year, Durga Puja was celebrated for two days at New York’s Times Square. This year, it will be live screened on premium digital boards in Times Square, in Dubai’s Burj Khalifa and in London’s Piccadilly Lights to give a realtime feel. The 2026 theme of the tourism department is Bishwajure Bangalir Abeg — Durga Puja Global Connect 2026. With the new government in the state, the expectations are higher.
By Moumita Chaudhuri
source/content: telegraphindia.com (headline edited)