Public Ganesha festival in Belagavi is set to be a low-key affair due to COVID-19 regulations imposed by the State government and the general apprehension in the minds of the people of the prevalence of the epidemic.
Usually, the 11-day festivities begin on Bhadrapada Shukla Chaturthi, which falls on September 10 this year, and end on Ananta Chaturdasi of the lunar calendar, which coincides with September 20 this year.
However, the State government has issued a circular restricting the celebrations to three days. Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai has announced that the order will be strictly enforced.
The State government has also asked that idols installed in public places have to be of mud and not made of plaster of Paris and that they cannot be taller than four feet each. The order advises organisers to choose community halls, marriage halls and temples and other public buildings to install idols, rather than public places such as roads or at traffic junctions.
The Sarvajanik (public) Ganesh festivities are celebrated by Sarvajanik Ganesh Mandals that are found across the city. They usually choose road intersections, footpaths and other public places to erect pandals or mandaps and install the idols. They decorate the mandaps elaborately by investing money collected from public donations or from contribution of members.
According to Police records, 380 Ganesh Mandals were active in 2019, before the epidemic hit. The district had 2,900 such committees installing idols in public places.
Tradition
The installation procession usually started in the morning of Chaturthi, the first day of the festival. The major mandals installed the idols before evening on the first day, while others took time, till midnight.
Huge crowds thronged these mandaps. Families usually walked from one Ganesh Mandal to another through the narrow roads in the city, after having parked their vehicles on the main roads or at major circles near Goaves or Bogarves or Rani Channamma Circle.
The whole Old City generally turned into a huge open air market. Families that live in the old chawls converted their front rooms into make-shift shops selling flowers, dresses, crackers, Ganesha idols, sweets and decoration material.
The immersion procession used to be a 24-hour affair. It started in the afternoon of Ananta Chaturdasi and ended the next evening.
The festival provided a boost to the city’s economy every year. That seems to be missing this year.
The COVID-19 restrictions seem to have taken away the enthusiasm of the mandals. Traditional potter families that prepared tall idols every year are constrained to make only four-feet tall idols this year.
Basavaraj Kumbar of Raghunath Pet whose family has been making idols for decades now says that they have been badly hit. “Ganesha festival was the biggest money earner for us. Usually, the money I and my brothers earned in the festival season helped me care for the family throughout the year. But for three seasons now, our earning has dropped to near zero,’’ he said.
Rules to be relaxed?
Meanwhile, BJP leader and MLA Abhay Patil said that the Chief Minister had agreed to relax the restrictions for the festival in Belagavi.
The Chief Minister has promised me that public festivities will be allowed to be celebrated for 11 days in Belagavi, as per local tradition, Mr. Patil said in a video message to his followers.
The video was recorded on the steps of the Vidhana Soudha in Bengaluru, after he met the Chief Minister. The Chief Minister told me that the Deputy Commissioners in the districts will issue orders specific to their districts. The Belagavi Deputy Commissioner might issue the orders relaxing the restrictions by evening (Thursday), the MLA said.
A few days ago, BJP leader and MLA Anil Benake released a video message in which he asked Ganesh Mandal members to celebrate the festival for 11 days, irrespective of the government rules.
Tilak’s role
The public festivities in Belagavi have a rich cultural history. The Jhanda Chowk Ganesh Mandal, the oldest such mandal in the city, was inaugurated by Bal Gangadhar Tilak, freedom fighter and journalist. Mr. Tilak started the public festivities in Maharashtra to foster unity among various castes among Hindus, in 1905. A year later, he came to Belagavi and installed the first bamboo pole on which the Ganesh pandal was erected in the Old City.
Freedom fighters Govindrao Yalagi and Gangadhar Rao Deshpande organised a procession in Tilak’s honour on his arrival. Five other mandals were started by local youth in the next two decades. The city now has six mandals that have been organising public festivities for over a century. Members of some of these mandals organise charity events, including paying scholarships to meritorious students.
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