People wear traditional clothes during installation and immersion
Visitors passing through Mumbai's Girgaum area during Ganeshotsav would come across several Ganesha idols. Almost every second or third lane will have one medium-sized Sarvajanik Ganesha idol.
The visitors taking the Keshavji Nayak Chawl on Khadilkar Road would go past another idol--that of the Shree Sarvajanik Ganeshotsav Sanstha. Only those reading the line written in Marathi below “First Ganesha festival celebrated in Mumbai” and in English as www.1stganeshfestival.com would realise that they are close to a rich piece of heritage and history!
Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak started the first public Ganesha festival in Mumbai in this very place in 1893. A year later, the festival spread to other places throughout Maharashtra. This year it is the 124th year of celebrations. However, the celebrations here are still traditional and the organisers and residents are averse to hype.
“Our Ganapati idols are of the same shape, same size, same posture, same colour and manufactured by the same family...it’s a pride of Mumbai, Maharashtra and India...and we keep the celebrations simple,” Shree Sarvajanik Ganeshotsav Sanstha President Bhalchandra Gharat said.
While 2017 would mark the 125th anniversary of the celebrations of Mumbai's first Ganesha festival, this year has its own importance as it marks the centenary of Lokmanya Tilak’s famous proclamation “Swaraj is my birthright and I shall have it” and is the 160th birth anniversary of the revolutionary leader.
Tilak (July 23, 1856 - 1 August, 1920), regarded as “Father of Indian Unrest”, was one of the pillars of the freedom movement and also lead the public Ganeshotsav celebrations in Maharashtra then with an aim to organise people at one place and take the freedom movement ahead. In 1893, Tilak started public Ganesha festivals in Pune and Mumbai. “This Ganesha mandal is known for its simplicity and has its own importance in the history of Mumbai and the country,” said journalist-writer Ajit Joshi, who is an expert on Mumbai.
Located at a walking distance from the Charni Road station on the Western Railway route, the Keshavji Nayak Chawl is a cluster of six chawls. “We have nearly 150 tenements and over 600 residents,” said Sanstha treasurer Kumar Walekar. “We want the celebrations to be traditional, as it is,” he said.
Theirs is a 10-day celebration. “We have everything inhouse... the architect is from our chawl, so is the designer, the material supplier...we do the decoration ourselves....the idol is being sourced from the same place for the last 124 years....what people like is that the celebrations are done in a homely atmosphere...the priest comes from Konkan,” he said.
The two-foot-tall Ganapati idol, according to their tradition, is brought in a palkhi and is taken in a palkhi for immersion. “People wear traditional clothes when Lord Ganesha arrives and departs,” he said.
Walekar said that they mobilise fund. “The amount is contributed by members and ex-members or residents of the chawls,” he said. Some prominent nationalised and cooperative banks sponsor through branding on gates and banners. They spend between Rs 3.5 lakh and Rs 5 lakh. Everything is virtually done by locals.
The topography of the chawls has not changed. “They have kept it intact. Though there is a lot of redevelopment of chawls in the Girgaum area, this one has not been touched,” Joshi said. “The place looks the same as it was decades ago,” added Walekar. “The idol is installed at the same place and what has changed is the colour, doors and some temporary structures that support the pandal,” he said. After the idol is installed and prana-pratishta are done, entry into the sanctum sanctorum is restricted.
Even cultural events are traditional in nature. Local youth and women are involved and two days are reserved for youth and women. Competitions, mostly traditional ones, are held and locals, including children, actively participate in them.
The More family of Shree Ganesh Chitrashala from nearby Thakurdwar make idols for them. Now brothers Rajendra and Jayesh are at the helm of affairs. “This is our fourth generation making the idols for Keshavji Nayak Chawl...we made the first idol and till this day the tradition continues,” said Jayesh.
More said only organic, natural and eco-friendly materials are used. “The clay is brought from Bhavnagar and vegetable colours are used," he said. The family is busy throughout the year. After Ganesha festival, they start making idols for festivals like Navaratri.
If Keshavji Nayak Chawl has the distinction of being the first Ganesha mandal of Mumbai, the Shree Ganesha Chitrashala automatically becomes the first idol-makers of Mumbai. Now they make nearly 350 Ganesha idols.
According to Jagdish Gandhi, a historian of Mumbai and environmentalist, who had authored “A Tale of Native Towns of Mumbai” that dwells on Bhuleshwar, Girgaum and Malabar Hill, said: "The Keshavji Nayak Chawl that continues to host the utsav since its inception without a single interruption, has a history. Keshavji Nayak was a trader hailing from Kutch in Gujarat of Dasha Oswal origin. As he established himself well in trade and commerce, he built a small chawl in Kandewadi....However, he passed away in 1884...When the first utsav was initiated as a Sarvajanik affair, it was essentially low-key, matter-of-fact celebration, though thrown open to public participation.”
He said that the residents of the chawl need to be credited as they have resolutely kept intact the ethnic and traditional character of the utsav till date, in sharp contrast to the high-decibel, high-fashioned celebrations all around in contemporary times.
The chawl also has a very rich history. It was between 1860 and 1862, Nayak founded the cluster of chawls, mainly for people of middle-income group. Some of the proud occupants were Marathi poet Krishnaji Keshav Damle who wrote under the name Keshavsut, dashing labour leader Shripad Dange, socialist SM Joshi, the first Prime Minister of Bombay State B G Kher, social reformer Prabodhankar Thackeray, Marathi journalist, playwright, and freedom fighter Veer Vamanrao Joshi. It was here that Swatantraveer Savarkar sent a pistol to India from London concealed in a dictionary which was received by his follower Patankar.
The first public celebrations too have a history and a background. Tilak wished to bring about social change for political reasons too. In 1893, he appealed to the people to make it a festival of masses, says the Shree Sarvajanik Ganeshotsav Sanstha.