Durga Puja in peril: From food diktats, tragic lapses to attacks on Bengal’s sensibilities

Durga Puja 2026 will be remembered as the year when West Bengal was stripped of its cultural ethos. A festival that celebrates good over evil, worships a goddess with limitless powers, and her homecoming, Durga Puja this year was in the news not for its stunning pandals, intricate idols, or the social messages represented through art each year. It was, instead, in the news for diktats, tragic deaths, hooliganism, and the death of intellect.

Bengal, a land of artists and people known for their intellectual acumen, has been celebrating Durga Puja for centuries. The festival is as much a celebration of the goddess as it is a celebration of the state’s art and culture, and the collective intellect of its people. For Bengalis, Pujo is not just about devotion but also about feasting, pandal hopping, devouring the newest Pujo Sankhyas (Puja magazines), and reading a long-pending Tagore classic on a late afternoon post-bhog. In 2026, however, things considered staple by Bengalis saw intervention from the outside.

Months after the BJP government came to power in the state for the first time, there has been a significant cultural shift, including about the way the party wants the people of Bengal to celebrate its beloved festival.

The Veg Diktat: Imposing Norms on a Feasting Culture

Weeks before iron rods were planted and blueprints carved into the ground for grand, state-wide pandals, the VHP threw a wrench into preparations with a startling decree. The Hindu group, along with Bageshwar Dham’s Dhirendra Krishna Shastri, urged pandal organisers to observe strict vegetarianism within pandals and keep vendors serving non-vegetarian food away from them. Some leaders also urged residents of the state to consume vegetarian food.

One of the defining features of Durga Puja celebrations lies in Bengal’s cultural synthesis and inclusivity. Unlike the rest of India, where nine days of Navratri are observed with strict vegetarianism, Bengal celebrates Durga Puja as a feast, enjoying non-vegetarian culinary delights as they welcome the Goddess home.

Thus, for many, the diktat felt like an indoctrination. The question was, how could some people or groups- that included those from outside the state - dictate dietary rules during the most-awaited festival of the year? The public pushback was almost immediate, as a feeling grew that it was an attempt to impose external religious norms on Bengal’s otherwise liberal socio-cultural customs. To many, it felt like an attack on individual freedom and the religious heritage that the festival historically embodied.

Redefining Mahalaya: A Grand Spectacle That Missed the Mark

As CM Suvendu Adhikari cleared Shastri’s stance, terming it only a ‘request’, his government faced fresh allegations of north-Indianizing the Mahalaya celebrations at Eden Gardens.

Mahalaya, which marks the beginning of Devipaksha in the Hindu calendar, has been considered sacred for Bengalis from time immemorial. Scores of Bengalis across the world wake up in the wee hours of Mahalaya to hear the booming voice of Birendra Krishna Bhadra chanting the Chandi Path on the radio. It is a ritual that heralds the festivities six days later. Mahalaya has always been about remembering forefathers, accompanied by Bhadra’s voice setting the tone for the season.

This year, Adhikari’s government decided to ‘open’ the Durga Utsav with an expansive cultural show at Eden Gardens—a holy place for cricket lovers in India. Imagine a Christmas carnival being celebrated at Lord’s? Yes, unthinkable.

In Kolkata, Eden became the stage for an extravagance complete with a drone show and loud cheering. There is nothing inherently wrong with the show, except that it fundamentally misread Bengali culture. Somehow, the administration did not understand that Mahalaya is about paying respect and celebration in quiet reverence, not with pyrotechnics.

The event met with sharp criticism on social media, with many feeling the ‘crass’ celebration gave Mahalaya a Diwali filter, complete with fireworks. Puritans squirmed: fireworks on the day of Mahalaya? Since when?

The Chorbagan Tragedy: Systemic Neglect and the Cost of Grandiosity

While the Bengali community rued the increasing North Indian influence on the revered festival, the deepest shock came during the main festival days. The tragic stampede in Chorbagan on Saptami evening claimed the lives of 19 people—mostly women and children—and left dozens injured. The Chorbagan pandal was one of the major draws of this year’s Durga Puja in Kolkata. Hundreds of thousands visited the pandal daily, but organizers evidently lacked emergency preparedness.

The tragedy exposed severe lapses in crowd management, structural planning, and evacuation protocols. Critics argued that the emphasis on hyper-commercialisation, massive footfalls, and spectacular grandiosity overshadowed basic safety and public welfare. The organisers, comprising several BJP MLAs and leaders, went silent in subsequent days. On the day of the tragedy, eyewitnesses recounted that police personnel were missing at the venue while locals stepped up to handle rescue operations.

Silencing the Written Word: The Vandalism of Literary Stalls

So where was the police? They were ransacking and uprooting bookstalls across the city. The CPI(M) party traditionally puts up bookstalls during the festival, featuring not just books on communism, but also works by Tagore, Sarat Chandra, and more. Viral videos showed political goons ransacking and throwing books onto the road, destroying stalls even as police stood mute at a distance.

Just as new clothes embody the spirit of Pujo, new books have long been the soul of Bengali heritage. Imagine a state famed for its intellectuals—a land built on the written word—now surrendering to thugs who relentlessly ransacked bookstalls, flinging the legacy of Tagore and Bengal’s other literary legends into street mud. All the while, state machinery stood by in cowardly silence, refusing to stain its hands as centuries of cultural pride were ground into the dirt.

As the BJP came to power, many had breathed a sigh of relief, hoping it was finally the end of the TMC’s 'gunda raj.' But what transpired on the streets of Kolkata—accusing the Left of tarnishing culture and policing ideology via books—was nothing less than hooliganism. The deliberate attack on bookstalls symbolising Bengal’s intelligentsia hinted at changing times within the state where mob culture takes precedence over democratic institutions.

In the months since Adhikari was sworn in as Chief Minister, the people of Bengal have witnessed multiple changes—from forced vegetarianism and shifting the fabric of puja celebrations to a tragedy where the state refuses to take accountability.

It’s not that the state flourished under TMC rule; clashes between TMC, Left, and right-wing groups were reported during past Pujas, but they were mostly isolated incidents. However, one could witness that crowd management under the previous government during Durga Puja was far better.

Reclaiming the Spirit of Sharodotsav

The confluence of food diktats, the tragic loss of human lives due to systemic neglect, and the silencing of literary spaces left many arguing that Durga Puja 2026 lost touch with its founding spirit. For decades, Bengal’s celebration of the goddess has superseded religion, caste, and class. It is a celebration for all, by all. However, this year, instead of serving as a unifying celebration of art, intellect, and community, the festival became a battleground for political polarisation, commercial excess, and administrative failure.

(Disclaimer: The views of the writer do not represent the views of WION or ZMCL. Nor does WION or ZMCL endorse the views of the writer.)