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Durga Puja: Unmasking Casteist Underpinnings

Durga Puja: Unmasking Casteist Underpinnings

By Chatterjee, S.

Durga Puja, a significant Hindu Festival celebrated with immense grandeur, was inscribed on UNESCO's Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2021. Widely known for its fusion of “religion and art”, Durga Puja, through the depiction of Durga goddess killing Mahishasura, is seen as exemplifying female empowerment and the triumph of good over evil. However, what is usually overlooked in the popular understandings and articulations surrounding Durga Puja is that this cultural icon representing Bengali Bhadralok culture is also deeply rooted in Brahmanical hegemony and caste exclusion. As this festival operates under the veil of feminism, it often masks the structural oppression that is integrated within its socio-cultural practices. In this article, I will examine these structural underpinnings from the perspective of a member of the dominant Brahmin Chatterjee community, (self-) reflecting on how the Chatterjees and Banerjees in my village perpetuate the caste system—something that is also true for most rural parts of the state.

Caste, Labour and Purity: A system of Conditional Inclusion

From a sociological perspective, caste serves as a system of graded inequality that organizes labour and societal roles through the lens of purity and pollution. Vinayak Damodar Savarkar's (former president of the Hindu Mahasabha, a Hindu Nationalist organisation) perspective on the caste system, where he defended the caste system as a means of maintaining the purity of the Hindu race and contributing to societal enrichment can be found in his writings in Essentials of Hindutva, published in 1923:
“All that the caste system has done is to regulate its noble blood on lines believed—and on the whole rightly believed—by our saintly and patriotic law-givers and kings to contribute most to fertilize and enrich all that was barren and poor, without famishing and debasing all that was flourishing and nobly endowed.”
This stratification is, thus, both economic and cultural. The shimmery festivities and rituals that take place during Durga Puja are shaped by and display these very caste-based stratifications, as I explain further drawing upon Babasaheb Dr. B.R. Ambedkar’s critique stating, “Caste in the Hindu society is not merely a division of labour but a division of labourers”.
In the village of Brindabanpur, where I spent my childhood during Durga Puja vacations, the organization of the festival exemplifies conditional inclusion. The village is very small, with a population of less than 1,000, and two Brahmin families—the Chatterjees and Banerjees—who hold the land, as well as the political, economic, cultural, and social control in the area. The rest of the population comprises Tamulis, Bauris, Bagdis, who are from the Scheduled Castes, Ghoshs from the Other Backward Class, and a few Majee (Scheduled Tribes) households, representing oppressed and marginalized castes. These oppressed castes play an indispensable role in the execution of the festival, but are excluded from participating as devotees due to constructed boundaries of purity.
As someone who belongs to this particular village and Chatterjee community, I draw upon my positionality and the direct engagement with these practices to offer an insider's view, critically analysing the intersection of caste, religion, and socio-political structures in maintaining Brahmanical hegemony that I grew up observing since childhood. For instance, Dumur Jethu, who played the dhaak in the temple, never stepped inside the temple. Kanchan Da and Heran Da, who performed the ritual goat sacrifice, were instructed by the purohit (Brahmin priest) to carry out their tasks outside the temple but were never invited in to pay tribute to the deity. Durgadi, who cleaned the temple early every morning with cow dung water and a broom, never entered the temple as a devotee. These are only a few examples that highlight how the labour of oppressed castes is exploited while their participation as worshippers is restricted, reinforcing the casteist notion of purity. This duality of inclusion and exclusion sustains the caste hierarchy by ensuring that the labor of marginalized communities is acknowledged only in utilitarian terms.
These very dynamics are also reflected in the words of MS Golwalker, who was the leader of the Hindutva organisation Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), while addressing faculty and students of the School of Social Science of Gujarat University on December 17th:
"Today we try to run down the Varna system through ignorance. But it was through this system that a great effort to control possessiveness could be made…In society some people are intellectuals, some are experts in production and earning of wealth and some have the capacity to labour. Our ancestors saw these four broad divisions in society. The Varna system means nothing else but a proper coordination of these divisions and an enabling of the individual to serve the society to the best of his ability through a hereditary development of the functions for which he is best suited. If this system continues a means of livelihood is already reserved for every individual from his birth."
The operation of the caste system within Durga Puja reveals a duality of inclusion and exclusion. The concept of “conditional inclusion” ensures that oppressed castes remain on the periphery of cultural practices—invited only as labourers but never as equals. Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar’s critique emphasizes that rituals perpetuate inequality: “The caste system is a system of social stratification in which some castes are classified as pure and superior, while others are branded as impure and inferior.”
In Brindabanpur’s Durga Puja, where Brahmin families like the Chatterjees and Banerjees organize and control the festival while relying on the labor of marginalized castes for tasks deemed impure, my own experience sheds light on this dynamic. While my father, a staunch communist and former student leader taught me to question religion and superstition, our family still celebrated Durga Puja in the Chatterjee household setup. This paradox is a common occurrence across Bengali houses that may even display the hammer & sickle on the facade, and highlights the deep-rooted nature of caste practices that even progressive ideologies struggle to dismantle.

Unpacking the Dialectics of Savarna Feminism and Liberal Culture

Durga Puja is often celebrated as a feminist festival symbolizing female empowerment through the goddess Durga’s triumph over evil. In mainstream media, there are countless examples reinforcing this narrative. A quick online search will yield millions of articles and news feeds praising the festival as a representation of women's strength and victory, further perpetuating this perspective. However, this framing, propagated largely by Brahmanical media, obscures the underlying casteist and patriarchal structures that shape the festival. The mythological narrative of Durga slaying the king Mahishasura is often interpreted as a symbol of feminine power and resistance against patriarchal forces. However, this narrative has been contested by Dalit and anti-caste scholars, who argue that Mahishasura represents the indigenous, marginalized communities that were historically oppressed by the dominant Brahmanical forces. Anti-caste scholars like Shibu Soren, Kancha Ilaiah and others in the book- Mahishasur, The People’s Hero, edited by Pramod Ranjan, argued that the Sur-Asur conflicts in mythology reflect the historical wars between Aryans and non-Aryans, with Mahishasura depicted as a valiant leader of a society whose values differed from those of the Surs. The 'Devi-Mahatmya' poem in the Markandeya Purana further illustrates this narrative, where the warrior-goddess Durga violently defeats the Asuras, symbolizing the Aryans' victory over non-Aryans. This mythological strategy was part of a broader effort by Brahmanism to suppress historical events, maintain hegemony, and perpetuate intellectual stagnation by monopolizing knowledge and education systems. He was more powerful and prosperous, ruling his kingdom, and the Surs resorted to deceit, using a woman to conquer him. Myths nurture Brahmanical cultural dominance, but alternative interpretations concur that Mahishasur was a non-Aryan, pro-people king or community leader of indigenous Asurs.
While the goddess is worshipped, women from oppressed castes who aid the festival through their labor remain marginalized. In the recent viral news by mainstream media, the inclusion of women as priests in Durga Puja is celebrated as feminist progress in society; however, an anti-caste perspective reveals a more complex reality. This inclusion primarily benefits Brahmin women, reinforcing Brahmanism and savarna feminism, without addressing the systemic exclusion of marginalized communities. By centering the experiences of privileged women, this narrative ignores the intersectional struggles faced by Dalit and oppressed-caste women in these spaces. This feminist framing of Durga Puja is deeply exclusionary as it fails to grasp the intersection of caste and gender, rendering a hegemonic feminism, which centres the experiences of upper-caste, privileged women while marginalising those of lower-caste women.
As a child, I eagerly waited for Durga Puja vacations for the freedom my family offered: meeting friends in the village, enjoying a break from school, and experiencing a less restrictive environment with regards to food and time constraints. However, these joyful memories are intertwined with the realization that caste oppression pervaded even these cherished moments. The Brahmin families who controlled the festival manifested the hypocrisy of bhadralok liberal culture. While celebrating Durga Puja about progressive values, they perpetuate caste-based discrimination during the very festival that symbolizes communal unity. I could relish the vacation mode, relax and rest well. However, for the oppressed communities, the situation does not change, be it Durga Puja days or any other day. Their labour becomes a source of our relaxation. The hardships increase manifold for them during these Brahmanical pujas and festivals. The chantings in Sanskrit by the purohit (pandit) are puzzling and incomprehensible. Nothing makes sense in the temple and the rituals yet the bhadralok cultural domination over everyone's lives is dictated. For the privileged and the dominant caste people, Durga Puja can be a laid-back and chill celebration time, whereas for many others, celebration does not even make a narrative in their lives of hardships even when the entire state is in celebration mode. The temple rituals and the control of temple economies remain largely in the hands of upper-castes like Chatterjees and Banerjees in rural Bengal, consolidating their socio-economic dominance. This monopoly over both spiritual and material resources ties the institution of the temple to the larger framework of caste oppression, making it a focal point for both religious and social resistance.

Dismantling Brahmanical Practices

To deconstruct the casteist connotations of Durga Puja, it is essential to critically analyze its rituals and organizational structures. Drawing from Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar’s philosophy, annihilating caste-based practices within religious rituals requires challenging notions of purity and pollution. As he asserts: “Religion must be judged not by its origin but by the purpose it serves.” If rituals perpetuate inequality, they must be reformed or rejected.
Scholar Kancha Ilaiah Shepherd advocates for reclaiming spaces and narratives from Brahmanical control. Drawing from my own village, Brindabanpur, I will highlight the festival that has emerged as acts of defiance against Brahmanical traditions. This festival exemplifies how the oppressed communities subvert and reinterpret cultural practices to dismantle the Hindu caste order. By reshaping their own traditions and creating alternative spaces of celebration, these communities not only assert their agency but also resist the systemic marginalisation perpetuated by dominant caste ideologies.
Tusu, regarded as the daughter of the household and a goddess symbolizing the prosperity of the harvest, exists outside the Brahmanical pantheon, with its origins deeply embedded in oral traditions rather than scriptural authority. While some legends associate Tusu with Kashi Raja’s daughters, research suggests these narratives serve as retrospective Brahmanical interpolations rather than historical truths. Instead, Tusu songs—oral compositions passed down for over a thousand years—encapsulate the wishes, grievances, and collective consciousness of the oppressed communities. On the last day of Paus month (January), in our village, women from bauri para (para is neighbourhood), bagdi para, majee para come together and celebrate Tusu festival which takes place with great festivity and rejoicing. Tusu puja is performed with the use of rice cakes. Mostly women participate in the celebrations by singing and marching in procession to the nearby waterbody named khari river. Aman rice is cultivated at the end of the Paus month and the women associate Tusu with rice harvest. Tusu songs are being sung collectively by village girls and the folklore connected to it rent the air. According to P.K. Bhowmik, “Tusu connotes a tiny doll. It has very little religious attributes, or economic significance. It is entirely a social function, in which everyone participating longs for a friendly communion, sweetened by the mild touch of affection, far beyond the vicious halo of jealousy.”
“Baro bane lata pata
Chhoto bane bata go
Kon bane harale Tusu
Sonai bandha chhata go”
(In the dense forest, there are large leaves and long creepers. In a small forest the leaves are small. In which have you lost Tusu, the umbrella bound with gold)
"উপরে পাটা নীচে পাটা
তার ভিতরে দারোগা
ও দারোগা পথ ছাড়ে দাও
টুসু যাবেন কলকেতা টুসু যাবেন
কলকেতা খিদে পেলে খাবেন কি?
আনগো টুসুর নতুন গামছা
জিলিপি ছাঁদা বাঁধে দি।"
(Above lies the stone slab, below lies another, Between them stands the officer. Oh, officer, step aside, Tusu is going to Kolkata! Tusu is going to Kolkata, What will she eat if she gets hungry? Our Tusu’s new towel, Tied up with sweet jalebis.)
Such verses are not merely festive songs but expressions of resistance, invoking themes of migration, survival, and the assertion of dignity in hostile spaces. Tusu songs have historically played a role in political mobilization as well. In December 1953, when Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru formed the State Reorganization Commission, it began gathering public opinions from different regions of the country. Tusu songs played a significant role in mobilizing public sentiment in favor of the language movement in Manbhum.
These songs also prove that women were no passive onlookers in rural society. One popular story says that the Tusu festival originated in the thirteenth or fourteenth century in commemoration of a brave woman who defended the granary and fields against invaders. A current Tusu song uses this imagery (Mitra 1969: 12):
Tusu has picked up a sickle in her hands
And she is going to harvest that rice
Which is grown with blood.
Landholders will come rushing up
[But] Tusu has courageously made up her mind
She holds the sickle with a firm grip.
Personally, I have attended this festival only once in my life, back in January 2007 when I was in class 6. The delicious rice cakes with date jaggery keep coming back to my memories! As a woman coming from a Brahmin family, while writing about Tusu, I recognize the privilege of my caste identity and the limitations of my perspective in engaging with a festival rooted in Bahujan resistance. Unlike Durga Puja, which reinforces Brahmanical hierarchies through priestly mediation and tradition of purity and exclusion, Tusu emerges from lived realities, defying dominant structures through oral traditions and collective agency. This exploration in this writing is not about giving voice to Bahujan communities, who have always spoken for themselves, but rather about confronting how Brahmanical dominance shapes cultural legitimacy and hegemony.

Embracing Inclusivity through the New Wheel

The onus of dismantling the structures of caste and systems that sustain it, that continue to privilege the dominant castes, should be on us. We, as individuals from dominating-caste backgrounds, should have a moral responsibility to critically examine and reject the notions that uphold caste-based exclusion, especially in rituals and festivals like Durga Puja. It begins with us questioning and deconstructing the narratives we have inherited. We need to move beyond the Brahmanical frameworks of these rituals and amplify the contributions and cultural practices of oppressed communities. Together, we can reflect thoughtfully by asking why and how these celebrations like Durga Puja reinforce caste hierarchies and considering ways to replace them with more just and inclusive traditions. We must actively seek to ally ourselves with Dalit and other marginalized communities, not to speak for them but to amplify their voices, honour their traditions, and support their cultural expressions. At the same time and most importantly, we must confront casteist practices in our own families, communities, and institutions.
Education is the key. We must educate ourselves and others about the casteist forces of Brahmanical festivals. Education is not rote learning, rather building scientific temperament, being kind and empathetic and having a strong sense of justice. Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar has given us the source of knowledge, especially us savarnas. Starting from Castes in India, Who were the Shudras, Annihilation of Caste, Riddles in Hinduism, he has provided us with a powerful intellectual foundation to critically examine and challenge the deeply rooted hierarchies of caste, religion, and social inequality—urging us to reflect, unlearn, and commit to the struggle for a truly egalitarian and democratic society. The basic root of all human progress is science, and without science and reason, human civilization is bound to fail. Hindu religion, with its foundation in graded inequalities, is inherently unscientific and unjust. Therefore, building rationality, wisdom, and a scientific temperament is not a choice but a necessity — for creating a sustainable, just, and humane ecosystem.
This is the New Wheel for evolution. Navayana Buddhism as envisioned by Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar, is scientific and rational because it rejects belief in god, soul, rebirth, and karma (supernatural destiny), focusing instead on ethical living, social justice, and human reason. It is based on equality. It denounces the caste system, rituals, and priestly authority, and emphasizes moral actions, compassion, and collective well-being - foundation for an inclusive and dignified human community. Learning about Ambedkarite principles and embracing Navayana Buddhism can help us transform these casteist spaces into ones of dialogue, justice, equality, and inclusivity. Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar’s teachings remind us that it is possible to reject Brahmanical hegemony and foster equity, equality, rationality, and justice. By critically engaging with casteist narratives embedded in festivals like Durga Puja, we can work toward dismantling the systems of unscientific dogma that perpetuate social hierarchies.

Chatterjee, S.

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