page_title: Bagbazar
section_title: Baghbazar Sarbojanin Durgotsav & Exhibition
hierarchical_section_title: Bagbazar / History / Baghbazar Sarbojanin Durgotsav & Exhibition
caption_attribution_description: English: Photographed during the Durga Puja festival in Kolkata.
context_page_description: Bagbazar is a neighbourhood of North Kolkata, in Kolkata district in the Indian state of West Bengal. The area, under Shyampukur police station of Kolkata Police, has been, along with neighbouring Shyambazar, the citadel of the Bengali aristocracy.
  Bagbazar has played an active role in growth and development of Kolkata.
context_section_description: The history of Baghbazar Sarbojanin Durgotsav & Exhibition is an inseparable part of the history and progress of Bengali culture for near about a century it has seen all the transitions and critical periods of history during this long enriched span of time.
  We can divide this glorious history in two very distinguished parts; the first period is from 1919 to 1930 and 1930 onwards. This was the first Puja of Calcutta organised by people communally and not inside a Zamindar's home. In 1919 (the first time), it was celebrated by the people of Bagbazar at the home of the Sarkars, on Baghbazar Street at the junction of Nebubagan Lane and Bagbazar Street where it had been held privately by the Sarkars for years before, until they couldn't afford to organise it any more. Members of the Public contributed money and continued the Puja and it was named as "Lebubagan Baroyari Durga-puja". It was continued in that very place for more three more years before being shifted in 1924 to the junction of Bagbazar Street and Pashupati Bose Lane. Next year it was placed at Kantapukur and in 1927 it tookplace in the Bagbazar Kali-temple.
  In 1926 with the remarkable effort of renowned social worker Narendra Nath Ghoshal (Dada Thakur) some of the erudites and other well-known people joined the organization and it took the shape of a proper organization. He is also the person who gave the name of the organization and set up the structure for a communal durga puja which was emulated by hundreds of other groups around the city thereafter.
  In 1929 for the occasion of the puja an exhibition took place. In 1930 alder-man of Calcutta Municipal Corporation Durgacharan Bandyopadhyay was elected as the president of this organization and he continued the exhibition in bigger form in the consequences of independence movements and Swadeshi concepts; even he renamed the organization as Baghbazar Sarbojanin Durgotsav & Exhibition. For the required space to organize the exhibition he selected this very place where the "Durganagar" of today is situated. This place was known as "Metal-Yard" formerly, and it used to the storage of Calcutta Corporation's road-repair department. Durgacharan Bandyopadhyay requested the Mayor of Calcutta, Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose then for the due permission. Mr. Bose approved his request and agreed for a historical joint exhibition with the participation of Corporation and this fellow organization together. He also donated five hundred rupees to this organization.
  From 1930 itself the inaugural and closing ceremony of the occasion over here is a very integral and important part and an innumerable fellow persona had their presence in these occasion. The inauguration takes place on the Shukla-panchami of the month of Ashwina whereas the closing ceremony takes place on the day of the sublimation of Goddess Laxmi. Dignitaries like Santosh Kumar Basu, Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, Acharya Prafulla Chandra Roy, Sir Harishankar Pal and others put that occasion to a different height.
  In 1938-1939 this organization was privileged by the active participation of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose as the president.
  Besides of Puja-s two more occasion that has given a different identity to this celebration over here are Birashtami Utsav in the morning of Mahastami and the Sindur-Utsav in the morning of Vijaya Dashami. Patriot Pulin Das, the renowned member of Anushilan Samity, used to be present in the occasion of Birastami until when he was physically unable to join it.
  After the connection with Swadeshi Movement the organization had a different importance and people from around and outside the city started to visit the celebration in a great extent and this celebration ultimately came as the celebration of people.
  From the late 1990s the organization tried to move the higher authority for converting the metal yard (Kalwar Patti, the original Gunpowder factory from the 18th century) to a permanent park under the control of this organization. With the help of some other important dignitarias ultimately in the initial years of this decade the dream came
caption: Bagbazar Durga puja pandal with spectators (Oct 2013)
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