In a small office room in Dharavi, beneath a portrait of Dr. Ambedkar, Maran Nayagam tells me the story of a journey that began over 102 years ago in villages around Tirunelveli, Tamil Nadu, and ended in Dharavi, Mumbai.
It’s a story with a sad beginning, but has a happy ending: about a people persecuted simply because they were Adi Dravidars (a Dalit community). Unable to bear the relentless oppression, many of them fled — some by foot, some by boat, the journey sometimes taking months — all the way to Dharavi. And having left their homes as landless labourers, they worked hard in Dharavi’s tanneries, on a land that was mere swamp. Their houses were shacks, covered with jute sacks or wooden planks, and their food frugal; but they slowly saved from their monthly salaries — the contributions were as small as 25 and 50 paise — and bought a piece of land (about an acre) for Rs.15,000. On that land, they built a temple, and housed 80 families around it. Today, the land is valued at tens of crores of rupees. This Ganesh Chathurthi, the temple will celebrate its 102nd birthday.
“I’ve heard the story of the migrants from old people, including those in my own family,” says Nayagam. A fourth-generation Tamil migrant, he is the General Secretary of The Bombay South Indian Adi-Dravida Mahajana Sangh. The Sangh was started in 1939 and by the next year, it had 504 members. “The founders, with great foresight, had laid out its objectives very clearly. They wanted it to be useful to the people, for their social and economic development,” says Nayagam, showing me a yellowing stapled booklet. Besides, the 80 houses that still exist, the sangam used to run ‘Pongal houses’ (community housing) where men could sleep and eat, even in the 1970s, for as little as Rs.8 a month. All of them turned up in Dharavi, dreaming of a better life.
“In Mumbai, caste did not really matter,” explains M.M.C. Sekar, founder of the All India Parayar Peravai. He narrates an incident, which shaped his political thought. “I grew up in Dharavi. In 1975, on a visit to a village in Tamil Nadu, I went to a teashop and picked up a vadai . The owner asked who I had come to visit, and quickly guessed my caste. He served me tea in a different glass!” We drink strong sweet tea from clear glasses as he tells his story. Across the road from the Sangh office, under a tall roof, with many sculptures and sannadhis , is the Arulmigu Sri Maha Ganesar Aalayam. Everybody in Dharavi call it Periya Ganesar Koil. Painters are hard at work; the festival is round the corner.
Next door, the bell rings at the English medium school, run by the Sangh. In 1999, the school started with five kids; today it has 1000 students. Besides Hindi and Marathi, Tamil is an optional language. But, during this season, Tamil flavours the neighbourhood.
On August 29, the Ganesha will arrive. The 102-year-old custom of a Ganapathi Mandal makes Dharavi’s possibly the second oldest in Mumbai. (Lokmanya Tilak started the first at Keshavji Naik chawl in 1893). ‘Dharavi Cha Maharaja’, as the idol is called, will be brought atop a bullock cart from Dadar. “The idol has always been made with mud by the same sculptor’s family. And because it is earth, it’s very heavy,” says K. Suresh Kumar, Working Committee member.
This year, the Ganesha will be 7ft tall and weigh a ton. The total height, including the cart and chapparam (chariot) will be 24ft. The 11-day festival will include Maharashtrian and Tamil customs — coconuts will be cracked, prasad will be distributed and, every afternoon, 2,000 people will be served a specially-cooked meal on plantain leaves. And in the evening, around 8.00 p.m., the cultural programmes will begin. The musicians and dancers, who would have travelled from Tamil Nadu, will perform karagattam, thapattam, oyilaatam and Bharatanatyam. And then there will be nadaswaram recitals, sorpozhivu , Tamil songs...
It’s not just a breathlessly long list; it also needs a big budget. For the 100th year function, the Sangh raised Rs. 60 lakhs. Annually, they cap it at Rs.15 to 20 lakhs. The first year (1913), the Ganesha was taken to the sea in a procession after three days. Now, it’s immersed on the 11th day; the idol will leave Dharavi at 11.00 a.m. lifted by 100 pairs of hands, onto the bullock cart; it will stop every few feet to accept the offerings of devotees; and it will reach the sea the next day at 5.00 a.m. One journey will end in the sea. But, inland, another which began over 100 years ago in Tamil Nadu will go on.
