The Hindu : A family celebration goes public

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Apr 03, 2003

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A family celebration goes public

By Mahesh Vijapurkar

MUMBAI April 2 .This year, most Maharashtrian Hindu families here have decided to observe Gudi Padva, New Year according to the Hindu calendar — Ugadi in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka — as a public event, in a bid to provide an alternative to the robust all night parties that usher in the New Year on January 1.

In a region where the Shiv Sena has banned Valentine's Day, denouncing it as a vulgar, anti-Indian westernism, this move could well be the starting point of a stronger assertion of the `Hindu-ness'. It has received substantial response this year, so much so that it may soon rival the famed Ganapati festivals, marked by public celebrations, with the idols installed at virtually every street corner.

The day began with a number of processions, in which men and women were dressed in their finery.

The Shiv Sena took out a grand procession, with the bigwigs of the party participating. The processionists carried a stone on which Bal Thackeray normally breaks a coconut to mark the start of the poll campaign.

The party's argument is that, given the election successes, ``the stone has divine power.'' The Sena, to which Thackeray is an icon, made one out of his wife too. It erected a bust of Meena Thackeray in Shivaji Park after she died. No public meeting starts without a reverential reference to her ``benevolence.'' Now, it is the turn of the stone.

Gudi Padva is a day of celebrations, when families perform the pooja of a Gudi (a banner, actually), which is held in place by a bamboo stick covered with strips of ochre and white and topped with a silk cloth, and an upturned silver or brass vessel. It is adorned with fresh mango leaves and colourful flowers.

It is `raised' at the doors of the home and, in Mumbai and other cities, on the balconies.

Since some houses do not even have balconies, it peeps out of the window. It is intended to welcome the nature's bounty and the prosperity that it brings in its wake.

There is nothing public about it, except for the exchange of greetings. Now, all that is changing.

The new movement, as it were, commenced in 1999 in Panvel, a distant suburb of extended Mumbai. The day was greeted at sunrise. The argument was that new years do not begin at midnight, but at dawn, and certainly not on December 31. A procession was taken out that year, after each home put an elaborate, colourful rangoli at the doorstep. Panvel now has a tradition of the processions.

This year, several processions were organised in Mumbai itself. It has the support of quite a few Sangh Parivar entities. And those who have little to do with the Hindutva organisations too got into the spirit with gusto.

The odd one, of course, was the Sena's.

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