Kolkata’s Bonedi Bari Durga Pujas stick to ‘non-veg’; reject Bageshwar Baba’s ‘veg only’ push

Kolkata’s Bonedi Bari (aristocratic households) Durga Pujas, which have organised the festival for hundreds of years, have decided to stick to their original “non-vegetarian” traditions, rejecting Dhirendra Shastri or self-styled godman Bageshwar Baba’s “vegetarian only” push for Durga Pujas. 

With the Durga Pujas just a month away, the debate over veg and non-veg during Bengal’s biggest festival has reached its peak. However, the households that once ushered in Durga Puja in Kolkata do not agree with Bageshwar Baba’s diktat. 

“Ours is a 417-year-old Durga Puja; no man or Baba coming from outside will tell us what to do in our puja. Every religion has its own traditions; no one can tell us what we eat and what we wear. It is our fundamental right,” Srimant Roy Chowdhury, the 35^th generation of the Sabarna Roy Chowdhury family Durga Puja in south Kolkata’s Behala told The Hindu. 

Mr. Roy Chowdhury also added that their belief system and traditions are not so frivolous and shallow that they will fall apart because of the words of an “outsider“. 

Another Bonedi Bari puja in north Kolkata’s Sobhabajar area also said that their pujas will continue as per the traditions their ancestors have set. “She (Durga) is our Maa (mother), our goddess, our traditions. Why will we listen to someone who does not belong to these traditions?” Prabir Krishna Deb, the 8^th generation of Raja Naba Krishna Deb who started the popular Sobhabajar Rajbari Pujas. 

Mr. Krishna Deb belongs to the choto torof (younger side) of the family lineage whose pujas were started in 1790. He also added that though some of their offerings to Goddess Durga are vegetarian, they themselves do not shy away from eating non-vegetarian mutton and fish during the festivities. 

Another famous 220-year-old Bonedi Bari Durga Puja led by women is the Darjipara Mitra Bari Durga Puja in North Kolkata said that every land and its society has its own traditions, and one must do things accordingly. “We will stick to our traditions. We offered non-vegetarian food to Maa (Durga) on every day of the festival other than Ashtami (eighth day), and we will continue to do so. We have our own rituals and ways; why will we borrow new rules?” Anushua Mitra, a sixth-generation flagbearer of the pujas, said. 

In many of these old Durga Pujas, animal sacrifice was a common practice, and the meat of the sacrificed animals was always used as the offerings to the goddess. Over the years, though animal sacrifice has been stopped in all these pujas due to change in laws, they still offer non-vegetarian food to the goddess and keep the traditional methods of the festivities alive in a new format. 

The comments by Bageshwar Baba at a religious event in West Bengal’s Howrah have sparked many debates across Bengal’s political and household circles. He said that he is offended by the “dirty” food (non-veg) that is made in Bengal during Durga Puja and Navratri. “People who eat such food are not religious; they are pakhandis (hypocrites),” Bageshwar Baba, who is also the chief priest of Bageshwar Dham had said. 

His comments came a week ago, and since then Bengal has seen heated political mud-slinging and social media wars over the veg and non-veg issue. Many netizens have also taken to social media to make jokes and reels where they show themselves eating non-veg food during the Durga Pujas, gathering massive views.