A woman from North Dorset is in Kolkata to see the build-up to what is possibly India’s biggest cultural festival.
The country director of British Council, Alison Barrett, had heard about Durga Puja for many years and wanted to get a first-hand sense of it. “It (Durga Puja) has got an amazing reputation of being one of the most intense, one of the most inclusive and one of the most creative festivals and I am looking forward to seeing some really incredible creativity...,” said Alison Barrett, director, India, British Council.
“I’ve heard about it (Durga Puja) for many years.... It’s a famous festival also in my country.... I am looking forward to experiencing it,” Barrett said on Wednesday afternoon.
Barrett drew a parallel between Durga Puja in Bengal with the carnivals in the UK, where she is back every summer. “We have carnivals in every community across the whole country. I am from a small village in south of England called North Dorset. Every village has a carnival every year. It’s a way that the community comes together,” said Barrett.
She described the carnivals being mobile and on trucks, that go through the streets.
A close parallel would be the immersion processions in Kolkata and the carnival on Red Road soon after the Puja, where the idols are placed on specially decked-out trucks.
While she upheld the diversity of India, she said different parts of the country have the same sense of warmth, hospitality and sense of engagement with history and heritage.
Barrett spoke about Durga Puja as a festival that draws tourists and tourism, boosts the economy and also as a way of “preserving indigenous heritage and cultural practices”. “I am assuming that people here are incredibly proud of the incredible festival, the artworks, the richness and the expertise that goes into it,” she said.
She expressed the British Council’s excitement around the Puja and its new-found international draw. Durga Puja of Kolkata was in 2021 inscribed on Unesco’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
“It’s one of the best-kept secrets in the world, but what we want to do working with partners in India is to reveal that secret so that more people know about it and more people come and experience the opportunities and the richness of the festival,” said Barrett.
She started off by taking a tour of some of the puja pandals in the city on Wednesday night. This is her second stint in India, the first being from 1997 to 2016.