Behind Nakhoda Masjid and a few steps away from Krishna cinema in Chitpore in central Kolkata, there is the office and storehouse of Drolia Colour and Cosmetics. At the entrance, there are rickshaw pullers stacking cartons. There are traces of red powder everywhere — on the floor, on the walls, on the large wooden door, along the dark passageway leading to the staircase that goes up. The stairs are red, the railings are red.

The office of Vikas Drolia, owner of Drolia Colour and Cosmetics, is stacked with sindoor. The factory is in south Kolkata. Drolia tells The Telegraph, “Sindoor sells all year round. It is a part of our daily existence.”

The Centre has listed the manufacture of sindoor as a small-scale industry. It is an unorganised sector, but the entire sector is worth Rs 200 crore. The BJP government has also declared sindoor a GST-free product.

Continues Drolia, “While it is used in households for daily puja, the sale of sindoor is maximum during Durga Puja in Bengal, during Savitri Puja in Odisha and during Chhat in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.” Drolia also exports sindoor to Nepal and Bangladesh. “In Nepal, men wear sindoor,” he says.

There is something to be said about the cult of the sindoor — it keeps growing and not necessarily championed by women. The Hindutva brigade uses it as a marker, it is of use in temples and festivities, of course, and scriptwriters of TV soaps seem to have taken it upon themselves to popularise it — the accidental tilt and spill of the sindoor thali is considered the height of romance, with divine consent too.

But when did sindoor become sindoor as it is used today? Turns out, there are no clear answers.

Chaitali Dasgupta, 68, who is a TV anchor and newsreader from the 1980s, says, “I do not like the way sindoor is promoted through television serials. These serials are watched by people across demographics and classes. They simply overdo a simple practice. From being a simple marker of marriage, it has become a sign of protection from the society at large,” she says.

The account of Meena, a domestic help from Baruipur, enforces what Dasgupta said. Meena says, “In our village sindoor, shankha and pala are a must. No one will drink water from us if we do not wear those. Also, once you start wearing sindoor, it gives you the licence to conduct yourself in a certain way. Just think: I can go with my male partner to the cinema or talk to other males on the road without any fear if I have sindoor in my head, no one will ask or criticise. But if I do not wear sindoor, they will call me names and abuse me. Village elders pass judgements without a second thought.”

Sanskrit scholar and Indologist Nrisingha Prasad Bhaduri says, “There is no reference to the sindoor in the Vedas, Upanishads, Ramayana or Mahabharata. If there is any mention of sindoor in these texts now, then we have to understand that they are later interpolations.”

Bhaduri adds, “We do find the word sindoor in the Puranas but in the description of Ganesh’s complexion. The word sindoorarun has been used; sindoor means red and arun means the sun. Together it would mean that Ganesh had a rosy complexion.”

According to Bhaduri, the sindoor did not start out as a marker of marriage. He argues that neither in Purohit Darpan or Kriya Kando Bidhi, the texts referred to for pujas, there exists any particular mantra for sindoor daan or the ritual offering of sindoor by the bridegroom to the bride.

Leena Gangodpadhyay, who is the chairman of the West Bengal Women Commission, says, “This is a regressive practice of a patriarchal society. It is a way of binding women into customs which mean nothing,” she says and adds, “If sindoor is so powerful, then how do women become widows? The worst part is, the moment she loses her husband, she is deprived of all colours.” Gangodpadhyay has written many Bengali television serials.

BJP leader Agnimitra Paul wears sindoor. She says, “I look beautiful. It is a Hindu custom and I abide by it. Wearing or not wearing sindoor is a personal choice. I should not be judged for it.”

Vikas Drolia is not driven by any ism, just good old business sense. He says, “Sindoor is in fashion and will remain so for many more years to come. We have been making pink and magenta sindoor. I am sure that day isn’t far when women will want to apply green and blue sindoor to match their glamorous saris.”