Celebrating Chhath

Festivals have a way of uniting people, combining myth, ritual and community. Festivals, like business cycles, have their highs and lows, some reinventing themselves in fascinating ways and acquiring a political clout no one dreamed of.

The Ganesh festival is one such event. While it was observed from the 12th century, it was reinvented in 1892 when Bal Gangadhar Tilak created its modern face. What was once a private household ritual now acquired a public face, making it the ritual of the Maratha people. Tilak turned it into a community event, where subscriptions were collected for the worship of larger idols. Community involvement and public worship became the order of the day. Tilak’s vision was of a national festival, which emphasised political consciousness.

Few remember that it was out of the Ganesh festival that the Paisa Glass Fund emerged, creating the beginnings of the glass industry. Public subscriptions helped start one of the great Swadeshi industries. In fact, the Ganesh festival was seen as a threat by the colonial regime, which saw in it the carnivals of inversion that could challenge colonial authority. The festival continues today, providing a melodramatic edge to many martial virtues.

What the Ganesh festival was in the colonial era, the Chhath festival became in the first decades of the 21st century.

Chhath is a primordial festival, going back over 2,000 years, celebrated mostly in Bihar and neighbouring areas. It erupted into national consciousness as migration from Bihar acquired epidemic proportions and Biharis became important in the cities of Kolkata, Delhi and Ahmedabad. Once ignored as parochial, it has now caught the national imagination.

The anthropologist KS Singh has pointed out that basically Chhath is the best-known folk festival. Centring around the sun, it is celebrated six days after Deepavali. Singh sees an ecological and geographic context to Chhath. Firstly, it celebrates the paddy harvest. Second, geographically it is celebrated in regions on both sides of the Ganga river. As a result, Chhath is seen as doubly life-giving, it is a homage to the sun and the Ganga river. Singh, in fact, feels that to the common man this is the greatest of all festivals. Interestingly, there is something both democratic and life-giving about Chhath.

Chhath is unique in many ways. It is not a classical festival related to a particular community. It goes beyond any particular group to a general participation by the community. Men and women participate equally in it. Priestly intervention is rarely required. The ritual is austere and offerings are simple — gur (jaggery) and a roti made of freshly harvested paddy, a sugarcane stalk and a few vegetables will suffice. It also goes beyond caste barriers, uniting a caste-ridden Bihar. The sun is therapeutic and shines equally on all, blissfully indifferent to caste. Even Muslims have a tradition of celebrating Chhath.

Chhath has now come to prominence as a Bihari festival. Once a part of the urban backstage, the Bihari-as-migrant today is a dominant force recreating the urban landscape and imagination in many cities. Originally, Biharis were dismissed as an underclass of labourers, autorickshaw drivers and chowkidars, peppered with a few bureaucrats. Today, in a demographic sense, the Biharis are a powerful political force. Someone as politically acute as Amit Shah recognised the importance of Chhath. Ahmedabad in fact had two festivals, one enacted by powerful VIPs and another by resident Biharis, both at the much-touted riverfront.

Chhath is a signal for migration. Weeks ahead, Biharis, like homing birds, start returning home. Trains are packed and over two-million migrants return home. The festival is one that every migrant would like to celebrate with her or his family.

Today the Bihari diaspora celebrates it proudly. Even abroad, it began as a private family event and graduated to a public festival. Today, thanks to efforts of successful Biharis, Chhath is celebrated on the banks of the Potomac river. One no longer needs a plastic tub to perform the ritual in private. The Potomac now has shades of the Ganges.

It is the politics of Chhath, its eruption into the national consciousness that is fascinating. It marks the rise of the Bihari, but more importantly it shows the success of migration and the manner in which migration adds not just to the labour force but also the religious and cosmic imagination of India. Chhath marks the rise of the Bihari as a potent force in national politics. The Bihari is no longer seen merely as an epithet of abuse, a shadow citizen in urban areas. Between two festivals, electoral democracy and Chhath, one senses the power of a great migratory community. It is a reason to join the celebration.

( Shiv Visvanathan is a professor at Jindal School of Government and Public Policy )

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