Pride of Baghbazar

Baghbazar Sarbojanin Durgotsav & Exhibition

The history of BAGBAZAR SARBOJONIN DURGOTSAB AND EXHIBITION is an inseparable part of the history and progress of Bengali culture for near about a century it has seen all the transitions and critical periods of history during this long enriched span of time.We can divide this glorious history in two very distinguished parts; the first period is from 1919 to 1930 and 1930 onwards. In 1919 first time it was celebrated by the people Bagbazar at Sarkar-House, 55,Bagbazar Street at the junction of Nebubagan Lane and Bagbazar Street and it was named as “Nebubagan Baroyari Durga-puja”. It was continued in that very place for more three years. In 1924 it was shifted at the junction of Bagbazar Street and Pashupati Bose Lane. Next year it was placed at Kantapukur and in 1927 it tookplace in the Bagbazar Kali-temple.In 1926 with the remarkable effort of renowned social worker Nagendra Nath Ghoshal some of the erudites and other well-known people joined the organization and it took the shape of an proper organization. He is also the person who gave the name of the organization too.In 1929 for the occasion of the puja an exhibition took place.In 1930 alder-man of Calcutta Municipal Corporation Durgacharan Bandyopadhyay was elected as the president of this organization and he continued the exhibition in bigger form in the consequences of independence movements and Swadeshi concepts ; even he renamed the organization as BAGBAZAR SARBOJONIN DURGOTSAB AND EXHIBITION. For the required space to organize the exhibition he selected this very place where the “Durganagar” of today is situated. This place was known as “Metal-Yard” formerly, and it used to the storage of Calcutta Corporation’s road-repair department. Durgacharan Bandyopadhyay requested the Mayor of Calcutta Netaji Subhash Ch. Bose then to requested the Mayor of Calcutta Netaji Subhash Ch. Bose then for the due permission. Mr. Bose approved his request and agreed for a historical joint exhibition with the participation of Corporation and this fellow organization together. He also donated five hundred rupees to this organization.From 1930 itself the inaugural and closing ceremony of the occasion over here is a very integral and important part and an innumerable fellow persona had their presence in these occasion. The inauguration takes place on the shukla-panchami of the month of Ashwina where as the closing ceremony takes place on the day of the sublimation of Goddess Laxmi. Dignitaries like Santosh Kr. Basu, Netaji Subhash Ch. Bose,Acharya Prafulla Ch. Roy, Sir Harishankar Pal and others put that occasion to a different height. In 1938-1939 this organization was privileged by the active participation of Netaji Subhash Ch Bose as the president. Besides of Puja-s two more occasion that has given a different identity to this celebration over here are Birashtami Utsab in the morning of Mahastami and the Sindur-Utsab in the morning of Bijaya Dashami. Patriot Pulin Das the renowned member of Anusulan Samity used to be present in the occasion of Birastami till when he was physically unable to join it.After the connection with Swadeshi Movement the organization had a different importance and people from around and outside the city started to visit the celebration in a great extent and this celebration ultimately came as the celebration of people… From the late ninties the organization tried to move the higher authority for converting the metal yard to a parmanent park under the controll of this organization. With the help of some other important dignitarias ultimately in the initial years of this decade the dream came true though the present committee negotiating with the authority for having the independent charge of maintaining this park. We are hopeful to have all the charge of this park soon and to keep on with our tradition longer.


For details, plz visit the official website of Baghbazar Sarbojonin
www.bsde.org