Ganeshotsav in Mumbai: Redevelopment leaves old chawls struggling to keep traditions alive

Ganeshotav is missing the community feel as chawls go into redevelopment. PICS/SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

For generations of Mumbaikars, Ganeshotsav was never just about bringing home Ganapati.

It was more about coming together as a community - an idea established by Lokmanya Balgangadhar Tilak. But over time, what was to bring us together began to tear us apart as the festival became about competing for the best, the tallest and the most expensive mandal.

[popcorn number="1893" desc="Year of 1st sarvanjik mandal" class="Default"]

Fortunately, some old housing complexes still continue to practice Tilak's ethos - there are hundred-year-old chawls that kept the pure form of sarvajanik Ganeshtosav intact with intimate and homely celebrations alive.

A scene from Mahindra Complex before re-development

The battle between community and commodification re-development of chawls and old buildings has made it hard to practice the former - leaving behind the "sarvajanik" Ganeshotsav in shrinking courtyards.

The narrow passage outside a chawl that would once transform into a bustling mandap, with hundreds of families contributing to the celebrations, children gathering for games, teenagers organising cultural programmes and playing carrom/antakshari at night, elders sitting together in the evenings and neighbours who could barely meet through the year spending 10 days celebrating as one community - has all taken a back seat.

From huge mandap to sales office

For decades, the residents of Mahindra Complex in Borivali East would come together to celebrate Ganeshotsav. What used to be a month-long community activity is now restricted to "ganpati sthapana" in the sales office of the developer who has taken up the redevelopment project for the society.

There are hardly any residents in the Mahindra Complex after the redevelopment

"Earlier, Ganpati meant the whole complex coming together. Everyone had duties - collecting donations, decorating the mandap, organising programmes or simply sitting there together. There used to be a healthy competition of which wing gives the maximum donation or who gives the craziest possible idea for mandap décor, or who suggests the weirdest game for elders," he said.

Labour was delegated too, "The everyday prasad would be cooked by different families. So even that used to be exciting - to see who cooks the most delicious and most innovative prasad. All that has disappeared now. In fact for the last two years, apart from a few committee members who go and do pooja at the sales office because that's ‘shastra' nothing happens," said Akanksha Kadam.

Lucky to have another year at same location

Keshavji Chawl, famous for being the first one to have started the sarvajanik Ganeshotsav celebrations in the city, thought that last year's celebration of their 133rd sarvajanik Ganeshotsav would have been their last year before the redevelopment works begin.

Keshavji Chawl, famous for being the first one to have started the sarvajanik Ganeshotsav might be on the precipice of redevelopment as welll this year. FILE PIC/ASHISH RAJE

But, members said that they will celebrate their chawl this year too as the redevelopment works have not begun yet. "Though we are all a bit upset about our redevelopment proposal not progressing, it also gives us some happiness that one more year we can celebrate our Ganeshotsav in the same way as we have been doing for the last 133 years at our own chawl. But again, maybe this year will be our last year to do so," said Gaurav Tendulkar.

Spot where Gaodevi & JK Tower Girgaon festival would be celebrated after redevelopment

From one galli to another

Meanwhile, some have still managed to keep the enthusiasm and celebration at a similar level. The members of Gaodevi and JK Tower of Grant Road have shifted their sarvajanik Ganpati celebrations from between building number 8 and 9 near JK Tower to the corner of neighbouring lane opposite Goregaonkar Wadi.

Gaodevi & JK Tower Girgaon residents before re-development

"We have shifted the location and still organise the same games and programmes. But as people have shifted their homes from this area to other faraway locations, the size of the crowd that once gathered for all arrangements and celebrations has reduced by a big margin. Only a few of us have continued doing everything. And now that gradually all buildings in Gaodevi are going for redevelopment, we do not know for how long we can keep making such arrangements," said Vaibhav Malkar.

From humble mandap to someone's home

The 144 families residing at four chawls (Lakshmibai Chawl, Premji Nancy Chawl, Khare Chawl and Mulchand Lalji Chawl) celebrated their 75th year of Girgaon's Char Chalincha Utsav (curated by the Morya Sarvajanik Shree Ganesh Mandal) after requesting the developer and taking consent from all members in the year 2023. It has been two years since they have been celebrating the festival on a very small scale.

The Chaar Chalincha Utsav Girgaon before it went to redevelopment in 2023

"The celebration has been inherited with love, the practice where we would build a beautifully decorated mandap in the passage available between our four chawls has been transferred to our small house in Girgaon where we have shifted for the temporary period of redevelopment.

Here there are no games, no jagrans, no interactive sessions, no cultural programs, no assembling the mandap or decorating Bappa ," said Saurabh Navare.