As long as Durga Puja was confined to ritually marked spaces (or, thakur dalan) it was primarily worship and prayer and that would not have won it UNESCO’s recognition. It needed to move from rural to urban Bengal to acquire its current cultural expression replete with elaborate marquees (or pandals), food, theatres, films, and, most of all, fun.

Durga Puja transformed in stages. Initially, only the landed rich hosted these ceremonies and kept the riff-raff out. In the late 19th century, a group of Brahmins, insulted at not being invited, organised a semi-cooperative puja with a larger membership. But it was only after Durga Puja came to Kolkata in the early 20th century that it truly became a public festival.

It is this contemporary manifestation of Durga Puja that UNESCO was pleased to include as an intangible heritage. Though the puja caught UNESCO’s eye, Ganesh Chaturthi in Mumbai arouses as much joyful participation. Once again, this festival too gained in prominence after it moved from solemn ritual in the house of Peshwas to a public ground in Mumbai.1

This shift in venue from the homes of the privileged to public spaces would have been unthinkable, but for urbanisation. The unflinching grip of class and status that held rural folk loosened in the urban world. Now, past identities mattered less, allowing people to meet freely and anonymously. If there was a grip at all, it was a velcro one, easily adjustable.

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• 1. Bal Gangadhar Tilak first brought Ganesh Chaturthi to Girgaum, Mumbai, in 1893. He did it with the intention of firing public enthusiasm for the national movement and bridging caste divides. It was also a symbolic challenge to colonial authorities who placed restrictions on public gatherings. Needless to say, as urbanisation grew, so did Ganesh Chaturthi.