While the remainder of India celebrates Diwali, West Bengal worships Kali. Yes, Durga Puja — the 10-day pageant that precedes Kali Puja by a number of weeks — has UNESCO’s intangible heritage standing; it will get worldwide consideration; it’s greater, glitzier and grander than every other pageant in Kolkata. But that is the goddess Kali’s stomping floor. English historian H.E.A. Cotton wrote “Kali, the patron saint of the town, is at Kalighat.” Kali has the town’s coronary heart. In reality, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who lives a stone’s throw from the Kalighat temple, is a famend devotee of the goddess.

Kali is the goddess of abandoned areas. She is worshipped at midnight. She seems bare and unashamed, unconcerned about what she is carrying. She suits no definition of a “good lady”.

And that’s the reason, at a time when Kolkata is gearing up for Kali Puja, the Chief Minister’s feedback following the rape of a medical pupil within the State are particularly galling.

“How did she come out [of the hostel] at 12:30 a.m.?” Banerjee stated, in keeping with media experiences. She stated whereas it was everybody’s proper to exit, “when and wherever they need to”, she cautioned non-public establishments like medical faculties to watch out. “Especially when it’s a woman little one, they shouldn’t be allowed to exit at night time.”

Her remarks have ignited a political firestorm. The opposition has accused her of sufferer blaming. Sadly, nearly no political celebration can declare ethical excessive floor in terms of blaming the sufferer of assault. Good women don’t keep out that late. Good women don’t costume like that. Good women don’t go round alone in abandoned areas. We have heard that chorus over and over.

When journalist Soumya Viswanathan was murdered in Delhi in 2008, then chief minister Sheila Dikshit stated, “All by herself until 3 a.m. at night time… you shouldn’t be so adventurous.” After a rape case in Gurugram in 2012, the town bosses stated ladies shouldn’t work after 8 p.m. If they needed to, they wanted to inform the labour division prematurely.

Never misplaced

At one time, Kali embarrassed me. I used to be then dwelling and dealing in California, the place Diwali often meant good desi meals and some sparklers within the yard at some Indian good friend’s home celebration.

When culturally acutely aware American buddies would want me Happy Diwali, I needed to inform them that I had actually grown up with Kali Puja, not Diwali, in Kolkata. Our native Kali Puja pandal got here up yearly exterior our bed room window. One yr, an errant firework set it ablaze and I bear in mind the flames leaving our home blackened and sooty. Next day, the goddess stood uncovered amidst the charred stays of the pandal. She didn’t look too misplaced. This, in spite of everything, is a goddess who’s as a lot at house in a crematorium as she is in the home of a devotee.

But Kali, blue or black, bare and fierce, tongue dripping blood, is way more durable to elucidate to westerners than the extra motherly Durga, a much more standard deity. So, I might simply smile and nod when folks wished me Happy Diwali.

Always on her personal phrases

Today, in Kolkata, I see Kali being slowly domesticated in our bhadralok neighbourhoods. She is commonly not bare anymore. She wears a white sari with a crimson border. White shola (pith) jewelry covers her nakedness. She is changing into extra family-friendly. And it’s true, Kali can be a mom goddess. She has an entire style of songs devoted to her, Shyamasangeet, that imagines her because the mom who’s as darkish because the night time. It’s a uncommon adoration in India of one thing that’s not “honest and beautiful”.

But Kali is a distinct form of mom determine than Durga who arrives together with her household in tow. Kali, kinetic and ecstatic, is awe-inspiring within the ferocity of her love. She takes no prisoners in her battle towards evil. She slew the demons Chanda and Munda and thus grew to become often called Chamunda. She is Chhinnamasta, who holds her personal severed head in her hand, the blood spurting out of her neck. She is not any silently struggling mom.

And we clearly want her now greater than ever. The clay lamps that usher in Diwali are fairly however greater than the rest, we want a Kali, unfettered and unapologetic, dwelling on her personal phrases.

It’s unusual irony then that the federal government of the State that worships her with such fervour ought to assume one of the simplest ways to maintain ladies secure is to impose a curfew on them. After all, lengthy earlier than ‘Take Back the Night’ grew to become a motion, Kali, bare, ferocious and shameless, took again the night time.

The author is the creator of Don’t Let Him Know, and likes to let everybody learn about his opinions, whether or not requested or not.

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