Aizawl Durga puja turns 101

The Hindu community of about 7,000 people has continued to gather as part of the Hindustan Club first celebrated the festival in 1904.

Celebration of Durga Puja among Mizoram's small Hindu community in this predominantly Christian state turned 101 this year. Although Christianity has brought about a near total transformation of Mizo society, the Hindu community of about 7,000 people has continued to gather as part of the Hindustan Club that first celebrated the festival in 1904.

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"Our celebrations may lack the pomp and splendour of the pujas held in the big cities and towns in other states, but our puja is observed traditionally and religiously," said club president P Chakraborty.

According to Chakraborty, it was in 1904 when four civilian employees of the 1st Assam Rifles battalion stationed here celebrated the puja in their complex along with some of others of the community. Inspired by the occasion, they then decided to form a club to carry on with the celebrations annually.

"I enjoyed my first Durga Puja in Aizawl in 1967, which was organised by the same Hindustan Club under the presidentship of then deputy superintendent of police Nirmal Kanti Datta," SR Choudhury, a retired IAS officer, who has been here for 38 years, said. The five-day festival is celebrated every year in Sakthi Mandir, constructed by the club in the 1950s. The immersion takes place to the beating of drums and cymbals in the Sairang river on 13th of October.