The process of changes in religious, social, economic, political and cultural fields tried to disrupt stable traditional culture in colonial India. The intentional change in social and religious outlooks and customs advocated by reformers tried to secure cultural and religious ethos by trying to create a set of new rituals and customs suitable for the newly emerging middle class.
The improvement of the festival of “Shamangha” which was celebrated with tremendous enthusiasm in the Bombay Presidency for five days, attracted a lot of attention from social and political leaders in Maharashtra.
The “shimaga” was like Holi where an bonfire was burnt, and men and children had shaken each other with colors. In the nineteenth century, customs such as misuse and consumption of alcohol infiltrated the festivals and efforts were made to sanctify the festival in line with the character of the middle class of progressivism.
On the morning of March 12, 1925, Holkar Ali, Vishnu Voman Ketkar, a resident of Pune, was waiting for his guests. He invited children and men to celebrate “Shamangla” with them. His wife prepared an excellent spread of “Laddu”, “Karanji”, and sweet milk. There was also sugarcane juice.
Katekar was upset with the way the festival was celebrated. To burn “Holi”, beds and doors were stolen for wood. Trees were cut in the middle of the night. Each other was hurt by pornography. The men got drunk and harassed the women.
Last year, he invited the children to his house after the festival and requested them not to be a part of the “disgusting practices” associated with the festival. Stealing and being drunk was not religious, he told them.
To keep the children away from “temptation”, Katekar invited him to his home that year, where he organized some sports and snacks. A fund of 7 was collected, some of them were coming from children. Ketkar managed to convince the Brahmin families to invite some non-Brahmin children and men from “Hamalwara”. He also invited a nature worker to talk to his guests.
Like every year, bootleygers from the villages around Pune camped in the city a month before “Shamanaga”. On April 19, 1925, the Marathi Daily “Daninaprakash” reported that the sale of liquor during the festival week had made sufficient profit for bootleygers to last one year. No wonder, every year, there were strong demands to ban the sale of liquor during the festival.
The Marathi -English newspaper “Dnyanodaya” called Maharashtra’s “intellectuals and nobles” to take steps to eradicate vulgarity in ceremonies. The Marathi newspaper “Induprakash” suggested in 1886 that educated men from Mumbai and Pune should meet together on “Shamangia” and discuss topics of importance on tea and coffee cups. They were urged to install an example to follow “others”.
During the “Shamanghana”, “Holika Reform Committee” was established in Mumbai and Pune in 1880 to bring reforms against drinking and drug consumption.
To keep the children away from alcohol, the idea of serving milk or sugarcane juice during the festival was considered by a colleague of Sitaram Ganesh Devdar, Gopal Ganesh Aggarkar and the Principal of New English School, Satara. He began “Shagman Saraman” in his school in the early 1900s.
Initially, “native” sports such as KHO-KHO, swimming and tug of war were held for boys. Later Elocution and Recation competitions became a part of the incident. Satara and other schools in Pune soon started participating in the event. Donations were collected for snacks, milk and sugarcane juice during two days of competitions.
At Teachers Training College, an bonfire was burnt. Students of Pune used to bring food from their homes to everyone. He recited poems and sang patriotic songs. He ate around the bonfire and spent the night in college. The next day, “Purana Poli” feast for students and their teachers.
In the early 1930s, the flag hoisting became a part of the ceremony. College students took out a procession in the city and gathered in Seth Amichand’s bungalow near the railway station. Speeches promoting nature were given. Nature was considered important for the Indian independence movement.
At the same time, the girls were included in the “shimba” competitions. Running and skipping competitions were organized for him. In 1936, at the Huzurpaga Girls School, Education Minister Shri T Thumbare, the dawn said that the festival of “Shagmana” excluded women and there was a good opportunity to promote such competitions about health.
For the Nationalist Reform Movement in Maharashtra in the twentieth century, “Women’s Health” was translated into “maternal health”. A healthy mother was important for “nation building” and “shy” competitions were used to preach girls to serve the nation by equipping girls to keep themselves healthy. They were advised to drink milk to make good mothers.
In the early 1940s, some objections about children spending a few days spent in the heat of March due to the Second World War, while the annual examinations reached the schools, the schools left the “shimpnant” competitions.
But for the militarization of Hindu youth, the clamor created several sports clubs and gymnasiums, such as the Hindu Seva Mandal in Kamathipura, joined the movement for “clean and pure” “shimba” in the 1930s. These institutions organized sports competitions for boys and men and promoted drinking milk instead of alcohol.
While most individuals and organizations criticized vulgarity during the “shimbla” celebrations, some people such as “Academic Division” in 1935 appealed not to celebrate the festival for environmental reasons. In a press release, it was said that five crore farmers in India were “inhuman” to burn wood when they died of hunger.
Such appeals were found with ridicule and ridicule by most men. Dattatre Hari Bhat, a noted lawyer and a member of the Health Board of Poona Municipality, wrote in “Dnyanaprakash” in March 1926 that he knew many men who did not like “pornographic activities” associated with “Shamanghana”, but take oath to take oath, and wood out of the need for religious customs.
Bhat met Mr. P. APTe, President of Pune Municipality last year, with a proposal to celebrate “Phalgunotsav”. It was to celebrate the arrival of spring. People were waiting for spring after ending the rainy season and cold for eight months and when it came, they welcomed it with enthusiasm, Bhat said.
Apte had a public meeting, where people had voiced their complaints about misconduct, hooliganism and arson during the “shimba”. Street lamps were broken, garbage coaches were overturned, and dirt was thrown into their homes.
“Falgunotsav” was to include the “entertainment program”. Bhat wanted the municipalities to serve the juices and snacks of the attendees. The parks and gardens were to be kept open throughout the day so that the family could organize a picnic and the dinner is “surrounded by nature”. But this initiative never closed, even though Apte accepted the proposal.
When no one showed at his house, Katekar went out to see what was going on. His guests, children and men around, were busy celebrating the festival by throwing dirt and ash at each other. He was told by the father and grandfather of the children that it was the responsibility of the younger generation to continue the tradition set by his ancestors. For him, playing games during “Shamangata” was to drink and drink milk and drink sugarcane juice, which means to eliminate religion.
They abused her. Given that his parents were in favor of celebrating the festival in a “traditional” manner, the children also misused him.
Katekar lost in the house. In a letter written to “Dnyanaprakash” on 18 March 1925, Katekar narrated his ordinance. He expressed his disappointment, but the children and men assured to keep trying until “sophisticated” was celebrated in a “sophisticated” manner. He promised that he would write to the newspaper after being successful.
I have not received that letter in the newspaper archives.
