From The Latest Issue: The Ichamati River’s Durga Immersion Ritual

On that bank is India, and on this Bangladesh; so to whom does the Ichamati river belong? A young boy asks his mother this question at the beginning of the 2017 Bengali film "Bishorjon." The boy is going with his father to witness the famous ritual of Durga idol immersion—called bishorjon in Bengali—in the river, on the border of the two nations. He asks his mother to come along, but she refuses. As the film’s opening credits start rolling, the audience is treated to an elaborate, documentary-style sequence of the immersions on the last day of Durga Puja. This famous ritual draws hundreds of people from both nations every year. As the restrictions are eased, the borders become fluid, somewhat like the river itself.

“Anyone who has witnessed the immersion of Durga idols in the Ichamati on the last day of the puja will remember what a wonderful ceremony it is,” Kaushik Ganguly, the movie's director, told me over the phone recently. “Though it is a Hindu ceremony, Hindus and Muslims from both nations come to take part in it. People meet at the border, exchange greetings and sweets. I think that’s quite remarkable.”

Though the tradition of idol immersion in the river is possibly much older, the cross-border joie de vivre dates back to the 1970s. An Indian keen to witness the ritual can visit the border town of Taki, about a two-hour drive from Kolkata, on Dashami, the last day of the four-day-long Durga Puja. This year, the festival is scheduled for late September.

Though Taki has colonial-era architecture, a Dutch cemetery and newly constructed resorts, it really comes alive for the immersion ceremony. Across the river, residents of Satkhira in Bangladesh also prepare for this day. Durga idols are placed on boats and taken to the mid-river international border. Waving and greeting each other, devotees from both nations immerse their idols in the waves of the Ichamati, even as they cry out: “Asche bochchor abar hobe! (It will happen again next year!)”

“I believe the Ichamati waits for the festival too, just to witness the human bonding of the common people beyond the physical borders,” said Ganguly. The Ichamati is a distributary of the complex Ganga-Padma river system in India and Bangladesh. Originating from the Mathabhanga river, in the Nadia district of West Bengal, the river flows through the North 24 Parganas before entering Bangladesh. It re-enters India downstream, eventually discharging into the Kalindi river near the Hasnabad village, about 70 km east of Kolkata. The villages and towns on both banks of the 200-km-long course of the river are highly populated, according to geographers Madhab Mondal and Lakshminarayan Satpati, in a 2018 paper.

Till the early 2000s, the residents were given a free pass on the day of the immersions to go to the other side. They could meet their friends and relatives, buy products unavailable in their nations, and return home at sundown. However, now the border patrolling has become stricter; the Indian side has erected watchtowers. Fears of cross-border terrorism and the political rhetoric around illegal migration have somewhat dampened the bonhomie in the border town. The day of the festival, however, brings a temporary relief from the strict restrictions.

Beyond Borders, With Love

The narrative of "Bishorjon," which was judged the best Bengali film of the year at the 64th National Film Awards in 2017, also goes beyond the limitations of manmade borders through an inter-religious and cross-national love story. In the film, Padma (Jaya Ahsan), a Hindu widow from Bangladesh, finds an Indian man (Abir Chakraborty) washed up on the banks of the Ichamati on the day after the ritual of Durga idol immersions. The man’s name is Nasir Ali, and he is a smuggler. Trying to escape from Bangladesh’s border security forces, he had fallen into the river and sustained injuries. Finding refuge in Padma’s house, Nasir pretends to be her cousin and takes on a Hindu name.

Religion and nationality are, however, not the only differences between them. “His language and diction are also different,” said Ganguly. “He speaks in the Bengali dialect, which is more common in West Bengal than Bangladesh.” Unlike Nasir, most of the other characters in the film, including Padma, speak in a dialect of Bengali, often referred to as bangal bhasha, which is more common in Bangladesh.

“I find bangal bhasha really sweet and attractive,” said Ganguly. “It has a rhythm, a cadence, which is very striking. It is almost like a folk song. I’m attracted to the ornamentation and the tune of the language, and I have used that in my film several times.” In "Bishorjon," Ganguly’s character Ganesh Mondal, a rich and influential trader in the village who wants to marry Padma, also speaks in this dialect.

These demarcations—or borders—of nationality, religion, languages and dialects, however, cannot restrict the flow of nature or love. “A fish in the Ichamati does not follow any border and swims freely,” said Ganguly. “A bird can fly easily to Bashirhat (in West Bengal), perch on the branch of a tree and then fly back to Bangladesh without caring for the border. Where exactly is the border demarcation in the river or the sky?” Though restricted by such borders, humans, too, can transcend them through love. “A person from this side of the border can fall in love with someone on the other side without breaking the physical barriers of the countries,” said Ganguly. “That is the inspiration for the story of my film.” Padma and Nasir Ali, too, fall in love with each other, ignoring all their differences and borders.

Festive Transgressions

And yet, borders are everywhere in our world. American geographer Joshua Hagen defines borders as “lines dividing distinct political, social, or legal territories.” However, he also highlights that borders and bordering are processes that continue to be negotiated around the world, through forces such as globalisation, migration, conflict and climate change. “The abolition of borders is among the more visionary of political demands to have gained traction in 21st-century radical circles,” writes anthropologist Stephen Campbell. “(B)order abolitionism calls for undoing the apartheid-creating functions of border regimes, and for building a world where militarised border controls are redundant.”

Festivals, such as the immersion of Durga idols in the Ichamati, are also occasions for such transgressions. Scholars studying festivals across disciplines describe them as liminal events, with a beginning and an end, encompassing both spectacular and carnivalesque elements.

While spectacles are imposed from above, carnivals are bottom-up transgressions that threaten to turn the world upside down. A festival that allows the ritualistic opening up of the borders between India and Bangladesh also transgresses the manmade demarcations of nations, religions, languages and dialects—albeit temporarily. Even for a few hours, humans are able to go to the forbidden other banks of the river, wearing their festive clothes, playing drums and cymbals, and meeting their neighbours and strangers. At the end of the festival, everyone must return to their bank, as the borders are reaffirmed.

“The Partition of the two countries was obviously political, but it was also done on the basis of religion,” said Ganguly. “Though religion should be a personal matter, it is often used to divide the population. We can only try through films—and other art forms­—to diffuse the bitterness created by these borders and restrictions.” However, Ganguly remains a little sceptical about the affective power of films. “What change can a film make in society?” he said. “After what has been happening for the last few years, I strongly believe that any art can touch a few hearts, perhaps; that’s it. It cannot change the world.”

Maybe true in our increasingly uncertain world, where festivals and art possibly provide the only refuge from the relentless regime of borders.

Uttaran Das Gupta is an independent writer and journalist

FAQs

Q1. What is the significance of Durga idol immersion in the Ichamati River?
The immersion, or visarjan, symbolises the departure of Goddess Durga after her annual visit. On the Ichamati River, it holds special meaning as devotees from India and Bangladesh jointly participate, transcending national borders.

Q2. Where is the Ichamati River located?
The Ichamati River flows along the India–Bangladesh border, separating West Bengal’s North 24 Parganas district from Bangladesh’s Satkhira region.

Q3. How does the film Bishorjon relate to this ritual?
Kaushik Ganguly’s Bishorjon uses the border region and the Durga immersion ritual as metaphors for cross-border love, compassion, and the shared cultural identity of Bengal.

Q4. When was Bishorjon released, and what recognition did it receive?
Bishorjon was released in 2017 and won the National Film Award for Best Bengali Film for its sensitive portrayal of humanity across borders.

Q5. What message does the Ichamati immersion convey?
The ritual signifies that faith, culture, and emotion cannot be confined by boundaries — embodying a rare moment of unity between two nations.

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