In 1926, Prabodhankar and social reformers Raobahadur Sitaram Keshav Bole and Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar demanded that non-Bramhins should also be involved in worshipping Lord Ganesha in the public celebrations at Dadar which was monopolised by Brahmins.
Located in a by lane near the busy Shiv Sena Bhawan Chowk at Dadar, the Navratri pandal at Khandke building symbolises the rebellion by feisty social reformer ‘Prabodhankar’ Keshav Sitaram Thackeray, father of Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray, who started the public celebration of Navratri to counter the upper caste dominated celebration of Ganeshotsav.
In 1926, Prabodhankar and social reformers Raobahadur Sitaram Keshav Bole and Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar demanded that non-Bramhins should also be involved in worshipping Lord Ganesha in the public celebrations at Dadar which was monopolised by Brahmins. As a compromise, it was decided that Ambedkar’s close associate and Dalit activist Ganpat Mahadeo Jadhav aka Madkebua will be allowed to give flowers to the Bramhin priest as offerings to the Lord.
In his autobiography, Prabodhankar, a fiery writer, notes that the agitation led to the Dadar Sarvajanik Ganesh Utsav being stopped by sections of the obscurantist upper caste society who were afraid that such incidents would be repeated. This led to allegations that Prabodhankar had stopped the celebrations.
Prabodhankar, along with Bole, decided to start celebrating Navratri which was being celebrated with gusto across Maharashtra earlier but had fallen into the backdrop during the Peshwa rule when Ganesha worship took precedence. Bal Gangadhar Tilak later revived Ganesha worship through public celebrations. The Shiv Bhawani Navratri Mahotsav was hence started in Dadar.
Journalist Sachin Parab, who is the editor of www.prabodhankar.com, a documentation of Prabodhankar’s life and work pointed out that Prabodhankar started the first public celebration of Navratri in an effort to democratise religion. He added that after Prabodhankar shifted to Karjat, it carried on in Khandke building.
Incidentally, Prabodhankar too stayed in Khandke building for a while. Parab pointed out that Prabodhankar was a proponent of pro-Bahujan Hindutva as opposed to the upper cast dominated variant.
At the Khandke buildings, mandal treasurer Prafulla Potnis proudly says they have stuck to the festival’s cultural ethos. “We do not dance or throw gulal in the procession,” he said. Potnis said the Thackeray family has kept its association with the mandal alive. Shiv Sena executive president Uddhav Thackeray and his family visit the pandal regularly.
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