Thread by @dhavalkulkarni

While #GaneshUtsav is celebrated across #Maharashtra & India, few know that the genesis of these public celebrations lie in the communal conflict that happened in the late 19th century.
#LokmanyaTilak #Ganapati #Muharram #Hindu #Muslim #Pune #Mumbai #GaneshChaturthi #Tilak

In August 1893, there was a massive communal riot around the Hanuman Temple at Pydhonie in #Mumbai. The #Marathi textile mill workers entered the fray, and the violence intensified. The army was summoned, but more riots were reported from places like Raver and Yeola.

As @BharGo8 notes: Before industrialisation, #Mumbai was a #Hindu minority city. The demographics changed due to the influx of the Marathi workers from the Konkan after the launch of the textile mills. The 1893 riots (not those in 1992-93) changed the social fabric of #Mumbai

#Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak, the editor of Kesari and Mahratta, took up cudgels for the Hindus. Though it seemed that #Tilak was opposing the Muslims, his real fight was with the British, as he was challenging its ‘divide-and-rule’ politics.

The aggressive espousal of the Hindu cause widened Tilak’s influence beyond the conservative Brahmins and created a constituency for him in the non-Brahmin working classes & the Gujarati & Marwari merchants in #Mumbai.

1894 saw communal tensions in #Pune. Then, Muharram was the most popular festival in the Bombay presidency. In the early 19th century, #Tilak's Pune had around 181 taboots and panjas with people across caste and religious denominations celebrating it, notes @GodboleSandeep

The taboots were also installed in the wadas (mansions) of prominent and aristocratic families like the Rastes, Khasgiwales and Kunjirs as also at Shukrawar wada built by Bajirao-II

There is a photograph of Tilak participating in a Muharram procession (1892). Muharram was marked by Hindus even in those villages without a single Muslim resident in places like Mudhol in present-day #Karnataka

The wrestler Bhikobadada Agashe would perform the lezim before the taziya procession of the Ghodepir dargah in Pune. The communal tensions ended this synthesis with Hindus refusing to commemorate Muharram. In 1894, taboots in Pune fell to just 50-75 compared to around 400 in 1893

In 1894, Tilak promoted the celebration of Ganesh utsav, which soon replaced Muharram in its popularity. The festival was celebrated even earlier at 3 places in Pune by Annasaheb Khasgiwale, Bhausaheb Rangari & Ganesh Narayan Ghotawadekar. These celebrations were widened by Tilak

Pune had a tradition of wrestling & had several akhadas (wrestling clubs). These wrestlers were influenced by Tilak, who had learnt wrestling in his youth & his guru 'Bramharshi' Annasaheb Patwardhan. Rangari, Dagdu Halwai & these wrestlers ensured that the Ganesh utsav succeeded

They managed to “persuade” the Hindus against observing Muharram. The wrestler Damodar Balwant Bhide 'Bhatji’ & the revolutionary Balkrishna Chaphekar convinced Hindus against installing taboots. Some Muslims like wrestler Ahmed Bagwan were also part of this effort.

The cultural & religious events held during the Ganesh festival celebrations saw anti-British propaganda. In ‘Indian Unrest,’ (1910) Valentine Chirol mentions the part played by the revival of Ganpati celebrations “in stimulating political disaffection in the Deccan”

The Ganesh utsav also helped nurture the first generation of cadre for Hindutva. But Tilak, the first pan-India mass leader, was not anti-Muslim or Islamophobic. He bore no animosity towards Muslims as a community.

Shiv Jayanti celebrations popularized by him to honour Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj spread beyond Maharashtra. At Calcutta in 1906, Tilak pointed to how Shivaji was not an enemy of the Muslims & his struggle was against injustice. He called on Muslims to join the festivities

In 1916, Tilak and his then colleague M.A. Jinnah had helmed the ‘Lucknow Pact’ between the Congress and the Muslim League. After Tilak’s death in Mumbai on 1 August 1920, one of the bearers of his mortal coils was Maulana Shaukat Ali, the leader of the Khilafat movement.

Tilak's funeral procession from Sardargruha opp the police commissionerate saw a turnout of around 2 lakhs, including Hindus & Muslims. When #Tilak was cremated at Girgaon Chowpatty in #Mumbai, a grieving Muslim youth had tried to throw himself in the pyre.

The Parsi traders donated sandalwood for the pyre and some leading men from the community had lobbied the govt for the public cremation at the beach, where his memorial stands today. Tilak was cremated in the ‘padmasana’ or Lotus position, which is an honour given only to saints

Later, the freedom fighter-poet Maulana Hasrat Mohani, who is credited with coining the slogan ‘Inquilab Zindabad,’ wrote a poem in Urdu titled ‘Tilak’ that was read out at the third Khilafat conference as a tribute to the Lokmanya and moved the audience to tears.

But, in an irony of sorts, while Tilak would spur the celebrations of Ganesh utsav as a substitute to Muharram, mass celebrations of Navratri would be used to counter it three decades later.

In 1926, social reformers Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar, ‘Prabodhankar’ Keshav Sitaram Thackeray (the father of #ShivSena supremo #BalThackeray), Raobahadur S.K. Bole launched public celebrations of Navratri against the ‘Brahmin-dominated’ Ganesh utsav. That of course is another story!

Sources: Books by Krishnaji Abaji Guruji, Sadanand More, Parimala V. Rao, Acharya P.K. Atre, Valentine Chirol, Y.D. Phadke, Damodar Balwant Bhide, A.J. Karandikar, T.R. Devgirikar, Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar, Prabodhankar Thackeray, C.B. Khairmode, convs with @BharGo8 @GodboleSandeep

*lies