Durga Puja - Bengal Club, Shivaji Park, Mumbai
Club History
In the second half of the 19th century, far flung places in the Indian sub continent started getting connected to one another thanks to the rapid development of the Indian railways network. This paved the way for some pioneering Bengalis from undivided Bengal to venture out as far as the city of Mumbai in the late 19th century.
In the year 1922, in the presence of a host of other enthusiastic young Bengalis, the Bengal Club was born in the living room of Late Sati Ranjan Ghose, one of the earliest Bengalis to come to Mumbai. But none of the original participants who were present on that historic occasion are alive today, nearly 88 years after that historic event, nor are there any written records. The cruel white ants of eternal time have eaten through most of the pages of history and many of the names of these path breaking pioneers are forever lost.
Soon a spacious (by 1920’s standards) premises was found for the club on the ground floor of Mawawala Building. On one side, just across the road was the then recently constructed building of the King Edward Medical Hospital and facing the club was Kamgar Maidan .
True to Bengali tradition and heritage, two other activities were pursued rigorously – building up a library of Bengali books, and football. While books were slowly being added to the shelves as and when funds permitted.
Meanwhile football was also progressing albeit rather slowly. A team was formed which was regularly taking part in the Junior Division of the WIFA run league. Unfortunately the team could never do well and the performance was not enough to fire the volatile Bengali passion for football.
Bengal club was however making progress at another level of football – it had started its own football association names the “Indian Football League”. This new association was affiliated to the WIFA, the then governing body of all football activities in Bombay, and was permitted to conduct football tournaments in North Bombay. (Incidentally South Bombay was then upto Crawford market, upto Lalbaugh was Central Bombay and Parel and beyond was all North Bombay).
The club also organized two separate tournaments. One was played as per league format and the other was a knockout tournament where the winners got the Sati Ranjan memorial shield, donated by the Club in memory of the founder member who had by then died under rather tragic circumstances, and the runners up would get the Dr. Das Challenge Cup (donated by Dr. A.C. Das, an eminent Bengali homeopath from Grant Road). These tournaments were played regularly during the thirties upto the beginning of the forties.
At the pinnacle of glory during the ‘30s and ‘40s, the club also conducted two more sporting events – the North Bombay Athletic Meet usually held every winter in Xavier’s Sports Complex, Parel; and the other event, which old Bombay Bengalis still fondly remember was the “married” versus “bachelors” football match played on a Sunday morning at the St. Xavier’s ground every year.
Organizing football tournaments on a regular basis prompted the Club management to look for their own football ground with a stadium if possible. In the early thirties, the Bombay Municipal Corporation allowed Bengal Club to develop a large piece of fallow land in Parel into a football field. Unfortunately in a few months, they realized that they had neither the funds nor the wherewithal to undertake such a mammoth project and in a couple of years the land was handed back to the BMC.
The never say die spirit of Bengal Club however was still burning bright and they pursued the matter doggedly. In the mid-forties, thanks to the efforts of Late Sri. J.C. Maitra who was president of WIFA and Late Sri N.N. Guha, a member of the WIFA governing body representing Indian Football League, BMC agreed to allot land for constructing a clubhouse and a football field in Shivaji Park along Cadel Road.
At last, here in Shivaji Park, finally Bengal Club managed to fulfil a long standing dream of having its own clubhouse along with a football field and the headquarters of the Club was shifted here from Parel. The Parel club still continued to function as a Branch – the only branch the Bengal Club has till date.
A semblance of football activity was revived in mid-fifties when Bengal Club managed to form a football team again and competed in the IIIrd Division of the Harwood League run by WIFA. The Shivaji Park ground then saw two football goal posts erected on their own hard earned ground and the club team playing practice matches in the familiar blue and yellow colours. But this too lasted only about four years before the team was disbanded for lack of funds/players.
As part of Sports activities , Club started Cricket matches and organised tournaments at its Shivaji Park ground. In the year 2001, Club initiated various sports activities under its dream projects for budding sports persons and started activities like Cricket Coaching , Football Coaching , Karate , Yoga and Tennis .
The concept of Bengal Club Sports Academy cropped –up during this period and finally shaped in 2009. The Club has Cricket Academy which not only provide coaching to budding cricketers but also host various tournaments approved by Mumbai Cricket Association under the banner of Bengal Club –S.P.Group Cricket Academy.
The Club concentrated on social, cultural and sports activities. A few years after the Club was started, Sri Sri Saraswati and Sri Sri Laxmi Puja were started in the Club premises in Parel, in a small way as part of Cultural activities.
The need for the main socio cultural activity of the Bengali Society –Bengal Club started the Sri Sri Durga Puja , initially on a rotation basis between Parel , Dadar and Shivaji Park. With the construction of the Club premises at Shivaji Park and increasing difficulty in locating suitable sites in Parel/Dadar, it was finally decided in the mid-fifties to celebrate the puja at the Bengal Club ground, Shivaji Park, on a permanent basis. Intially Shri Shri Durga Puja utsav were taken care under the name of Sarbojonin Durga Puja Committee under the auspices of Bengal Club until 2008. Since 2009 Sri Sri Durga Puja is organised under the banner of Bengal Club Durga Puja Committee under the auspices of Bengal Club.
Sometime in the 1980s, a member devotee of Sri Sri Kalimata dreamt of Kali Temple near the Ganesh temple at Shivaji Park . Under the auspices of Bengal Club Sri Sri Kalimata idol was put on ground next to the existing Club premises in 1980, which are attended by thousands of devotees every year.
Currently Club has various ambitious programmes under new dynamic president Dr. Utpal Mukhopadhya, Retd. IAS.
Address: www.bengalclubmumbai.com
