In the year of 2017, Indian Cultural Society (ICS) Cambridge took initiative to bring a new idol for their annual Durgapuja. Despite several hindrances, this was the easy part of a two-part job; the second part being the disposal of the old idol. In India, disposal was an easy job one would think and yes, it indeed was. However, it was not an easy project in UK. One could not immerse this fibre-glass idol into any water body, it could not be kept or stored anywhere indefinitely as that would mean spending money on warehousing charges. Disposing goddess Durga in a waste disposal system was unthinkable. ICS members were desperate for a solution and then came an inspiration. Someone suggested checking with the museums of Cambridge to see if one of them would be interested to keep the idol eternally as a heritage icon.
ICS always tried to create interfaces between the ethnic and mainstream communities and members felt that this effort would go very well with that mandate. So the University of Cambridge (that has seven museums for different genre of collections) was approached and wow – they got seriously interested. The discussion started immediately and within a few weeks everything was settled. The logistics was not simple but for a museum it was not much of a challenge. Thus ICS Durga got a permanent home in Cambridge where people can come and appreciate her gorgeous appearance and know more about the culture and heritage that she represents. The museum staff lovingly started calling her The Cambridge Goddess.
After the installation of the Cambridge Goddess, Dr. Mark Elliott, Senior Curator for Anthropology sent us a wonderful note. He said,“….The pratima is a very important addition to the Museum as an example of the devotional tradition in West Bengal and of twenty-first century work by the artists of Kumartuli. Moreover, I think its greatest value for us is to enable us to represent the living South Asian heritage of Cambridge. It is as a Cambridge object, as well as a Kolkatan, Bengali and Hindu one, that I would like it to have an impact on our galleries and our audiences.
“Today we have installed Her in the main anthropology gallery, where She will now be on permanent display and accessible to all visitors, particularly members of the Indian Cultural Society and the local South Asian community more generally. I’m delighted to say that she has already made a big impact on our staff and on visitors. I would be happy to welcome you to the Museum to show you myself, but please also feel free to visit, as always, any time the Museum is open...”
