Men Join Gods in Kolkata\'s Statuary

By SEAN MCLAIN

For at least two centuries, residents of Kolkata have come to Kumartuli to purchase idols made of clay from a man named Paul.

The Paul family is an institution in Kumartuli, the historic potter's enclave in northern Kolkata. Kumartuli gets its name from kumbhokar, the word for terra cotta pottery makers, and tuli means collective. Many of the 150 or so sculptors here are named Paul, and most are related.

Now, the Pauls of Kumartuli are finding new demand for their services making sculptures and busts of famous Indians. “Demand for these statues has doubled in the past five years,” said Badal Chandra Paul.

For five generations, the 76-year-old sculptor and his forefathers have made idols of the gods and goddesses for the many pujas, or festivals, celebrated in West Bengal. Now, however, Mr. Paul and many of his fellow Kumartuli sculptors are becoming famous for their sculptures and b usts of Indian historical and political figures.

“People used to think Kumartuli only did Durga thakurs,” said Mr. Paul, referring to the traditional idol displayed during Durga puja, depicting the goddess astride a lion slaying the buffalo demon, Mohishashur. “Slowly, after we held a few exhibitions of our work, people are realizing that we do more than idols.”

In his workshop on Rabindra Road, sample plaster busts line the walls like a pantheon of Indian freedom fighters, politicians, philosophers and holy men.

Amal Paul, 40, the son of the elder Mr. Paul, was molding a foot-tall statue of Sri Ramakrishna, a famous Indian mystic, out of clay. The work was commissioned by a private ashram.

“Most of our orders are from private parties, but we also get orders from the government and political parties,” he said.

On the floor lay a large plaster model of Rabindranath Tagore's head, which will eventually be cast in bronze as part of a 12 -foot-tall statue of the famous Bengali poet and writer. When finished, it will adorn the front lawns of the Bidhan Nagar municipality building, a township on the outskirts of Kolkata.

“They've given me seven months to make the statue,” said the younger Mr. Paul. “It is not going to be enough. We're going to need 1,500 kilograms of metal.”

It is also not going to be cheap. The going rate for bronze statues is 150,000 rupees ($2,700) per foot, he said. Previous orders have included a statue of Prafulla Chandra Roy, a famous Bengali scientist, and the state's first chief minister, for the state's finance department.

Political statues have always been popular in Kolkata, said Tanmay Banerjee, an assistant professor of modeling and sculpture at the Government College of Art and Craft in Kolkata, once known as Calcutta. “The culture of erecting statues of political figures originates from the British Raj,” he said.

When Kolkata was the second c ity of the British empire, India's colonial rulers dotted the city with monstrous lifelike statues of the leading figures of the Raj, like the viceroy George Nathaniel Curzon and King George. “That tradition still lives on,” said Professor Banerjee.

Instead of viceroys, however, statues of Bengali revolutionaries dominate Kolkata's public spaces, like Surya Sen, Khudiram Bose and Subhas Chandra Bose, better known as Netaji. Many now sit on plinths previously occupied by statues of colonial leaders. The figures are usually composed with arms outstretched or staring confidently into the horizon.

The penchant the state government showed for this style of grandiose and anatomical sculpture has also influenced private tastes, said Professor Banerjee.

“These political statues are like memorials,” he said, likening it to secular versions of the idols in Kumartuli. “This is the worship of the ordinary man: that is the culture of Calcutta.”

Ajay Ja in, who owns a shop on Rabindra Road, said political statues are a big business. “I sell 80 to 100 statues a year of dead political figures,” he said. Prices range from 25,000 to 50,000 rupees for a marble bust.

In addition to the 7- to12-foot statues commissioned by the state government, smaller busts are purchased by private individuals and neighborhood associations to decorate homes and street corners.

But Mr. Jain said the fastest-growing portion of his sculpture business was not likenesses of famous people, but rather deceased parents. “After their parents die, many people living in villages have busts made and put them up in their house,” he said.

Badal Chandra Paul said he was experiencing the same demand for busts of deceased relatives. He was working on a seven-foot-tall bronze statue of Gulab Chand Yadav, the recently deceased elder brother of the former chief minister of Bihar, Lalu Prasad Yadav. The work had been commissioned by the dece ased Mr. Yadav's son, and was to be completed in time for the anniversary of Mr. Yadav's death.

“Demand for a subject's statue peaks around the birth or death anniversary of the subject,” said Mr. Jain.

In some cases, the popularity of a figure waxes and wanes with political fortunes.

“I expected people to want busts of Jyoti Basu on his birthday,” which is on July 8, said Mr. Jain. Mr. Basu, who died in January 2010, was a member of the Indian Independence Movement, a founding member of the country's Communist Party and West Bengal's longest serving chief minister. All of which, Mr. Jain thought, would create massive demand for his likeness in bronze or marble.

“No one has yet asked for one,” said Mr. Jain.

The state elections in West Bengal in 2011 ended 34 years of uninterrupted Communist rule in West Bengal, which Mr. Jain believes influenced the lack of orders for statues of Mr. Basu.

Mr. Paul did have one order for a seve n-foot-tall Basu statue, but the person never took delivery of the finished product. “It was commissioned by a member of the Congress Party,” said Mr. Paul. “That caused a lot of controversy.”

The statue now sits on a narrow ledge along the roof on the alley side of the shop, hidden behind a statue of Swami Vivekananda, a famous Hindu monk and philosopher. No one has come inquiring about another Jyoti Basu statue, but the shop keeps it just in case and as an example of its work.

Fans of Mr. Basu may indeed be waiting for the Communist Party's fortunes to turn before placing their orders. “Orders for Marx and Lenin are also down by a lot,” said Mr. Paul.

Meanwhile, orders for statues of Mr. Tagore and Mr. Vivekananda are surging, in part due to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's penchant for the famous men, but also because they are uncontroversial.

“Vivekananda is the most popular,” said Mr. Paul. “He had no political leani ngs; everyone liked him. He's a safe bet to put in a neighborhood.”