The economics of Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai

Apart from the increase in sales of consumer goods and big-ticket items, festival-related services like mandap decorators, idol makers, flower dealers and sweet shops also see a sharp rise around the 11-day festival period. (Photo by Keith Lobo via Pexels)

At Mumbai’s Siddhivinayak temple, a special gate that guarantees quick entry for Rs 1,500 has run out of its offerings of a framed Ganesha photograph, a raw coconut, a scarf and box of saffron-coloured laddoos. It happened a week before the traditional 11-day Ganesha festival, from September 19-28 this year. “Crowds are coming like waves, we are closing this enclosure every one hour,” said Ashok Wagh, a person manning the gate. He said special orders for frames and scarves have gone to merchants in faraway Delhi and Ludhiana.

The Siddhivinayak temple is the most popular abode of Ganesha. During the 11-day special festival, popular as Ganesh Chaturthi, the temple has 1.5-2 lakh daily visitors. On a normal day, the footfall ranges between 20,000 and 30,000 per day.

Siddhivinayak temple (Photo: Wikimedia Commons 3.0)

The rush is maddening this year; everyone wants to seek blessings. There is happiness in the air. For millions in India, Ganesha is the god of wisdom, intelligence and new beginnings, and also the remover of obstacles.

In Mumbai, India’s financial and film capital that is home to 21 million people, the festival is also seen as the state’s biggest economic trigger. Highly placed sources told this reporter that the economic activity revolving around the 11-day festival hovers around Rs 1 lakh crore, possibly because of a significant amount of cash pumped in by politicians. “The funding from politicians is mostly unaccounted, so there are no official records. It's mostly in cash,” said the source.

On paper, the amount hovers around Rs 45,000-50,000 crore. A few years ago, independent studies showed the Ganesh economy was fast closing in on the economy of Diwali, India’s big festival of lights that hovered around Rs 1.5 lakh crore.

Economic trigger

Ganesh Chaturthi “is like a new beginning for all, small, medium-scale and big businesses. It is the biggest trigger for all kinds of products that are sold during this festival,” said Dahibhavkar Kamath.

Kamath, a resident of Mumbai, said that the Ganesha economy starts at least three weeks before the festival and continues for another 11 days. “We are looking at a month-long economic activity. Everyone is on the move, selling or buying something.”

Advertising professional Shinjini Banerjee, who lived in Mumbai for nearly a decade and a half, said she is surprised at the level of spending. “I am actually quite surprised. The otherwise non-ostentatious Mumbaikars seem to pour their hearts and pockets out around this time,” said Banerjee.

“Everyone believes in the miracles of Ganesha. Everyone prays with all their hearts in his powers as the God who removes obstacles. So spending has no limit during this festival,” added Banerjee.

Millions are selling round the clock, millions are buying. It's a unique economic fervour.

A Just Dial consumer report in 2022 said demand for festival-related services saw an on-year jump of 53 percent in cities like Mumbai, Pune and Nashik. The report further said withdrawal of all Covid restrictions had triggered a big boost for all service providers for festivals and the gig economy at large.

The report said festival-related services like mandap decorators, idol makers, flower dealers and sweet shops also saw a sharp rise. So did sales of white goods. The Retailers Association of India expects a jump in sales of smartphones, laptops, refrigerators, television sets, daily consumables and other fast-moving consumer goods, or FMCG, from August-December.

The sales are driven by offers, schemes and discounts up to 70-80 percent. Consumers typically put off purchases of large durable items such as television sets, refrigerators and washing machines for this season of discounts. Those with low budgets are buying small kitchen appliances and bed covers. This is one side of the business.

The other revolves around flowers and merchandise and materials used for constructing makeshift pandals. The businesses have boomed in stores across Dadar market in Central Mumbai, where shopkeepers report a 30-45 percent jump in sales over last year. The surge for festival-related services like mandap decorators, idol makers, flower dealers and sweet shops is huge, they say, and it could be bigger still during the Dussehra-Diwali period, considered the peak season for consumer durable retailers. Across Mumbai, Pune and Nashik, the demand for pandal decorations - claim local sources - was over 50 percent from last year.

“We sold over 2,000 tree Ganeshas this year and it was a solid jump from last year when we sold 1,200. Consumer sentiment is improving,” said Dattadri Kothur, the creator of Tree Ganeshas.

Throughout Maharashtra, every alley features beautifully decorated, and ardently worshipped Ganesh. (Photo by Sonika Agarwal via Pexels)

How Ganesh Chaturthi became so big in Maharashtra

The festival was started in the 19th century as an anti-colonial protest against the British rulers. It was in the 17th century that Shivaji popularized the worship of Ganesh in western India. And then, when the British rulers banned political gatherings in the 19th century, Indian politicians spread nationalist sentiment by organizing a street festival around the elephant-headed God.

Today, Ganesh Chaturthi is popular across Maharashtra - especially Mumbai, Pune and Nashik, Goa, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. Seven years ago, nearly 150 million people listened to superstar Amitabh Bachchan reciting and singing Ganesha slokas. This year, the richest Indian, Mukesh Ambani, was seen performing prayers for Ganesha with his wife, Nita, their children and hundreds of devotees at their expansive home, Antilla.

Mukesh Ambani and Nita Mukesh Ambani at Ganesh festival 2023 in Mumbai (Photo courtesy Shantanu Guha Ray)

At Matunga, a locality in the heart of Mumbai, organizers pledged their Ganesha idol made of 66 kg gold and 295 kg silver for an insurance cover of Rs 360 crore. The idol will be placed in the makeshift pandal for a fortnight and visitors will use a specially constructed eight-lane track to visit the idol. “We celebrate the power of Ganesha, we have a big budget running into crores,” said Prashant Puranik of GSB Matunga Ganesh festival. Puranik would not divulge the total amount spent on the festivities.

Throughout Maharashtra, every alley features beautifully decorated, and ardently worshipped Ganesh. The idol is the tallest at 42 feet in Khetwadi, a densely packed Mumbai neighbourhood. Interestingly, it was here that the Ganesh festival was started in a lowly chawl in the 1890s. Equally huge is the idol in Lalbagh in Parel where nearly two million devotees visit every day.

India’s maximum city is on a high. The elephant-headed God has brought blessings, cash and happiness. Crowds are thronging the pandals, gaping at the latest iteration of the state’s most-cherished Hindu God.