Ganesh Utsav as social remittance in the Hindi heartland

(This is the latest edition of the Political Line newsletter curated by Varghese K. George. The Political Line newsletter is India’s political landscape explained every week. You can subscribe here to get the newsletter in your inbox every Friday.)

Several videos of events related to Ganesh Utsav from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh surfacing online this year prompted me to make some inquiries. Ganesh Utsav, which used to be largely confined to Maharashtra, has travelled east to the Hindi heartland. The increasing popularity of Ganesh Utsav in the Hindi heartland is a marker of the social remittance of the migrants who travel between these States. It also suggests an increasing nationalisation of culture aided by social media consumption, alongside the movement of people.