Sandap and Ghariwali, two neigbour villages that are 10- minute away from Dombivli host public Ganesh festivals in a true spirit as intended by its proponent Lokmanya Balgangadhar Tilak. Both the villages have been following the ‘one-village-one-Ganpati model’ for several decades. The villagers strictly follow the unwritten dictum as the entire village has only one Ganesh festival celebration and there are no private celebrations in the households.

Sandap has over 100 houses and a population of 550 people. The village’s Ganesh festival is celebrated inside the Datta temple. “This seems to be a very old custom. I’ve been seeing this since I came to this village in 1969. Besides bringing out unity among the villagers, this occasion gives an opportunity to socialise too,” said 55-year-old Rajni Patil.

Village elder Narayan Patil (62) remembers that the custom of ‘one-village-one-Ganpati’ has been followed in the village since post-independence era. “In 1966, it was decided in weekly meetings of the village that henceforth there would be only public Ganesh festival celebrations. Since then everybody has been religiously following this tradition,” said Patil. The temple forum has also been successfully propagating Swadhaya, a movement founded by late Pandurang Shastri Athavale, and it was primarily aimed at tackling alcoholism among the villagers.

The expenses incurred for the celebration are collected from the families that would bring Ganesh idols in their households, while others contribute voluntarily.

At Ghariwali, there are no additional expenses incurred as the village hosts Ganesh festival at the Ganesh temple. For the village with a population of 1400 people, Ganesh festival celebration is basically walking across to the Ganesh temple and offering prayers. “During the first day of the Ganesh Chaturthi, there would be a long queue of devotees from dawn to dusk,” said Sudam Patil (62), who officiates as a priest of the temple. Patil says that the custom is being religiously followed is also due to a villager who lost his sanity after unsuccessfully trying to bring the Ganesh idol for private celebration to his house.

Incidentally, the state government is promoting ‘one-village-one-Ganpati’ to reduce the disputes that arise during the celebrations and processions.