Art and Culture

When the Body Becomes a Temple: The Ramnami Samaj's Century-Old Rebellion Now Inspires Kolkata's Durga Puja

Denied entry into temples, they did not argue — they carried Ram on their skin instead. TWF-IBNS correspondent Souvik Ghosh traces how Chhattisgarh's Ramnami Samaj, a Dalit devotional community that began tattooing the name of Ram across their bodies in the 1890s as a quiet act of resistance against caste exclusion, has travelled from the margins of religious history to the heart of this year's Durga Puja — where their extraordinary story of faith, identity and defiance is the centrepiece in Chaltabagan, one of North Kolkata's most celebrated pandals.

by Trans World Features September 03, 2026