While working on the souvenir to mark the centenary celebrations of our Ganesh festival, we felt the need to collect more information about the festival prior to Independence - more than what we already had in some documents with us. Hence, the Sanstha workers had a look at some old newspapers at Mumbai Marathi Granthasangrahalay. There we found some mention of the programmes held in our festival.

Later, in the 106th year of the festival, we decided to undertake the research again. This time, we decided to tap other language newspapers as well. Browsing through Mumbai Samachar, the oldest Mumbai newspaper and Bombay Chronicle, we realised that this hundred-year-old festival had witnessed quite a few remarkable and significant events. There are many facets to the festival as various people have contributed to it.

The information about the festival has not been compiled so far. We felt that it's necessary to do it for the benefit of the researchers of Ganesh festival. Once this goal was decided, we selected a time frame for the information - from 1893 to 1947. We also decided not to restrict the information to our festival and newspapers. So we carried an appeal in newspapers urging people to contact us with any material available with them on the festival. So far, we have collected some documentary information from state and national archives as well as various libraries.

If you happen to have any material on the Ganesh festival during 1893 to 1947 in the form of printed programme sheets, souvenirs, books on melas, speeches, articles, experiences, photographs or any other documents, please contact us.