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With the eight-phase Bengal assembly elections fast approaching, and the BJP hot on the heels of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, it becomes even more important to understand the socio-political context and history of the state.
Even more so given that the Hindu right wing party has managed to make deep inroads into the state that was once a Left bastion.
Indeed, be it Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay’s ‘Bande Mataram’ — that’s now a popular war cry among the Hindutva brigade — or the notion of ‘Bharat Mata’, or even the very word ‘Hindutva’ — these are all Made in Bengal.
In fact, Bande Mataram — both the slogan and Chattopadhyay’s song — have been appropriated today by the BJP and its leadership. At a 27 June 2018 event in Bengal, Amit Shah had called the iconic song “an expression of India’s national revivalism. Our nationalism is cultural nationalism and Bankim Chandra is the fountainhead.”
Further, as author and political commentator Snigdhendu Bhattacharya notes in his book Mission Bengal: A Saffron Experiment, “the origin of the notion that Hindus are in danger – the principal reason that led to the creation of right-wing Hindutva organisations – can also be traced back to Bengal.”
Reminding Mamata Banerjee of the BJP’s Bengali roots, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari had said earlier in March, at a rally in Bengal’s Purulia district, “Mamata calls the BJP an ‘outsider party’, but the Jan Sangh, based on the ideals of which the saffron party was formed, was founded by Bengal's son Syama Prasad Mookerjee.”
While the North — the Hindi-speaking belt — appears to be the bastion of Hindu nationalism today, more so due to the Ram Janmabhoomi issue, before Partition, the roots of Hindu nationalism were planted in Bengal by the state’s intelligentsia – the likes of not only Bankim Chandra, but also Swami Vivekananda.
Since 2014, the rise and rise of not only the Modi-Shah duo but their party, the BJP, itself has been apparent, in that it’s been steadily chipping away at traditional vote banks of their opponents in other states while strengthening its cadres in non-traditional regions. The long shadow being cast by the saffron party on Bengal is unsurprising.
While key opinion polls are mostly tilted towards the TMC, it is reasonable to believe that at the very least, the BJP is going to emerge as the chief opposition in Bengal, further rendering an already-spiritless CPI(M) to the point of oblivion.
Given these trends, it becomes more significant for Mamata Banerjee and the TMC to perhaps change tack, focus on their own achievements and improvements than fight the BJP on the ‘outsider vs insider’ trope. It is also with the understanding that the incumbent in Bengal cannot afford to be seen as an ‘anti-Hindu’ party, pitted against the saffron juggernaut, Mamata Banerjee has recently been seen reciting from Sanskrit shlokas at public gatherings.
Appealing to Hindu sentiments in Bengal, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, addressing a rally in February 2021, assured that ‘after winning the assembly elections’, his party would ensure that the Gangasagar Mela — an annual attraction for Hindus in the state — makes it to the world map, and is internationalised.
But let us look at another ‘Hindu mela’ from Bengal’s past. The ‘jatiyo mela’ (national fair) or the Hindu Mela, was first organised in 1867 by Rabindranath Tagore’s father Debendranath Tagore and his associates poet-playwright-editor Nabagopal Mitra and essayist Rajnarayan Basu. What declared the fair open? A paean to Bharat Mata, composed by Rabindranath Tagore’s elder brother Dwijendranath.
Its founder, KB Hedgewar, was hugely influenced by Bengali nationalists during his time as a medical student in Calcutta. His successor MS Gowalkar’s understanding of Hindu nationalism — drawing on ‘service and renunciation’ — also has its bearings in Ramakrishna Mission Math in Belur, Bengal, where he spent some time. Even if one looks back at the recent past, who can forget PM Modi’s controversial visit to the Belur Math in 2015?
Is Bengal finally coming to terms with its past, and can the BJP achieve its goal of fulfilling that so-called 'Hindu aspiration'?
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Published: 17 Mar 2021,07:05 PM IST