There has been a major change in people’s thinking ahead of State poll; even the most secular of them fear that Bengal might become another Bangladesh
As lucidly brought out by Timur Kuran, a Turkish American economist who teaches at the Duke University, the practice of Islam inhibits business growth and, therefore, does not enable economic progress or development. The prohibition of usury is an example. This explains why Islamic societies have not been economically productive. Therefore, they had to become adept at the conquest of other lands in search of resources.
Bangladesh has an added handicap. For centuries, the Bengali elite was more land-owning than business-running. The Bangladeshi culture took its cue from the Bengali elite. Islam is a comprehensive prescription for living, including politics, with the Quran as the ultimate reference point. No Muslim ruler could deviate from that path. Ideally, jamhuriyat (consensus) was the solution. Monarchy, autocracy and oligarchy were the only alternatives, which left democracy no space.
Sheikh Hasina Wazed somehow fights elections. She has won four terms in all, is relatively secular and grateful to India for the freedom of Bangladesh. Her predecessor, Begum Khaleda Zia, was not. Khaleda’s husband Ziaur Rahman was almost pro-Pakistani, being a Muslim ashraf (a descendant of Prophet Muhammad). But what after Hasina Wazed retires or relinquishes power? Would not there be a change in the country’s foreign policy, especially vis-à-vis India?
It is uncanny that the Bengali Hindu elite founded a Hindu political ideology. Raj Narain Bose is reputed to have coined the term “Hindutva”, or at least used it for the first time in 1863. He was the grandfather of Yogi Aurobindo Ghosh. The Hindu Anushilan Samiti was founded and functioned only in Bengal, with even the great poet Rabindranath Tagore being its leading light. The movement against the partition of Bengal in 1905 was largely led by Yogi Aurobindo and actively supported by Tagore. The Bengal Renaissance was a Hindu phenomenon.
With the annulment of the partition of Bengal by Emperor George V in 1911 at the Delhi Durbar, the Hindu punch softened with the idea of having Hindu-Muslim cordiality. That was the inauguration of so-called secularism in Bengal. The Bengali elite began regretting their conduct towards Muslims. Say, inviting a Muslim co-villager to a wedding dinner, making him sit separately to eat and then expecting him to carry his thali to clean. This is just one example.
With the rise of Netaji Subhas, the Hindu-Muslim cordiality tended towards friendship. A moderate leader, Fazlur Rahman of the Krishak Party, became the Premier of Bengal; this secular trend continued. By early 1947, Netaji’s elder brother Sarat Bose, Fazlur Rahman and Sir Abdul Rahim were discussing the prospects of a third dominion, namely, undivided Bengal in addition to Hindustan and Pakistan.
After Independence, the Nehruvian ethos and the appeasement of Muslims for their votes inflated this trend. The Partition, which displaced many Hindus, did not lead to any real antagonism against Muslims in Bengal in its immediate aftermath as well as later. So much so that being associated with the RSS, the Hindu Mahasabha or the Jana Sangh became infra dig. The Hindu political movement could not throw up a popular leader after Syama Prasad Mookerjee died mysteriously in Kashmir. Jana Sangh leader Haripada Bharati was respected but without mass appeal. The secular show persisted and infiltrators from Bangladesh were encouraged for their votes.
Yet, the Islamist penny dropped at last in the Bengali Hindu’s mind. Clearly a revolutionary change is taking place that may well have a reaction across the border in Bangladesh. There has been a cataclysmic change in the thinking of people in West Bengal with the approaching Assembly elections. It is truly a metamorphosis because, for decades, West Bengal has both resisted the domination of what the bhadralok would call a “Hindi heartland party” and has prided itself on its avowedly secular outlook; the Bengali identity has been preponderant over the religious one.
However, the incessant mollycoddling of the religious minority and even the most radical jihadist elements has slowly but surely brought on an about-turn in the Bengali mind. To the extent that even the most secular among them have begun to fear that their State might become another Bangladesh. The first major sign of West Bengal’s changing political mood was the 2019 Lok Sabha election in which the BJP won 18 out of 42 parliamentary seats. The rapidly shifting scenario with the approach of the 2021 Assembly election is the beginning of a new chapter in West Bengal’s political journey, one that will have implications beyond the State.
West Bengal is very much in the news, especially because of the impending Assembly elections. The country is witnessing an acrimonious tussle where the ruling Trinamool Congress’ incumbent Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is fighting to save her Government in the face of a determined assault by the BJP. The remarkable drama of the West Bengal elections is the by-now-discernible wave of discontent against Mamata — sitting Ministers and political heavyweights do not otherwise quit on poll eve to join the Opposition. But more significant is the change taking place in the Bengali psyche. There is growing willingness to be more integrally an arm of Bharat.
(The writer is a well-known columnist and an author. The views expressed are personal.)
