The upcoming election in West Bengal is more about the fight between TMC and BJP than anything else, although others have aligned themselves to put up a strong fight to both the parties. For example, the Left and Indian National Congress have recently declared their joint stand in the West Bengal election. But, the interesting thing to note is the approach taken by the saffron wing which is mostly based on religious polarization, without giving attention to the background of the state.
Also see: Trilateral fight in West Bengal election 2021
The leadership of BJP has been trying to catch the nerve and sentiments of the state of Bengal for more than two decades, but without a true and complete understanding of the background of the culture and sociology of the state. The BJP has never been able to gauge the depth of syncretism in the soul of Bengal. It goes beyond the economic realm in the aspect of understanding of the state.
The music and food of the state go beyond the narrow lens of understanding of the saffron party. Before the Durga puja, last year, with regards to food culture, the BJP was trying to peddle religious nationalism under the garb of vegetarianism through various small groups which was criticized heavily. Similar cases of ignorance are found with regards to the party’s understanding of the music. For example, Baul music and the associated culture of Bengal, which captures the essence of the rural Bengal mind, will forever elude the constricted compartmentalized mindset of the BJP acolytes who consider it no more useful than treating political leaders coming into a tribal home for lunch. They are largely ignorant that the singers of Baul songs are influenced by an unorthodox devotional tradition which has absorbed the ideas from Hinduism, Buddhism, Sufi Islam, Vaishnavism sect, and the overall Bengali culture. Despite having been influenced by all of the mentioned segments, Baul culture is distinct from all of them. The ignorance of the BJP is more comprehensive and widespread than their incomplete grasp over the music culture of West Bengal.
While the BJP and its party leaders hint at exclusive ownership and involvement of Hindus in the cultural programmes, they can be expected to be shocked by the association between various cultures in Bengal. In the medieval age, the state had the rule of Hussain Shahi dynasty, who were great patrons of Krishna’s Bhakti literature. It is not common knowledge that they were the financers of probably the first Bengali Mahabharata, which was composed after the conquest of Chittagong by Paragal Khan, composed by Kabindra Parameshwara. This kind of historical background had laid a strong foundational ground for the growth of syncretism based culture reflected during festivals like Durga Puja where, apart from the regular Hindu ones, many Muslim murtikaars also sculpt out idols of the Goddess & her entourage. This has always eluded BJP’s understanding trained to portray the supremacy of one religion, somewhat reflective of Arya samaj. In closer familiar grounds like in UP, the BJP deliberately turns a blind eye to the association of the Nath sampradaya, the religious alma mater of Yogi Adityanath, with other communities & ideas like Sufism.
Also see: The History of Nath Sampradaya
Nearer to modern times in the nineteenth century, Bengal had witnessed sabhas and debate societies in Calcutta and the surrounding suburban regions spearheaded by the Brahmo samaj. Akshay Kumar Dutta was a progressive social reformer, who just like his contemporary Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar, refused to be drawn into debates on supernatural matters and God when there were so many social maladies to deal with around. BJP would never be able to understand the gigantic impact that these thought leaders have on the population in Bengal. They would be mistaken to assume that bringing in religious denominations would fetch them political capital. There is also the lesser-known name of Ashwini Kumar Dutta, a teacher who had been a headmaster at the Chatra Nandalal Institution at Serampore and believed in reconciliation between the groups of moderates and extremists in the Indian national congress, especially after the infamous Surat split of 1907. This idea of the sociological history of Bengal always falls in the umbra region of the BJP’s narrow understanding map.
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BJP must be thinking that they will be the first to pitch the nationalistic idea of Make in India as bait to the Bengalis prior to Bengal election. But, they do not know that the idea of industries and local consumption had its origin in Bengal. Many decades prior to independence, Ashwini Kumar Dutta had founded Swadesh bandhab samiti to promote the consumption of indigenous products. Similarly, Prafulla Chandra Ray had founded the Bengal chemicals and Pharmaceuticals in 1901 and Purnendu chatterjee, a doctorate from UC Berkeley had established the Chatterjee group in 1989. The Haldia Petrochemicals, the world’s first producer of purest quality of cyclopentane is under the Chatterjee group.
Also see: Battleground of Bengal election 2021
The factor of deindustrialization of Bengal over the later years of Left rule can be used to throw the economic tokens as baits. But, what BJP would not be able to hide is the collection of the fallouts of the divisive politics over its handling of the issue of student protests in Delhi, the CAA-NRC issue and the recent ongoing protests of the farmers, where the party is now thinking to approach the Akal Takht to help defuse the situation. It is worthwhile to note that in November, last year, the Takht had castigated the current regime of EVM-manipulation. In this regard, the BJP leadership must be concerned because as there has been effort to build a national coalition consisting of TMC, NCP, SAD, TRS and others against the saffron brigade.
BJP would be foolish to map the Bengal in the same way as the Hindi heartland states like UP and others and to incorporate the religious factors to use in the upcoming election. West Bengal just like Kerala clearly understands the cost of bringing in the divisive ideology into the state polity. Just like Punjab, West Bengal understands the cost of religious polarization, whose horrific results were borne in 1947 by both the states in terms of human lives. It clearly understands the difference between Tagore’s nationalism and the jingoism being peddled as nationalism. The state can clearly demarcate between the original Tagore and Vivekananda on one hand and a charlatan on the other.
Therefore, West Bengal would be a tough patch for BJP to consolidate and make gains in the upcoming state election.
