-Gargi Nandi
As a daughter of Bengal, a woman , who was born & raised in Kolkata, I feel that Bengal has gone through a cultural degeneration & the politics of the land is largely responsible for that. Last year, after the election in Bengal, when the state was ravaged by post poll violence, Bengalis like me were pained & were wondering why such terrible news of violence come only from the state of Bengal.
There were large scale rapes, political murders & exodus of lakhs of people from the state to the neighbouring state of Assam. Rapes are usually used in wars & riots but in Bengal rapes were used against political opponents. We, the members of Civil society from Mumbai, even made an appeal to the President for President's Rule in Bengal but in vain & no President's Rule was ever imposed. As my heart bled for my fellow brothers & sisters from Bengal, I realised that violence has been an integral part of the sociopolitical fabric of Bengal for long. As a child growing up in the 80's,I had felt the tremors of political violence, which was a hot topic of discussion at home.
My father was a staunch Nehru-Gandhi following Congress man & my maternal uncles were CPM party members. I remember how my father narrated the incidents of violence unleashed by CPM party goons in villages.After that when I accompanied my mother to mamarbari ( maternal uncles' home) she would ask my mama ( Maternal uncle ) about those incidents. My mama would shout back at her accusing her for changing from a CPM family girl to a Congress man's wife. In fact my mama would narrate some other incidents where the Congress was the culprit.Back home at dinner table, my mother would ask my father about those incidents narrated by my 'Mama' & another verbal duel would start at home.
As a young child this made me curious & I used to ask my mother why she used to tell my mama what my father said & vice versa . Mom's simple answer used to be that she was trying to find the truth & perhaps that gave me the desire & quest for truth from an early age. In my quest for truth, when I look back , I feel that abject poverty , no industrial development for decades & glorification of poverty by the left for 34 years have been largely responsible for the violent nature of Bengal politics .
People of Bengal chose TMC after 34 years of left Rule hoping for a change but unfortunately nothing changed on the ground. Actually, former members of the CPM party & even the goons of CPM joined the TMC & the situation perhaps worsened. Neither Industrial development happened nor new jobs have been created in the decade long TMC Rule. A huge number of young educated Bengalis have gone out of the state for greener pastures elsewhere.
Villages in Bengal are poverty stricken & the poor in the villages have been comforted or rather fooled by the doles & they don't even question that why doles are given out in place of jobs. In this poverty & deprivation, the seeds of violence have been sown. The TMC further used appeasement politics, narrow regional chauvinism & Bengali supremecism for electoral gains.
Just before the elections last year, the slogan in Bengal was that outsiders would not be allowed to rule Bengal & racist, derogatory words were used for people from Gujarat & other states. It was as if Bengal wasn't part of this country. I wonder why no Goan is calling TMC outsider in Goa. Unfortunately even educated Bengalis fell prey to this narrow regional chauvinism.
In the name of secularism what has happened in Bengal is the appeasement of the 30%. Bengali words have been changed in the name of secularism. The Bengali word for Rainbow, 'Ramdhanu,' has now been changed to 'Rangdhanu.' In fact many Bengali words have been replaced by Urdu words, which are commonly used in Bangladesh.
Other examples of Bengal's secularism are 'Azaan' being played from Durga Puja Pandal or Durga immersion cancelled for Muharram. In fact to cover up or rather justify the appeasement, a culture of secular fundamentalism has been propagated in the state of Bengal. All these factors have perhaps contributed to the cultural degeneration, that I spoke about in the beginning.
This cultural degeneration was absolutely evident when just yesterday on 28th of Jan'2022, Kabir Sumon, a renowned singer, a former TMC MP & a close aide of Mamata Banerjee hurled choicest abuses at a Republic Bangla journalist, when he called him to comment on an issue. His choicest abuses also reflected the regional chauvinism & Bengali supremecism, when he used the words 'Maura Hindu,' a derogatory slang for Non-Bengalis,especially Marwaris.
No word is enough to condemn this man called Kabir Sumon but the Bengali intellectuals, who have been bought by TMC, are conspicuous by their silence.What a 'frog in the well' mentality this so called Bengali ' Bhadraloks ' reflect. Shocking! The Political rot in Bengal is so deep that it has affected the socio- cultural fabric of the state.
As a Bengali, I am sad about this & feel that a total socio-political churning is required. It won't be easy & will perhaps take years. Only a deep sociopolitical understanding & great leadership can usher in the change, that we are looking for.
(The author is Actor, Anchor & Program Director of Institute of Moving Images- The Film School)