Syed Mir Nisar, better known as Titumir, from present day North 24 Parghana district of West Bengal near Kolkata, was a radical Wahhabi Jihadi who desecrated temples, killed Brahmin priests and attacked Hindus in that area of Bengal during 1831. He, along with his followers, also organized Muslim peasants against Hindu landlords, and this brought him in direct confrontation with the British East India Company, who proved to be his nemesis. He was killed by the Company’s army on 19 November 1831 in a battle.
But strangely in West Bengal, under both Communist and TMC rule, Titumir has been promoted as the first freedom fighter of India against British. Titumir never fought against British and Hindu landlords for independence of India. He rather launched Jihad against infidels to establish Islamic hegemony in that part of the then Bengal.
A section of self-loathing Hindu Bengali left leaning secular intellectuals is all praiseful about Titumir for his fight against Hindu landlords to alleviate the suffering of poor Muslim peasants. What these intellectuals selectively forget is that, Bengal was under Muslim rule from AD1204 to AD 1757 before British East India Company defeated the last Nawab of Bengal in Plassey on 23 June 1757.
This section of Bengali Hindu intellectuals also gives an impression that Hindu landlords were subjugating poor Muslim peasants for centuries. But Landlords of Bengal were created after “Permanent Settlement” during 1793 by British East India Company. So it was a story of about 30 years. Besides, there were poor Hindu peasants too. These intellectuals fail to explain as to why there were poor Muslim peasants in Bengal after its Muslim rule during previous 550 years.
The actual story of Titumir has no connection with Freedom Fighting or Peasant Revolt in Bengal. His current left leaning secular narrative is falsification and distortion of history. It is also a dishonor for a radical Wahhabi Jihadi of early nineteenth century Bengal to be labeled as freedom fighter of India.
Titumir and his followers fought and died for Islam. They fought and died for recapturing of political power by Muslims in Bengal. Titumir hated both Hindus and British equally. That is why Titumir is a hero in Bangladesh. But his hero worship in West Bengal is not understood.
Deriving virtue out of vice has been the specialty of left leaning secular Hindu Bengali intellectuals. State government funded libraries in West Bengal are given financial aid of Rs 1000 each year to celebrate the birthday of Titumir on 27 January.
What a joke!