The evilest thing that has happened to Bengali Hindus of West Bengal after independence was Communism. This internationally failed, fraudulent and violent ideology has politically castrated Bengali Hindus of the state. It sucked them into the whirlpool of a weird type of Muslim centric secular internationalism. Such approach negated the Hindu identity and pride of Bengali Hindus. For West Bengal Communists, East Pakistan was created for Bengali Muslims, but West Bengal was created for Bengali Muslims and Bengali Hindus in that order.
Communism made the Bengali Hindu community of West Bengal to be proud of its culturo-linguistic identity as Bengali only and international identity as proletariat. Communism has very cunningly introduced this duality of identity among them bypassing the national identity. Bengali Hindus were fed with the idea of feeling proud for being financially poor (Garib), but culturally rich. They also began to look down upon the people of other states of India with some misplaced contempt. Communist Party elevated itself in West Bengal as a Party of and for the poor people (Gariber Party).
Once Bengal was the exponent of Nationalism through the famous Vande Mataram, which inspired the whole India for armed struggle and non-violent movement against the British. But Communism erased that proud history and heritage of West Bengal and made Bengali Hindus of the state a parochial and provincial lot devoid of Indian national identity.
The unnecessary attachment of West Bengal Communists with Epar Bangla, Opar Bangla (this side of Bengal and that side of Bengal) sentiment has diverted the attention of Bengali Hindus from the real issues about them in West Bengal and East Pakistan/Bangladesh. Indians are highly critical of Nazi propaganda minister Goebbels. But Communist propaganda of West Bengal has made Goebbels a dwarf.
The refugees from East Pakistan/Bangladesh have been the main foot soldiers of Communism in West Bengal. Presently a large section of their descendants is carrying the deadly infection of Communism in the state. Following partition in 1947 and Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971, millions of Bengali Hindu refugees came to West Bengal to escape from Islamic persecution.
Instead of addressing the implication of Muslim League’s Two Nation Theory during 1947-70 and West Pakistan’s attack of Bengali Hindus of East Pakistan in 1970-71, the propagandists of Communism eagerly gave those refugees the tag of proletariat and fuelled their anger against Indian Congress government at the centre and in the state. The whole lot was made violently angry against the Congress government of India by forcing them to forget their anger against the Muslims of East Pakistan.
Unlike Punjab, population transfer following partition did not happen equally in Bengal. More Hindus were compelled to leave East Pakistan to West Bengal than Muslims of West Bengal to East Pakistan. The violent Anti-Tram fare Hike Movement of 1953 and Food Movements of 1959 and 1966, under the leadership of Communists in West Bengal, could consolidate the refugees, labourers, farmers and poor people of the state under its umbrella.
The opium of Communism also made the refugees forget the real reason for their uprooting, displacement and miseries. They were made a proud part of the international community of secular proletariat. This refugee-based Communist movement was also seen in Tripura at a later stage. But in Assam it never happened, as Assam never had any love for Communism.
A number of elite Bengali Hindus who went to Britain for study between 1925 and 1947 were inducted to Communism by the famous British Marxist Rajani Palme Dutt. On the other hand, M N Roy and Abani Mukherjee from Bengal were directly involved in the famous October Revolusion of USSR and inspired a generation of Bengali Hindus to accept Communism as a religion.
It was interesting to note that Indian Communists demanded that Pakistan should be created for Muslims before independence of India. They knew that Islam was not compatible with Communism. In case of Bengal, more than 80 percent Muslims fell in East Pakistan after the partition of Bengal and that allowed the Communists of West Bengal to spread their tentacles much easily in West Bengal after 1947.
When the uproar for Pakistan by the Muslim League was warming up, and top-level Congress leaders were in jail following the Quit India Movement of 1942, the CPI released a Thesis, drafted by Gangadhar Adhikari. The substance of the thesis was that there was no such nation as ‘India’. British India had 18 distinct population groups, who could secede from India. The communist understanding was that Muslims would be oppressed by the Hindus in united India and that the Muslim League had become progressive.
When every street of Bengal echoed with the slogans of Ladke Lenge Pakistan, the Communist Party gave its full support to the Pakistan Movement and betrayed Hindus during the ghastly Direct Action Day on 16 August 1946. After the Hindu genocide on Direct Action Day in Calcutta, the CPI also refused to condemn Muslim League in Bengal Legislative Assembly. With such an evil and nefarious background, Communist party in West Bengal started playing holier than thou after 15 August 1947.
After the partition of Bengal, the same Communists of West Bengal forgot their support for creation of Pakistan for Muslims and started blaming Hindu Mahasabha leader Shyama Prasad Mukherjee for the division of Bengal. The uncouth Bengali Communists of today even curse Mr. Mukherjee as Shyama Poka (a type of insect) for division of Bengal. They forget that because of Mr. Mukherjee they got West Bengal, from where they can abuse him. Otherwise, the undivided Islamic Bengal would have annihilated them long back.
Going back again, Indian Communists opposed the Quit India Movement of 1942. They even opposed the division of India at the last moment and abstained from the celebration of independence of India on 15 August 1947. On the socio-political front, Indian Communists started crying Ye Azadi Jhoota Hai after India became independent.
Communists always tried to keep the water muddy for their political fishing. Before independence, Communist movement had a strong base in Bengal, Bombay and Punjab. But after independence, they got the most fertile ground in West Bengal by enticing Bengali Hindu refugees, labourers and poor rural people of the state. And rest is history.
The main contribution of 34 years Communist rule in West Bengal (1977 to 2011) was the change of demography of the state in favour of Muslims. Illegal infiltration of Muslims from East Pakistan/Bangladesh to West Bengal for economic reasons was commonplace after 1950. Subsequently, such infiltration became Islamic in nature. A comparison of decadal growth rate and proportion Muslim population vis-à-vis Hindus between West Bengal and Bangladesh from 1981 to 2011 will clear all the doubts.
The core point is, Communists could do whatever they wanted in the state because Bengali Hindus of the state have been stupidly secular and insanely liberal. Two real life stories will explain this fact.
The prominent CPI leader of West Bengal and ex-Home Minister of India Indrajit Gupta married a Muslim lady at the age of 62. Before marriage Indrajit Gupta converted to Islam and took the name of Iftiar Ghani. The secular Communist Indrajit Gupta miserably failed to rise above Islam in his own marriage. Predictably, no Bengali Hindu of West Bengal was annoyed with Indrajit Gupta’s conversion.
Another example we find in the case of famous Marxist economist Ashok Mitra. He was Finance Minister in Jyoti Basu’s first two Left Front governments in West Bengal. Ashok Mitra hailed from Dacca and after partition of Bengal he not only stayed on in East Pakistan, but even represented Pakistan at an international conference of progressive students held in India.
But Islamic persecution compelled Ashok Mitra to save his life and he migrated to Calcutta thereafter. Ashok Mitra once told a bureaucrat in Calcutta “I am a Communist, not a gentleman”. But he could not dare to say in East Pakistan “I am a Communist, not a Hindu or Muslim”.
The current political violence, corruption and chaos under the TMC ruled government in West Bengal have given opportunity to other parties to raise their heads in the political fight against the TMC party. BJP, Congress, Communist and ISF are trying to consolidate their position among the voters. If the Bengali Hindus of the state give a second chance to Communist, Islamization of West Bengal will be complete sooner than one can expect.
About the author: Dr Jadabeswar Bhattacharjee served Government of India and retired as Higher Administrative Grade Officer after 35 years of service. After retirement from the service, he developed interest in writing on contentious issues and topics. His published books are (1) Politically incorrect Point of View, (2) Politics, Bong and Faith, (3) The Alternative Narrative, (4) The West Bengal Saga and (5) Political Islam and India.
