Each year in Odisha state of India, ‘Odisha Day’ is observed on 1 April, the day on which the state was established in 1936. In Bihar, ‘Bihar Day’ is celebrated each year on 22 March, the day on which the state was born in 1912. Similarly, ‘Telangana Day’ is celebrated each year in the state of Telangana on 2 June, the day the state was carved out of Andhra Pradesh and formed in 2014.
In the same manner ‘Jharkhand Day’ is celebrated each year in the state on 15 November, the day on which the state was carved out of Bihar in the year 2000. ‘Maharashtra Day’ and ‘Gujarat Day’ are celebrated on 1 May every year, the day on which both the states were born out of Bombay Province in 1960.
These examples are given to clarify the single reason for which each of these states celebrates a particular day of the year as its ‘State Day’. These days are unique and exclusive for each state. The matter has generated interest, as West Bengal Chief Minister has been contemplating to officially fix a day of the year for celebration as ‘West Bengal Day’. But, stupidly or other-wise, Bongs must be different in their ideas and thoughts from other Indians.
In a recent (29 August, 2023) all party meeting, in the state headquarters of administration, members and intellectuals were invited by the Chief Minister Ms Mamata Banerjee to give their opinion, on which day should be celebrated as ‘West Bengal Day’? Dr Saugata Bose, a history professor of Harvard University, USA and grandnephew of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose was one of those invited intellectuals. Dr Bose suggested that 1st day of the Bengali annual calendar, also locally known as Poila Baishakh, should be celebrated as ‘West Bengal Day’.
The current Bengali calendar owes its origin in Bengal to the rule of Mughal Emperor Akbar who adopted it to time the tax year to the harvest. Akbar’s Finance Minister Todar Mal back-calculated the pre-existing Bengali Hindu Lunar calendar and adjusted with Islamic Hijri to fix 593 CE as the first year of the Bengali calendar. The Bengali year was thereafter called Bangabda. In the past two centuries, Hindu Bengali have been celebrating the 1st day of Bengali annual calendar or Poila Baishakh as a socio-religious celebration with new clothes, good meals and Puja of Ganesh and Lakshmi in the shops and commercial establishments to open their annual Accounts Book.
Meanwhile in 1987, Bangladesh officially adopted Poila Baishakh as a national holiday with socio-cultural celebration across the country. In Bangladesh, Poila Baishakh always falls on 14 April of each year. However, in West Bengal, the Bengali calendar is adjusted for Solar Cycle and Poila Baishakh falls on 14th or 15th April, as the case may be. It is pertinent to point out here that Bangladesh celebrates Poila Baishakh with hundred times more pomp and grandeur than West Bengal. So even ceremonially and phonetically speaking, Poila Baishakh is neither unique nor exclusive for West Bengal.
During his deliberation before the Chief Minister of West Bengal, Dr Saugata Bose discarded 20 June to be the ‘West Bengal Day’ by saying that West Bengal was not created on that day of 1947. He cited that in the India Independence Act, which got Royal Assent on 18 July 1947, it was told that Punjab and Bengal would be divided on a later date.
So, 20 June, 1947 that predated 18 July, 1947 had no significance in West Bengal. He further added that India was in Dominion Status till 26 January 1950 when it became fully independent. And so, 20 June, 1947 had no meaning in West Bengal’s history.
Well, if a history professor of Harvard University, like Dr Saugata Bose, could not distort Indian history, who else could do that? As per his argument, Bihar and Odisha have been wrongly celebrating their State Days as those dates were linked up with 1912 CE and 1936 CE respectively, when India was under British rule. Dr Bose also cunningly avoided telling what happened on 20 June 1947 for West Bengal. He told a blatant half-truth to peddle his misplaced agenda of mixing-up West Bengal and Bangladesh at the cost of pride of West Bengal.
Dr Bose gave an alternate half-hearted proposal for 20 July as ‘West Bengal Day’. On that day British Bengal was divided in 1905 by Lord Curzon and Tagore spear-headed Raksha Bandhan on that day of 20 July, 1905 across the whole of Bengal to show solidarity between Hindu and Muslim Bengali people. But what Dr Bose suppressed was that, majority Muslims of Bengal were happy with the partition of Bengal in 1905 and Tagore was not at all impressed with the violently invasive nature of Islam.
In the following year of 1906, All India Muslim League was established in Dhaka (East Bengal) to fight for the cause of Muslims of Bengal and India. This mental and political division between Hindus and Muslims of British Bengal kept on increasing. By 1945-46, Bengal became the largest and strongest hold of Muslim League in India and culminated in the creation of Islamic East Pakistan on 14/15 August 1947. Dr Bose was trying to overlook all those bitter communal histories of Bengal for some stupid ‘Bengali identity’ cutting across the religious and boarder divides.
Coming back to 20 June, 1947, one should know what happened on that day. Under the Mountbatten Plan, the Legislative Assembly of Bengal was called on that day to decide on division or no-division of Bengal by the two Nationalist groups of members by a simple majority. Three rounds of voting took place among the legislators.
To cut the long story short, members of Muslim majority Eastern part of Bengal voted for inclusion of the whole of Bengal to Islamic Pakistan. But members of Hindu majority Western part of Bengal voted for division of the province and merger of Western part of the Bengal with India. So, on the bases of principle, legality and legislative sanctity, the decision to create West Bengal, as a part of India out of British Bengal, was taken on 20 June, 1947.
Thus, 20 June is a unique and exclusive day for the state of West Bengal to become “West Bengal Day”. However, Mamata Banerjee, the Chief Minister of the state, is inclined to push Poila Baishakh as ‘West Bengal Day’. Her party is against the 20 June proposal, as made by the Central government, to avoid remembering the communal holocaust of 1946-47.
Even Dr Saugata Bose’s deliberation also hinted for maintaining communal harmony while selecting the ‘West Bengal Day’. TMC’s approach is politically motivated and devoid of morality. But, neither Saugata Bose nor TMC could explain how selection of 20 June as “West Bengal Day” will hurt the sentiment of the Muslims of the state.
In West Bengal, it is highly shameful and communal on the part of Hindu Bengali to talk about the Great Calcutta Killings of August 1946 or Noakhali Massacre of Hindus in October 1946. Present generation of Bong youths even don’t know about those nefarious riots on Hindus of Calcutta and Noakhali (East Bengal) by the Pakistan-demanding Muslim League supporters of Bengali Muslims.
These are no BJP or RSS propaganda, as the Congress, Marxist and TMC Bongs of today may like to label. London-born Yasmin Khan in her book “The Great Partition: The Making of India and Pakistan” (published by Yale University), in Chapter 4: The Collapse of Trust, has given a vivid background and description of those riots. The successive Congress, Left Front and TMC governments of West Bengal found it to be highly secular to suppress those facts from public memory of Hindu Bengali.
After independence, the Congress government of India made the same mistake in developing Indian history. To achieve communal harmony, it white-washed the cruelty and devastation of Islamic invasions and rule in India that lasted for about 800 years. But that has back-fired after seven decades.
In Social Psychology, there is a term called “Collective Memory”. It is a type of community memory that preserves its bad experiences, in an unconscious and effortless manner, which it faced generations back. The recent rise of Hindutva and Hindu civilizational pride, we see under BJP rule, are the effects of suppression of historical facts by the Congress government after getting independence.
Instead of suppressing the information of Great Calcutta Killings and Noakhali Massacre from Hindu Bengali of the state, those were to be discussed and treated with “forgive but don’t forget” policy. Because George Santayana, a Spanish-American philosopher, essayist, poet, and novelist said, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it”.
So, if Hindu Bengali are to stop repeating their going through communal holocaust, they are to know about the communal riots in Bengal at least between 1905 and 1947. Sweeping information of those under the carpet or avoiding talking about those, were like running away from the problems, instead of facing and solving those.
Proportion of Muslims in West Bengal was 15.85 percent in 1951. This sharply rose to about 33.50 percent now. Whereas, the proportion of Hindus in East Pakistan (Bangladesh) in 1951 was 20.05 percent and sharply declined to 8.20 percent at present. The Congress, Communist and TMC Bongs of West Bengal refuse to look at this Demographic Pogrom of Hindu Bengali community both in East Pakistan/Bangladesh and West Bengal. They find it more comfortable to behave like ostrich.
Occurrence of about a dozen of communal riots across West Bengal in past some years tell that Hindu Bengali are heading towards another communal holocaust, like 1946-47, sooner or later in the state. Uncalled for and unnecessary appeasement of Muslim community of the state, for vote-bank politics and misplaced idea of secularism, has brought the Hindu Bengali of the state to this situation. Bongs proudly refuse to learn from history. They are many times bitten but never shy. They are a strange lot with death-wish.
A large group of Hindu Bengali of West Bengal is pathologically secular. They don’t care to know that secularism is anti-thesis of Islam. No Muslim can be friendly with any Kafir under any situation. Because Kafir are sub-human and hell-goers. These are the teachings of Islam. Against this background, this group of secular Hindu Bengali shouts “Hindu-Muslim bhai bhai”.
They experience secular orgasm by allowing Muslims to give Azan from their Durga Puja pandals. However, slogan of “Hindu-Muslim bhai bhai” has always been non-existent in East Pakistan/Bangladesh. And in Durga Puja pandals there, timings of Azan are displayed, so that Pandit can’t chant any religious hymn in those timings. Beating of drum and bell is also prohibited during those timings.
The bottom line is Hindu Bengali’s becoming secular does not make Muslim Bengali secular. Let West Bengal come to its sense and decide on 20 June as the “West Bengal Day” without any self-loathing.
