Hindu-Muslim divide in Bengal: A Misjudged History ?

We are in the midst of the good-old Hindu-Muslim divide in this election season once again. And that too in the context of West Bengal which has substantial number of Muslim citizenry and can easily decide the fate of the contestants and political parties.

Radha Binod Temple: Bankura

The fascination for white collar jobs among Bengalis had forced middle class Hindus to learn English more as a necessity. In contrast, the Muslims outright showed dislike for the language of the colonial masters and preferred more to the study of Arabic and Persian. A division was created from the beginning stage itself. 

Thus the failure of the Muslims to adjust to the new system of education resulted in the sharp decline in their numbers in government jobs and this gradually led to development of an unequal society. The malady continues even today. The Bengali Hindu words of wisdom easily found better acceptability both in the social structure and government higher echelons. 

There were soon enough takers to various theories and scholarly papers prepared by the so called 'Bengali Hindu intelligentsia'. The medieval Indian history under Muslim rulers began to be described as an era of shame and darkness. More so, when things were compared with the ancient glories of the Hindu civilisation.

Hence, we had masters like Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, Bhudev Mukhopadhyay, Rangalal Bandyopadhyay and also Navin Chandra Sen who unhesitatingly described the Indo-Islamic period as an era of Muslim tyranny. A passionate disgust for Islamic history became the order of the day.

And there was no hesitation - possibly from either side - to describe the religion of the Muslims as something that was propagated more by the use of sword.

This phenomenon was visible in many other parts of India gradually and the emergence of 'communalized Muslim society' easily mobilized the Muslim opinion to support Muhammad Ali Jinah's separate nation. In Bengal particularly, one argument was strongly pushed that the Muslims in a new nation of their own (the sacred land - Pakistan), the Muslims will not have to compete with Hindus for jobs. 

Such a nation would also open doors of an inexpensive education of their own choice. Pakistan failed and on 25th year of its birth, Bangladesh emerged in the comity of South Asian nations.

Partition Nightmare

Some of those 'lofty dreams of a Muslim world' remained with Indian Muslims even after partition. At a later stage, such religo-chauvinism was encouraged by the Congress party for vote bank politics. Urdu was pushed as a language of the Muslims even as Bengali and Malayali Muslims had no business to do with Urdu at the mass level. 

When it comes to Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay,  it can be safely stated that he reflected the true spirit of a Hindu revivalist and a nationalist. These elements were found in his work 'Durgesh Nandini' and 'Anandamath'. In fact, his song and masterpiece 'Vande Mataram' became a virtual most authentic anthem song. This song is, today, daily sung in all RSS shakha meets and the BJP functions.

Most of these 'Bengali Hindu' writers have tried to drive home one point that since the old Hindu had suffered from the absence of a combination of 'physical  prowess and desire for self rule', the new Hindu required to fight for himself and herself. The Bengali Hindu literature entered a new paradigm. 

In his novel Sitaram (story of Gangaram and his sister Shree), Bankim shows how Shree struggled and succeeds to transform a scattering of Hindus who had no sense of mutual unity of purpose into a brave army with a single violent purpose. Bengali Hindus become a community-for-itself !

This spirit of unity got diluted over the years due to wide range of reasons. The blatant minority appeasement by Congress, Leftists and Mamata Banerjee in recent times have made 'the innocuous Hindus' and is thus gravitated towards the BJP.

No wonder, the 'Hindu majoritarianism' has created a fertile ground for the BJP now. In may quarters, there is already a claim that the ground is actually set for the exit of Mamata Banerjee, who championed the cause of Muslim Imams and Muslim religo-function like Muharram. 

The socio-educational status of Muslims in India remain dismal and what they have got in the name of appeasement is merely a lip service.   

Moral of the lesson: The longer the self-proclaimed secularists like Left or Mamata remain in power, the deeper will be anguish of the Hindu nationalists. And once Hindus make up their mind, it will be only harder to 'reverse' the trend. Is West Bengal now witness to that phenomenon?

At the national level, BJP's political prowess has grown up many times in 2019 and beyond than what was it in 2014. In West Bengal too, the BJP's vote share has been increasing. 

Thus, to sum up if one pushes an argument that the differences in vision and living style between Hindus and Muslims are only natural consequences of the emergence of a mass socio-economic, educational and political culture, it is obvious that if Hindus unite in a purpose of 'connected-ness", they would get a government of their choice. 

That government would also show respect to the Hindu sentiment unlike the Left-liberals who have shown dislike for anything 'Hindu' or 'related to Hindu philosophy and ideology' and even glorified notorious characters such as Aurangzeb.

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