I have often asked myself who am I? And while it is easy to say I am an Indian, a bloody proud Indian at that, and every now and then I see myself as a world citizen too. I am not sure if I am a Hindu, not that I am least bit inclined to join any other religion. Truth be told though I am, and have been all my life, an unabashed Bengali.
Everytime I have had the opportunity to do so, I have unequivocally stated "Ami Baangali".
Over the years I have celebrated everything Bengali. I have been rather impressed about the manner we appropriated Jose Barreto from Brazil, Mother Teresa from Albania and Kanchenjungha from Sikkim. "Shala Indira (Gandhi) puro Sikkim niye nilo, aar amra aakta Kanchenjungha nilei joto dosh", a friend of mine had once reasoned. I am not going to translate that, but try arguing with that logic!
Apart from pride, I have felt a certain degree of comfort in being a Bengali. Some of the finest books I have ever read are in Bengali. I dare say there are few better writers in any language than Bibhutibhushan Bandopadhyay or Sukumar Ray. I simply relish Bangla food -- from luchi aar kosha mangsho to murighonto to shutki maachh to muger daler peethe. I have no doubt at all that Sourav Ganguly has been India's best cricket captain ever.
More than anything else though I have enjoyed being a Bengali because it gives you a certain liberal aura, a secular credential, which is good for your peace of mind. Today I am most miffed, nay deeply upset, because for the first time I find my identity a burden, a shame.
To be sure, when a predominantly Bhadralok crowd lynches a poor pickpocket to death, I feel terrible. When crowds misbehave in Eden Gardens, my blatantly Bengali heart bleeds too. I have cringed when someone tells me that Bengal has the highest number of custodial deaths in the country. First Singur and then Nandigram left me shaken as well as stirred. But I have always believed -- even defended -- such acts as part of deviant behaviour for which you can't hold an entire state responsible.
Last few weeks though, my belief as a Bengali, and my faith in Bengal has taken an unprecedented battering. It is bad enough that the coldblooded killing of Rizwanur, a 3o-year-old graphics teacher who had dared to marry the Hindu daughter of a powerful business tycoon, is being passed off as suicide at a time when there is enough circumstantial evidence to suggest that if even he wasn't physically pushed in front of a train, he was definitely pressurised and pushed to take that drastic step.
More than the government's response, what is far more difficult to stomach is the state of denial people of Bengal choose to live in. Bengalis are known to issue or deny certificates on secularism to the rest of the world, appoint themselves custodians against imperialism, comment on incidents in Vietnam and Venezuela. And now they allow a Rizwanur to sit easy on their collective conscience.
For those who don't know about Rizwanur, these are the bare facts of the case.
Rizwanur Rahman was a 30-year old computer graphics teacher from Kolkata. He was also a Muslim who fell in love with and married a Hindu girl Priyanka Todi, who happened to be the daughter of Ashok Todi, a member of the Todi multimillion dollar Lux hosiery brand. Priyanka eloped and married Rizwanur on August 18, but her family lodged a missing persons report and eventually an abduction complaint against Rizwanur. The Kolkata police started harassing him to return his wife back to her family.
Bengal, you thought, was different. Who can forget the face of the man who lost his family in the Gujarat riots and was given a job and shelter in West Bengal? Now that face has been replaced in my mind and memory by that of Rizwanur Rahman.
There have been protests by members of the intelligentsia and odd articles in the media. But there has to be, there should have been, a bigger display of anger, a more sustained agitation against the West Bengal government's stand on the Rizwanur case. Isn't this after all a state where people take to the streets over a soccer match?
When I visited Ahmedabad during the 2002 anti-Muslim riots what bothered me was the promptness with which the Hindus I spoke to, dissociated themselves from the violence around them. "We don't know what was going on", "We didn't kill any Muslims", was always the stock response. As if their lack of knowledge or complicity somehow made the killings more acceptable.
Hungarian-born Gitta Sereny spent ten years in post-Second World War Germany and interviewed over 10,000 Germans, trying to find their guilt in the events leading up to the deaths of six million Jews. "Not a single person was willing to take even moral or emotional responsibility for what had happened," wrote a very perturbed Sereny. According to her, that attitude was as much to blame as Hitler's policies for the genocide.
Bengal can't afford a similar stand on Rizwanur. It can't hide behind the fig leaf of "It was suicide, and not murder". It doesn't matter if a frustrated Rizwanur threw himself before a train. You have to look at -- take a VERY HARD look -- the situation which prompted Rizwanur to take such a step. Not many years ago, another young man, a brother of mine, had chosen to end his life on the railway track. I know first hand the trauma, the turmoil that prompts one to take a step like that.
Earlier today, the West Bengal chief minister, facing flak from the media and under pressure from his own allies, ordered the transfer of the Calcutta police commissioner and four other police officials. For me, it is too less too late. Transfers are merely symbolic, and simply a politically expedient move. Albeit a step in the right direction, much more (read exemplary punishment) needs to be done, before Bengal or the West Bengal government can hold its head high.
About a hundred years ago, Rabindranath Tagore had returned his knighthood in protest, against the then Partition of Bengal. I have no fancy titles or medals to return to anyone. But if the West Bengal chief minister doesn't take prompt remedial action or if my beloved Bengal continues to live in denial on the Rizwanur issue, I might just give up something as dear to me as my life. My identity as a Baangali.
It is time Buddhababu and rest of Bengal realise that the difference between Modi and Todi should be more than just a letter in the English language.
Everytime I have had the opportunity to do so, I have unequivocally stated "Ami Baangali".
Over the years I have celebrated everything Bengali. I have been rather impressed about the manner we appropriated Jose Barreto from Brazil, Mother Teresa from Albania and Kanchenjungha from Sikkim. "Shala Indira (Gandhi) puro Sikkim niye nilo, aar amra aakta Kanchenjungha nilei joto dosh", a friend of mine had once reasoned. I am not going to translate that, but try arguing with that logic!
Apart from pride, I have felt a certain degree of comfort in being a Bengali. Some of the finest books I have ever read are in Bengali. I dare say there are few better writers in any language than Bibhutibhushan Bandopadhyay or Sukumar Ray. I simply relish Bangla food -- from luchi aar kosha mangsho to murighonto to shutki maachh to muger daler peethe. I have no doubt at all that Sourav Ganguly has been India's best cricket captain ever.
More than anything else though I have enjoyed being a Bengali because it gives you a certain liberal aura, a secular credential, which is good for your peace of mind. Today I am most miffed, nay deeply upset, because for the first time I find my identity a burden, a shame.
To be sure, when a predominantly Bhadralok crowd lynches a poor pickpocket to death, I feel terrible. When crowds misbehave in Eden Gardens, my blatantly Bengali heart bleeds too. I have cringed when someone tells me that Bengal has the highest number of custodial deaths in the country. First Singur and then Nandigram left me shaken as well as stirred. But I have always believed -- even defended -- such acts as part of deviant behaviour for which you can't hold an entire state responsible.
Last few weeks though, my belief as a Bengali, and my faith in Bengal has taken an unprecedented battering. It is bad enough that the coldblooded killing of Rizwanur, a 3o-year-old graphics teacher who had dared to marry the Hindu daughter of a powerful business tycoon, is being passed off as suicide at a time when there is enough circumstantial evidence to suggest that if even he wasn't physically pushed in front of a train, he was definitely pressurised and pushed to take that drastic step.
More than the government's response, what is far more difficult to stomach is the state of denial people of Bengal choose to live in. Bengalis are known to issue or deny certificates on secularism to the rest of the world, appoint themselves custodians against imperialism, comment on incidents in Vietnam and Venezuela. And now they allow a Rizwanur to sit easy on their collective conscience.
For those who don't know about Rizwanur, these are the bare facts of the case.
Rizwanur Rahman was a 30-year old computer graphics teacher from Kolkata. He was also a Muslim who fell in love with and married a Hindu girl Priyanka Todi, who happened to be the daughter of Ashok Todi, a member of the Todi multimillion dollar Lux hosiery brand. Priyanka eloped and married Rizwanur on August 18, but her family lodged a missing persons report and eventually an abduction complaint against Rizwanur. The Kolkata police started harassing him to return his wife back to her family.
Priyanka did not want to go back to her family, but was told by the cops that her father was seriously ill. On September 8th, Rizwanur and Priyanka relented and she went back to live with her family for a week. The family however did not allow Priyanka to return back to Rizwanur.
On September 16, Rizwanur, realising that his wife would not be returned to him, sought help from the Association for Protection of Democratic Rights, a human rights organisation. In a written complaint to APDR, he stated that he wasn’t getting any help from the cops - in fact he was being harassed and pressurised by them.
Five days later, on September 21, Rizwanur Rahman was found dead, lying on the railway tracks between Dum Dum and Bidhannagar stations. Within literally minutes, the Kolkata police chief Prasun Bannerjee had declared Rizwanur had committed suicide.
Bengal, you thought, was different. Who can forget the face of the man who lost his family in the Gujarat riots and was given a job and shelter in West Bengal? Now that face has been replaced in my mind and memory by that of Rizwanur Rahman.
There have been protests by members of the intelligentsia and odd articles in the media. But there has to be, there should have been, a bigger display of anger, a more sustained agitation against the West Bengal government's stand on the Rizwanur case. Isn't this after all a state where people take to the streets over a soccer match?
When I visited Ahmedabad during the 2002 anti-Muslim riots what bothered me was the promptness with which the Hindus I spoke to, dissociated themselves from the violence around them. "We don't know what was going on", "We didn't kill any Muslims", was always the stock response. As if their lack of knowledge or complicity somehow made the killings more acceptable.
Hungarian-born Gitta Sereny spent ten years in post-Second World War Germany and interviewed over 10,000 Germans, trying to find their guilt in the events leading up to the deaths of six million Jews. "Not a single person was willing to take even moral or emotional responsibility for what had happened," wrote a very perturbed Sereny. According to her, that attitude was as much to blame as Hitler's policies for the genocide.
Bengal can't afford a similar stand on Rizwanur. It can't hide behind the fig leaf of "It was suicide, and not murder". It doesn't matter if a frustrated Rizwanur threw himself before a train. You have to look at -- take a VERY HARD look -- the situation which prompted Rizwanur to take such a step. Not many years ago, another young man, a brother of mine, had chosen to end his life on the railway track. I know first hand the trauma, the turmoil that prompts one to take a step like that.
Earlier today, the West Bengal chief minister, facing flak from the media and under pressure from his own allies, ordered the transfer of the Calcutta police commissioner and four other police officials. For me, it is too less too late. Transfers are merely symbolic, and simply a politically expedient move. Albeit a step in the right direction, much more (read exemplary punishment) needs to be done, before Bengal or the West Bengal government can hold its head high.
About a hundred years ago, Rabindranath Tagore had returned his knighthood in protest, against the then Partition of Bengal. I have no fancy titles or medals to return to anyone. But if the West Bengal chief minister doesn't take prompt remedial action or if my beloved Bengal continues to live in denial on the Rizwanur issue, I might just give up something as dear to me as my life. My identity as a Baangali.
It is time Buddhababu and rest of Bengal realise that the difference between Modi and Todi should be more than just a letter in the English language.
11 comments:
Chaks, strong words those. But I totally agree with what you have written. Rizwanur is nasty business. Very nasty. And the way the West Bengal government has tried to cover up the issue is shameful. That Buddhadeb fellow has false intellectual pretensions. When it comes to the crunch, he is as bad as the rest of the politicians. I completely agree with you that the transfer of police commissioner and other police officials is just window dressing.
Four days of Durga Puja, it is that time of the year when I am, before anything else, a Bengali. I revel in my being a Bangali. And now you have spoilt my party. You have made me introspect and every word you have written is true. Sad, but true. While it is upto the government of the day to punish those complicit in the murder (and, in the context of what happened, it IS a murder even if it is proved to be a suicide)of poor Rizwanur. It is for us ordinary folks to let the government know that the civil society will not tolerate such activities.
Not sure I completely agree. First of all, I don't think you can equate West Bengal government (and the Communists) with ordinary citizens. I think this has outraged Bengalis - I've got countless phone-calls from people in Calcutta pressing for more media coverage. There have been spontaneous protests as well as more ugly ones. And I think the backlash has come from across the social and religious divide - which certainly didn't happen in Gujarat
The issue for me is one that we don't acknowledge much - which is that West Bengal is now a brutal, quasi-police state. We've seen that in Nandigram, in the ration riots and now this. Nearly three decades of one party rule has brought in a Stalinist arrogance that can only be challenged by throwing the Party out.
I guess I agree with both Sanjoy and Rajan. With Sanjoy because there have been number of instances now which point that West Bengal is "now a brutal, quasi-police state". I agree with Rajan that Bengalis have often been more concerned with what is happening in Vietnam or Venezuela than what is happening in their own backyard.
As for Rajan giving up his Bangali identity, all I can say is please don't even think on those lines. I have known you only through these blogs and I can say for sure, it is the quintessentially Bengaliness (if ever there is a term like that!) of the blogs that make me come back to Pontiff's Corner.
Taking issues with Sanjoy here. I wonder if he is subtly implying Hindus in Gujarat are less secular than their Bengali brethren, simply because not many Gujrati Hindus protested against the 2002 riots. I think fundamentalism or secularism are personal choices. One can't say people in Bengal are less fundamentalist (or more secular) than people in Gujarat. I know lot of very secular Gujratis, and I also know a fair number of Hindu fundamentalist Bengalis. I don't think this proves one thing or the other.
"Ashamed" seems a tad harsh, but if you feel that, I guess you feel that. I have on occasions felt embarrassed about being a Bengali, but i wouldn't go as far as feeling "ashamed". I know this sounds like arguing over semantics, but I think there is a significant difference between the two emotions. The Rizwanur incident notwithstanding, I would say Bengal is possibly more secular than most states in the country.
However, in this post and in the responses to it, there appears to be certain degree of unanimity about the Left Front government's highhandedness in dealing with issues like Rizwanur. A police state can't hide behind a bhadralok mask. I teach in a central Calcutta school -- over the past few years
petty corruption within the ruling party ranks has begun to affect every aspect of one's life.
I would be frowned upon in my school if it was discovered that I have written this mail. I am embarrassed that I can't sign what I have written with my real name .
The left Front government functions like most communist states -- subverting individual freedom and crushing criticism with brute force. Rizwanur's death has become an issue because he belongs to the middle class and the incident took place in Kolkata. In rural Bengal there are hundreds of Rizwanurs who are crushed by the repressive Left Front regime. In Bengal, both the communist party machinery and the state government have let loose a reign of terror about which the people outside Bengal have no idea. Elections --from panchayat level to parliamentary one -- are rigged, government jobs are available only to people with party affiliation, petty corruption rules in thanas and panchayats, medical care and education system throughout the state are in shambles. Meanwhile Buddhadeb Bhattacharya goes about his pretentious progressive ways.
In a system like this, it is a miracle that more people don't throw themselves in front of moving trains.
There is an overt comparision between Bengal and Gujarat in this post. While many may feel this is unwarranted given Bengal's record on communal violence compared to Gujarat, I believe Buddhadeb Bhattacharya heads as much a repressive government as the one which Modi heads in Gujarat. The difference being in Gujarat while the state machinery's viciousness is targetted towards the minority Muslim community, the Bengal government, being oh-so-secular is impartial in its highhandedness towards both Hindus and Muslims. In Buddhadeb's secular Bengal, both Hindus and Muslims live in abject misery, among high unemployment and equally high illiteracy, their democratic rights throttled by a corrupt police and cruel policing.
You've let the cat out of the bag early on when you talk about Bengalis having a liberal "aura" and secular "credentials". Does that make us true liberals and secularists? No. Some of us yes, maybe, but most of us are harmless poseurs, because liberalism is oh, so, cool and syncs in nicely with the rich-bashing, poor-glorifying Bengali middle class consciousness. I would like to know how many of the thousands of Bengalis holding candle light vigils for Rizwanur would happily rent their homes to young Muslim boys like him. Or how many of them actually have Muslim friends in a city where the community as in most other cities is totally ghettoised. Let us not suffer from any illusions, Rajan. Bengal is not exactly an island of moderation and rectitude in a growingly intolerant and restless India. So don't be so blue.
CBI has registered a case of murder against Todi. This will get more interesting, because right now there is no love lost between the Congress government and the Left Front over the issue of Indo-US nuclear deal. The Left has successfully bullied the government over the nuclear issue. Now the UPA government might retaliate by asking the CBI to take a tough stand on Todi, who is friends with powerful people in the Left Front government.
Hi Rajan.
This is sudhir sinha. If you remember do reply. My email is sksinha_2001@yahoo.com
Take care.
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