Anatomy of Recent Upheaval in Bengal

Amartya Banerjee

Not one but two unprecedented civic movements evolved within two months across the two states of Bengal, though they are actually separated by an international border, namely the states of Bangladesh and West Bengal respectively–the latter being a part of the union republic of India. There are similarities and dissimilarities between them, but what intrigued the author is apparently the sudden accumulation of these two events and also the striking semblance between the previous events those led to these separate eruptions. Both regions have their own specific political characteristics, but there remains a broader agreement between how the class-based outbursts happened in the regions and under what circumstances they reached such unimaginable magnitudes to even challenge the concerned seats of power.

These can be termed as mass movements with strong civilian support, which evolved as spontaneous and decisive outbursts in certain contexts, but both lacked in delivering their ultimate goals–falling short only against the opportunistic forces which were playing around and indeed overpowered this spontaneity with their shrewd understanding of politics and organisation. In one case the government toppled and a troubled state emerged, rift with violence and undercurrents of anti-democratic and despotic forces in action, i.e. what one witnessed with Bangladesh. On the other hand, the government still stays in power (thanks to being only a constituent member state in a federal structure), in West Bengal–however, the authority and support of the ruling party waned seriously amongst the people, leaving room for further accumulated (and unattended) grievances in the minds of the general population, which may lead to sudden and serious outbursts yet again in near future, leading to near-anarchic states of matter that will further facilitate divisive forces to rise and grab power in their aggression. Yes of course, it is about the BJP in West Bengal and JeI in Bangladesh, the two politically divisive forces bidding for their opportune moments to arrive.

But on what grounds did the outbursts emerge, fundamentally from the middle-class of the society which in general, inherently tends to stay out of such turmoil and disturbances? The answer lies in the past and in the political developments of both the states, where two mass-leaders emerged to reign supremacy in the elections and yet they succeeded to erode fundamental democratic tenets in strikingly similar ways when compared between them. Both Sheikh Hasina and Mamata Banerjee have a long history of suffering and both are revered for their firebrand politics in their respective regions. But somehow, for some reason after coming to power in their respective states, both looked forward to decisively crushing the parliamentary opposition in every manner possible to establish themselves as the ‘one and only’ alternatives to the people. This led to the crushing of the parliamentary oppositions in both the states and allowed the created vacuums to be filled by certain ‘opponents’ initially considered to be weak and insignificant in terms of organisational power, but those, in time emerged as more volatile, more despotic and significantly harmful components for the future.

Both the Left (read, the CPIM in West Bengal) and BNP (in Bangladesh) have their own pasts to deal with and such can be easily used against them to erode their support from the minds of the people. Both Hasina and Mamata Banerjee tried rigorously to ensure this and also resorted to un-parliamentary methods like direct suppression through administration and other improper ways like illegal horse-trading after elections, to further eliminate any presence of such forces of opposition on the grounds for the people. Once this process of elimination reached a certain success point, both knowingly allowed the ‘lesser oppositions’ like the JeI or the BJP, (uncannily both turn out to be former allies to Hasina and Mamata respectively), to fill up the vacuums for the necessary parliamentary opposition in both the states, knowingly or unknowingly initiating a devil of a system that will eventually spiral out of control towards anarchy and despotic competition between the forces concerned. Now, once with significant times in power, the initial plague of financial corruption started to infiltrate the incumbent establishments, both of them tried and also succeeded in presenting themselves as the ‘Lesser Evils’ compared to the openly religious and fundamental forces of the JeI and the BJP, and this approach as well, unfortunately for the common people, started to yield dividends.

The CPIM in West Bengal further resorted to direct personal attacks on Mamata Banerjee and her party, and heavily defended their stakes mostly on social media platforms with ultra-urbanised gimmicks to stay afloat politically, and even tried to propose a suicidal strategy to replace the ‘Lesser Evils’ with the ‘Lesser Opponents’ to open up a short-cut path to success, which abysmally went against them. However, the plague of corruption continued to decompose the establishments from within and consequently the divisive forces of the JeI and the BJP respectively, started to gain further political grounds being the only ones with actual organisational powers in the fields of action as the forces of ‘opposition’. Again, both the ‘supreme’ leaders played the same move. They resorted to appeasement politics to combat the fundamentalists, again suicidal attempts of serious magnitudes–in this sorry state of affairs in the regions. One cannot combat the JeI by making Madrasah degrees equivalent to University certificates or by legalising Sharia in a state of dominant Islamic population ravaged by disparity and discrimination. One should not fight the BJP by dragging the latter into a competition where the objective is to promote oneself as the bigger Hindu as compared to the other. In that competition, the idea of Hinduism will definitely be replaced forcibly with the idea of Hindutva politics, which is significantly different and yet has helped the fundamental BJP to gain larger political grounds over India, however unfortunate or unbelievable the fact seems to be.

This is how, the JeI and the BJP in both the states of Bengal established themselves as the primary forces of opposition with significant organisational abilities and they could manoeuvre their efforts to strategically control, overturn and hijack mass-based common people’s movements, which are honest and spontaneous but lack in the shrewdness of strategic operation or detailed organisational preparation. The mass revolted in both the states out of long-term revulsions. The ‘Quota Movement’ or the ‘Rape of Tilottama’, acted as only the triggering events where the floodgates of mass emotion breached for a final time after the people have suffered ruthlessly under decade-long suppression from inept, corrupt and pseudo-despotic governments. In the absence of properly organised political opposition that could have strategised and organised such outbursts in proper ways to channelise them towards effective cycles to overturn the governments in established democratic ways, the outbursts came as spontaneous, sporadic yet with unprecedented magnitude that rocked the core of administrations which were not prepared for such sudden, ad-hoc uprisings.

These are the classic examples of direct outbursts where the masses themselves have emerged as the opposition, but are unprepared as the opportunistic predators of politics (like the JeI or the BJP) hunt in the dark, waiting for the opportune moments to go for the jugulars of the movements and bring the unbound Prometheus under control, but then it will indeed be the darker times. The pseudo-despots have created the anarchy, to arrange the breeding grounds for perfect fascism to evolve. In this context where can somebody look for hope? For the masses those have emerged victorious after the long nights of suppression and sufferings, it’s indeed the best of times, it’s indeed the worst of times, and it’s the time of wisdom and foolishness altogether–but somewhere the lights are breaking through.

It’s a hope that all the political players and the stakeholders concerned, should take their own lessons from these movements, as the masses continue to organise themselves–as they must have also learnt from these experiences, and soon they may emerge as players with upgraded understandings to challenge the present states of power with prudence unprecedented, combined with honesty and spontaneity that all have witnessed, and that may usher in an altogether new age in democracy.

“Let the Commoners of the World Unite”.

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Vol 57, No. 13, Sep 22 - 28, 2024