A couple of months back a woman had committed suicide in Assam by jumping into a well fearing being sent to detention camp on account of her name missing from the final NRC list. Recently another woman in West Bengal had hanged herself from the ceiling as her son didn’t have a birth certificate – one of the prime documents needed to have him listed as a valid citizen of India, according to the new law passed by the NDA led Central government.
The recently concluded NRC drive in Assam going on for several years also saw a large number of bonafide citizens being left out from the final list, many being members of the same family; with no clarity about the illegal immigrants actually identified in the exercise. To make matters worse the Centre says that the list might get truncated further.
Fear looms over all illegal entrants from bangladesh, who had crossed the barbed wire fence after a while since the partition along with their family members in search of jobs and better livelihood – the woman who recently self-immolated herself had been working under MGNREGA scheme, while her husband was a van driver.
Not that the hindu bengali bhadralok who had been fleeing Bangladesh since 1971 Bangladesh liberation war to escape religious persecution or even those few resettled in 1950-60s post-partition, who have one of their feet in the grave now, are feeling secured either; for neither were their children issued birth certificates by KMC/ Municipalities in West Bengal like the ghotis (the bengalis native to the state), nor did they find it necessary to document proofs of their entry in India. Not after exercising their voting right all these years – a prerogative known to be reserved for any citizen of a democratic country, that is till the time the CAA had been enacted.
Those bengalis who’ve been brainwashed by Hindu nationalists since decades into believing the refugees from other side of the Bay of bengal to be the root cause for all their misery need to question themselves – who these people, these refugees, actually are ?
A peek into the history of India would easily reveal that the bengalis had always been at the receiving end of the State’s anguish as it was always them who kindled any reform which channelised mass movement in the country. Hence there’ve been consistent efforts to partition them on the basis of religion, caste, language, geographical location etc. in order to nip their unity in the bud.
The Indian Rebellion of 1857, the first major armed resistance against British East India Company had diverse political, economic, military, religious and social causes; the unrest first showing itself in Dum-dum, West Bengal.
The introduction of a new cartridge for the Enfield rifle had provoked much of the trouble. The cartridges wrapped in greased paper had to be bitten open to load in rifle barrels. Rumors began to spread that the grease used to make the cartridges was derived from pigs and cows, which was highly offensive to Muslims and Hindus. On March 29, 1857 Mangal Pandey, a sepoy (sipahi) in the 34th Bengal Native Infantry (BNI) regiment enacted the first bold act of defiance, in March at Barrackpore by shooting a British sergeant-major and a lieutenant.
In the altercation, Pandey was surrounded and shot in the chest by British. He however survived and was put on trial and hanged on April 8, 1857. The flames of the revolution spread to Lucknow early in May; and on May 9 and 10, a full scale mutiny erupted at Meerut. The Meerut Sepoys occupied Delhi on May 11. This proved to be the decisive signal for the whole of the Bengal Army to join the uprising. Throughout May and June 1857 more units of Indian troops mutinied against the British, joined by the Sepoy units of Bengal Army in the north – turning the uprising extremely violent.
The British were ultimately able to establish control in 1858. As mutineers were captured, they were often killed on the spot, but many were executed in dramatic fashion out of which ‘lashing a mutineer to the mouth of a cannon and blasting the man to pieces’ was the most horrendous amongst them. Though the revolt ultimately failed but 93% of Sepoys putting up an united uprising against the British was itself an incredible feat achieved in the history of war of Indian Independence.
A scene from the 1857 Indian Rebellion (Bengal Army)
A Bikaner dye factory in Bengal, 1867
Since 1777 with the Nawabs of Bengal under British power, indigo planting became more and more commercially profitable because of the demand for blue dye in Europe. By 1788, most of the production of Indigo had started in Bengal.
The indigo planters compelled the peasants to plant indigo in place of food crops in return for a meagre price and against loans at a very high interest; often resorting to mortgages/ destruction of their property if they disobeyed. A farmer taking such loan remained in debt for the rest of his life before passing it on to his successors, with hardly any profit made from growing of the plant. The British Government rules favoured the planters to the extent that by an act in 1833, the planters were granted a free hand in oppression. Even the zamindars sided with the planters.
Under this severe oppression, the farmers resorted to revolt in 1858, known as Indigo revolt (Nil vidroha). It spread rapidly to Murshidabad, Birbhum, Burdwan, Pabna, Khulna, and Narail areas, the Bengali middle class supporting the peasants wholeheartedly . The revolt was suppressed with the combined effort of the British Government’s police and military forces and the zamindars; by mercilessly slaughtering a number of peasants.
The Indigo revolt in Bengal was the first non-violent revolution in the country, a forerunner of the non-violent passive resistance later successfully adopted by Gandhi. The revolt had a strong effect on the government, which immediately appointed the ‘Indigo Commission’ in 1860. In the commission report, E. W. L. Tower, District magistrate of Faridpur (of undivided Bengal), 1860 noted that “not a chest of Indigo reached England without being stained with human blood”.
In 1905, Lord Curzon’s move to divide Bengal Presidency into muslim dominated province of East Bengal – Assam and hindu province of Bengal (present day West Bengal, Bihar, Odisha, Jharkhand) was meted out to alienate the bengalis’ political assertiveness against the British government.
Map showing the result of the partition of Bengal in 1905. The western part (Bengal) gained parts of Odisha, the eastern part (Eastern Bengal and Assam) regained Assam that had been made a separate province in 1874
The Hindu elite of Bengal who leased out lands to Muslim peasants in East Bengal lost them in no time as a result. The large Bengali Hindu middle-class (the Bhadralok) were outnumbered in their own province by Biharis and Oriyas leading to their losing of jobs to them and denudation of bengali culture. Despite that the Bengali Renaissance of the nineteenth century brought in literary and artistic bloom in the country.
The Partition initiated Swadeshi movement in Bengal – the first uprising against British in the entire country. Launched as a protest movement the Swadeshi gave way to boycotting British goods along with revival of domestic products and production processes. Later on, the economic boycott developed into non-cooperation against the British aimed at the political regeneration of the country with the distant goal of absolute freedom. Risley, the Home Secretary to the Government of India in an official note had expressed his concern. “Bengal united is power; Bengal divided will pull several different ways”.
Fed up with the nuisances posed by Bengali dissidents the Partition was annulled in 1911 and the British had to shift their capital to Delhi. However instead of the protests coming to end, the assertive egalitarianism of Bengalis seemed to become the mood of the entire country. When India won independence in 1947, it became the world’s largest socialist democracy.
The Partition of Bengal in 1947, prior to India’s Independence took place post World War Two when British wished to end the colonial rule in haste. It was a compromised move of British India under sectarian pressure, as the Muslim League pushed for division riding on Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s two-nation theory conspiracy. Bengal was however left out from being a part of the new Muslim State; even the support for a unified, Independent Bengal was vetoed by the British. The consequence was the flight of about 10 million refugees (the largest human movement in history) – Hindus from Pakistan and Muslims from India, amid terrifying bloodshed.
Old Sikh man carrying his wife along with others on the way to their promised new home
A huge number of Bengalis were compelled to flee Pakistan later in 1947 on account of persecution at the hands of urdu speaking community but had to return back in the 80s in search of better opportunities post formation of Bangladesh.
At present there are around 3.0 million Bengali Muslims living as refugees in Pakistan’s Karachi. When approached for enrolling as Pakistani citizens, the authorities deliberately create problems for these poor and illiterate people, either turning them away or demanding bribes failing which they are jailed on the grounds of illegal stay. Even the few lucky ones who had managed to get Pakistani NICs after living more than six decades in the country are often denied hospital services/ medical treatment due to their Bengali origin. Police never stop rounding-up and harassing them on flimsy grounds because of the language they speak.
Back home in India the same fate awaits 7000 Bengali Hindus refugees at Coopers Camp (a notified area in Nadia district under Ranaghat police station of Ranaghat subdivision in the state of West Bengal) since 73 years- a major embarrassment for the progressive West Bengal government, with its focus on industrial development only around Kolkata. To cope with the huge influx of refugees into West Bengal in 1947, the Indian government had decided to send the excess refugees in the region to outposts like the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Those who refused to go, like most of the Coopers refugees, were robbed of their voting rights and are still fighting to obtain their nationalities.
The history of Bengali language can be traced back to the period of continuously evolving of languages in the Indo-Aryan family that also eventually produced Sanskrit, Urdu and Hindi, among many others. Old Bengali divided into Middle Bengali by the 15th century, and Middle Bengali remained a distinct language until the early 19th century.
In the eighteenth century the Bengali alphabet was reconstructed and the Bengali typography was simplified into 12 vowels and 40 consonants by Iswar Chandra Vidyasagar – a Bengali polymath from the Indian subcontinent, and a key figure of the Bengal Renaissance.
Since 1948, the Bengali speaking majority of East Bengal had been fighting to implement Bengali against Pakistan government’s ordinance of Urdu to be the sole national language – to allow use of bengali in government affairs, to continue its use in education, in media, currency and stamps, and in the Bengali script.
The Bengali language movement reached its climax when police killed student demonstrators on 21 February 1952 (known as language martyr’s day). After years of conflict, the central government relented and granted official status to the Bengali language in 1956.
Shaheed Minar, or language martyr’s memorial, located at Dhaka, Bangladesh
The genocide in Bangladesh began on 26 March 1971 with the launch of Operation Searchlight as West Pakistan (now Pakistan) began a military crackdown on the Eastern wing (now Bangladesh) of the nation to suppress Bengali calls for self-determination rights. It was a systematic elimination of nationalist Bengali civilians, students, intelligentsia, hindus and armed personnel in which around 3.0 million of bengali people were killed and 4. 0 lacs Bangladeshi women were raped according to bangladesh government sources. An estimated 10 million Bengali refugees fled to neighbouring India, while 30 million were internally displaced.
A young protester demanding capital punishment for 1971 War Criminals.
The Liberation War in Bangladesh announced from Chittagong by members of the Mukti Bahini (the national liberation army formed by Bengali military, paramilitary and civilians) was an armed revolution against Pakistan military sponsored Operation Searchlight. Staged as a mass guerrilla war and air strikes, the Mukti Bahini carried out widespread sabotage against the Pakistan Navy and restricted the Pakistani military to its barracks, liberating the countrywide and securing control in the process.
The Provisional Government of Bangladesh was formed on 17 April 1971 in Mujibnagar and moved to Calcutta as a government in exile. Bengali members of the Pakistani civil, military and diplomatic corps defected to the Bangladeshi provisional government. Thousands of Bengali families were interned in West Pakistan, from where many escaped to Afghanistan.
The plight of millions of war-ravaged Bengali civilians caused worldwide outrage and alarm. India intervened in providing substantial diplomatic, economic and military support to Bangladeshi nationalist forces, led by Indira Gandhi. In answer to Pakistan’s preemptive air strikes on North India India joined the war on 3 December 1971. The subsequent Indo-Pakistani War witnessed engagements on two war fronts. With air supremacy achieved in the eastern theatre and the rapid advance of the Allied Forces of Bangladesh and India, Pakistan surrendered in Dacca on 16 December 1971.
Pakistan Instrument of Surrender
The first influx of refugees from Bangladesh during Independence 1947 who were mostly the upper and middle class got easily settled in West Bengal but not the latter 1.50 lacs poor Hindu bangladeshis in 1978. Satisfied with their vote bank strength, the Left Front government meanwhile had also changed its policy on refugee settling and started considering the refugees to be a national burden now, not just the State’s anymore.
After initial resistance from the refugees they were forcibly sent to the rocky, inhospitable land of Dandakaranya (mostly in Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh), Terai (Uttar Pradesh, now in Uttarakhand), Little Andamans etc.
In 1979, around 40,000 refugees strayed to south of West Bengal and camping for few months in Hasnabad settled in Marichjhapi illegally, a protected place under Reserve Forest Act. When the government’s pursuance to make them return to their assigned place followed by the deplorable economic blockade didn’t yield results it started forcibly evicting them leading to gutting of huts and death of thousands in police gunfire and by politically-aligned goondas.
During economic blockade women were held captive, gangraped and drowned in river when they tried to procure rations, drinking water and medicines from other islands. Back on the island tube wells were poisoned, men were killed and their belongings looted, leaving the survivors to die either from hunger or disease. It is said that the Bengal tigers of the Sundarbans became man-eaters after they feasted on the bodies of the people killed at Marichjhapi.
After 14th June 1979, the survivors were either sent to Dandakaranya or settled in Marichjhapi Colony near Barasat while others settled themselves in Hingalganj, Canning areas and even in shanties near Sealdah railway tracks.
This refers to an organised campaign of ethnic cleansing of the Bengali Hindus in undivided Assam by the Assamese people, that originated in the Brahmaputra Valley in the late 1940s and continued into the 1960s. Significant vandalising and destroying of bengali houses and properties; beating, stabbing and ousting of occupants, attack on women and street violence occurred throughout the region. The Bengali students of universities and medical colleges were forcibly expelled from the institutions.
During its peak in 1960, around 50,000 Bengali Hindus were expelled from Assam; including many bengali-born writers, academicians and other eminent people, who took shelter in West Bengal, with the estimated figure of displaced bengalis totalling to 5.0 lacs. Bengali-owned shops were looted in Guwahati. Abusive wall graffiti were put out across the streets of Guwahati aimed at bengalis.
In 1960, large scale ethnic riots erupted in the lower Assam districts when Assamese groups demanded for making Assamese the sole language for writing examinations under the reputed Guwahati university, where as usual the Bengali Hindus were mostly targeted. Around 14,000 Bengali Hindus fled to West Bengal and elsewhere in the North East.
In 1983, the Bengali Hindus were attacked again during the anti-foreign agitation and a Bengali technical officer working at Oil India’s headquarters in Duliajan was killed. In Dhemaji district, the Bengali houses were vandalised by rioting Assamese mobs in Silapathar. Cases have been reported of the Missing tribals being incited to attack government sanctioned Bengali Hindu refugee settlements in the Lakhimpur district, resulting in horrendous massacres where Bengali babies were snatched from their mothers and thrown to fire, alive.
The sophisticated bengali raising voices over the injustices in the world – from the cosy comforts of their drawing rooms, over puffs of filter wills and sips of champagne would surely find their anger boiling up; reading their ancestors’ history. But the time has come once again that instead of falling prey to the temptation of an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth or watching with amused curiosity the political brawls on TV; we should tickle our grey cells into looking seriously at the cause behind the effect.
The days of watching politics at safety from visitors’ gallery and admonishing our children to stay out of it gone with the menace spreading it’s tentacles into our daily lives now; the bigger picture needs to be seen instead of restricting our vision to a mere ‘I and my family’ if history is to be prevented from repeating itself once again. Certainly a history that is marked by so much bayonets and bloodsheds – where efforts had been continuously made in trying to dominate a community’s psyche, change their identity, make their vision myopic, choke the voice of dissent has a lot more to teach other than hatred, vengeance or indifference.
Presently in Assam, in the name of NRC it is actually ‘Bongal Kheda’ reinitiated maliciously by the BJP using it’s divisive politics. The fear of loss of identity, of being minorized in their own state had led the Assamese people to seek political help in ousting the bangladeshis and now they’d have to face the music as more aliens are going to invade their home and that too officially. And they won’t be like the earlier refugees who didn’t have a choice. That the Bengalis are the most tolerant of all Indian people is evident from the fact that it is a home to people from almost all states of the country – people who have settled here through generations. West Bengal also had to bear the burden of the largest number of refugees during Partition.
Even after such inhuman treatment meted out by Assamese people during ‘Bongal kheda’, the minority of Assamese people staying in West Bengal were unharmed. West Bengal has remained unpolarized on communal lines till the last decade; the sectarian decay in the aftermath of the Babri Masjid’s demolition swaying the whole country except West Bengal, being a noteworthy example. But not anymore. The new age bengalis are more inclined to ask today ‘But, why us .. why should we be the only torchbearers of secularism ?’ The answer lies in the fact that secularism is a religion in itself synonymous with bengalis and like Hindus, muslims or other perennial religions of the world, it too needs to be protected from annihilation.
Bengalis comprise only 47% of Kolkata’s population now, playing host to Hindi-speaking immigrants from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, Marwaris, Gujaratis, Punjabis, Parsees, Anglo-Indians and people who hail from south Indian states. The first hindi newspaper of the country was published from Kolkata. Bengalis are perhaps the only people known to embrace other cultures such overwhelmingly unlike any other community in the world. Critiques may argue that such generosity subjects them to ridicule, making others take them for granted; but it is the intrinsic character of a community – not forcefully imposed upon, and it is perhaps this nature to adapt, influence and improvise which wins the bengalis love and respect in the world.
The CPM had ruled over them for 34 years – converted the bangladeshis and the core muslims of the state, both from lower sections of the society, into devoted vote banks. The TMC had taken hold of the stock since then and grown upon their loyalty base for next 10 years. 5 years down the line and the BJP is playing the same appeasement politics once again to conquer West Bengal. However since their anti-Muslim doctrine can’t buy them Muslim votes, hence in addition to cutting swadeshi hindu votes to their side, pooling in of hindu minorities from foreign countries is necessary using the CAA bait in order to consolidate their hindu vote bank; all with the eye of majoritarian politics in the future. Till here it is comprehendible.
But after the demonetization and GST falling flat on their objectives, why is the government hell-bent on carrying out the herculean task of country wide NRC and that too at a time when the coffers are empty, GDP has dropped to an all time low of 4.5% in the July-September quarter of 2019-20 and total liabilities of the Modi government has increased by 49% amounting to 82 lakh crores in last four and half years ? Why is the government playing a kumbhakaran to the wails of 25 Crores of educated people demanding jobs, 126 million farmers failing to get even minimum support price of their produce, 64 million micro/small/ middle-scale entrepreneurs suffering from the new tax system ?
Already a whopping sum of more than Rs. 9000 Crores have been spent on Aadhar exercise till 2017-18 which seem to serve no other purpose other than having easy access to everyone’s personal information, mobile numbers, bank accounts etc. linked to a digital database; with greater possibility of data leaks – in absence of data protection and privacy law in the country.
The government claims it has tackled black-marketing like it’s earlier historic demonetization drive; but it has made little difference to the customers’ lives. Earlier they bought subsidised LPG in cash, now their subsidy gets remitted in bank. On the contrary, along with having to manage their household amidst skyrocketing prices of essential commodities, the aam admi would soon have to do with zero subsidy on their cooking gas following government’s measure to restrict spiralling of petroleum subsidies – attributed to the LPG customers having increased by 77% in last four years. So much for the identification of illegal customers through Aadhar exercise and reduction of aam admi ‘s domestic gas monthly bill. To top it all the millions of people lured through Jan Dhan Yojana to open bank accounts in the name of subsidy transfers and other govt schemes are now having to deal with hiked MAB by the banks.
The costs for the earlier whims and fancies notwithstanding, now with Rs. 1600 Crores already spent on Assam NRC alone and the cost for the entire operation pan India easily assessible, how does the government propose to pay it’s debt in the foreign market ? Increasing taxes further on unsuspecting Indians or seizing depositors’ money and swapping them with worthless stocks in their failing banks ? Is the consideration for revival of the draconian FRDI bill as FSDR done in anticipation of financial emergency, with a mild hiking of deposit insurance cover only to divert customers’ attention from the real risk?
The mulling done at a time when financial institutions, especially non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) and co-operative banks, are showing signs of distress; raises suspicion. This is also corroborated by the fact that the number of occurrances and amounts involved in bank frauds have rocketed in the last four years with the Public sector banks accounting for 88% of loan frauds, as admitted by RBI. The bail-in provision cleared in FSDR still fails to eliminate worries of the once bitten, twice shy customers due to the bill suffering from clarity.
Coming back to illegal immigrants, Hindu nationalists have claimed for decades that vast numbers of Bangladeshis have been trickling steadily into India, while several Bangladeshi government officials, for their part, asserted that not one Bangladeshi citizen has entered India illegally since 1971.
Who are these people then without an identity, shunned by the society as refugees – a community unique by itself with which they might be defined ? Surely they didn’t fall from the sky. They could be descendants of those very bengali people once living next doors to our ancestors – those who took part in all affairs of our lives, shared our joys and sorrows like our nearest kins; the ones who had been driven like cattle from one region to another of our own state, own country, ever since territorial boundaries had been drawn in favour of political expediency.
Bengal Partition failed to respect a community’s affirmation of solidarity owing to their historical, cultural and linguistic identity across the religious divide. The bengalis never wanted partition. No community desires to leave their birthplace and move on to an alien territory, face uncertainty and gloom for generations, even if they’re a minority; unless compelled to by vested interests of the state. A nation aiming to flourish through unity and cooperation of its people needs to minimize and abolish all conflicts by building bridges between communities, not to partition them.
While the BJP has alleged that there are one crore illegal bangladeshi immigrants in West Bengal it doesn’t think of deporting them back to Bangladesh on the ground that majority of them being hindus are victims of religious persecution (despite the CAA not mentioning persecution anywhere). Even if purpose of CAA is to be believed (Passport Act 1920 and Foreigners Act 1946 are not overridden in the amended act and religious persecution very difficult to prove through documents) then along with legalising these people and inviting an additional 16.0 Million hindus from Bangladesh and Pakistan; an equal number of people have also to be ousted from the country in order to prevent population shooting up suddenly and causing further problems for the government. It is simple arithmetic. Again it has to be remembered that these people would demand the rights of bonafide citizens now unlike previously when they were used to live at the mercy of the State.
In the light of the above the NRC drive is far more an intended ethnic purge of the muslim community than a census. Along with it the 6.50 million hindu bengalis who either have lost their bangladeshi documents in 1971 partition or don’t have birth certificates before 31st December, 2014 in India stand the risk of having to prove their citizenship before foreign tribunal, failing which they would be treated as illegal immigrants and would be at the mercy of the government to be either inducted or deported.
The acts for proof of citizenship for foreigners/ illegal migrants remaining unamended, the CAA only bars Muslims from applying for citizenship this time. So despite BJP’s deceptive claims, the fact is CAA doesn’t come to the aide of hindu, sikh, buddhist, jain, parsis and christians from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh staying in India for last five years or more whose names fail to get listed in NRC. Indians particularly the bengalis need to understand this very clearly.
In absence of repatriation agreement with Bangladesh and Modi government determinedly unwilling to sign the Refugee Treaty (India has neither signed the 1951 United Nations Refugee Convention nor its 1967 Protocol, which has 140 signatories, an overwhelming majority of the world’s 190-odd nations till now) citing ancient Sanskrit slogan Atithi Devo Bhava (the guest is God) it is at liberty to repatriate refugees against their will.
If the BJP is successful in its political intention it would always represent these evicted people to be infiltrators and termites in the future thereby reinstating the support of millions of hindus who attribute all the problems of the country to one particular religious community of the world. And hence these devoted hindutvavadi deshbhakts‘ attention could be diverted again from the real issues of the country .. at least till the time Pakistan declares war against India or another surgical strike can be effected when hatred of the people could again be used to hoodwink them against promises of ‘Acchhe din’ .
Already a section of unemployed youth have chosen Ram Mandir over their careers and many UP residents believe construction of the temple would inundate the state with pilgrims from all over the world causing surge in sales of religious books, their only livelihood. Intoxicated with neo-patriotism, its only matter of time before these people would either become BJP’s henchmen or join propagandists of saffronized extremism on social media in order to appease the prime religion of all times – pangs of hunger.
If you think Hindus needn’t worry over NRC, think again. Already there are 12.0 lakh hindus amongst the 19.6 lakh excluded in the final list of Assam NRC (61%), out of which 5.0 lakh are bengali hindus. Like many previous others, NRC is also a government process not free from errors, but unlike Aadhar mistakes which could be corrected umpteen times by standing in queues and paying a little fee, every time; fighting NRC verdicts will incur heavy expenses and demand endurance for the travails typical of the Indian judicial system. Not to mention the paranoia associated with the inflicted identity crisis after living in a country through generations, in addition to stress of a down turned economy where unemployment reigns supreme and the purchasing power of common man is getting diminished day by day; all of which can drive a person to take his/ her own life. Already 51 people have committed suicide in Assam in the NRC process according to the Citizens for Justice and Peace and 8 more in West Bengal are reported to have taken their lives so far, over the fear of its implementation.
If you heave a sigh of relief thinking only the large number of illiterate people living in slums to run the risk of facing the harassment, you’re wrong again. A retired officer of the Indian Air Force, an MLA, the relatives of a former president of India all found their names excluded from the citizens’ registry in Assam. Those blessed to be born in a society higher up the socio-economic ladder are exhausting their fortunes, knocking the doors of the right people to prove their citizenship, but what about the poor and lower middle class ? To whom would they turn to ?
Fed up with the status-quo of political affairs of the country since decades the aam admi wary of revolution are falling prey to mass-hypnotism of politicians propagating myths using all three pillars of democracy to their advantage and compelling people to believe fiction in place of facts. People are getting carried away by the grooming, oratory skills and overall charisma of the leaders to the extent that they don’t feel the urge to question their intentions anymore – this itself poses as a big threat to democracy of a country.
But you can prevent yet another partition from happening . You can fail a cunning ploy of wiping out the identities of an entire bengali clan from the world. Only if you recall your regional past .. choose to revive the centuries old bengaliness which gained its egalitarianism and nobility from its intrinsically secular character .. the far-sightedness which prevented the mixing of religion with culture in their daily lives .. which never stooped before separatist and totalitarian forces, irrespective of any political affiliation. And secularism and democracy are the twin pillars of our State, the very foundations of Indian society; at least they had been till CAB was passed and CAA threatened to be forcefully implemented.
CAA and NRC are instruments for creating a majoritarian India. Not just the bengalis but all secular community runs the risk of being wiped away one by one who stand on the way of creating a hindu rashtra, an anti – Pakistan nation – one that runs on hatred against a particular community, just like the Nazis of Germany.
So the next time you meet a refugee don’t frown, rather be alarmed. Its long you’ve looked the other way and kept your fingers crossed for yourselves. You have your backs to the wall now. The time has come when you might have to fight tooth and nail to prevent yourself/ your family from being made to cross the barbed wire fence on the other side and bear the tortures and humiliation for the rest of your life. Unless you draw the line and protest now.
References:
Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019, No. 47 of 2019, dated 12th December, 2019.
The Passport (Entry into India) Act, 1920
The Foreigners Act, 1946
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