Odd hours I will come back to you.
Rains will pour down. We have to move fast.
Rusty windows, muddy roads, Melancolic heart.
At the Odd hours I will come back to you.
Land lying east of India,the state of West Bengal is considered as a very politically vigorous one.Time and time people have looked down the state in a negative way as it is plagued and hammered by strikes, political violence and other dysfunctional activities. But have we tried to dig out the rationale behind it, does anyone care what mayhem this state has undergone, do they sympathetize for it. I would take this small opportunity to pacify the biased thoughts.
The crux reason dates back to the era and political turmoil of partition. To think of Calcutta now known as Kolkata used to be compared with the cities like Edinburgh and London. People used to take pride in the charming vibes of the city. That aestheticism and the aura of the city were totally devastated by the sin called the partition. People were forced to leave their homes, their birthplace. They had to squander the dreams which they carried all along their lives. Same intolerable scrape happened with people from Bangladesh.
The plight and the insufferable quandary faced by them in India are never told again; that populace had to come here and faced many hardships and destitutions. Those days the disparity between rich and poor was increasing alarmingly again coupled with the ignorant government residing in Delhi. That enforced these poor and food-ridden people to align and put their belief with the Communist party. It was not with only the Refugees who faced the problem but also other poor and unfortunate people like peasants, laborers also were undergoing the same hardships.
As they say, there are only two categories of people, the torturers and the sufferers. Sufferers are all those people who suffer the pain of poverty and who doesn’t have power to stand against the torturers. Rich always take advantage of the system and annoy the poor.
Communism rose to the power and caught the beacon inspired by Lenin and Mao Zedong. Communist ideology did give the consolation and solace which these poor people were seeking for. The flames were ignited and the dying hopes of poor people were rejuvenated again. As Trotsky would surmise ‘No War No Peace’.
So the present political turbulence does attribute its cause to the incidents happened in the past of Bengal. Did any other state had to suffer like this? It’s important to understand the hardships and trauma which these people have undergone.
The worst part is that some obnoxious weeds still talk vouch about Communism, these people who doesn’t fully understand the conception of Communism; they start to preach about communism. They are the people who try to distract people to other blasphemous causes. They take advantage of the past and hoodwink people .I know Communism is not a very pertinent theory at present times, but people will always ascend whenever the need is there.
10 comments:
Agree with you on most parts. But partition also affacted a lot of people in Punjab and erstwhile sindh and also Gujurat, hariyana , rajasthan and even as far as delhi. But there was not a gravitation towards communism there. I think partition is just the tip of the iceberg. But there must have been lot of other factors at work to effect such a stunning ideological overhauling. For example already strong communist organizations, the sociopolitical climate at that time and things like that...
Definitely...partition did affect the people in Punjab but i think the people there were more stabilized in monetary alignment.The state government there were able to control the condition in a better way, which was not the case here.
Communism definetely goes deep back into the philosophy of Marx and Angels and the way Lenin used it.
Nice post Saurav. But I am not sure where communism failed. It has had some very bad proponents, none who could fully understand the concept, annd if understood who were unable to execute it. But this theory fails to explain why communism gained favour in the relatively partition un affected state of kerala. Any thoughts on that?
I like what you are trying to say, and here are my two cents worth :
(a)If we, the people of Bengal were brave enough to embrace the revolution of Communism, when the need arose, why do we not find the same determination, the same courage to embrace the revolution of Capitalism, when the needs and aspirations have changed? I accept, that the line separating the two ideologies has blurred, and neither is a complete solution to human suffering, but why can’t we understand that the time has come to embrace the new Gods, the Gods who will guide us into a future which though not better than the futures of our other fellow citizens in other states, is atleast economically comparative to theirs, where we are seriously lagging behind?
(b) A gentleman I have a lot of respect for, once told me that the biggest problem with the Bengali’s, is that they are stuck in the past! I totally understand the need for one’s roots. But at the same, isn’t life always a balance between yesterday and tomorrow? A balance between preserving the legacy of the past, while being careful of not stifling and trampling over the creativity and innovation of tomorrow. So, how long are we gonna bear the baggage of the past? How many more years will we go on living our lives, just the way it is, passing on the blame to the past for which we are not responsible, and not caring two hoots about improving the future which we are blissfully ignorant of? How long will we remain mute spectators of this debacle?
Yes, yes, I know, its so much more easier to rant and rave on this post, rather than going out there and actually doing something about it. But then again, maybe its because of millions of Bengali’s (by that, I refer to each and every inhabitant of that state, rather than the ones with that regional ethnicity) like me, that we are still stuck in the quagmire that we are.
Madhu,
I am not much aware of the cause of the rise of communism in Kerala,but i would again say,Kerala is a much stable state as in the CPI and Congress govern the state alternatively.May be Anti-Incumbency plays a handsome role there.
In Bengal partition is just one of the major factors.
But would like to hear from you what made the people of Kerala follow Communism.
RD,
Nice points you highlighted.
If we could change the mindset of people.Communist government which did come after that could not do much in terms of changing the perspective of the populace.It took some stringent steps which helped or did not.
Mainly it smoothened the labours and the poor peasants.But the mindset did not change.As i said Communism or what Lenin advocated may not be pertinent at this juncture, so people who followed communism could not change their mindset.
But giving credit this years election we can say the CPIM has been shaken or the views of people have deterred a bit.
Insightful article published on Hindu on 'Bengal Communism'.
http://www.hindu.com/2000/08/08/stories/1308017d.htm
Well, I could say you something about kerala. Being a keralite makes me eligible for that.
I dont actually think partition was the only reason for turning bengal people towards communism. Certain ideologies included in the communist directives that time were so attractive like the most modern advertising techniques we are seeing now. The same happened in kerala too. The british times caused great difference between rich and poor. The resulted dissatsfaction soon turned into naxalism. Somebody thought in a way that, a gun in hand is better than nothing in stomach..
That was the way communism flourished in kerala. Further strong acts of government resulted the naxalites to get back to democratic way in kerala. But it never happened in the other states, may be because the governments never tried for that...!
As u said, kerala is a stable state. We change our rulers each and every 5 years making no one think that 'no one could rule me out', the way in which bengali communists think.
If you want to know more about kerala politics, read my older posts related to politics..
thank u for visiting my blog saurav...
rosh
Hi Rosh,
Thanks for the valuable comments and giving insight into the Kerala politics.
As i had mentioned the exploitation of poor was defintiely one of the major reasons of Communism flourishing.The ideologies of communism propelled the cause of rising of opposition of National congress.
cheers,
Saurav
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