Bengal바카라s intellectuals, hitherto agents of political transformation, are viscerally opposed to the BJP바카라s call for change
Two of Bengal바카라s watershed political moments바카라that of the Left Front coming to power in 1977 and the fall of that regime after 34 years in 2011바카라had witnessed writers, actors, singers and artists helping create a pro-change wave. In 2021, as Bengal anxiously keeps watch over another possible significant change, one perhaps no less impactful than that of 1977, the role of these intellectuals, referred to in Bengali as Buddhijibi, stands in contrast.
The majority of prominent personalities from the world of literature, theatre, arts and music stand opposed to the Bharatiya Janata Party바카라the principal force calling for a change of regime. This, perhaps, is a reason why the BJP바카라s Bengal unit chief, Dilip Ghosh, has made a series of incendiary, belittling statements about intellectuals. After having set new standards of anti-intellectualism, Ghosh바카라s latest tirade include such taunts as 바카라intellectuals are a burden on society바카라 and 바카라actors and singers better stay focussed on acting and dancing. Don바카라t try politics. Otherwise, I will rub you the wrong way바카라. The response came during an interview with a Bengali daily, as Ghosh responded to a question on a recently-released music video featuring prominent cultural personalities calling upon people to resist the BJP.
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Participating in the video were veteran theatre personalities Rudraprasad Sengupta, Arun Mukhopadhya, theatre and film actors Kaushik Sen, Sabyasachi Chakraborty and Shantilal Mukherjee, film director Suman Mukhopadhyay, singers Rupankar Bagchi and Anupam Roy, among others. Even though the song did not explicitly mention the BJP or the RSS, the composition carried an unmistakable anti-BJP overtone, criticising the Narendra Modi administration since 2014.
바카라Where were these intellectuals when votes were being looted in the Panchayat elections and when our supporters across Bengal faced atrocities from TMC goons and their police cohorts?바카라 Dilip Ghosh tells Outlook, defending his comments on intellectuals. 바카라They are now talking big on democracy. Where were these lectures when the TMC throttled democratic space? Why should people listen to them?바카라 asks Ghosh.
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According to senior journalist Subhasis Maitra, the majority of Bengal바카라s cultural personages have a rationalist bent of mind and are opposed to the mythology- and religion-oriented thinking that the RSS and the BJP promotes. 바카라There is a kind of natural resistance towards the BJP among the members the intelligentsia,바카라 Maitra says while explaining why the BJP failed to get prominent civil society members to endorse their call for change in spite of trying to woo them.
In 2011, a pro-change consolidation of artistes, intellectuals and cultural activists clustered around writer-activist Mahashweta Devi. Film-maker Aparna Sen, poet Joy Goswami, painters Jogen Chowdhury and Suvaprasanna, singers Kabir Suman and Pratul Mukhopadhyay, theatre personalities Bibhas Chakraborty, Saonli Mitra, Kaushik Sen, Bratya Basu, Arpita Ghosh, retired IAS officer Debabrata Bandyopadhyay, human rights activist Sujato Bhadra and rights activist Medha Patkar helped build a wave against the Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee government over a period of five years바카라since the beginning of the anti-displacement movement in Singur in 2006. Many shared the dais with the Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee on numerous occasions. Of them, singer Kabir Suman later served as a Lok Sabha MP, Bratya Basu as a two-term minister and Jogen Chowdhury and Debabrata Bandyopadhyay as Rajya Sabha members.
Between 2006 and 2010, intellectuals were the driving force behind two of the biggest protest events against the government. On November 14, 2007, over 50,000 people gathered in Calcutta, responding to an urgent call for protest from the likes of Mahashweta Devi, Aparna Sen and Joy Goswami against the CPI(M)바카라s alleged 바카라armed recapture바카라 of Nandigram. The second, in Lalgarh on August 9, 2010, protested alleged atrocities on tribal agitators by CPI(M) and the state police in coordination with paramilitary forces deployed to check Maoism in the area. The meeting was convened by Debabrata Bandyopadhyay and attended by Swami Agnivesh, Medha Patkar, Mahashweta Devi and Mamata Banerjee, among others.
Most of these intellectuals were ideologically Left-leaning, but were disillusioned by the CPI(M)바카라s coercive policy of land acquisition. Since coming to power, Mamata took care not to antagonise this section. But 2021 seems to be on a different plane altogether.
Explaining the difference in the role of civil society in these three elections, human rights activist Sujato Bhadro says that ahead of the 1977 Bengal elections civil society had consolidated around the movement for the release of political prisoners바카라detainees from the Naxalite movement and those arrested during the Emergency. 바카라In 1977, even those who did not call for voting in favour of the CPI(M) urged people to defeat Indira바카라s Gandhi바카라s Congress. The Left parties and the Janata Party benefited from this. Both in 1977 and 2011, civil society members considered the main opposition force as a lesser evil. Now, the main Opposition in Bengal is being considered a greater evil and for obvious reasons. The way a top Opposition leader is carrying out an anti-intellectualism campaign is unprecedented,바카라 Bhadra says.
In 2011, Bhadra was one of those who called for a change. In 2021, he is one of the convenors of the civil society initiative named Bengal Against Fascist BJP-RSS that carried out a campaign of 바카라no vote to BJP바카라.
Tathagata Roy, who served as the BJP바카라s central executive member and Mohit Ray, chief of the party바카라s Bengal unit refugee cell, have been among the prominent right-wing intellectuals in Bengal over the past several years. Over the past four years, three more persons worked hard to create a base among intellectuals바카라 journalist Swapan Dasgupta, the BJP바카라s national policy research wing member Anirban Ganguly and journalist Rantidev Sengupta, who edits the RSS바카라s Bengali mouthpiece, Swastika, and heads Bengal BJP바카라s intellectual cell.
Describing the role of Bengali intellectuals in the polls, Mohit Ray says the state바카라s intellectual sphere is dominated by Left-leaning people opposed to the BJP. 바카라The TMC enjoyed their support as it did not attempt any change in the sphere of thought. But the BJP wants to change the thinking pattern. Among intellectuals in Bengal, a trend of opposing Indian culture and Hindu traditions is dominant. They never see any problem with Muslim radicalism. Therefore, most Bengali intellectuals are opposed to the BJP,바카라 Ray says.
Elaborating on how intellectuals were working to stop the BJP바카라s growth, Ray cited the example of Kaushik Sen바카라s recent statement in which he said he did not support the TMC but would call upon the people to resist the BJP, 바카라a dangerous force바카라. Intellectual titans like poet Shankha Ghosh and thespian Bibhas Chakraborty have also issued statements in the past to criticise the Modi-led Centre on issues such as communalism.
Dilip Ghosh, however, cares a hoot. 바카라Let them do whatever they want. It will all be over after this election,바카라 he says defiantly. If the BJP manages to topple the TMC regime, this would probably be the first major political change in Bengal in defiance of the appeal of the cultural establishment. That would be a tectonic shift.
By Snigdhendu Bhattacharya in Calcutta