A defining feature of West Bengal society has been its laissez-faire<\/i> attitude to culture, tradition, food and attire, language, religion, and festivals. Nobody really bothered about what her neighbour ate or wore or worshipped. The Durga Puja<\/a> was as much a time of secular festivities as it was of devotion, and there were no hard and fast rules on how one should comport oneself while enjoying the festival, or how pandals or idols should be designed, or what food should be allowed or forbidden in the vicinity of the pandals.<\/p>\n Suddenly, ahead of this year\u2019s Puja, various \u201choly men\u201d (popular in north India but with hardly any following in Bengal) materialised, preaching vegetarianism to the fish- and meat-loving population and laying down rules that a \u201ctrue Hindu\u201d should follow. Semi-naked Naga sadhus were seen demonstrating outside the gates of Jadavpur University<\/a>\u2014a premier institution known for its Left-leaning, secular inclusivity. An unofficial directive was issued against referring to the Durga Puja as Sharadotsav, a long-standing alternative term for the festival meaning \u201cautumn celebration\u201d, as it was considered a deviation from its claimed \u201csanatani roots\u201d.<\/p>\n Bengal saw a marked polarisation after the rise of the BJP in 2014, but in the six months of the party\u2019s coming to power in the State, Bengal\u2019s multi-coloured society is turning a distinct shade of saffron. This year, it became stark when book stalls set up by the Left outside pandals, a long-time tradition and an essential part of the Puja ambience, were vandalised.<\/p>\n An early indication of what was in store came before the Pujas, when Baba Bageshwar<\/a>, a self-styled godman whom few had heard of in Bengal, began to chastise Bengalis for their food habits, exhorting people to \u201cboycott\u201d Hindus who ate \u201cdirty\u201d non-vegetarian food during the Pujas. While a section of the BJP tried to distance itself from the godman\u2019s words, visuals of the Baba enjoying lunch at Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari<\/a>\u2019s residence left his political backing in no doubt. Later, when the godman\u2019s pictures were burnt in protest, Adhikari gave strict orders to arrest anyone doing so, highlighting the arrival of a new kind of influence. Religious forces that have had little to do with Bengal so far now seemed to be trying to change long-established customs.<\/p>\n All of a sudden, the word \u201csanatani\u201d gained ground, and new and unnecessary rules were issued about how Bengal\u2019s beloved Puja would be celebrated. The Chief Minister asserted that strict \u201csanatani\u201d rituals should be followed and only those following \u201csanatan dharma\u201d should be allowed to touch the idol during the immersion ceremony. Never before have such rules been imposed on a festival as universally and joyfully celebrated as the Durga Puja in Bengal. Even protests against excessive noise from crackers burst through the night of Kali Puja were construed as \u201canti-sanatani\u201d. The Chief Minister labelled those who protested as \u201ccommunists\u201d.<\/p>\n \n At a firecracker workshop at Champahati near Kolkata, ahead of this year\u2019s Kali Puja. Crackers were burst with happy abandon through the night on November 8 in West Bengal. The following day, the Chief Minister dismissed objections, saying some people seemed to have problems with the awakening of the \u201csanatan\u201d. The well-known sociologist and writer Surajit C. Mukhopadhyay told Frontline<\/i>: \u201cThis is part of the overall breakdown of the cosmopolitanism that Bengal is recognised for. The BJP is trying to create a kind of orthodox homogeneity against the heterodox via a contrived Hindutva that is more political than religious. Durga Puja is all about festivity, and to circumvent that, they are trying to enforce a religious orthodoxy. For that they had to bring in a Baba from Madhya Pradesh to say things that nobody from Bengal could come up with. The syncretic Bengal of Rabindranath Tagore<\/a>, Ishwarchandra Vidyasagar, Begum Rokeya, Kaji Nazrul Islam, and Raja Ram Mohun Roy is under threat.\u201d<\/p>\n The vandalisation of the CPI(M)\u2019s book stalls was among the more disturbing incidents heralding the change. The Chief Minister suddenly turned his guns on the stalls, taking exception to the fact that the Left preferred the term \u201cSharadotsav\u201d (a well-established synonym for Durga Puja) rather than \u201cDurga Puja\u201d. On October 10, he exhorted puja committees to not allow the Left\u2019s book stalls if they used the term Sharadotsav. He subsequently added, \u201cThose who do not believe in Durga Puja, or any other Puja; those who do not acknowledge [the sanctity of] the Vedas, the Upanishads, and the Gita; it is better that they are not allowed to sell their books during Durga Puja.\u201d<\/p>\n Adhikari\u2019s words may well have been perceived by miscreants as a licence to attack. Goons allegedly owing allegiance to Hindutva forces targeted book stalls across the State, damaging the structures, throwing books on the ground, and trampling on them. Senior BJP leaders, including State president Samik Bhattacharya<\/a>, Finance Minister Swapan Dasgupta, and RSS spokesperson Jishnu Basu, tried to distance themselves from the incidents. But their statements of condemnation could not erase the Chief Minister\u2019s words.<\/p>\n On the evening of October 17, as Left supporters and the police were locked in a face-off over the proposed bulldozing of a book stall in Jadavpur, a stampede at the Chorbagan Sarbajanin Puja venue claimed 19 lives; many more were injured. Residents alleged that there were not enough police personnel to man the massive crowd that the Chorbagan Puja generally draws. The tragedy raised questions on the government\u2019s priorities.<\/p>\n \n A \u201cwalk for books\u201d in Kolkata on October 31 in protest against the vandalisation of book stalls during Durga Puja by alleged Hindutva activists. To protest the destruction of books, thousands of people participated in a \u201cWalk for Books\u201d procession on October 31. Among them was the legendary linguist Pabitra Sarkar, 89. Speaking to Frontline<\/i>, Sarkar said: \u201cI have been living in Kolkata since 1956, and I have never seen such a confrontation between people and the government over attacks on books. The BJP made it clear right after assuming power that it would not allow the Left to rise again, and it has been attacking Left institutions and party offices. But this latest attack on books is by far the most revolting. The resistance to that is very encouraging.\u201d<\/p>\n If the emphasis on \u201csanatani\u201d culture is new, so is the sudden proliferation of rituals and festivals until now observed only in pockets. The growing prominence of Ram Navami and Hanuman Jayanti\u2014earlier restricted to areas with a greater concentration of Hindi-speaking people\u2014has been concomitant with the rise of the BJP since 2018. In the past few months, rituals and traditions of worship that were never really a part of Bengal\u2019s culture appear to have gained popularity overnight. There were over 800 Ganesh Puja venues in and around Kolkata in September this year; until last year the number did not exceed 350. The north Indian Karwa Chauth also seems to be gaining popularity.<\/p>\n The sudden and pronounced visibility of customs not traditionally associated with Bengali culture has given the opposition a channel of attack. Talking to the media on October 30, Abhishek Banerjee, general secretary of the Mamata All India Trinamool Congress, took a dig at the BJP\u2019s north Indian roots: \u201cNow we see Bengalis observing Karwa Chauth… They [the BJP] have shattered Bengal\u2019s culture and tradition and foisted north Indian culture on Bengal\u2014this is the paribartan<\/i> [change] the BJP wanted.\u201d<\/p>\n Speaking to Frontline<\/i>, the political observer and academic Subhamoy Maitra said that while Bengal would continue to remain multicultural, the influence of north Indian culture would increase: \u201cThis may not be liked by many, but it has quite a few takers as well… The distinct Bengali culture is likely to get diluted. The conflict between progressive Bengali intellectual culture and northern culture is bound to intensify.\u201d<\/p>\n Hindutva groups and organisations that were earlier hardly noticed in the State have begun to increasingly assert themselves, often through violence. On the one hand, there is the spectre of radical Islam<\/a> that the BJP has successfully used to create a binary that it could profit from during elections. On the other hand, Hindutva forces have started attacking Christians and churches on the pretext of resisting conversions.<\/p>\n While communal flare-ups between Hindus and Muslims have become common over the past nine years, with clashes during Ram Navami practically an annual event, Christians, who, according to the 2011 census, do not even account for 1 per cent of the State\u2019s population, have rarely been targeted in the past 50 years.<\/p>\n According to the Bangiya Christiya Pariseba (BCP), an organisation that represents more than 1.3 million Christians in Bengal, there have been 48 attacks on Christians and churches since June this year. The latest was on November 1, at Basanti, during the inauguration of a church. Speaking to Frontline<\/i>, BCP secretary Herod Mullick said: \u201cFor the past five months, some incident or the other has been taking place against Christians and churches. Of the 48 cases reported to us, we could lodge FIRs in only 15. In many instances, those who have carried out the attacks are stopping people from going to the police.\u201d<\/p>\n According to Mullick the attacks follow a pattern: \u201cFirst, a narrative is created that Christians are indulging in conversions. These attacks are then carried out to reinforce this narrative. The prime targets are the \u2018house churches\u2019 during prayer time on Sundays. They refuse to pay heed to the pleas that people are not converting but merely praying. Apart from \u2018house churches\u2019, there have so far been five attacks on Catholic churches.\u201d Mullick also claimed that the attackers identify themselves with one or another Hindutva group\u2014Vishwa Hindu Parishad, Hindu Jagran Manch, Bajrang Dal, and so on.<\/p>\n Even after the BJP emerged as the main opposition<\/a> in Bengal in 2019 with 18 Lok Sabha seats (77 Assembly seats in 2021), Hindutva outfits kept a low profile. However, unlike in the CPI(M) era, they faced no problems in expanding their base across the State. Snigdhendu Bhattacharya, author of Mission Bengal: A Saffron Experiment<\/i>, told Frontline<\/i> that Hindutva organisations like the Bajrang Dal now have committees in most of the 345 blocks in Bengal, barring the Muslim-dominated ones.<\/p>\n Bhattacharya said: \u201cWe can safely assume that the outfits have committees in at least 325 blocks, and now have considerable presence in even some of the panchayats, particularly in the western and northern districts, in parts of Purulia. They have been quietly spreading since 2019, slowly accelerating from 2021 onwards<\/a>. So, they already had a network by the time the BJP came to power in May this year; and now they feel empowered.\u201d Their rise is directly linked with the strengthening of the RSS organisation. Within five months of the BJP\u2019s coming to power, the number of RSS shakhas have reportedly doubled\u2014from 5,000 to 10,000.<\/p>\n Never in the past 50 years have the forces of Hindutva been used as political tools in Bengal\u2019s educational institutions. The Bengali intelligentsia were in for a surprise on September 9 when Naga sadhus, participating in a \u201cGerua Samman Yatra\u201d (march to protect saffron honour), staged a demonstration outside Jadavpur University. According to the former bureaucrat and well-known public intellectual Jawahar Sircar<\/a>, the demonstration was an example of one of the more dangerous forms of Hindutva.<\/p>\n \u201cThis weaponisation of Hindutva at the gates of an educational institute is symbolic. It is an attack on a way of independent thinking that has for long been an identity of Bengal. The BJP appears to be taking out the essence of Bengali culture from the very roots,\u201d Sircar told Frontline<\/i>.<\/p>\n The new government wasted little time in launching its programme of saffron-washing educational institutions right from the school level. It has made the singing of Vande Mataram<\/a> mandatory in government-aided schools and even madrasas, and the complete version of the song is to be printed at the start of every school textbook. Some major changes in the school syllabus have also been proposed, including the introduction of a chapter on the life of Syama Prasad Mookerjee<\/a>, the founder of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh<\/a>. Adhikari has also announced plans to set up 1,000 RSS-run schools to facilitate a \u201cnationalist education\u201d. The announcement came at a time when his government was closing down more than 250 madrasas for alleged violation of regulations.<\/p>\n \n A \u201cGerua Sanman Yatra\u201d, led by the Chief Minister, was held on September 9 in Kolkata. The march ended at Jadavpur University, which the BJP and other Hindutva organisations have vowed to saffronise. The ruling party\u2019s apparent communal agenda for students is also manifest in state-sponsored events. In a State-level essay competition organised by the West Bengal Lok Bhavan, the two topics given to students were \u201c1946<\/a> Great Calcutta Killings\u201d (for school students), and Direct Action Day<\/a> (for college and university students). The principal of a government college, who did not want to be named, told Frontline<\/i>: \u201cIn my three decades in education, I have never seen the government machinery being used in such a blatant manner to inject a particular party\u2019s core ideology and agenda in the educational system.\u201d<\/p>\n Another new experience for students was the compulsory celebration of Prime Minister Narendra Modi\u2019s birthday<\/a> on September 17. Oil lamps were distributed among students, cakes cut, Modi masks and saffron turbans donned, sweets distributed, and a comic book on the life and \u201ccontributions\u201d of Modi presented to children in Anganwadi centres. Around one crore lamps were lit to celebrate Modi\u2019s birthday and 25 years in public life.<\/p>\n This cult of leader worship was absent in Bengal even when an iconic figure like Jyoti Basu<\/a> was at his most powerful. During the Trinamool Congress era, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee projected herself at the centre of all social, cultural, and political activities, and some of her top leaders would equate her with saints and holy figures\u2014claims that she did not refute publicly. Yet, in her 15 years of government, school or college students were unlikely to have been aware of her birthday, let alone be forced to celebrate it.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople are feeling a jerk in the cultural ecosystem of Bengal. From the cult of leader worship to the proliferation of hoardings in Hindi celebrating festivals and essentially non-Bengali cultural events, Bengal\u2019s culture has received a jolt in the past six months, and now there is perceptible restlessness among the people,\u201d said the college principal.<\/p>\n The new government has also been carrying out a physical makeover, a corporate-like cleansing of infrastructure, including clearing pavements of vendors and stalls. The exercise, which has impacted some identifying features of the State, has received a mixed response. Vendors and roadside stalls may have added to the congestion, slowed down pedestrians, and at times made pavements inaccessible to walkers, but they catered to a massive customer base and provided products at far cheaper rates than the air-conditioned malls.<\/p>\n Bengali society not only tolerated pavement stalls, but the Bengali middle class depended on them, particularly ahead of festivals like Durga Puja. The huge crowds in retail districts like Gariahat and Chowringhee in Kolkata have long stood testament to the popularity of pavement enterprises that sell everything, from food products to junk jewellery. To have the pavements cleared is tantamount to robbing Kolkata and other urban centres like Siliguri and Bardhaman of their essential character and of businesses that cater to every possible customer.<\/p>\n Even in police action and dispensation of justice, Bengal has taken a new turn, with summary punishments and visual spectacles of retribution increasing, whether encounter killings or parading the accused in underwear with a rope tied around the waist. Such things were once alien to Bengal\u2019s police jurisprudence. There have been four encounter killings in the past five months, with two on a single day.<\/p>\n On July 8, Prabhas Mandal, accused of raping and murdering a 12-year-old girl in Baruipur<\/a>, was killed in an \u201cencounter\u201d. On October 25, Prahlad Das, accused of the rape and murder of a 17-year-old girl in Gaighata, and Saimul Sheikh, accused in the murder of a BJP worker in Shamsherganj, were killed in police \u201cencounters\u201d. In all three cases, the police maintained that the accused had snatched a service gun from one of the personnel and tried to escape.<\/p>\n The latest encounter took place on November 9 at Raiganj in Uttar Dinajpur, when Dilip Roy, accused of the rape and murder of a 13-year-old, was killed in a police shootout.<\/p>\n \n Baba Bageshwar at an event in Kolkata in December 2025. He was, however, hardly heard of in Bengal until he came up with pronouncements on how Bengali Hindus should behave during Dura Puja. \u201cSuch cases have no precedence in Bengal\u2019s law and order system over the last 50 years,\u201d a legal source told Frontline<\/i>. Disturbingly, the practice seems to have the support of a sizeable section of the population that believes such actions are preferable to due legal process.<\/p>\n Political vendetta of a non-lethal nature had in fact taken a bizarre turn immediately after the BJP came to power, when members of the former ruling party found themselves attacked with rotten eggs. (This did not happen when the Trinamool trounced the Left Front in 2011, although that regime change was marked by widespread violence.) The egg-throwing went on for weeks, and was eventually used even within the BJP to settle scores.<\/p>\n The essential political culture of the State has changed. If Mamata encouraged the politics of defection, blatantly destroying the opposition space by adopting elected and influential leaders into the Trinamool\u2019s fold, the BJP has gone one better. It is believed to have engineered the split in the Trinamool Congress<\/a>, and has apparently done it in such a manner that the two factions are too busy fighting each other, with one of them clearly leaning towards the ruling party.<\/p>\n For a State known widely for its tolerance, diversity, and easy-going, \u201clive and let live\u201d approach to most things, the sudden and strict imposition of a certain way of life and thinking is a shock. Bengalis are an argumentative lot and thrive on debates and intellectual disputes. Historically, they have never been one to quietly accept something imposed forcibly on them. The BJP\u2019s actions are already rattling people, raising murmurs of disapproval, but memories of the previous government\u2019s misrule are still too fresh to precipitate louder protests.<\/p>\n As the veteran political analyst Biswajit Bhattacharya put it, \u201cBengal\u2019s history is replete with instances of social reformers and intellectuals rising up against orthodoxy and radicalisation\u2014from Ram Mohun Roy to Rabindranath Tagore. There is clearly an attempt to enforce upon Bengali society a sort of orthodoxy that was absent for long. But given the essential Bengali nature, it remains to be seen how successful this experiment will be; already there is an outcry against such diktats aimed at governing the society.\u201d<\/p>\n Also Read | After Bengal, the bulldozer<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Also Read | Mamata loses party name and symbol ahead of crucial byelections<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/p>\n
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\n DIBYANGSHU SARKAR\/AFP\n <\/p>\n<\/div>\nAttack on books<\/h3>\n
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Churches under attack<\/h3>\n
Saffron makeover in education<\/h3>\n
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\n ANI\n <\/p>\n<\/div>\nChanging cityscapes<\/h3>\n
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