On the eve of the transfer of power, British India was partitioned into the dominions of India and Pakistan. While the provinces of British India were allocated on either Pakistan or India on the basis of their Muslim or non-Muslim majority, two of the provinces – namely the Punjab and Bengal were also partitioned.
In Punjab, the strong desire of the Sikhs and Hindus to remain in India led to the partition of the province, however in Bengal, the Bengali Hindus pressed for partition irrespective of the Partition of India. Months of intense campaign and support from all walks of life finally culminated on 20th June 1947 in a 58-21 vote by legislators from non-Muslim majority districts of Bengal in favour of the creation of West Bengal. While the East Punjab has subsequently been re-organized into Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh, West Bengal has seen consolidated by the amalgamation of territories from other states. As it stands today, West Bengal the only extant constituent of the Indian Union that was created during the Partition of India and given its unique history of formation, unlike the other states and union territories of India, West Bengal is a special state.
West Bengal, however, is not just a territory or landmass. More than anything, West Bengal is a concept. The creators of of the state, envisaged it as the homeland of the Bengali Hindu people, where they could live with freedom, honour and dignity; where they could practice their religion, develop their language and pursue their culture freely. Historian, Sir Jadunath Sarkar, conceptualized West Bengal as a homeland of the Bengali Hindus, akin to Israel as the homeland of the Jewish people. He called upon the native Bengali Hindus of West Bengal to absorb the refugee Bengali Hindus from Pakistan and coalesce into one people, devoid of any mutual animosity. He called upon the Bengali Hindu leadership to develop West Bengal into what Israel would become in the future, an oasis of civilization in the desert of medieval ignorance and obsolete theocratic bigotry.
The concept of West Bengal as the homeland of the Bengali Hindu people, started getting violated with the ascent of Left Front to power. Composed of an assortment of communist and socialist parties forked out of the CPI, a party that actually had wanted the present day West Bengal to be a part of Pakistan, the Left Front never really believed in West Bengal as the homeland of the Bengali Hindus. Three and a half decades of nonchalance in protecting West Bengal as the Bengali Hindu homeland invited external forces inimical to the Bengali Hindu existence to set up camp in the territory of West Bengal. Left Front’s exit made room for a centre-left populism, entirely based upon vote bank politics which doesn’t need to care about the Bengali Hindus or their homeland, allowing the external forces to thrive on West Bengal with greater vigour. Thus the idea of West Bengal has been violated and allowed to be violated for long. The violation has been rampant to the extent that even foreign non-state actors can commit any thing on the territory of West Bengal and get away with impunity.
The act of violation began with the illegal migration and permanent settlement of other groups – Bangladeshi Muslims, Nepalis and Rohingyas – in the homeland of the Bengali Hindus. While the illegal migration of Bangladeshi Muslims has irreversibly altered the demography of West Bengal, Nepali migration into Darjeeling district has destabilized the peace and economy there. Illegal migration of the Rohingyas pose a security threat, the Indian Union can’t ignore any more. Apart of the illegal migration, the use of West Bengal as a temporary safe haven for terrorist, seditious and criminal activities is rampant. Numerous sleeper cells of Jamiat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh are active in West Bengal, the tip of whose iceberg came into light following the Khagragarh blasts. Criminals like Abdul Majed, involved in the killing of Mujibur Rahman and sentenced to death in Bangladesh, find West Bengal a safe hideout. For petty Bangladeshi criminals, involved in counterfeit rackets, cattle and drug smuggling, human trafficking, the state is their second home.
The violation of the idea of West Bengal as Bengali Hindu homeland is not only committed by the criminals. Normal Bangladeshi people who come to the state on visa for education or treatment, find it easy to do anything, with scant regard for the laws of the land. A Bangladeshi actor can participate election campaign for a political party on Bengal territory. A Bangladeshi student and a Bangladeshi tourist can take to streets to protest against a proposed legislation to allow Bengali Hindu refugees to get the Indian citizenship for settling in their promised homeland. A Bangladeshi contestant in Indian reality TV show aired from the state, can insult Indian national poet and the greatest Bengali Hindu icon Rabindranath Tagore. A cleric, all the way from Turkey, can land up in Kolkata to oppose Uniform Civil Code in India.
The violation of the very idea of West Bengal as the homeland of the Bengal Hindu people by external non-state actors is not in isolation. Together with similar acts undertaken by the home grown Islamists, breaking India forces and home grown anarchists, it has precipitated an existential crisis for Bengal. While each of these forces have their own agenda they are united in their common goal of severing the state from the Indian Union. The crisis that the state is facing today is a crisis that India is going to face tomorrow, should the Bengali Hindu homeland cease to be a part of the Union.
While the crisis is acknowledged somewhat implicitly, it has to be understood that it’s not just a national security issue that may be dealt with standard security measures. An act of sacrilege in a temple can’t just be addressed by deploying security personnel at the gates. The sanctum sanctorum has to be purified to restore the faith within the devotees. Similarly, Bengal has to be officially declared as the Bengali Hindu homeland to restore the confidence among the Bengali Hindus. Without it, no matter how many troops are deployed, India would bleed itself to death.
(Note: This article has been authored by Sumit Roy. He is an independent analyst, his interest area includes international geo-politics, national security and current affairs. Roy is also a keen watcher of the events in Bangladesh.)