Arvind Kumar is a visiting Lecturer in politics and international relations, University of Hertfordshire, UK. He holds a PhD in Politics from Royal Holloway, University of London, UK. He tweets @arvind_kumar__
We will find what we seek. it’s the cast division that was searched, that so was it found, with all appropriate supporting logic.
Cast gap is there everywhere in India. And since e80’s it’s part of the every political narration (equation). we can’t ignore that. Real question is to what extent it divides the society. I can’t say I have studied/ researched, but I have lived across India. Let me give a different prospective to search … check how many intercaste marriages happened across the country… statewide. You will get a better sense of this division. I am sure Bengal will fair much much better than anywhere in India.
I will repeat “We will get what we seek”.
Namasudras are original Brahmins. They were made lower caste during Sen dynasty due to their inclination towards Buddhism. Due to their isolation in remote areas of Bangladesh they are carrying pure Brahmin DNA (Wikipedia).
Shri Shri Haricha nd Thakur and Guruchand Thakur started movement to return Brahmin status to Namasudras and many Brahmin pundits signed the petition.
If Bengal partition was all about caste politics then why did Jogendra Nath Mandal, who was Pakistan’s 1st Law and Labour minister resign (within 3 years after partition) and migrate to India? Because he realized that Hindus did not have a future in Pakistan. May be upper caste Hindus saw that writing on the wall (if we are to believe the author’s theory that partition was decided by caste equations).
The theory that Mamta is trying to reverse marginalization of Muslims in WB is preposterous. They were always a powerful force in politics. Left Front govt also vied for Muslim vote bank (although they always projected themselves as secular). Remember how Tasleema Nasreen was forced to flee Kolkata?
No one buys this. Blame only upper class Hindus, but not Christians and Muslims who ruled the state and committed genocides against the Hindus, primarily from lower classes. Only upper class Hindus to blame are the one’s who joined Communists.
The article is well written but not well re searched. History of Bengal and Bengalis is a difficult subject and takes years to understand. Now about the subaltern history of Bengal the author has not been able to grasp the subject properly. The author has not touched about the tribal history in bengal and the caste based movements in bengal against the mughals. Many points are left uncovered.
The article is well written but not well re searched. History of Bengal and Bengalis is a difficult subject and takes years to understand. Now about the subaltern history of Bengal the author has not been able to grasp the subject properly. The author has not touched about the tribal history in bengal and the caste based movements in bengal against the mughals. Many points are left uncovered.
Hope that the Namasudras aren’t cheated by the Hindutwa party by their show of respectability to Hari Chand and Guru Chand Thakur.
The Hindutwa party has forfeited their credibility, if any.
Bengali bhadralok deny casteism occurs in W Bengal but quite cleverly they have denied political power to the OBC and SC in the state. Almost every major state in India has had an OBC ruling as chief minister at some point of time.
If BJP wins, it will be interesting to know if the party is different from those is power earlier – when will this state ever have an OBC as chief minister? How many OBC or SC/ST BJP will they represent in the ministries – let’s see.
Why-o-why do we have scholars from foreign universities pontificating on the caste issue? By definition these are well-to-do people who reached abroad, and through whichever process began to research the question. And if you start with an agenda or a thesis if you will, there is plenty of dirt you can discover. I bet if you go to a french university and try to find out how scottish nobles were ill-treated in Harrow and Eaton, you will find enough to fill a PhD thesis. {And the world have some new ammo on how the UK nobles were not really noble.}
So there!
This article has some glaring factual errors. The migration of partition should not be conflated with Marichjjhapi massacre. Marichjjhapi happened due to the second migration during bangladesh war in 1971 and under pressure to act from the international community as the settlements encroached deep into the Sunderbans.
And a simple visit to the southern and northern extremities of Kolkata or North/South 24 Parganas can reveal that all sorts of migrants settled in Kolkata and surrounding areas, no one was checking their caste tags (unlike today). All these settlement plans, like every other plan in India, were only on paper, they were barely implemented.
I guess there are many ways to interpret history, but at least we should make an effort to get the geography and chronology correct.
In fact BJP who is providing justice to the marginalized Hindu communities. This is the announced aim of rss/bjp. The so called ‘secular’ parties are busy dividing Hindus to maintain the so called ‘secularist’ characteristics of our constitution.
Observations about pre Independence and after independence is good. However, neither the leftists nor the Congress/ TMC did casteless or secular politics in West Bengal. It’s a biased view not a neutral or correct view.
Left did appease minorities in their locality, which became more blalant during current regime.
Caste always counted though not overly, like in other States.
Even in social affairs caste still matters. Though camouflaged by the Bhadralok.
Expected a far more in-depth study.
We will find what we seek. it’s the cast division that was searched, that so was it found, with all appropriate supporting logic.
Cast gap is there everywhere in India. And since e80’s it’s part of the every political narration (equation). we can’t ignore that. Real question is to what extent it divides the society. I can’t say I have studied/ researched, but I have lived across India. Let me give a different prospective to search … check how many intercaste marriages happened across the country… statewide. You will get a better sense of this division. I am sure Bengal will fair much much better than anywhere in India.
I will repeat “We will get what we seek”.
Namasudras are original Brahmins. They were made lower caste during Sen dynasty due to their inclination towards Buddhism. Due to their isolation in remote areas of Bangladesh they are carrying pure Brahmin DNA (Wikipedia).
Shri Shri Haricha nd Thakur and Guruchand Thakur started movement to return Brahmin status to Namasudras and many Brahmin pundits signed the petition.
If Bengal partition was all about caste politics then why did Jogendra Nath Mandal, who was Pakistan’s 1st Law and Labour minister resign (within 3 years after partition) and migrate to India? Because he realized that Hindus did not have a future in Pakistan. May be upper caste Hindus saw that writing on the wall (if we are to believe the author’s theory that partition was decided by caste equations).
The theory that Mamta is trying to reverse marginalization of Muslims in WB is preposterous. They were always a powerful force in politics. Left Front govt also vied for Muslim vote bank (although they always projected themselves as secular). Remember how Tasleema Nasreen was forced to flee Kolkata?
No one buys this. Blame only upper class Hindus, but not Christians and Muslims who ruled the state and committed genocides against the Hindus, primarily from lower classes. Only upper class Hindus to blame are the one’s who joined Communists.
The article is well written but not well re searched. History of Bengal and Bengalis is a difficult subject and takes years to understand. Now about the subaltern history of Bengal the author has not been able to grasp the subject properly. The author has not touched about the tribal history in bengal and the caste based movements in bengal against the mughals. Many points are left uncovered.
The article is well written but not well re searched. History of Bengal and Bengalis is a difficult subject and takes years to understand. Now about the subaltern history of Bengal the author has not been able to grasp the subject properly. The author has not touched about the tribal history in bengal and the caste based movements in bengal against the mughals. Many points are left uncovered.
Hope that the Namasudras aren’t cheated by the Hindutwa party by their show of respectability to Hari Chand and Guru Chand Thakur.
The Hindutwa party has forfeited their credibility, if any.
Bengali bhadralok deny casteism occurs in W Bengal but quite cleverly they have denied political power to the OBC and SC in the state. Almost every major state in India has had an OBC ruling as chief minister at some point of time.
If BJP wins, it will be interesting to know if the party is different from those is power earlier – when will this state ever have an OBC as chief minister? How many OBC or SC/ST BJP will they represent in the ministries – let’s see.
Why-o-why do we have scholars from foreign universities pontificating on the caste issue? By definition these are well-to-do people who reached abroad, and through whichever process began to research the question. And if you start with an agenda or a thesis if you will, there is plenty of dirt you can discover. I bet if you go to a french university and try to find out how scottish nobles were ill-treated in Harrow and Eaton, you will find enough to fill a PhD thesis. {And the world have some new ammo on how the UK nobles were not really noble.}
So there!
This article has some glaring factual errors. The migration of partition should not be conflated with Marichjjhapi massacre. Marichjjhapi happened due to the second migration during bangladesh war in 1971 and under pressure to act from the international community as the settlements encroached deep into the Sunderbans.
And a simple visit to the southern and northern extremities of Kolkata or North/South 24 Parganas can reveal that all sorts of migrants settled in Kolkata and surrounding areas, no one was checking their caste tags (unlike today). All these settlement plans, like every other plan in India, were only on paper, they were barely implemented.
I guess there are many ways to interpret history, but at least we should make an effort to get the geography and chronology correct.
Yeah cope more
In fact BJP who is providing justice to the marginalized Hindu communities. This is the announced aim of rss/bjp. The so called ‘secular’ parties are busy dividing Hindus to maintain the so called ‘secularist’ characteristics of our constitution.
Observations about pre Independence and after independence is good. However, neither the leftists nor the Congress/ TMC did casteless or secular politics in West Bengal. It’s a biased view not a neutral or correct view.
Left did appease minorities in their locality, which became more blalant during current regime.
Caste always counted though not overly, like in other States.
Even in social affairs caste still matters. Though camouflaged by the Bhadralok.
Expected a far more in-depth study.