The Otherisation of Bengalis in Present-day India

"What Bengal thinks today, the rest of India thinks tomorrow."

At one time, Bengal had shown the way to the rest of India. All kinds of progressive action, along with social reform originated here. 

Raja Rammohan Roy, Swami Vivekananda, Sri Ramkrishna, Vidyasagar, Aurobindo, Tagore were stalwarts who could teach the western world a thing or two about humanity, ethics and social change. Freedom was wrestled from the British by the Bengal tigers - Netaji, Khudiram, Master Da, Rash Behari, Bagha Jatin and Binoy, Badal, Dinesh.  Education and literature owed several path-breaking work to this community. Jagadish Bose, and Prafulla Chandra Ray spearheaded scientific thought in our country. 

Image for representative purpose only

But why am I raking the past and digging up history about Bengali forerunners all of a sudden? Ahh, typical Bengali sentimentality and nostalgia, right? Wrong.

Its because in today's Bharat, the Bengali is being pushed aside - both literally as well as figuratively. The stature of the Bengali bhadralok - already diminished by Punjabi-heavy pop culture, South-Indian dominant public services, heartland politics and Gujju businesses, is now at a historic low.

Am I being unnecessarily paranoid? Consider this:

• Some publicity hungry "monk" from a religious organization gets away babbling some nonsense about Swamiji - the same great soul who could rouse the West into acknowledging the superiority of Indian culture and religion.
• The dynamic Netaji is being touted as a "Hindu " leader; he who had secularism firmly running in his blood. His philosophy is being usurped to belittle Gandhi who was ideologically opposed to him. But Netaji and Gandhiji both respected each other as individuals, whatever their differences. Bose would have been the last person to insult the person - whom he had named Father of the Nation, owing to the latter's hold over people's hearts.
• An actor-turned-politician from Western India likens all "fish -eating" Bengalis to Bangladeshi migrants. Food habits dictate character in these times, and as a strictly non vegetarian community, we are highly suspect.
• A central university hounds an eminent economist incessantly for a minor property breach in Tagore's Shantinketan. The fact that he is a confirmed critic of the present central administration is just a tiny coincidence. 

You can always say we are sentimental. And anyway, the narrative is already established that nothing happens in Bengal, where we are only obsessed with films, football, music and food. And Calcutta or Kolkata has long being declared a dying city. The history of Cholbe na culture is the recurrent theme for denying investments and business deals.

And finally, our food habits. For us, religious festivals are excuses to eat more fish and meat, while the rest of India fasts. So we are different, right?

And different in today's lingo means dangerous.