From Violence to Silence: The Curious Case of Bhatpara, West Bengal by Suman Nath

 

West Bengal has developed several communally charged hotspots since 2015. Aggressive Ram Navami rallies are the primary mechanisms for the Hindutva organisations to cultivate the Hindutva sentiments in these regions. Kankinara-Bhatpara region of North 24 parganas district is one of such places. While the conflict started as early as 2017 when the collective of Hindutva organisations under RSS brought out a Ram Navami rally. The communal ambiance was quickly handled because of prompt police action. In 2018 there was a large-scale riot between the Hindus and Muslims that resulted in death of several civilians and the sub-urban railway network was interrupted for weeks. The local Member of Assembly Mr. Arjun Singh's change of political affiliation from Trinamool Congress to Bharatiya Janta Party added further vibrance to the ethno-political landscape of the region. Hurling of bombs, sound of gunshot and regular conflicts kept Bengali newspapers busy reporting Bhatpara. Aamra ek sachetan Prayas forum, an organisation which studies conflict and peace in India, did a comprehensive study on the nature of conflicts and published a ground report (https://aamrabharatbarsha.com/welcome/singlepost/bhatpara-violence-fact-finding-report) which shows a mix of local politics and declining jute industries to be the prime mover of Bhatpara becoming a communal hotbed. Aamra has formed a peace centre among the riot victims in Bhatpara to bring about positive changes there, especially among the children. Because of several communal incidents, Bhatpara has been a focus of attention during the Ram temple inauguration on January 22, 2024. Contrary to what Bhatpara has experience since 2018, it was rather peaceful. It is important to understand the factors that brought back peace in an otherwise hotbed of communally charged landscape.

 
The setting:

 

Bhatpara is located on the eastern bank of river hooghly, it belongs to one of the places where jute industries were established during the British period which flourished enough to attract workers from different corners of the country (https://www.jstor.org/stable/20078659). They were then settled in the prosperous labour colonies and officers quarters (https://www.jstor.org/stable/141708). With the steady decline of Jute industry once prosperous colonies have become shanties (https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781315098975-9/mill-sirens-rang-danger-anna-sailer). A journey through the river touching places like Kankinara-Bhatpara, Telinipara, Naihati would show series of jute mills and related labour colonies. The labour colony settlers have been here for three to five generations. Although, they have settled down in West Bengal, forming shanty campuses, these places have never assimilated with dominant Bengali language and customs. They speak Hindi or Urdu and are able to cling to their traditional customs and rituals. Their interface with Bengali speaking people has been of peaceful and tolerant.

 

In my ethnographic research at post-riot Bhatpara, I have found out rather natural co-existence between Hindus and Muslims. While the labour colonies have become ghettoised, as the next generation settlers have constructed shanties beside the existing labour quarters, there is hardly any option to avoid everyday physical contact between Hindus and Muslims. The adjacent makeshift shanties inhabited by Hindus and Muslims have co-operated each others in their everyday life ranging from food sharing to handling a nagging kid. The community latrines and common bathing place have added to such interdependence. I found that a small open space in Tina-gudam area was being used by both Hindus and Muslims everyday. While there was a large cut-out of lord Ram, Muslims were preparing for the celebration of Eid at the same ground. Yet, 2018 onwards a deep division between the Hindus and Muslims characterised this place (https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/mono/10.4324/9781003273516-6/fundamentalists-meet-suman-nath). There were even reports of kids of different faiths sitting separately in local schools. In 2020, just opposite side of Hooghly, another riot broke in Telinipara-Chandannagar which made this region even more prominent locale for the cultivation of communal sentiments (https://aamrabharatbarsha.com/welcome/singlepost/%E0%A6%A4%E0%A7%87%E0%A6%B2%E0%A7%87%E0%A6%A8%E0%A6%BF%E0%A6%AA%E0%A6%BE%E0%A7%9C%E0%A6%BE-%E0%A6%A4%E0%A6%A5%E0%A7%8D%E0%A6%AF%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%A8%E0%A7%81%E0%A6%B8%E0%A6%A8%E0%A7%8D%E0%A6%A7%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%A8-%E0%A6%AA%E0%A7%8D%E0%A6%B0%E0%A6%A4%E0%A6%BF%E0%A6%AC%E0%A7%87%E0%A6%A6%E0%A6%A8-%E0%A7%A8%E0%A7%A6%E0%A7%A8%E0%A7%A6)

 

The political economy:

 

While in my book I wrote extensively on the political economic equation which existed in Bhatpara during Arjun Sing's switch over and the Mafia culture which predominated the area (https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/mono/10.4324/9781003273516/democracy-social-cleavage-india-suman-nath?refId=8d19e283-3cba-4c4c-a6e1-f1de36cc8840&context=ubx), the situation has changed over the years. For now, controlling the labours, making more contractual labourers than the permanent ones is aided with land related business which involves promoting and buying and selling of lands for profits. Mr Sing's political adventure with BJP in 2019 when he won the Barrackpore Parliamentary constituency as a BJP candidate was not viable in local political economic equations. First of all, his Muslim support base was gone, Hindutva sentiment could only earn him a popular mandate against ruling TMC, but, such popular support was already with him since 2001. He won for four times in Bhatpara Assembly Constituency, hence, aggressive Hindutva didnt earn him any extra milege; secondly, his political-economic machinery couldn't operate like it used to be. The local police administration gone out of his control. Even his house was attacked more than once and even being a Member of Parliament he couldn't save his home from party goons (https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/kolkata/bjp-mp-arjun-singhs-house-in-west-bengal-attacked-with-crude-bombs-7495935/).

 

As Arjun Singh rejoined TMC in May 2022 (https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/kolkata/arjun-singh-joins-trinamool-congress-7930470/) thereby restoring the local political-economic equations once again. Meanwhile, some of his followers who were allegedly directly involved in the riots and have allegedly worked actively in dismantling some of the Muslim predominated labour colonies were also not in a position to work freely until the local political equation was settled down. Since 2022, slowly the tension between the two communities have reduced to a significant extent, which is directly connected to the political stability.

 

The deafening silence of the aggressive Hindutva:

 

Does this mean that the Hindutva brigade have gone to the backfoot? There has been a continuation and further proliferation of RSS run fitness camps, mock sword fight and not to forget the grand Ram Navami celebrations (https://www.ijcv.org/index.php/ijcv/article/view/3119). RSS has been successful to set the template for the politics in Bhatpara and its adjacent regions.

 

One recent example is the creation of 108 ft long ram portrait by the TMC leader Priyangu Pandey and his wife Jyoti Pandey (https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/kolkata/politics-religious-beliefs-different-things-tmc-man-who-made-108-ft-ram-portrait-9124780/). While Priyangu was internally scapegoated for 2018 Kankinara riot as he was involved in managing the TMC organised Ram Navami rally where Muslims were supposed to serve sharbat portraying Hindu-Muslim unity, post May 2022 he has emerged as a promising TMC leader with an ability to cater the rising demands of Hindutva. Another local TMC leader Gopal Raut, who was also allegedly involved in the riots have made a come back with popularity among both the Hindus and Muslims. On January 22, Both Priyangu and Gopal have organised camps for mass distribution of blankets to the poor. People belonging to both Hindu and Muslm communities have queued together when Grand Hindutva was celebrated by the BJP with firecrackers and lamps. Bhatpara region has seen several houses placing earthen lamps on the one hand and such queues were conspicuous on the other.

VHP organised programmes which were both less loud and smaller in scale; there was no use of DJ boxes with provocative aggressive Hindutva songs, which they played in 2018 both in Bhatpara and Asansol. The local police were also on high alert, shops were closed after 11:00 pm and local administration ensured that no crowed is formed in the night during the entire month of January 2024.

The relatively peaceful Bhatpara, shows the economic triumph over religious identity sentiments for the time being. It also indicates a strategic shift in approach of the Hindutva organisations at places like Bhatpara which has seen enough communal disturbances for more than five years now.

 

Suman Nath teaches anthropology at Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam Government College and is the author of the book “Democracy and Social Cleavage in India Ethnography of Riots, Everyday Politics and Communalism in West Bengal c. 2012–2021”