It is a widely known fact that Bengalis, and for that matter 'Bongs' who live in and around Kolkata, have a highly conceited notion about their culture, and 'sub-ethnicity'- for I dare not to use the macro term. A high-nosed approach towards migrants, especially those who have come from erstwhile East Bengal, is commonplace here. (And I would just like to assert here that the carefree way of putting this with the omnipresent 'here' is symbolic of the inherent and inherited acceptance of this prejudice.)
But for the present Bengali generation a prejudice, and quite ironically so, though this too is an inherited phenomenon going back to just one cohort, is palpable. It's an uncalled for pugnacity towards those who don't speak the Bengali tongue. In this group one can comfortably include the rest of India, and particularly those communities who have made an immense impact on the business here. The barb of this 'gentle hate', springing out of a 'merely naturalised difference of culture', is directed at the Marwaris, Gujratis, Biharis, and Sikhs. But while these communities are still under the 'graceful canopy' of Hinduism (this may be an aberration but I have this feeling that the Sikh community is quite comfortably thought of as very close to the Hindus) the Muslims, who have in patches become successful in certain types of business have been the worst victims possible.
Muslims in Kolkata are huge in number, and some areas do really abound in them where they outnumber the Hindus: Park Circus, Rajabajar, Chadni Chowk, Patuli and Khidderpore are a few I am aware of. And in these areas one gets a blatant view of the urban poverty: where hungry children by the embankments of high drains collect plastic waste, and chase crows and famished dogs to procure the skin of a dead animal. Now when a majority of a minority community live in these circumstances one is bound to ask where lies the reason to hate these destitutes.
One very popular, and obviously very very controversial, view which describes the political status of these people is that they are Bangladeshi refugees who have been brought in by various political factions for their own purposes. (So be it, if allegations are true.) And so why not hate them as they are not Indians?
But this very simplistic jingoism is not the reason why these homeless are hated. They are Muslims and hence not essentially the people of the land. And that's what a taxi-driver expressed. Now this was a rather odd experience for me. One day I took a taxi which had to take the Number 4 bridge over the Park Circus station- a thickly populated and a Muslim dominated area. It was a sultry Kolkata noon and a well-known RJ was at his hilarious best when the car radio went off and I heard Anuradha Paudwal singing a Ram bhajan. When the car had traversed a fair distance the bhajan also stopped. In a light mood I asked the cab-driver what the matter was and he expressed quite boisterously that he is a Hindu and feels rather 'circumcised' when he travels through such areas, and so he always plays a bhajan in order to remain 'chaste'. Now this came from a person who, to be very un-Marxist, does not have enough education to understand the sensitivity of his comments, and the foolishness too.
But my next experience left me pretty baffled as it came of a shocking confession from my room mate. Now this young man is an MBA and he works for more than just a well known corporate firm. One day we were just chatting our precious time away when he told me that he doesn't frequent the 'hotel' which I very conveniently do. The reason: the eatery is owned by a Muslim and it's a 'Halal' shop, and the Muslim owner will take every opportunity of feeding the Hindus with beef and convert them into Islam. Even if not with beef, that fellow may put in a cow's blood in the curry !
Though it is a very common belief among Hindus that eating beef would rob them of their religion, this fear in an educated Indian of the 21st century is something more serious. He fears that a Muslim will secretly feed himself the ominous pie and he would cease to lead a dignified life. (An honest confession here. I don't take beef because I do have a aversion to it which may be influenced by my Hindu consciousness. And also because I don't take red meat, for that matter I never take mutton.)
A third experience was in the local train while returning home. There was a group of young Muslims seated together and as you know the local train was crowded 'cattle class'. But there was, and surprisingly so, a seat vacant where the fore-mentioned group was sitting. I obviously pounced upon this opportunity! Then it took quite a while for me to realise why the seat was vacant. All the people who were standing on the foot-board would rather suffer than sit where the bearded 'Mollas' were. I don't know how the people with whom I sat through out the journey felt, for there were hardly any visible expressions, but the experience left me thoughtful, and so have the others.
I don't want to end this blog, if you have been patient enough to peruse through this waffle, by lecturing upon national integration or religious harmony, for there are no such possibilities in the case of the Indian union. Secularism has never been a part of the peoples lives, though we tend to behave likewise. But for our generation the challenge lies somewhere else, and it would be just foolish of us to bother ourselves with such 'nothings'. So why don't we live life in a professional manner and leave all these behind?
