We are near the 73^rd West Bengal Day – this 20 June 2020. No, it may not have an official status per se, but then in the heart of informed citizens of this part of the Indian Republic, this day holds special significance. Easiest way to answer any ‘Why?’ question on this would be to take a hypothetical look at what would have happened if such an eventuality had not taken place.

What if we didn’t have a West Bengal?

There could have been 2 possible scenarios – a bigger East Pakistan or a ‘United Bengal’.

Now before getting into the scenarios, let’s quickly look at what had transpired on 20 June 1947, with some clarity, while filtering out the dredge of delusional secrecy, which serves none.

Out of the clutches of the evil empire!

This all began with the Pakistan Movement towards the beginning of the 20^th Century CE, with the idea and objective of carving out a geo-politically independent Islamic/Muslim unit out of Bharata Varsha or the Indian Subcontinent. It had snowballed into huge political success in the 1940s, when Indian Nationalists were busy countering the British Occupation. In Muslim-majority areas such as British Bengal, the Muslim League regime was nothing short of the worst sectarian tyranny the world could ever imagine. It culminated into bloody and tragic eventualities of 1946 such as the Great Calcutta Killing and the Noakhali Massacre, targeting the hapless non-Muslim Indic Bengali populace.

This was what finally led Indic Bengali political leaders of all hues – red, white, saffron… - aggressively supported by journalists, jurists, intellectuals – scientists, historians of the highest order – and also Hindus from all economic and social strata, to begin a counter-movement, the Hindu Bengali Homeland Movement, towards the later part of 1946. The situation was such that this Movement demanded a partition of Bengal for providing a safe haven for Hindu or Indic Bengalis and to protect them from Muslim League’s barbarity, irrespective of whether there was a final partition of the Indian Subcontinent.

On 20 June 1947 the contesting ideas were put to vote in the Bengal Legislature. Initially, members decided 120 against 90 to remain united and join Pakistan… of course, the brute force of majority. Later, there was a divided vote. Legislators from East Bengal decided 106 against 35 to keep Bengal Presidency united and 107 against 34 to join it with Pakistan… yes, the definite dreamers of the annihilation of the Indic Bengali heritage! However, legislators of West Bengal decided 58 against 21 for partition and for joining the Indian Republic – thus leading to the end of the devil’s machinations.

More of it later, but let’s now get into the ‘what if’ game – both interesting and very important.

Scenario 1: ‘Greater’ East Pakistan

To understand this, we just need to take a look at what happened in the actual East Pakistan. All non-Muslim Bengalis would have been relegated to the status of subjects of an Islamic State. This would have had the potential of gradually putting an end to all traces of ancient Indic Bengali heritage, that is still before the world to see.

Now one could argue that the number of non-Muslims in the hypothetical ‘Greater’ East Pakistan would have been larger in this scenario, and hence resistance to oppression could have been greater. Well, in 1951 Hindus were 21% of the actual East Pakistan’s population (haven’t added the proportion of Buddhists yet, though much smaller). Now, they are down to 8%. Let’s look at numbers for a ‘Greater’ East Pakistan (inclusive of present West Bengal). Going by British Bengal figures, 44% would have been Hindus. What of it? Going by the decline rate, the percentage would have been around 16% now? So, a slower decimation, that’s it?

One may also be tempted to argue that if there was no West Bengal, there would have been no migration of persecuted non-Muslims to the Republic of India. Where would they have migrated to, after all? One just needs to look at East Pakistani and Bangladeshi non-Muslims, who have to continuously migrate to the North Eastern states and regional communities such as the Sindhis to understand how delusional such as idea would have been in reality.

That was about how the non-Muslims of this ‘Greater’ East Pakistan would have fared. But what about the hypothetical ‘Lesser’ Republic of India? There would have been a dispute over who would get the ‘Chicken’s Neck’. Even if the Indian Republic had won the negotiations over that tract of land, its security would have been much more precarious, & the integrity of all the remaining Eastern & North Eastern territories in constant jeopardy.

Let’s look at the other scenario now.

Scenario 2: United Bengal

The unrealized dream, which keeps utopian Bengali philosophers awake at nights. The supposed solution, which would have supposedly allowed Bengali heritage to be preserved and to flourish, outside the clutches of an Islamic Pakistan!

Though Sarat Bose might not have had the benefit of clairvoyance, similar to most of us, we now know for sure how delusional such an expectation would have been. Because if such a dream was actually possible, then we wouldn’t have had an Islamic Bangladesh with continuously reducing numbers of non-Muslims, we would rather have had an Indic Bengali and a more harmonious new political unit instead.

Now one might tend to yet argue that may be this would have been less bloody for non-Muslims of this ‘United Bengal’, with no Pakistani Army in picture. But one forgets, a Noakhali was not done by West Pakistanis or ‘outsider rioters’. On the contrary, I would say that this might have been a worse scenario. And why so? Because in this scenario, the acrimony, which is there between present day Bangladesh and Pakistan over the language-based conflict and the violent nature of the same, would have been absent. Now that might independently be a good thing for humankind, but for the Indian Republic it would have meant 2 ‘Pakistans’ on both the Western and Eastern fronts, with sufficiently cordial mutual relationship.

The Indic Bengali Homeland: West Bengal

For both the Indic Bengalis and the larger Indian Republic, an Indic Bengali Homeland in the form of West Bengal is an essentiality, for preservation of heritage and to act as a bulwark against further indentation into the Indic sphere of influence. Hence, the need to strengthen it to the n^th degree.

In 1947, we were fortunate to be guided by visionary political leaders and intellectual leaders of civil society – Dr. Syama Prasad Mookerjee, Kshitish Chandra Niyogi, Dr. Bidhan Chandra Roy, Nalini Ranjan Sarkar, Dr. Meghnad Saha, Dr. Jadunath Sarkar, Dr. Ramesh Chandra Majumder to name a miniscule few – who pulled this large mass of Eastern Indic heritage out of the shadow of the Pakistan Movement. We Indics, esp. Indic Bengalis, shall be forever in their debt for their impressive clairvoyance and stupendous resistance against the might of historical forces.

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Jaya Bharata. Jaya Vanga.

Image Credits: Hindu Existence