Bengali Hindus are innate fighters

There is a common and quite famous (at the same instant) tittle-tattle across India that Bengali Hindus, for being a traditional non-martial race, remains vulnerable to Islamic aggression ever. Hence, there is nothing unusual that there would be genocides of community members from time to time unlike other Hindu communities in India. The issue, as it reflects, happens to be quite imperative and makes the entire Bengali Hindu community answer a few significant questions. If it is non-martial, passive and even pessimist these days, whether this is a new phenomenon. There is another issue too – whether the overwhelming Left presence in Bengali Hindu mindset has played a vital role in this regard.

There is always the need of a battleground to prove one’s worth. This is said responsively and also aggressively since the past of Bengali Hindus is resplendent with manliness and this certainly dates back mediaeval India, period when an assortment of Bengali Hindu royal chiefs offered stiff resistance to Islamic aggressions. The most famous of them include Raja Ganesh, Raja Pratapaditya and Maharani Bahavashankari.

This tradition was followed in the later ages too and the emergence of militant nationalism to oust iniquitous British Empire under aegis of generations of vibrant Bengali Hindus manifested the same zeal yet again. Nevertheless, despite great sacrifices the community remained at the receiving end forever and a day. The last phase of Indian independence struggle that came along with the proposal of partition of undivided Bengal was the greatest blow on the community and what happened on 16 th August, 1946 wounded its psyche forever.

The day was marked as “Direct Action Day” under the patronage of Muslim League and was meant for the racial extermination of Bengali Hindus once and for all. But reversely it turned out to be a disastrous defeat of Muslims; it became a war and Bengali Hindus with a fierce mindset participated in it en masse. Bengali Hindu prowess was revealed once again. Even if the “Direct Action Day” led to series of riots across India, including Noakhali, Bengali Hindus didn’t succumb to Islamic supremacists even for once.

Barishal genocide happened in then East Pakistan in 1950 and the pogrom there shook moral sense. But instead of mitigating the crime, there was an out and out retribution in the Indian state of West Bengal. This became most prominent with the hurried exodus of millions of Muslims from Indian Bengal. The mindset was same in 1964 and the following days.

Surely there has already been a stiff deterioration in attitude and the entire community has to be blamed. There has never been any dearth of religious persecutions on Hindus in Bangladesh (former East Pakistan) since 1947 but protests against these dastardly acts from this side of the border have always been feeble and poor-spirited. This inhuman silence has instigated Islamic persecutors only who consider Bengali Hindus are the easiest prey to them.

If Bengali Hindus want to exist, they have got to bring back masculinity, brightest jewel of the community once. It has already mastered “Shapadapi” or power of knowledge; now it has to surmount “Sharadapi” or knowledge of power.