BJP’s selection of Ananta Rai, who took on the title of Cooch Behar’s ‘maharaja‘ some 18 years ago, as its candidate for the upcoming Rajya Sabha elections from West Bengal reminds us of endorsing the observation of the former home secretary of the British India government H.H. Rishley and treading the path of Viceroy Lord Curzon, simultaneously.
As chronicled in Modern India by Sumit Sarkar, Rishley said in 1904, “Bengal united is a power. Bengal divided will pull in several different ways.”
Curzon followed by writing a letter to St. John Brodnick, the Secretary of State for India, in February 1905, “The whole of their (Bengal’s) activity is directed to creating an agency so powerful that they may one day be able to force a weak government to give them what they desire”. So, Bengal’s (first) partition followed the same year.
Recent developments between the Union and the State of West Bengal show that the former’s attitude towards Bengal remains the same even today.
Ananta Rai has been demanding for a separate state of ‘Greater Cooch Behar’ carved out of West Bengal. This demand is part of an even greater demand of Kamatapur comprising 8 districts of West Bengal and 15 of Assam. In the recent past, the area has witnessed large scale violent statehood movements by the Gorkhas, Rajbangshis, Kochs and Kamatapuris.
The region is sandwiched between Nepal, Bhutan on one side and Bangladesh on the south. The “chicken’s neck”, also known as the ‘Siliguri Corridor’ in north West Bengal, a piece of land just 21 km wide and 70 km long, that connects the entire north-east India with the mainland remains a vulnerable region. More so, in recent years with China expanding its chain of model villages close to the Line of Actual Control (LAC), 130 km away, which faces the strategically crucial corridor.
In the past, two of BJPs Union ministers from Bengal have openly encouraged dismemberment of West Bengal much to the embarrassment of the other state leaders. After all, the Rajbangshis matter in only three Lok Sabha constituencies and they fear losing the rest of West Bengal.
Additionally, BJP is the only all-India party that supports the demand for separation of the Darjeeling Hills from West Bengal.
Also read: Anti-BJP Sentiments Stir Darjeeling Amidst Drastic Changes in Hill Party Equations
It is being said that the ‘maharaja’, holds considerable influence over the Koch-Rajbangshi community and has over 18 lakh followers accounting for nearly 2.4% of voters in the state. Not all followers need be voters nor reside in the three districts of Alipurduar, Cooch Behar and Jalpaiguri, where they are concentrated. Besides, the other faction of the community led by Bangshibadan Barman, supports the TMC.
It is also being said that there are 33 lakh Rajbangshis. The projected current population of these three districts where they matter electorally, is 76 lakhs and 30% of them or about 23 lakhs are from the Rajbangshi community according to reports. So the remaining 10 lakhs are scattered insignificantly in other districts. Has the BJP gone wrong somewhere in their expected vote calculations? But that is not so important for the country.
Anant Rai’s reported statement that creation of a new Union Territory (UT) in north Bengal was “only a matter of time”, raises serious concern. Rajbangshis are spread over not only north Bengal but in parts of Assam, Bihar, Nepal and Bangladesh. It goes without saying that fuelling any ethnic passion in this vulnerable region will be detrimental to the safety and security of the entire north-eastern part of the country.
The BJP’s inability to corner and dislodge the Mamata Banerjee government appears to be the main reason for their central leaders to take the path of separatism. The people of Bengal went through a trauma when their second partition came in 1947. To add insult to that injury, the BJP government commemorated what the Governor “peculiarly chose” as “the State Foundation Day of West Bengal” on June 20, that never was.
Also read: Citing Mamata Govt’s ‘Neglect’, Bengal BJP Chief Raises Pitch for ‘Trifurcation’ Demand
The effect on BJP has not been good. In the recently concluded panchayat polls, the results of which have been temporarily withheld by the court, local media has unofficially estimated a sharp fall in their vote percentage from 38% in 2021 to 22% in 2023. A whooping loss of 16%.
A report by the media shows that most people in Cooch Behar are against the separation of north Bengal. The locals’ favouring BJP in 2021 stemmed out of TMC’s failures and not out of support for separation from the state. The BJPs internal disconnect between the central and state leaders is clear.
It had dawned upon the British that to defeat Bengal’s linguistic nationalism they needed to encourage religious nationalism. Similarly, it seems, it has dawned upon the BJP that as religious divisions have not worked among the Bengalis at large, they need to side with ethnic division to draw dividends.
Not satisfied with the breaking up of Bengal into east and west, which Syamaprasad Mukherjee of Hindu Mahasabha supported in 1947, they are now, as media reports show, toeing the line of trifurcation of what is left of Bengal within India.
It is feared that forming UTs in this sensitive region with remote control from Delhi and reducing Bengal to south Bengal may have serious repercussions. One hopes that the authorities will not miss the woods for the trees.
Sumeru Roy Chaudhury is an architecture graduate from IIT, Kharagpur. He was the chief architect of the CPWD.
