[Reader-list] Curfew in Kolkata: The Sword and the Monk's Cowl

[Shuddhabrata Sengupta]

The Sword and the Monk' s Cowl: Curfew in Kolkata
(apologies for cross posting on Kafila.org, responding to Tapas Ray's 
posting on Taslima Nasrin a few hours ago)

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"Instead of society having conquered a new content for itself, it seems 
that the state has only returned to its oldest form, to a shamelessly 
simple rule by the sword and the monk’s cowl. "

Karl Marx, The 18th Brumaire of Louis Napoleon
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We live in strange times. Really strange times. Just as the news from 
Kokata was getting better, it got worse again. The sudden spectre of 
'communal rioting' has reared its head, as if from nowhere in West 
Bengal. The All India Minorities Forum, a little known entity led by a 
busy body called Idris Ali materialized yersterday on the streets of 
Kolkata demanding the deportation of the exiled Bangladeshi writer, on 
the grounds that she had once injured the sensitivities of Muslims. 
Crowds attacked police, pitched street battles continued, the Army was 
called in. Curfew was declared, and on television, Biman Bose, a CPI(M) 
and 'Left' Front hatchet man, declared - "... if her stay creates a 
problem for peace, she (Nasrin) should leave the state'' (see NDTV 
report at the end of this posting)

Readers will recall that this is not the first time that Taslima Nasrin 
has had a run in with the Left Front. 'Dwikhondito' a book by her was 
banned under express orders from Buddhadev Bhattacharya in 2004 when it 
was alleged that it had offended 'Muslim' sentiments in Kolkata. Then 
too, threats were issued by self declared leaders of the Muslim 
community, who emerged as if from nowhere.Then too, the ban was 
justified, on grounds of maintaining peace and order. This time, it is 
the Army out on the streets, curfew, a prohibition on public gatherings, 
and portents of worse to come. The 'situation is tense, but under control'.

Just as society in Kolkata was conquering a new content for itself in 
the wake of Nandigram and even the murder of Rizwanur Rahman, the state 
(and its shadows), to all intents and purposes have returned to its 
oldest form in West Bengal. Even as I write, the Army is out on the 
streets of Kolkata, imposing a curfew, and the past few hours have been 
spent witnessing (on television in my case) the ridiculous and pathetic 
spectre of what seems even at first glance to be an orchestrated 
outbreak of rioting on the streets. Clearly, there will be no more 
rallies against the CPI(M);s actions in Nandigram in the coming days in 
Kolkata

For weeks, since the mysterious death of Rizwanur Rahman, allegedly at 
the behest of a powerful trading family, allegedly with the connivance 
of the senior echelons of the Kolkata police, allegedly acting under the 
patronage of the ruling party - the CPI(M) and for days, since the 
'retaking' of Nandigram by a militia of CPI(M) cadres - the streets of 
Kolkata have witnessed a flowering of fraternization between young 
people, students, peasants, activists disturbed by the happennings of 
Nandigram, intellectuals and cultural workers.In both responses, the 
response to Nandigram, and in the response to Rizwanur Rahman's death, 
we have seen a great deal of involvement by people who happen to be 
Muslims, and this is in part because of the fact that Rizwanur was 
murdered because he happenned to be not well off, and Muslim, and 
because incidentally, a large number of people affected in Nandigram 
also happen to be Muslim.

What this was leading to was a degree of fraternization between Muslims 
and others, not on grounds of secterian identitiy, but on banal, and 
utterly secular issues that had to do with the blatant misuse of power 
and the realities of having to live with capitalism. In this process, 
the CPI(M)'s cherished 'secular' image was taking a bit of a beating, 
and an emergent, as yet ephemeral coalition of peasants, working people, 
young people, minorities and intellectuals - long the mainstay of 
Leftist politics in West Bengal (and indeed in India) had given rise to 
the idea of the dawning of a long awaited democratic left alternative to 
the CPI(M)'s hegemony in West Bengal.

This is the background against which the happenings of  the day in 
Kolkata need to be seen. By suddenly bringing the issue of 'Taslima 
Nasrin' and a threat to her freedom to stay, her freedom of speech, the 
events of today have cut a deep divide right through the emerging 
coalition that included as two significant foci -  poor Bengali peasant 
Muslims, and a disenchanted urban intelligentsia.  The calcualation 
works out as follows  the 'Muslims' will be sought to be mobilized to 
protect the faith and quran, and the intelligentsia will mobilize around 
issues to do with freedom of speech, and the rights of a Bengali writer 
in exile to stay unmolested in the second largest Bengali speaking city 
in the world.

A simple 'qui bono' (who benefits) analysis of the situation suggests 
that the CPI(M) stands most to gain from the day's events. First of all, 
the Army is out on the streets, the state government is a champion of 
order, the 'situation' is 'tense but under control'. So no more public 
protests. Secondly, the CPI(M) badly needs an opportunity to play 
messiah to the minorities in West Bengal, and this comes as a great 
opportunity. The signal has been given, Taslima Nasrin must leave West 
Bengal, and the ' hurt feelings' of Muslims in West Bengal have been 
tended to by the caring 'Left' Front government. It is highly likely 
that a few toothless but useful Imams and Maulanas will now pronounce 
their benediction on the ruling party's move to muzzle and deport 
Taslima Nasrin. The party will have effectively, and cynically played 
its 'Muslim' card after having butchered Muslims in Nandigram, and 
having intrigued over the death of Rizwanur Rahman.

idris Ali, the busy body who speaks for the so called All India 
Minorities Forum claims that the mobs on the street today contained 
agent provocateurs from the CPI(M), and that is why things got out of 
hand. That may be the case, it also may not be the case. Idris Ali 
himself may be only a puppet on a very long chain.

Incidentally, the issue of Taslima Nasrin had surfaced again, literally 
two days after the 'retaking of Nandigram' on the 8th of November, when 
the West Bengal government banned a magazine called Pathasanket, which 
along with articles by the Left Front chairman Biman Bose and other 
CPI(M) worthies, also carried an unsigned article endorsing Taslima 
Nasrin's views and her right to stay on in India. The Times of India 
story detailing this development some days ago has not had the attention 
it should have had. Suddenly, now, it seems very relevant. I will quote 
it here in toto.

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Left magazine's autumn number banned
The Times of India 9 Nov 2007, 0332 hrs IST,
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/msid-2530076,prtpage-1.cms


KOLKATA: An unsigned article published in a Left-sponsored Bengali 
magazine has prompted the Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee government to ban its 
autumn number.

This despite the fact that it includes an article by Left Front chairman 
Biman Bose and a couple of front-ranking CPM leaders such as former 
school education minister Kanti Biswas and MLA Deblina Hembram. There is 
also an article by Sudhir Mridha in defence of the chief minister's 
industrialisation programme.

This apart, two CPM ministers — Subhas Chakraborty and Debesh Das — have 
wished all success to the magazine: Pathasanket 1414.

The controversial article, Taslima Prasange Bangladesher Bharatiya 
Rashtradut, Pradhan Mantri O Moulabadider Prasange, makes out a case for 
writer Taslima Nasreen, who has come under fire from religious 
fundamentalists and Bangladesh government that has banished her from her 
homeland.

The article argues that Taslima's hitting out at fundamentalist 
sentiments from scientific outlook cannot be treated as an offence under 
Section 295(3) of the Bangladesh Criminal Procedure Code.

While doing so, the article takes out a leaf from Osman Gani's book 
Mahamanabi to establish how blind some of the episodes related to the 
life of Prophet Mohammed are. Whatever the logic, the writer makes a 
vitriolic attack on the Prophet over his marital life, sending shock 
waves among the Muslim community.

A copy of the article also reached the corridors of power and the 
government acted promptly on grounds that it contains all the elements 
that might be construed as an assault on Islam.

The writer probably anticipated all this, which is why he made a passing 
reference to the Italian scientist Galileo Galilei who was put behind 
the bars at a ripe age because he refuted the Church's view that the sun 
moves round the earth.

Idris Ali of the All India Minority Forum took strong exception to the 
article. "I am amazed at the audacity of the writer. How dare he write 
such things against the Prophet? I also can't understand how such an 
outrageous piece could come out in a magazine sponsored by senior Left 
leaders and ministers," Ali said.

He, however, welcomed the government's decision to ban the autumn issue 
of the magazine, but said hundreds of copies have already reached the 
readers. "The government has to seize all the copies."

--------------------------------

Idris Ali promptly demands a ban. Buddhadev Bhattacharya promptly orders 
a ban, demonstrating how 'fair' he was. Idris Ali commends 
Bhattacharya's censorship. But then demands that her visa be revoked. 
Biman Bose, who, along with the anonymous writer who had spoken up so 
suddenly for Taslmia, had also lost the readership of his article, 
clarifies that in fact, he wanted Taslima Nasrin out of West Bengal. No 
sequence of events can be so convenient in terms of choreographing the 
CPI(M) tango with so called  offended 'Muslim sentiment'. Willingly, or 
unwillingly, Idris Ali has danced to the tune of a piper he  may have 
hardly known.

In the light of all this, it is possible, as Tapas Ray has hinted in his 
posting on the Reader List,  that because so much of life in West Bengal 
is actually like a detective novel, there could really be a cynical move 
by the CPI(M) to destabilize the rising tide of discontent against its 
actions in Nandigram by suddenly introducing a non-issue like 
'deportation for Taslima Nasrin'. As of now, this is only speculation, 
but it is not groundless speculation.

On the other hand, it is also highly possible, that Idris Ali, who has 
had various associations, but seems to have found some sort of home in 
the archipelago  the Trinamool Congress, may genuinely be disaffected 
with the CPI(M). But even as that may be, with enemies like him, the CPI 
(M) in West Bengal (as I have pointed out before here) has hardly any 
need for friends. In my previous posting (in my response to Sudhanva 
Deshpande's rejoinder) I had hinted at the strange urgency to 'wrest' 
Nandigram, and possibly create the grounds for a 'new consent' to land 
acquistion, now that the plan to relocate the Salim Chemical Hub at 
Nayachar has run aground. Could the latest fracas around Taslima Nasrin 
be also a part of the 'collateral damage' of this sudden urgency?

Whatever the case may be, the only sane response (in my opinion), to the 
emerging vortex in West Bengal would be to insist that the demand for 
the deportation of Taslima Nasrin be unequivocally condemned, and 
simultaneously hope that the movement against the CPI(M)s actions in 
Nandigram stay its course.

Muslims in West Bengal have a lot to worry about, terrible social and 
economic indicators (as have been revealed by the Sachar report, and 
pointed out in the post forwarded earlier by Aarti Sethi earlier here), 
unemployment, an apathetic government that holds them hostage to the 
shibboleth of 'secularism' and the violence that has scarred and 
displaced so many poor Muslim peasants in Nandigram. Taslima Nasrin 
neither steals Muslim bread, nor appropriates Muslim  peasants land, nor 
keeps Muslim kids away from school, nor organizes riots against them, 
nor condemns them to a situation of studied social apathy. She may or 
may not be a good writer,  and is probably not even by her own self 
description a 'good Muslim' but by raising questions that have to do 
with exegesis and Quranic interpretation, she is only demonstrating the 
continuity of her project with the long tradition of reasoned and 
passionate philosophical enquiries about faith that have been part of 
Islamicate traditions. The partisans of the All India Minorities Forum, 
like their Hindu fundamentalist peers, may be performatively pious, but 
they certainly have no handle on the rich intellectual heritage and 
history of doubt within the cultures they claim as their own.

Finally, as a Communist, I believe that the liberty and dignity of all 
individuals to live and work freely wheresoever they please, is of far 
more greater value than the fetish of visas, passports and nationality. 
It is time to demand unconditional rights of residence, not only for 
Taslima Nasrin, but for all Bangladeshis (legal or otherwise) who happen 
to have made India their home, or who may be sojourning in this country 
at the moment.

I may or may not agree with Taslima Nasrin's views or styles of 
utterance (I do, and I dont) but I think that as a writer she has every 
right to stay and work freely in Kolkata. I appeal to everyone who is 
reading this to demand an end to deportations of Bangladeshis from 
India. That includes deportations of poor Bengali speaking Muslims who 
are harrassed by the police and the politics of the far right in Delhi, 
or by the police and the politics of the CPI(M) in West Bengal, as much 
as it includes Taslima Nasrin.

As someone who lives in Delhi, I would hope that if Taslima Nasrin did 
have to leave Kolkata (and I hope she doesn't) at Biman Basu's diktat, 
she, like thousands of other Bangladeshis, would consider Delhi a 
possible home (despite the Delhi Police and the animus of the Sangh 
Parivar). We have no shortage of thugs in Delhi, but as far as I know, 
neither the  CPI(M) nor any fly-by-night, rent-a-nuisance outfit called 
the All India Minorities Forum, rule the streets here. Not yet.

Here's hoping for an early end to secterian tensions, threats to the 
freedom of speech, curfews, flag marches by the military,  the CPI(M)'s 
infinite capacity for intrigue and the idiocy of Muslim fundamentalist 
mayhem in Kolkata.

best

Shuddha

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Situation in Kolkata under control: Buddhadeb
http://www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/story.aspx?id=NEWEN20070033512&ch=11/22/2007%2012:29:00%20AM
	
Monideepa Bannerjee, NDTV
Wednesday, November 21, 2007 (Kolkata)
Kolkata was a city under siege on Wednesday as protests against the 
violence in Nandigram spiraled out of control.

Reacting to the day's events, West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb 
Bhattacharjee said that while the violence was unfortunate, the 
situation in Kolkata was under control.

''City police Commissioner, who is out on road to supervise law and 
order situation, informed me that the situation is under control,'' the 
Chief Minister told reporters at Writers' Buildings.

He said partial or full curfew has been clamped in some areas of the 
city from 10 pm to 6 am.

''The Army will patrol during the night in the affected areas as also 
the police,'' he added.

Asked if he would order any inquiry into the violent incidents, the 
Chief Minister quipped ''as in other cases, probe will be done here too.''

Willing to dump Nasreen

Meanwhile, the ruling CPI(M) in West Bengal on Wednesday night said 
controversial Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen should ''leave the 
state'' if her stay disturbs the peace.

''I don't want to speak elaborately on the role played by the Centre on 
Taslima Nasreen's stay in West Bengal. But if her stay creates a problem 
for peace, she should leave the state,'' CPI(M) state secretary Biman 
Bose told reporters.

He said when two Union ministers sought Chief Minister Buddhadev 
Bhattacharjee's view on the issue, he had told them that if the Centre 
thought it advisable for her stay, she could do so.

Bose's comments came after the city witnessed large-scale violence when 
a mob attacked the police injuring 35 personnel besides torching and 
damaging vehicles during a three-hour shutdown called by a minority 
fringe group in protest against the Nandigram violence.

They also demanded cancellation of Nasreen's visa.

However, the author was not available for comment.

Nasreen, in exile since 1994 after fundamentalists in Bangladesh issued 
a fatwa against her for the allegedly blasphemous first novel Lajja was 
''deeply disturbed'' over the violent incidents in the city, sources 
close to her said.

Fierce clashes

Earlier in the day as fierce clashes gripped the city, within a matter 
of hours Kolkata resembled a battlefield with hundreds of protestors 
armed with swords and stones taking on the police.

Vehicles were burnt down as supporters of a fringe group, the All India 
Minority Forum, protested against the Nandigram violence and demanded 
the cancellation of Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen's visa.

''We need to know why Taslima Nasreen is still let to stay in India,'' 
said a protester

All schools, colleges and offices were closed down in central Kolkata 
and worried parents rushed to pick up their children from school. Many 
students were escorted back home with armed escorts.

The state government not wanting to take any chances called in the Army, 
and by late evening, hundreds of soldiers were out in troubled areas 
staging a Flag March.

However, the AIMF says that they aren't responsible for the violence and 
blames other groups for the trouble.

AIMF President Idris Ali claimed the trouble started after police 
''without reason'' arrested 200 agitators. The administration, on the 
other hand, has insisted they had no choice.

Governor calls for calm

Meanwhile, West Bengal Governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi on Wednesday 
described as 'reprehensible' the violence that erupted in the city.

''The trauma caused to school children and teachers is particularly 
so,'' the Governor said in a release from Raj Bhavan.

Gandhi urged all to refrain from violence and help maintain peace and 
harmony in the best traditions of ''our great city.'' (With PTI Inputs)

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