Why spike in Hindu-Muslim clashes in Mamata's Bengal is no surprise

The spike in Hindu-Muslim clashes in West Bengal should not have come as a surprise. In 2016, there were at least 25 incidents of communal violence in the state, which is witnessing fierce articulations of age-old animosity between the two communities. Contrary to popular perception, Bengal has never been a shining example of communal harmony, despite a rich legacy of a syncretic culture. The wounds of Partition may have healed but the feeling of suspicion, undergirding the interactions between Hindus and Muslims, remains. The relative calm in the 34-year-old Left Front dispensation had to do with ideological politics putting a temporary lid over communal tension. The CPI-M and its allies had perfected the art of strategic, opportunistic secularism. They were also very successful during the most part of their rule in suppressing news of communal flare-ups. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, however, has fanned the flames with her appeasement politics. The latest incident of violence in Howrah’s Dhulagarh, and Banerjee’s refusal to acknowledge it bode ill for the state.

In Bengal, no party can come to power without the support of the minority community, which constitutes nearly 30 per cent of the population. Since the CPI-M’s land reforms movement in 1978, Muslims had been its loyal constituency as they formed the bulk of the state’s marginal farmers. That equation changed when Mamata Banerjee tapped into popular anger in the wake of the Singur and Nandigram agitations. She merely exploited the anxieties of the agrarian community, which felt threatened by the CPI-M’s industrial policies. Banerjee knew that if she has to outsmart the old political warhorse, she only needs to play by the rules of the game that her adversary had institutionalised in the early Seventies.

After coming to power in 2011, she projected herself as the ‘champion of minority rights’. Her public display of affection for the community — covering her head during religious occasions, sharing the stage with religious leaders and invoking Allah-hu-Akbar in Muslim rallies — not only revived old fault lines, but also pushed them deeper. The Hindu middle class, already angry over a slew of government policies such as monthly allowances for the muezzin, financial aid for 10,000 madrassas and scholarships for Muslim students, felt threatened. That fear became more entrenched when she secured a second term at the helm in 2016 with a landslide victory. With the Left reduced to a relic and the Congress being a marginal force in the state for decades now, she has no political opposition, so to speak. The taste of absolute power and the desperation to hold on to it has driven Banerjee to take some extreme steps that have hurt Hindu sentiments. Had the Calcutta High Court not intervened last October when Banerjee decreed that tazia processions would get precedence over Durga idol immersions, the simmering anger of the Hindus could have spilled onto the streets.

Moreover, large-scale migration of Muslims into border towns and districts from neighbouring Bangladesh has given rise to fears of a demographic change. The 2014 Burdwan blasts have fuelled suspicion that Banerjee’s Bengal has become a sanctuary for home-grown terrorists and non-state actors from across the border.

Banerjee’s biggest drawback has been projecting minority appeasement as secularism when, ideally, she has no business blending religion and politics. It’s an explosive mix that radical elements from both communities will use to destabilise her administration. Bengal is heading in the direction of UP and Bihar where the governments’ failure to restore law and order following minor communal incidents led to riots across the states, in which Muslims lost their homes and livelihoods. Dhulagarh, too, saw organised violence in the form of arson and looting, with the police playing mute spectators. Both communities have suffered and the trust between neighbours irreparably destroyed. Banerjee, instead of muzzling the voice of independent media, should have brought the perpetrators to justice. She should now rise above vote-bank politics to allay the fears of Hindus and restore faith and confidence in her government. Otherwise, the people of Bengal, and the chief minister in particular, have a lot to lose.