No saffron on the plate

It would be wrong to say that the BJP is taking the Left’s place in Bengal.

Jayanta Ghosal’s article ‘Among the believers in Bengal’ (IE, March 26) is so full of cocky generalisations and mistaken observations that it needs a riposte. To begin with, his argument bestows a monolithic identity on the “Bengali”, while using bhadrolok and “Bengali” as interchangeable nomenclature. To remind that within the overarching umbrella of the linguistic denomination, there are differing class, caste, religious and national identifiers which converge and diverge is to state the obvious. The bhadrolok is a small part of this convocation. Second, Ghosal draws a simplistic line of progression between the Bengali as once-communist and now a would-be communal. As if, the moment the Bengali bhadrolok gives up his socialist “pretences”, he automatically covers himself in a saffron cloak. This sort of binarism usually plagues political commentary on Bengal, conveniently omitting the attendant complexities. Ghosal’s essay is part of this flawed bequest.