Are Bengali Marxists Atheists?
Posted : September 30, 2006 at 9:51 pm [IST]
To be frank, I did not know that practicing of religious rituals and festivities are Marxism’s antithesis. Marxists say, believers have no place in CPI (M). All these days, I thought Bhattacharyas, Chakraborty, and many other Leftists very much believe in their religion-Hinduism. I never believed them to be atheists. From every Bengali household, belonging to any political party, one can hear the ‘uloor dhwani’ (sound of owl made by mouth) on every Thursday when they worship the goddess of wealth. But the media recently reported a sort of revolt in WB’s CPI (M), strangely over the visit of Subhas Chakraborty, West Bengal’s transport minister to the Kali Temple at Tarapith near Kolkata and his offering of puja. His statements reiterating his right to practise his religion have not only embarrassed the Marxists of the state, but also forced Jyoti Basu to make a remark, “Whom does he see and worship? Does She (Kali) exist?” I don’t know how the people of West Bengal particularly Hindus would take it. But somehow, I felt bad about it. A senior politician like Jyoti Basu could have maintained silence on the issue.
All my life mostly in West Bengal, I found Marxists friends and union leaders organizing and participating in Saraswati Puja, Viswakarma Puja, and very much in Durga and Kali Puja. I also found them fighting the war for bonus amount with the employers for celebrating and meeting the extraordinary drain on a Bengali household budget during Durga Puja. As I heard (may be as rumour) many of the Kali Pujas are organized by the goons who back the party. It was again the party volunteers who forced the people of the locality to part with huge subscription for the celebration of the public pujas.
After hearing Jyoti Basu remarks, I appear to be a little more intelligent too. Perhaps, that is the reason that we don’t find any place of worship of any religion including Hindus in the whole of Salt Lake City. So CPI (M) is not only secular but also a step ahead, atheist too. And still the people of West Bengal with majority of Hindus elect them for last 30 decades. How can any one blame Hindus to be narrow-minded?
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Category: Indian politics |
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