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Will Yogi Forces bulldozer roar on 6 mosques?

Will Yogi Forces bulldozer roar on 6 mosques?

India.com5 days ago
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Will 'Yogi Force's bulldozer roar on 6 mosques?
Yashwant Bhaskar
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Updated:
Aug 03, 2025, 11:32 AM IST
The countdown has begun for the narrow Muslim-dominated Dalmandi lane leading to Baba Vishwanath to become history… Half a dozen mosques of Dalmandi will come under the purview of Yogi Force's bulldozer. We are waiting for the monsoon to end and the Muslim-dominated Dalmandi will become a thing of the past… The purpose behind the road widening in Dalmandi is to create an alternative route to reach Baba Vishwanath's court
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Such depictions are not totally correct. They tend to ignore the actual context of Syama Prasad's views and politics, and the fact that he was essentially a secularist who believed in sectarian harmony, but not at the cost of the majority. As a prominent leader of the Hindu Mahasabha, he vociferously opposed the politics of the Muslim League, the principal mover behind the creation of Pakistan. This has been taken to indicate that he mirrored the communal politics of the League. The dominant narrative on the Indian nationalist movement, both in India and in Western academia, has been to portray Bharatiya Jan Sangh founder Syama Prasad Mookerjee as a communalist. This is due largely to the fact that after 1946, when the Partition of India was beginning to look more like a reality than before, he vocally called for the separation of the Hindu-dominated areas of undivided Bengal into a separate province of India. A relook at Bengal's last secular government before Partition is required. Also Read: Syama Prasad Mookerjee — the BJP ideologue whose political ideas find echo even today Syama-Huq alliance Recent interest in the politics of pre-Partition Bengal largely revolves around the tragic killings and riots of Direct Action Day (August 1946), and the increasing communal polarisation that accompanied the rise of the Muslim League, which ultimately led to the Partition of the province. Yet, an often overlooked aspect is the effort at communal unity through the formation of the Progressive Coalition government in December 1941. Syama Prasad Mookerjee's coalition government with AK Fazlul Huq, formed that same month, was the last combined Hindu-Muslim provincial government in undivided Bengal. It was a sincere attempt to dilute the hate-filled politics of the Muslim League and its Bengal leadership—particularly that of HS Suhrawardy, later infamous for his role in the Calcutta riots of 1946. Popularly known as the 'Syama-Huq ministry', this alliance—formed while the Second World War was raging in Europe and had reached Southeast Asia—comprised five Muslim and four Hindu ministers. Headed by Huq as premier and with Syama Prasad holding the finance portfolio, it was a genuine effort at communal harmony. Functioning as a loose legislative assembly bloc, the Progressive Coalition prevented the complete vacating of administrative and political space to the divisive politics of the Muslim League. Though Huq also had earlier ties with the Muslim League, his own Krishak Praja Party (KPP) served as an effective secular counterpoise to its vigorous sectarian activities. A secular push against odds While Huq was not without his shortcomings, joining his government was the last chance Bengal had at Hindu-Muslim governmental unity without the League's divisive politics. The League was set on an agenda of communalising the Calcutta Municipal Corporation, as well as Calcutta University, and on dominating the educational, governmental, and administrative apparatus to Islamise Bengal and steer it on a separatist track. In Bengal, the growth of communal Muslim politics was mainly owing to an alliance between elite landowning groups and a vast Muslim peasantry. The Congress, meanwhile, represented the professional middle classes and the largely Hindu zamindari landowners. From the 1930s onwards, however, the rise of Huq's Krishak Praja Party, which championed the interests of rural Muslim peasants in eastern Bengal, brought a new twist to the political paradigm. At the forefront of Huq's agenda was the abolition of zamindari landholdings, which made his tie-up with the Muslim League difficult to sustain. Though the League and KPP formed the first provincial government in 1937, the internal contradictions of class interest quickly made the alliance turbulent. Although elected as a Congress member to the Bengal Legislative Assembly in 1929, Syama Prasad was independent-minded and increasingly diverged from his party's line, especially on Bengal politics. A pragmatist, he had possibly realised that the only way to prevent the ceding of legislative and administrative space to the Muslim League was to ally with Huq when the League-KPP government collapsed in 1941. He was also determined to stymie the increasingly divisive role played by the colonial British rulers, who pandered to the Muslim League. Measures such as the Communal Award of 1932—which ostensibly sought to expand electoral rights by granting separate representation to different Indian communities— ended up deepening fissures on religious lines. In a province like Bengal, where elite landowners and the urban professional class were predominantly Hindu, while the Muslim population was mostly agrarian, this had serious ramifications for communal unity. At a time when Congress had officially resigned from government, it was Syama Prasad's prescience that ensured at least an effort was made to build a non-League political formation. In an assembly of 250 seats, this alliance commanded a sizeable majority. The Bengal Congress did not oppose the government, but stayed neutral. To his credit, Syama Prasad had recognised the League's long game. With Congress absent from governance, he played a major part in keeping the non-League coalition alive and ensured Hindu interests were not overlooked. However, the Muslim League, led in the Assembly by Khwaja Nazimuddin but directed behind the scenes by Suhrawardy, launched a campaign accusing Huq of 'betrayal of the Muslim cause'. 'Doctrine of benevolent trusteeship stands exploded' The government did not last beyond a year, brought down by the shrill opposition of the Muslim League, aided by the tacit support of the British colonial governor, JA Herbert. With his help, the League started a mass offensive to discredit the Progressive Coalition. Suhrawardy, in particular, tried to turn Muslim students against Huq and stir communal hatred through 'Kafela' tours , according to contemporary sources as well as academic works like Muslim Politics In Bengal (1937-1947) by Shila Sen. League mouthpieces like The Star of India, Azad, and The Morning News upped their inflammatory rhetoric, branding Huq a 'ghaddar'—traitor. Despite the unrest being created by the League, Governor Herbert refused to heed warnings from even senior British ICS officers in the districts, reportedly saying, 'It would be inexpedient at present to restrain Suhrawardy'. Increasingly frustrated by British policies and disregard, Syama Prasad resigned from the government on 16 November 1942. In his resignation letter to Herbert, he stated in unequivocal terms: 'You, as Provincial Governor… have interfered with the work of the Ministry and have rendered so-called provincial autonomy into a meaningless farce. The doctrine of benevolent trusteeship stands exploded and you can no longer throw dust into our eyes.' Also Read: Lion of Bengal AK Fazlul Huq eclipsed Jinnah, fought for tenant farmers What history forgets Revisiting this period of Bengal's history is important for several reasons. Firstly, a rebalancing of historiography is essential. While it is true that academic histories are often rooted in what EH Carr designated as the 'historian's craft' to cherry-pick historical facts, present-day researchers need to take into account the entire context of tumultuous events. Secondly, ordinary readers must also make greater efforts to understand the entire backdrop before arriving at conclusions. For this, an exhaustive reading of a variety of sources presenting diverse views is required. Thirdly, instead of creating artificial binaries between 'academic' and 'popular' histories, the quest should be to refer to as many records and documents of an era as are available. If popular history is able to do so, and also bring greater ease and clarity to mass audiences in understanding complex events, it should be encouraged rather than denigrated. There could be no better way to honour a stalwart nationalist leader like Dr Syama Prasad Mookerjee than by diligently searching for the whole historical truth, not fragments of it. As India stands on the cusp of 80 years of independence, it needs to confront its past with confidence, and not treat history as a mere project. Sayantani Gupta Jafa is a writer and policy analyst. She has served as a civil servant with the Government of India in cross-functional areas, including environmental sustainability. Views are personal. (Edited by Asavari Singh)

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