“Communist” dispossession meets “reactionary” resistance: The ironies of the parliamentary Left in West-

Projit Bihari Mukharji

Abstract: The reflections in this article were instigated by the repeated and brutal clashes since 2007 between peasants and the state government’s militias—both of- ficial and unofficial—over the issue of industrialization. A communist govern- ment engaging peasants violently in order to acquire and transfer their lands to big business houses to set up capitalist enterprises seemed dramatically ironic. De- spite the presence of many immediate causes for the conflict, subtle long-term change to the nature of communist politics in the state was also responsible for the present situation. This article identifies two trends that, though significant, are by themselves not enough to explain what is happening in West Bengal today. First, the growth of a culture of governance where the Communist Party actively seeks to manage rather than politicize social conflicts; second, the recasting of radical political subjectivity as a matter of identity rather than an instigation for critical self-reflection and self-transformation. Keywords: Bengal, bhodrolok, ethnicity, Kanoria Jute Mill, Marxism

The events at Nandigram and Singur in West belligerent attitude even in the face of the grue- Bengal were such that it forced many—if not some live pictures of police firing upon unarmed most—of those who follow South Asian affairs women and children—beamed to the comforts to rethink their beliefs and positions.1 The man- of the average middle-class home thanks to ifest contradiction of the naked oppression un- satellite televisions channels—and clearly sup- leashed—both through official and unofficial ported such actions. Even as some of the older channels—by an allegedly communist govern- leaders of the (the ruling coalition) ment on an impoverished peasantry in the inter- found themselves unable to support the govern- ests of big industry was so obvious, that it forced ment’s action, the younger leaders of the party many to ask how this could happen. What was persisted in calling the farmers “reactionaries.” even more disturbing was that it could not be The state of West Bengal, which came into attributed to ideologically corrupt elements in being through the division of the erstwhile Brit- the lower echelons of the party. The Communist ish Indian province of Bengal in 1947 between Party of (Marxist) (CP([M)) bosses kept a the newly independent India and Pakistan, has

Focaal—European Journal of Anthropology 54 (2009): 89–96 doi:10.3167/fcl.2009.540107 90 | Projit Bihari Mukharji a long tradition of radical politics. The massive that made Singur and Nandigram possible were displacement of people through the traumatic in motion long before 2007. Its roots lay in fact partition further stoked this radical political in the very nature of the CPI(M)’s politics in culture and in the 1960s and 1970s there emerged Bengal since their rise to power in the late 1970s. a robust strand of militant . Though In this context I limit my discussion to two such many of these communist radicals were devoted long-terms dimensions of CPI(M) politics in to extra-parliamentary and violent politics, even- Bengal and show why I feel that what we are see- tually a parliamentary strand of communism ing today has its roots in the distant past. It is was voted to office in 1977. The Left Front has not intended to be an exhaustive analysis. There since held unbroken power in the state, winning are many other factors, both immediate and repeated elections. As extra-parliamentary com- longer term, which are possibly equally impor- munism has been increasingly marginalized in tant. I do not propose that the dimensions I iden- the three decades since 1977, the parliamentary tify are more or less important than the many left has emerged as the longest serving commu- more I do not discuss. But I do feel that they are nist government to be elected through a multi- illustrative of trends long at work. As with most party election. This same parliamentary left has “reflective” pieces, of course, serendipity plays a however steadily changed the meaning of com- major part in the choice. munist politics. All of us who had callously tossed around the words “reactionary,” “radical,” “bourgeois,” Marxism as everyday management “communist” over endless cups of tea and cheap cigarettes in an era before Coca Cola came to Anybody who has lived in Bengal during the the Calcutta pan-shop, seemed to have learned 1980s and 1990s can attest to the growing cen- our dictionaries wrong. The words seemed now trality of the CPI(M)’s Local Committees (LCs) to mean exactly the opposite of what we had in their lives. These ubiquitous committees me- thought they meant. “Bourgeois” and “reaction- diate in every local dispute—however big or ary” now seemed to mean anyone opposed to small—from domestic quarrels to neighborly the government and anybody speaking for the disagreements. Their support and concurrence peasantry. Even the extreme left, which eschewed is required in everything from settling a bitter parliamentary democracy, had thus become “re- domestic quarrel to obtaining a necessary gov- actionaries” and “bourgeois.” Similarly the tag ernment certificate/clearance. The men who sit “radical” could now be used to describe those on these hallowed LCs, however, share very little who supported forcible eviction of farmers from in common. One finds among them the well- their lands in the name of big industry. “Com- meaning local school teacher as well as the local munist” could now be legitimately applied to bully and strongman. Clearly not all of them are those who offered immense tax cuts to the big- corrupt—or well-meaning—but neither are all gest industrial houses in the region. Could it be of them communists with a deep acquaintance that there was an Evil Genius who had changed with the writings of Marx or Engels. Their indi- the meanings of the words while we slept? Or vidual proclivities need not detain us here. The had it taken longer? How did we not notice what important thing to note is their function. They was going on? This article is part of an ongoing do not espouse any fixed agenda (other than vot- personal quest to find an answer to this ques- ing for the CPI(M) of course). Their status, au- tion: to identify the Evil Genius. thority, and importance in local society do not The more I think about it, the more con- derive from any constitutional position, yet they vinced I am that this change could not and did are an integral part of the smooth functioning not happen overnight and cannot simply be at- of the local community. Their role is simply to tributed to the machinations of a handful of new “manage” the lives of their community members. leaders. Its roots go further back, and the changes In a good number—even if not most cases—the “Communist” dispossession meets “reactionary” resistance |91

LCs have very little to gain from settling the nu- in the system in need of right management,” is merous petty disputes. In most cases, these me- not limited to the level of the LCs. It permeates diations do not make it into the media and hence every aspect of the CPI(M)’s day-to-day political do not allow for quantification. Yet it cannot be strategy. Let me give two relatively well-known denied that numerous disputes between quar- examples in brief. relling brothers over an ancestral home or an The first of these incidents took place when abusive husband regularly beating his wife have I was a student at the Presidency College in Cal- been settled by the LCs for nothing (or at best a cutta in 1998. After returning from our lengthy small contribution to the “party fund”). As a lo- summer vacations that year, we found that a cal system of dispute management, the value of medium-size but well-built, marbled temple de- the LC cannot be ignored. Some—predictably voted to Shiva had grown up plum in the mid- those not on the best of terms with the LCs— dle of the college premises. The college, which is tend to detest this “interference” stating that the the oldest in South Asia, has a veritable legacy of CPI(M) has “put politics into everything” (sa- being a bastion of radicalism and free-thinking. bete politics dhukiyechhe). Ironically they have Also, at a government college in a country that done just the opposite. is officially secular, such a building was illegal For instance, almost all who are today trying in every respect. Moreover, coming as it did in to build homes on the ever-expanding outskirts the 1990s—when the tentacles of the hated BJP of Calcutta often complain that the LC has (Bharatiya ) seemed to be spreading forced them to pay a hefty subscription to either everywhere—most of us saw in it yet another the “party fund” or the local “sporting club.” evil machination on the part of the Hindu right Many who are building homes in popular areas wing. As the general secretary of the student like Baruipur are not exactly struggling salaried union, I was urged by my constituents and fel- classes and can easily afford to pay this extra low students to take immediate steps to have the sum. Indeed for many these homes are second temple removed, before its presence got “natu- homes—bagan bari—meant for weekend get- ralized.” We notified the college authorities of aways. There is a very understandable anger our concern and asked for its immediate demo- among the local poor who are being, in a sense, lition. To our utter surprise, however, the college forced to sell out their meager homes for the authorities—despite being government servants bagan baris to be built. It is the same anger one and having no right to allow such an illegal meets with in the beautiful villages in Cornwall, structure to exist on government property—re- where Londoners build their second homes, or fused to act. The principal of the college even on the outskirts of Chicago. This anger stems allegedly released statements to the press sup- from the economic exigencies of the life of the porting the structure. Where we had suspected poor on the fringes of the urban sprawl. Yet a covert machination of the right wing and nat- what the LC does is not politicize this anger into urally expected enthusiastic support from the a co-ordinated demand for government support Left government, we were shocked to find bitter or local community development, but rather opposition. merely smoothen the transfer for land and hence Eventually, as the symbolic value of Presidency the further eventual impoverishment of the poor. College to Calcutta’s rich history catapulted the Those very people who build these homes and issue to media spotlight, we even managed to gain complain—albeit in sotto voce—of the exactions an audience with the then minister of higher edu- of the LC, do not appreciate that ironically it is cation. The minister explained that the temple the mediations of the latter that render the anger had been built by members of the college’s non- of the impoverished tame and thereby enable academic staff and it was best not to “hurt their the smooth acquisition of surplus land. feelings.”Moreover, all non-academic staff mem- This trend of using the party machinery to de- bers at the college were members of the CITU politicize disputes and to render them as “glitches (the Trade Union affiliated with the CPI(M)). 92 | Projit Bihari Mukharji

Eventually even as the students themselves un- the impoverished workers pooled their meager dertook to demolish the structure, the govern- resources to start a community kitchen and or- ment refused to help. ganize a drawn-out resistance, the government The point behind sharing the experiences of unleashed brutal police violence. Despite the this incident is not to suggest—as some do— violence and repression, for a while the Kanoria that on the ground level, the CPI(M) workers dispute seemed to be triggering off a new wave have communal sympathies. Rather the point is of radical workers’ politics independent of the to highlight the fact that ideology and politics major political parties. With this growth also do not play a part in the day-to-day running of came ever greater administrative violence. One the party. The irony of members of a commu- of the early organizers, Bhikari Paswan, was nist-backed trade union clandestinely building arrested and subsequently disappeared from a temple on government property did not strike police custody. His whereabouts remain un- the minister as being cause for concern. What known to this day. Other worker-organizers like he was concerned about was in “not hurting any Someswar Rao and Rajeshwar Rai were also mar- feelings” and trying to find a solution that would tyred. The workers demanded that the mill be keep everybody happy. turned over to a workers’ co-operative but the The second incident I discuss was much better- “communist” government refused, preferring the known than the previous one. For many of my capitalist mode under which it was being run. generation—who were then in high school—it While the struggles of Kanoria Jute Mill—in marked the beginning of our disillusionment the very heart of the capital city—ignited in with the Left Front government. The incident I many once more the belief in the political po- refer to here is the Kanoria Jute Mill agitation in tential of workers’ movements, it also showed 1993 (see Anonymous 1994; Davala 1996; Deb- that the CPI(M) government was a humungous nath 2003). managerial machine. Many have seen in the Left Jute,which was one of the major cash earn- government’s actions during the Kanoria strug- ers for the Bengal economy, suffered a period of gles a sellout to capitalists. But I reckon it was decline following the partition of the province more than that. I do not think those who ran in 1947, but had again picked up its business the government saw it necessarily as an act of since the 1970s. The industry had long been run selling out. Instead it was the logic of the ma- along extremely exploitative lines owing to a sur- chine that was taking over. Because the CPI(M)’s plus availability of labor. With the steady growth strategy was to actually eschew politicization of the industry in the 1970s, as more and more and ideological divisions in favor of making the willing workers turned up, the management of “system” run properly, they did not possibly see the mills sought to further raise profits by try- their stance as deriving from any ideological ing to replace permanent workers by part-timers positions. They had a “system” to run and this who would work at lower pays and without any “dispute”—like the proverbial cog in the wheel— additional benefits. Initially this led to a strike, was holding up the grand “system” from func- but the government then mediated a tripartite tioning smoothly: their task was to rectify the deal among the unions, the management, and “glitch” as quickly as possible and get the jug- itself. As it turned out, the unions—including gernaut running again. the leftist CITU—at the behest of the govern- The secret both to CPI(M)’s success as well ment had actually officially signed away the rights as its seeming betrayals lies in its machinic logic. of the workers by accepting most of the oppres- Indeed Marxists in West Bengal describe their sive proposals of the management. Stunned by actions not as “ami Marxism kori” (I do Marx- the sellout, a spontaneous workers’ resistance ism) but rather as “ami CPM kori”(I do CPI(M)). developed at the gates of the mill. Workers de- The active verb is no longer the praxis of Marx- nied the right of their union bosses or the gov- ism but rather fulfilling the ascribed organiza- ernment to sign away their legitimate rights. As tional roles within a particular party machine. “Communist” dispossession meets “reactionary” resistance |93

Such a machinic logic and the inherent value of Just as following Tagore does not mean reading it in the eyes of the defenders of CPI(M)’s current his books, following Vivekananda does not nec- politics is also seen in the way the latter con- essarily mean eating beef, building biceps, or tinue to describe themselves as “the organized reading the Gita, so too following Marxism does Left,” while all other parties—including the nu- not necessarily mean believing in class struggle. merous highly organized far Left alternatives— One merely learns a handful of the more com- are dismissed as the “unorganized Left.” It is as mon songs of Tagore, becomes a member of if there can be only one form of “organization”— Ramkrishna Mission (for Vivekananda’s sake), coincident with one particular party—and even makes it a point to dislike Gandhi (for the sake more dangerously, as if the mere fact of being of his opposition to Netaji), and votes for the “organized” is somehow excuse enough for bad CPI(M). politics. It is indeed ironic in the extreme that All these are markers of the contemporary such a fetishization of the organization over Bengali bhodrolok identity, a social group which praxis actualizes the very alienation of workers emerged in the nineteenth century. They were from their labor that Marx set out to demolish. mostly a professional middle class but also had some minor interests in land. They were over- whelmingly drawn from the Hindu upper castes Marxism as ethnic identity and emerged in the wake of the displacement of the traditional elite by the emerging British Just as the status-quoist logic of the ‘systems” power. The group members were also the first has become a fetish, so has the vocabulary of to take to “Western” education (see e.g., Kopf Marxism itself, which in Bengal is no longer a 1979) and throughout the nineteenth century matter of revolutionary praxis. It has instead were engaged in many cultural, religious, and become a matter of ethnic identity and even political reform movements. Though the occu- chauvinism that does not necessarily need any pations and caste/religious identity of the group specific actions or self-transformations. One does have undergone some changes in the period then, not need to question her prejudices or grapple they remain culturally and politically the hege- with his own shortcomings of being a Bengali monic group in West Bengal.Various dominant Marxist. One can simply be a Bengali Marxist. cultural icons—often not mutually reconciled He or she can at the same time continue to be a with ease—have been drawn from this complex bloodthirsty Hindu chauvinist, or a devout Mus- history of the class. As a result, they have be- lim mulla, or refuse to marry off their daughter come our cultural capital, not our intellectual to her Scheduled Caste boyfriend.2 Some even praxis. Atul Kohli (1990) has pointed out that turn their Marxism into an icon of their preju- this cultural identification is also reflected in the dices. It is not rare to find a Bengali Marxist voting patterns in West Bengal. Non-Bengalis proudly proclaiming that, “BJP will never win tend to look upon the CPI(M) as a Bengali party in Bengal, they only win among the Hindustanis and therefore distance themselves from it, while and the Gujjus.”The BJP’s poor performance in Bengalis—particularly Bengali Hindus—for that Bengal is seen to be a consequence of the essen- very reason, tend to vote for them. My own ex- tially more “liberal” and “enlightened” outlook perience, especially in student politics in , of the Bengalis. Ironically—despite their alleged also bears out this contention. liberal views—this “essentially liberal nature” Innumerable popular songs from contem- does not usually extend to descriptions of Ben- porary artists such as Kabir Sumon, Nochiketa, gali Muslims. and Chandrabindu, while celebrating the every- Many a middle-class Bengali home is adorned day life of the city of Calcutta refer to its radical by the pictures of Bengal’s great icons: Tagore, politics and leftist sympathies. What these Netaji,Vivekananda, and Marx.3 These are things artists perceive with more acuity than academ- to be proud of, not necessarily to be acted on. ics is the ways in which Marxism has become a 94 | Projit Bihari Mukharji part of Bengali cultural life. In so doing, how- more material terms, the conjunction of land ever, it has often been reduced to the level of a tenures and administrative policies created a fetishized facet of ethnic identity rather than a context where many young men, though not ac- matter of critical reflection and praxis. tually impoverished, had to undertake liberal As a marker of difference this unique aspect education as a means to eventually getting a job. of the Bengali bhodrolok identity—their radi- From the beginning of the twentieth century calism—could therefore with ease, in the wake the shrinkage and saturation of this job market of the Nandigram agitation, be pressed into the created a significant group of discontented young service of the CPI(M)’s campaign to delegit- men with a liberal education. Consequently, rad- imize its opponents. The involvement of the Ja- ical youth societies sprung up everywhere. These maat-e-Islami in the Nandigram issue—though were mostly nationalist and usually had a religio- the movement itself had clearly embraced both moral aspect to them. There were also some ele- Hindus and Muslims—was easily represented ments of social equality enshrined in these youth as a plot by Islamist mullas who controlled the societies. After the 1947 partition of South Asia “essentially bigoted Muslim peasants.”4 The en- the huge dislocation and utter impoverishment lightened Marxist bhodrolok thus had opposed of the displaced people further radicalized the the poor bigoted Muslim peasant. Bengali youth, who already had readily available Ignoring such obvious—though implicit— models of youth radicalism from a previous “communalism,” as the politics of religious sec- generation. This is not to underestimate the role tarianism is called in South Asia, many defenders of communist mobilization in the 1960s and are heard saying that, “well, it is true—isn’t it? 1970s, but merely to place it in its historical Bengal after all is not Gujarat and you must thank context. There is a tendency in radical, or even the CPI-M for that.”5 The fallacy in this argu- liberal, circles to often see the “positives” in a ment lies in that—yes, Bengal is not Gujarat post-communist society as the legacy of commu- and Bhattacharya is not Modi,6 but how much nism, whereas the very fact that a communist of the credit goes to the CPI(M) and how much mobilization had succeeded in these societies to the different political histories of the two re- might also prove that these societies had already gions? Bengal’s “radical” tradition goes much been more receptive to socially “progressive” further back than the CPI(M). The success of the agendas due to other, older elements in their party was itself a story of the success of that tra- histories. dition, not the other way round. CPI(M)’s suc- However, just as the party inherited some of cess happened on the back of a long tradition of the “radicalism” from earlier movements, it also “revolutionary terrorism” of the early twentieth inherited some of the chronic limitations of those century and the immediate context of the Nax- movements. Bengal’s “radical” traditions—even alite risings of the late 1960s and early 1970s. before Marxism—had a tinge of implicit neo- Though it would be impossible to go into Hinduism to it. The “revolutionary terrorists” detail here, this point is worth reiterating. The of the early twentieth century had more than a acceptance and success of communism at the fair share of middle-class neo-Hinduism in their ballot box in 1977 built on historical factors politics and their rhetoric, even though they that went back—at least in certain aspects—to claimed to represent the entirety of the Bengali the nineteenth century. The rationality and crit- people. Rajarshi Dasgupta argues that Bengali icality that had been introduced in bhodrolok Marxism was always aligned to madhyabitta religious life in the middle of the nineteenth (middle class) sensibilities, but in radical poets century by reformers like Rammohun Roy and like Samar Sen, “transgression [had continued the humanism and universalism found for in- to] figure in radical subjectivity” (Dasgupta 2005: stance in Tagore’s hugely influential oeuvre, all 97). A vision of an apocalyptic revolution had played a part in constituting a self-image for the continued to figure in the Bengali Marxist imag- bhodrolok as a “rational,” “liberal” person. In inary, thereby keeping alight the torch of self- “Communist” dispossession meets “reactionary” resistance |95 transgression and critical reflection. With the the CPI(M) removed the power of the old land- suppression of internal criticism and the adop- lords and facilitated the rise of a new middle- tion of a more centralized form of Marxism peasantry, which now combined land-ownership, after the removal of PC Joshi as the general sec- an interest in the wholesale trade of grain and retary of the undivided Communist Party of access to governmental financial support through India in 1947, Dasgupta contends, this transgres- proximity to the party. This middle-peasantry sive potential was quashed.7 In its place arose a thus came to share in time many of the status- “madhyabitta Marxism,”where the middle-class quoist sensibilities of the ex-refugee urban sup- could safely continue to be a Marxist without the port base of the party. Because CPI(M)’s Marxism need of transgressing the limitations of their in Bengal remained a reflection of predominantly own inherited prejudices. Bengali, Hindu middle-class sensibilities, these But this madhyabitta Marxism is also a Ben- shifts in the latter’s sensibilities also shifted the gali Hindu Marxism. Its lack of self-criticism, accents of Bengali Marxism toward more status- the fetishization of its own identity, and its ma- quoist registers. A machinic logic prevented crit- chinic logic have therefore all been maturing ical safeguards from operating to challenge this for a long time. Of course the Hindu Bengali ossification of the party. madhyabitta’s own historical situation itself has As I pointed out at the beginning of this ar- undergone (often dramatic) change throughout ticle, there are many other factors that make the course of the twentieth century and with Singur, Nandigram, Dobadi, and so on possible, this change have come changes to their sensibil- but the crux of the matter for me lies embedded ities and consequent changes to the Marxism in the history of Marxism in general as well as they espouse. The traumatic 1947 partition saw the party in particular in the region. the sudden displacement and abject impoverish- ment of a massive section of the Bengali Hindu middle class. These refugees formed the back- Projit Bihari Mukharji is a Research Fellow at bone of radical Marxist politics in the 1960s and Oxford Brookes University. In a previous life he 1970s. By the 1980s and 1990s, however, most of was a student activist in Calcutta and served as these refugee families—the bulk of whom had the general secretary of the Presidency College forcibly settled on land they did not own to the Student Union. south of Calcutta—had once again “settled E-mail: [email protected]. down.”On the one hand, the electoral victory of Postal address: PB Mukharji, Department of the Left Front in the late 1970s had paved the way History, School of Arts and Humanities, Ox- for many of these families to be given titles to ford Brookes University, Headington Campus, the lands they had forcibly occupied since 1947. Gipsy Lane, Oxford, OX3 0BP. On the other hand, due to the persistent invest- ment of these refugee families in educating their children—in fact schools were one of the first Notes things the refugees built in the areas they set- tled—many of the next generation were able 1. This is not so much an academic paper as a to get lucrative middle-class salaried jobs. Both series of critical reflections; I interpret my per- these developments—as well as the host of other sonal experiences, using my professional train- ing as a social scientist. larger pan-Indian trends of liberalization, glob- 2. At the time of independence the constitutional alization, and so on—now muted the radicalism fathers of India had recognized the reality and of the earlier generation and converted the bulk undesirability of the caste system. Incorporat- of the CPI(M)’s urban support base into a prop- ing the American idea of “affirmative action” or erty-owning middle-class with its own distinctly positive discrimination toward underprivileged status-quoist sensibilities. In the country-side, groups, they had drawn up a “schedule” of cer- similarly, the early land-reforms instituted by tain castes who would be eligible for preferen- 96 | Projit Bihari Mukharji

tial treatment in education and employment government led by the hawkish Narendra Modi. owing to the many social disadvantages under In 2002 massive violence broke out throughout which they labored. In time members of these the state in which a disproportionate number of castes have come to be called by the generic Muslims were killed and it is widely believed name of “Scheduled Castes” and are often sub- that Modi had used his office to deploy the state ject to negative social prejudices of the upper machinery to attack or at least allow the mas- castes, not only due to their historically low sta- sacre of Muslims to take place. tus but also because of the preferential treat- 6. Buddhadeb Bhattacharya and Narendra Modi ment they are now legally eligible to get. are the chief ministers of West Bengal and Gu- 3. Rabindranath Tagore was a great Bengali poet, jarat, respectively. who won the Nobel Prize for literature and is 7. was a leading Indian com- today the National Poet of Bangladesh. He has munist in the 1930s and 1940s. He had been the distinction of having written the national tried by the British government in the notori- anthems of both India and Bangladesh. Netaji ous conspiracy case and sent to the pe- or Subhas Chandra Bose was a leader of the In- nal colony in the Andamans. As the Communist dian National who had initially repre- Party of India’s first general secretary he guided sented the young left wing within the Indian it through its most formative years. His advo- National Congress during the 1920s and 1930s. cacy of closer ties with the Indian National He eventually fell out with Gandhi who was op- Congress under the leadership of the socialist- posed to Bose’s leftist inclinations. Eventually minded Prime Minister after Bose was forced to quit the Congress. When independence made him unpopular to the World War II broke out, he decided to side with more militant young members of the party and whoever was opposed to imperialist Britain and led to his exit from the leadership. In his later ended up aligning himself with the Axis powers. years he devoted himself to developing archives He raised an army comprised of Indian soldiers of Indian communism at the Jawaharlal Nehru in the British Army taken prisoner by Japan in University in New Delhi. the Eastern Front and tried to invade British In- dia with this army to liberate it. Vivekananda was a Hindu monk, who sought to reinterpret Hinduism, thereby modernizing and organiz- References ing it. He also toured the world giving lectures, presenting Hinduism to the audiences of the Anonymous. 1994. Kanoria Jute worker’s historic West as a spiritual alternative fully compatible struggle. Economic and Political Weekly 29 (1/2): with modern life but also promising an escape 22. from the narrow materialism of contemporary Kopf, David. 1979. The Brahmo Samaj and the life. Many right-wing Hindu political configu- Shaping of the Modern Indian Mind. Princeton: rations of today have built on Vivekananda’s vi- Princeton University Press. sions of Hinduism. Dasgupta, Rajarshi. 2005. Rhyming revolution: 4. The Jamaat was founded in Lahore in British Marxism and culture in colonial Bengal. Studies India in 1941 by Sayyid Abdul Ala Maududi. Its in History 21 (1): 79–98. aim was to affect an orthodox Islamic revolu- Davala, Sararth. 1996. Independent trade unionism tion in South Asia through peaceful means. To- in West Bengal. Economic and Political Weekly 31 day sister organizations under the same name (52): 144–49. exist in all post-colonial states of South Asia. Debnath, Kushal. 2003. West Bengal: The neo-liberal Particularly in India, where Muslims are in a offensive in industry and the worker’s resistance. minority and many are socially and economi- Revolutionary Democracy. http://www cally disadvantaged, the Jamaat’s politics is of- .revolutionarydemocracy.org/rdv9n1/index.htm. ten in line with the interests of the poor, though Kohli, Atul. 1990. From breakdown to order: West it remains couched in a religious idiom. Bengal. In Democracy and Discontent, 267–96. 5. The western Indian state of Gujarat has in re- Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. cent years repeatedly elected a right-wing BJP