ANDOLONI BANGALI: A CULTURE, AN IDENTITY AND A PERCEPTION

‘Andoloni Bangali’ and the Cultures of Resistance

Dr. Aparajita De

When I shifted to Delhi in 2005, I used to take the bus from New Friends Colony to Delhi University which runs through the Outer Ring road. There was a designated place marked for the ladies in these buses, but the first thing that I noticed was that nobody actually followed this kind of demarcation. Women were standing and men were sitting in those designated seats and nobody for once protested that this is a ladies seat and one should get up. I found this silence very surprising. So one fine day; I decided enough is enough, just because no one was raising their voice did not mean that I could not raise mine. Standing in front of the ladies seat, I clearly said, ‘Please get up. This is a ladies seat.’ The man stared at me, glanced upwards at the signage where it was written in red “ladies seat” and then looked outside the window, completely ignoring me and pretending as if he could not understand me nor my language or whatever I was saying.

Persistence and stubbornness, both being my middle names I continued, I tapped on his shoulder and told him categorically in Hindi ‘look here, women are supposed to sit in this place. You might as well get up and find yourself a seat elsewhere’. I don’t know whether it was the firmness in my tone or me speaking in Benglish-Hindi that made him get up and finally I occupied  the seat. The person who was sitting next to me, another man in his late fifties, asked me immediately ‘aap kaha ke ho?’ I said ‘Kalkatte se hu’. The reaction went something like this ‘oooh isliye.’

Does this mean that Bengalis have an inherent streak of resistance? Or are we perceived as people who protest and resist too much? In a discussion with my student who was working on her Masters’ dissertation on campus cultures of DU and JNU. She laughingly narrated the ‘Punjabi-kurta and Hawai chappal wearing, ‘jhola’ carrying students, smoking cigarettes and having tea and possibly the Marxist kinds were more often than not Bengalis who were at the forefront of all kinds of discussions, debates, meetings and protests; be that the food in the canteen or some issue in the hostel or some teacher who is not taking the class or somebody is being harassed and if that falls short there are wide ranging issues anywhere and everywhere in the world to be debated about or organized into protests.

I have noticed that over the years people outside Bengal perceive and identify Bengalis of being extremely vocal, opinionated and ever-ready to voice  resistance and protest. This I believe has become a hallmark of the Bengali identity.

Yes, I grew up in Calcutta and my school was located in Esplanade falling on the route to Maidan, where almost all the protests used to take place. I was always late while reaching home from school because there used to be some kind of a procession, political rally protesting some issue; called not just by the Left but others as well. I grew up in this culture where protests and ‘bandhs’ were celebrated. In fact my father constantly prodded us saying, ‘matha uchu kore jore bol meen meen korbi na’ (look up and speak loudly and don’t speak softly). The ability to articulate and voice ones concern was an integral part of who we were - our identity and our pride. This very culture of resistance was not confined to protest marches, rallies and discussions but one would find Bengalis often writing letters, poetry, posters and graffiti, theatre, films, music and even the innocuous adda. It almost appeared that the Bengalis reveled in being contrary.     

I grew up with this notion that this culture of resistance was just another expression of the Bengalis unwillingness to work. Bengalis have found another perhaps clever way of justifying their laziness. I remember people laughing and discussing the strategy that has been put up for the three days strike – it would start from Wednesday and continue till Friday; Saturday and Sunday being weekends are automatically holiday. Thus, the ‘babus’ will get straight five days off. Perfect for vacation for someplace near or simply would just laze of in their homes while enjoying the afternoon nap. Strikes being called by any party or of any ideology are immediately popular amongst Bengalis. Next day newspaper will always have the caption of ‘bandh e swatasfurto sara’ (spontaneous reaction in Bandh). The roads would be absolutely empty and the boys of the locality would be ready with their bats and balls from the morning to either play cricket or football right in the middle of the road. Some elderly men would be seen sitting in the rock and having debate about the justification of the ‘bandh’. For the entire day as shops would be closed and there would be no traffic on the streets so, sounds of laughter and adda, fights, shouts could be heard. Many used to jokingly say that the dogs and cats also used to go for strikes on those particular days. And yet no matter what people thought of you it was ingrained in me, and many of us I am sure ; that we need to raise our voices against any injustice and there should be protest. Because if you don’t protest there cannot be any change. In other words, andolon and paribarton went hand in hand and were an integral part of the Bengali culture.

In the current series, it is the Andoloni Bangali and the cultures of resistance that we seek to understand. Sanat Mukhopadhay in his post explores these very cultures of resistances in the tumultuous 60s and 70s Calcutta and West Bengal while Prama Mukhopadhay delves into the contemporary and writes about her experiences of andolon in Presidency University. Finally, ‘our armed revolution’ a poem written by Debayudh Chatterjee in the context of recent student movement in the campus of Jadavpur University.

Author's Bio- Note:

The author is an Assistant Professor in Department of Geography, Delhi School of Economics, University of Delhi. She is also the Convenor of the Department's Media Lab and Digital Library. She is currently working on Mediaspace, Bollywood and popular culture.