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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Caste Politics, Secular Idiom -Ayan Guha

Caste Politics, Secular Idiom -Ayan Guha

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published Published on May 3, 2019   modified Modified on May 3, 2019
-The Indian Express

BJP is attempting to use citizenship issue to woo Namasudra community in Bengal.

It is generally believed that unlike other states of India, caste and religion don’t play a significant role in West Bengal’s electoral politics. Academic literature often articulates this as West Bengal’s “exceptionalism”. As a result of the electoral decline of the Left Front and some limited attempts by the Trinamool Congress at community-based mobilisation, the so-called exceptionalism thesis has come under some critique. Even then, it is largely acknowledged that identity issues have so far not made any remarkable impact on the mainstream electoral politics in the state.

In this context, the upcoming electoral battle in West Bengal assumes special significance. It seems to have brought identity related concerns to the centrestage of mainstream politics. It is interesting that such concerns are not being conveyed in the language of caste or religion but in the apparently secular idiom of citizenship. The BJP is promising the revival of the recently lapsed Citizenship Amendment Bill, 2016, despite the massive backlash it faced in the Northeast. The Bill proposes to confer citizenship upon all Hindus, Jains, Sikhs, Christians, Buddhists and Parsis who have migrated to India from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan as refugees.

Politically, this Bill is directed at wooing the powerful Namasudra caste group who mostly belong to the Matua sect, originally hailing from Bangladesh. The single point demand of their organisation, Matua Mahasangha, is the repeal of the 2003 Citizenship Amendment Act, which denies citizenship to those who have migrated after March 25, 1971 — a large number of them are Namasudras. The family of the founder of the Matua sect, Harichand Thakur, enjoys religious authority over the community as well as control over the Matua Mahasangha. In the 2009 Lok Sabha elections and the 2011 assembly elections, the TMC gained the tacit backing of the Mahasangha then led by the spiritual head of the community, Boroma Binapani Devi, who passed away a few months ago. Thereafter a bitter feud within the first family of the Matuas broke out, which has now turned political. Currently, one section of the Mahasangha led by Mamtabala Thakur, the daughter-in-law of Boroma, has aligned with the TMC while other section is led by Shantanu Thakur, the grandson Baroma is backing the BJP. In the upcoming elections, Mamtabala, the current TMC MP from Bongoan constituency will fight against her nephew Shantanu, a BJP candidate.

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The Indian Express, 3 May, 2019, https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/namasudras-community-west-bengal-bjp-elections-2019-5707681/?pfrom=HP


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