Bengali Cruelty Now Full-blown

Over the last few years we have seen large number of political killings along with large number of deaths of new-born babies in hospitals. West Bengal is in the top of the lists of Indian states in terms of atrocities against women. Bengalis are very kind to leaders like Mayavati but Bengali male chauvinism is not very gentlement like when they complain of the current Chioef Minister, Ms Mamata Banerjee's whimsical decision-making (even if we forget the way she was physically tortured some 17 years back in the city of Kolkata). This is unlikely to be a sudden social calamity. How can the Bengalis of Bengal suddenly become so cruel towards women and infants and political rivals.

Bengalis were known to be people too soft to adapt to cruelty. Even their cruelty to young widows had died down after Raja Rammoham Roy succeeded in raising the stir against Satidaha and Vidyasagar struggled to establish the practice of remarriage of young widows. But that was before India became Independent. After that the Bengalis seemed to become progressively weak in terms of not only economic growth but also in terms of intellectual, scientific and technological contribution to the India society; nor could they increase their muscle power since then. The only significant post-Independence successes of Bengalis had been to achieve the record of keeping in power a communist dominated Government for 34 years and cultivating cruelty to a full blown stage.

This cruelty is now there to see every sphere of West Bengal’s life. It probably began to show its early signs in the late fifties and early sixties when some notorious anti-socials were being used to win elections by selected political candidates in and around the city of Kolkata. As for the development of the mass cruelty, the earliest incidents that I can recall from my school / college days during the fifties and sixties is the burning to several tram cars by leftist protestors against an one- paisa rise in tram fares (probably by 16%-20% from 5 or 6 paise as there as no way to increase the tram fares by less than one paisa.

This was however not interpreted as cruelty because no human being or animal as put on fire and destroyed. But I suspect that human being learn to become cruel to human beings they needs to generate a strong feeling of hatred that would at least make them cruel enough to destroy properties that are useful to the public (here public transport assets). Once that barrier was crossed, the adaptation of cruelty became easier. After that what was required was organized cultivation of extreme jealousy, envy and hate towards the exploitative rich and the enemies and opponents. This was reflected in the killings of owners of large tracts of farm land (jotedars), indigenous money lenders, traders, policemen and their relatives in rural areas – an activity termed as Naxalite movement or progressive social uprising in a fledgling democratic republic. Then, there were killings of armed activists of rival leftist/ socialist political parties first in cities and then in the suburbs. This helped prepared the first foundations of the development of professional killers tat could be hired by political parties in future days.

After the communist domination in State Government was firmly established, intolerance of dissent and rivals was fostered carefully to lead Bengalis to adapt to cruelty at a faster pace. We have heard about the killings of Anada Margis, at Sain Bari and at Manrich Jhanpi. These beginnings later transformed in to what we come to know now as organized mass killings in Singur, Nandigram and Netai (corpses of groups of  muder victims have been dug out which some knowledgable people think are the corpses of people who died due to plague - disease not reported having occured in the last several decades, and reported vitims of  group killings given watery grave in the rivers),besides the Maoists’ bold statements on their involvement in causing train accidents and derailments, killing of leaders and activists of various political parties participating in Parliamentary democracy in the country.

But mass absorption of Cruelty gene was still to be fostered. For this, it was necessary to cultivate cruelty through social irresponsibility, social indifference and social neglect. This is best organized and spread through ordinary citizens who are to deliver civic services, governance, medical and heath care, education services and law & order services to other ordinary citizens. Thus, we saw the incidence of such tax-payer funded State employees to demonstrate their cruelty to other citizens, especially the poor who could not bribe (i.e, those who cannot afford to give bakhshis or najarana to those responsible for delivering such services). The police did not register cases and did not follow-up on cases registered with promptness, clerks and lower level state officers coming to office late and not responding to the citizen’s request for services in rationing offices, municipal offices, property registration offices, education boards, universities, government hospitals and health centres. To enhance the intensity of cruelty, a strategy of organizing strikes, bandhs and indiscipline was adopted to make these life-time guaranteed government employees complete shirkers. To inflict further cruelty to the ordinary citizens totally dependent on public utility services, a policy of local territorial strikes / bandhs and blockades on roads and train lines was successfully implemented.

It is therefore no surprise that infants requiring special attention die as soon as they are brought to State hospitals for want of proper care or absence of urgent medical attention or wrong delivery of medicines or delays in replacing the oxygen cylinder after it has become empty with a new one or refusal to admit serious patients for various reasons including HIV infection of females with labour pains:  patients have to wait for 2 to 3 hours at both private and state clinics and hospitals before the doctors see them, costly medical instruments are allowed to become non-operational, patients get their affected parts cleaned up not by anti-septic liquid for use of human beings but by chemical liquids supposed to be used to clean toilets and floors.

This criminal neglect of fellow citizens’ urgent needs by citizens who draw their salaries and benefits at the cost of the tax payers do not come out of lack of skills or lack of infrastructure: this results from adoption of the cruelty of neglect of duty, of indifference to the cause of the needy and of shirking moral and social responsibility. The begal has now a fully blown cancer of cruelty to others. Bengalis are destined to suffer from this cancer for quite a while, even if the civil society, the intellectuals, the judiciary and the Ministers start a strong social reformation campaign to eradicate the gene of cruelty inside each Bengali from now.

But intellectuals and civil society are paying lip service to this cause of desired reformation by merely expressing their sadness over the recent reports on the incidence of cruelty and seeking exemplary punishment to those committing such acts of criminal neglect. And, the government continues to set up enquiry committees to identify those who indulged in cruelty resulting in loss / hurt to ordinary citizens. Cruelty seems to have received a societal sanction and considered as part of the generally accepted rights of  citizens organised as crowds or groups. No Bengali intellectual wants to study the cruel behaviour of Bengal's citizens and feel the need to cleanse Bengali citizens of their cruelty disease. Where can we get hope for the future?