What can a Dalit and Muslim alliance achieve in Indian politics?

Dalit-Mu$lim alliance failed during 1947 partition. It may fail in the future also.

Jogindernath Mandal, a Bengali Dalit Hindupolitician who supported Pakistan in the name of Dalit Muslim unity, was Pakistan’s first law minister.Later he was also minister for minorities and commonwealth affairs. He helped Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah in getting Silhet district awarded as Part of East Pakistan in August 1947. But unfortunately, within few years after partition and independence, this Pakistani minister quietly migrated to India and lived like a refugee till his death. His story is relevant today as current Bengal leadership under Mamata Banerjee is committing the same mistakes done by Jogindernath Mandal.

Jogindernath Mandal was born in Barishal which is close to Dhaka. The location, geography and demography is important to understand his story. In 1930’s and 1940’s, frontline freedom fighters were Gandhiji, Nehru and Subhash Bose in this part of Bengal and Jogindernath Mandal had high regard for all of them specially Subhash Bose. East Bengal was Mu$lim majority area and hence, chance of Mu$lim League led assembly was thus more. After exit of Subhash Bose from congress, he lost interest in congress and his closeness with Muslim League increased which was a dominating party in that area. He won assembly election in 1937 as independent candidate and joined Muslim League led cabined under H. S. Suhrawardy. His election win proves there were considerable Hindu and Dalit Hindu population in Barishal that time. He was also close to Dr. B. R. Ambedkar who was also a champion backward caste cause. Dr. Ambedkar objected to Jogindernath Mandal’s leaning towards Muslim League and tried to convince him that lower caste Hindus will be better-off in Indian than muzlim dominated Pakistan.

But geography and demography compelled him to ignore Dr. Ambedkar’s advice and convinced him about Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s commitment that new state Pakistan will be Islamic but still secular country (isn’t this confusing?). When it became clear that his hometown Barishal will be in East Pakistan, he decided to stay in Pakistan along with his huge lower caste supporters. If he had decided to join India, Assam’s Silhet and perhaps south Bengal’s Khulna district could have come to India. Khulna district at the time of partition was a Hindu majority district.

Jinnah offered him a plump post as minister besides convincing that lower caste Hindus will be better-off with Mu$lims in Pakistan. Incidentally, M H Hasham Premji, father of Azim Premji who is current chairman of software giant Wipro, was offered plump post of Finance Minister by Jinnah but he refused and stayed in secular India to create corporate giant Wipro. This is called vision which Mandal lacked. Jogindernath Mandal decided to stay in east Pakistan and became Pakistan’s first minister for law and labour. Situation started getting ugly due to partition related pogrom. This mass riot and massacre happened also in Punjab, just like Bengal. Most politicians thought situation will stabilize after some time. Then came Nehru-Liyaquat pact which actually increased atrocities on Hinduminorities of east Pakistan. In 1950, anti-minority riots in Dhaka and neighborhood killed 10000 people. This shook him terribly that he decided that Hindus are not safe in Pakistan and he should migrate to India. This way a minister in Pakistan resigned and swiftly migrated to India to live like a refugee. In his resignation letter, he detailed the riot he saw in his hometown Barisal (link attached).

This way his personal ambition to be a minister in Pakistan cabined evaporated and most importantly, all Hindus irrespective of their cast, faced riots and massacre which forced most of them to migrate to India. If a sitting minister has to run for his life, imagine how the situation was for ordinary Hindu citizens in east Pakistan. Regular riot, rape, property snatching fear kept reducing minority Hindu population from 22% in 1941 to 8% in 2011. This migration became a wave before 1971 Indo-Pak war.

Also, to be noted that Bollywood film star Mithun Chakraborty was also born in Barishal in 1952 and H. S. Suhrawardy is the same person who is the architect of ‘Direct Action Day’ Calcutta riots of 1946. H. S. Suhrawardy is often called ‘butcher of Bengal’ for 1946 Calcutta riot.Jogindernath Mandal story proves that Dalit-Muslim unity is a myth despite some Indian political parties like Hydrabad’s AIMIM and Kerala’s PFI are using Dr. Ambedkar symbol these days which is just posturing.

Fast forward to current west Bengal. CM Mamata Banerjee wants to stay in power by all means. She is using jeh@dis to create fear among anybody who do not support her politically. These jeh@dis do the legwork while Mamata Banerjee’s TMC party frontends with film stars. The ‘intellectuals’ from Bengal are so blind that they can’t see the recent Durga Puja 2021 violence in Bangladesh which continued for last 7 days and will not say a single word because nobody will pay them to say so. They will only say ‘Modi is fascist’.

Mamata Banerjee’s CM throne may go one day as nothing is permanent in this world but the damage she is doing in terms of law and order to the society, the impact will be there in other parts of India. People who live in Bengal may say – the situation is better than communist era of Jyoti Basu. This may be true but people of Bengal need to look at other Indian states which are progressing fast and getting huge investments. Meanwhile, Mamata Banerjee slowly and steadily converting west Bengal to Rohingya-land. To win election, she declared that all Bangladeshis living in Bengal are Indian and she was willing to take Bengali population from Assam who may lose citizenship due to CAA/NRC. Her leader says – they can make 4 Pakistans if only 30% Mu$lims unite in the state. Similar statements keep coming all the time. The objective is to appease 30% population (in some district more than 50%) who are solidly behind her as they cannot vote BJP under any circumstances. Majority of rest 70% has leftist or communist mindset and hence cannot vote BJP. This ensures easy victory for her. But by allowing free settlement of illegal immigrants, she is pushing India to economic and social chaos. The problem of illegal immigrants is felt at far-off place like Bengaluru or Jammu.

Moral of the story is – Dalit-Mu$lim unity is fake and Mamata Banerjee is transforming Bengal to Rohingya-land. The recent Bangladesh riot during Durga Puja of 2021 proves how difficult it is for the Hindus to live there. West Bengal may reach the same stage after few decades. This means people who are playing secularism and appeasement politics are safe but their grand children’s future may be at stake.