The Bharatiya Jana Sangh and the First General Election in West Bengal: The Enigma of Hindu Politics in early 1950s
| DOI | 10.1177/2321023020918063 |
| Published date | 01 June 2020 |
| Date | 01 June 2020 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Article
The Bharatiya Jana Sangh and the
First General Election in West
Bengal: The Enigma of Hindu
Politics in early 1950s
Koushiki Dasgupta1
Abstract
The first general elections proved to be a disaster for the Bharatiya Jana Sangh in Bengal in terms of its
performance and its failure to make the Hindu Bengalis a consolidated political block. Prior to the elec-
tion, the party had generated immense hopes and aspirations especially among the refugees from East
Bengal. Dr. Syama Prasad Mookerjee, the leader of the opposition, appeared to be the sole spokesman
of the Bengali Hindus and fought the election with a promise to secure the political fate of the Hindu
Bengalis, especially the refugees from East Bengal. But very soon the party lost the essential spirit and
enthusiasm to challenge the leftists especially in the refugee constituencies and failed to take a hold over
the issues of multiple identities working parallel inside the refugee political space. The Hindu national-
ist forces had never been a popular choice in Bengal; however, at least in the decades before partition
they managed to make their presence felt in the political mainstream of the province. In this paper, an
attempt has been made to understand why the Hindu nationalist parties in general and the Jana Sangh
in particular lost its credibility among the Hindu electorate in Bengal after partition.
Keywords
Hindu, election, identity, communal, politics, Bengal, refugee, BJS, West Bengal, Mookerjee, Hindutva,
Savarkar
Introduction
West Bengal has long been the land of immense frustration and disappointments for the Hindu national-
ists. It was only after the massive defeat of the communists by the Trinamool Congress in 2011, the
Hindu nationalists1 found some excellent opportunity of political manoeuvrings in Bengal. Prior to that,
1 Christophe Jaffrelot recognized the emergence of Hindu nationalism as a distinct political ideology around the turn of the
nineteenth century in north and north-west India. Communalism emerged at this point as a kind of ‘extreme’ form of Hindu
nationalism, manipulated by certain ‘ideologically’ minded Hindu elites. For details see Jaffrelot (1996); see also Jaffrelot (1993).
Studies in Indian Politics
8(1) 58–68, 2020
© 2020 Lokniti, Centre for the Study of
Developing Societies
Reprints and permissions:
in.sagepub.com/journals-permissions-india
DOI: 10.1177/2321023020918063
journals.sagepub.com/home/inp
1 Department of History, Vidyasagar University, Midnapore, West Bengal, India
Corresponding author:
Koushiki Dasgupta, Department of History, Vidyasagar University, Midnapore, West Bengal, India
E-mail: ppdd91@gmail.com
To continue reading
Request your trial