Opinion Intellectual dead ends
Why Bengals public intellectuals are programmed to conform....
It is tempting to say that a community of public intellectuals cannot thrive without its Parisian Left Bank moment. It has to be created and perpetuated by circumstances conducive to the gatekeeping role it will play. That set of circumstances neednt be adverse. But without it,the group would shrink,not in numbers perhaps but in scope,usefulness and effectiveness. For instance,the reason why the formidable confluence of refugee European (and some American) intellectuals in Los Angeles during World War II did not bequeath LA a prolonged moment in intellectual history was just that lack of proximity to where the ideas and action lay.
Sections of the intelligentsia and the marching band of intellectuals in West Bengal might have believed Singur and Nandigram provided their new Left Bank moment. And Lalgarh (the Maoist realm in Bengal) might yet be the culmination of the long march. But is there anything about themselves the intellectuals are overlooking?
The Union home minister need not worry if there arent ready responses to his appeal to intellectuals to see the Maoist gameplan for what it is. The truth is,Bengals intellectual community is encountering a crisis of identity. This might sound paradoxical,given how the turbulence over industrialisation reaffirmed for the most gifted sections of the intelligentsia their place and power. It might sound doubly counterfactual,given the loud noises from a sitting Trinamool Congress MP who had descended on the Bengali popular cultural scene in 1992 with an album of socio-politically conscious songs,given the protests led by redoubtable public icons,whether of a sit-in or effigy-burning kind.
But there is a crisis of identity and purpose. And that is engulfing not just the intellectuals but the entire Bengali middle class. So the idea of intellectuals offering a third alternative distinct from both the CPM and the Trinamool for a non-electoral mode of civil society action does not impress. At worst,Bengal will continue in chaos. But the intellectuals great anti-capitalist,anti-statist utopia will not rise from it. Violence and lawlessness will self-perpetuate. At best,Green Hunt will successfully finish its Bengal chapter sometime in the near future,there will be an election and a government,of whichever persuasion. But it is advisable to ask ourselves one question right now: why is there the impression that,despite the Kabir Sumans,voices pretty shrill till the other day are quietly,inconspicuously becoming fainter?
Thats because there is the suspicion among some that the Left Bank moment might well be over. It wouldnt be pleasant to be labelled Maoist sympathisers or endure bigger embarrassments. Every intellectual is a capitalist opportunist,after a certain point of personal maturity. Bengals deliverance from a future of pandemonium lies in that self-preserving instinct of its intellectuals.
Adversity certainly helps the intellectual,unless to the extent of being packed off to Siberia. Witness East Europe through its communist days. But what doesnt help is patronage. Patronage is the nemesis that first destroyed intellectual life in Bengal,and now may deflect the intellectuals from their dangerous track. The Left Fronts long reign in Bengal hasnt been just about the substitution of the party for the apolitical administration,about strictly politicised appointments,promotions and transfers,about Operation Barga in what would become its rural bastion. It was about the pact that the party concluded with Bengals intellectuals and middle class after assuming power. What was individual sycophancy so far became institutionalised sycophancy. Icons of cultural life moved from telling truth to power to a place under the caring eye of power land grants,apartments,academic and state jobs.
Thus there was silence over Marichjhampi (1979),over the Ananda Margis (1982). This continued,till Nandigram,Episode I (March 2007),Rizwanur Rahman (September 2007) and then Nandigram,Episode II (November 2007). Thirty years later,there was a reawakening and genuine public anger,guided by intellectuals into the giant rally on November 14,2007. All of this was sincere. But one still suspected a less altruistic element the fear that history would soon catch up with their hitherto benefactor,the CPM,and it was time to abandon ship. Those abjectly beholden to the party couldnt switch even then and took part in the smaller,pro-government rally.
One giant,Mrinal Sen,appeared in both. This apparent even-handedness was construed in unflattering terms by many even then. Today,that act by Sen seems a premonition of what is already in evidence that patronage will continue no matter whos in power. Intellectuals will be bought. Those protesting now that they went along with the Trinamool only so far as Singur and Nandigram,should note the rewards the Union railway minister is showering on them. There may be two distinctly divided intellectual camps in Bengal,but imagined together,they blur the lines between them. Each reflects the other.
So theres hope that Bengals intellectuals will see the light on Maoist activities; that even if the Trinamool gathers the courage to take a political call and unequivocally distance itself from the insurgents,they will stop protesting.
Intellectuals CPM,Trinamool,neither will fall in line. Bengal is in its twilight. Far from being gatekeepers,its maverick public intellectuals need to be kept inside a gate,to allow the state a last chance to enjoy the sinful delights of capitalism,consumerism and industry. Then we can wait for the next Bengal Renaissance.
sudeep.paul@expressindia.com
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