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Over the past decade, as Ram Navami has grown as a festival in West Bengal, so have incidents of communal tension and violence coinciding with it.
This time is no different, with tension gripping Malda district’s Mothabari area, and the Trinamool Congress and BJP taking on each other in the run-up to the festival on April 6.
On Tuesday, Leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari moved the Calcutta High Court after police denied him permission to visit Mothabari and hold a protest rally in Kanthi, his home turf. The police have also denied state BJP chief and Union Minister Sukanta Majumdar permission to visit Mothabari, where a “preparatory rally” for Ram Navami triggered communal tension after it passed by a local mosque.
The police on March 29 urged people to ignore incitement on social media and warned “miscreants” against trying to foment trouble during Eid and Ram Navami. On Eid day on Monday, at an event in Kolkata, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee also advised the Muslim community not to fall for “provocations” and the BJP’s “divisive politics”. The CM appealed to people of all communities again on Wednesday to maintain peace during Ram Navami and not heed any rumours.
It was in 2017 that West Bengal saw its largest-ever Ram Navami celebration till then as outfits supported by the Sangh Parivar organised “six mega rallies” in Kolkata and celebrations in 175 other places. The following day, there was tension in Kolkata’s Port area, where Muslims are in the majority.
In 2018, violence erupted in Asansol, leaving one person dead. Then BJP MP and current TMC minister Babul Supriyo was accused of inciting the violence, in which the son of an imam was killed. The 16-year-old was among four people killed across the state, with Hindu outfits alleging that stones were pelted at their processions.
In 2023, when communal clashes happened around Ram Navami in several states, Shibpur in Bengal’s Howrah district saw a mob go on the rampage, attacking shops and vehicles. Stones were pelted, and the police and the media were targeted. Last year, after a Ram Navami procession in Murshidabad district’s Rejinagar area allegedly came under attack, there were reports of crude bombs being hurled and shops being vandalised, with Mamata Banerjee and the BJP accusing each other of incitement to violence.
The VHP, a part of the Sangh Parivar, has announced more than 2,000 rallies, 200 tableaus, and Sree Ram Mahostav in 5,000 places across the state on Ram Navami.
“We plan to celebrate Ram Navami like never before and will organise Shri Ram Mahotsav too. Though talks are on with police, we believe they will not be able to give us adequate security. It is upon us. We will retaliate if attacked,” said VHP South Bengal secretary Chandranath Das. The outfit’s North Bengal secretary, Lakshman Bansal, said, “In Siliguri, there will be 156 tableaus highlighting family values, social togetherness, women empowerment, and an icon such as Birsa Munda.”
Sukanta Majumdar, the state BJP chief, said, “Every year, the state government fails to protect Ram Navami rallies. Last year, miscreants hurled stones at rallies in Serampore and other parts of Hooghly, and Dalkhola (in Uttar Dinajpur district). An NIA probe was ordered, and many people were arrested. Why can’t the Bengal police stop this? Even Muslims should come forward to celebrate. Ram is their ancestor too,” Majumdar, who is also a Union minister, said in Delhi.
Majumdar has said he fears trouble this time too. “Last time police did not allow me to enter Howrah. The Hindu society has its back to the wall, I think Hindus should retaliate. If Hindus are stopped from holding rallies during Ram Navami, they will do the needful and find a way. The BJP will be there with them.”
Adhikari on Tuesday said a “grand Ram temple similar to the one in Ayodhya” would be built in Nandigram, his constituency, and its foundation would be laid on April 6.
Expressing his opposition to religious polarisation, CPI(M) state secretary Md Salim said, “Religion is for everyone, everyone has their individual beliefs. There is no opposition to that, but religious people should see if their festivals are being used for regressive politics. Our party comrades across the state are on alert.”
CPI(M) student wing SFI’s state secretary Debanjan De said the outfit would organise camps and keep guard at night to stop any communal violence.
Former state Congress president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, however, blamed the CM for the current situation. “She has never spoken against (RSS chief) Mohan Bhagwat. You are now giving statements against gerua (BJP). You allowed this party to enter the state. If, historically, anyone has continuously fought against the BJP and the RSS, that is the Congress and the Left.”
Historian Amit Dey of Calcutta University, who grew up in Kolkata in the late 1960s and 1970s, points out that the celebration of Ram Navami in Bengal is a relatively new phenomenon. “During my childhood and youth, I did not notice Ram Navami being celebrated in Calcutta, south Calcutta in particular,” said Dr Dey.
Analysing the trend of violence around Ram Navami using a dataset on Hindu-Muslim violence, political scientists Ashutosh Varshney and Bhanu Joshi wrote in The Indian Express in 2023 that “the initial three to four decades of Indian independence did not witness a significant level of violence around Ram Navami. Indeed, it is not clear that Ram Navami processions were very large … Ram’s birth was joyfully celebrated in temples and household shrines, not in massive processions.”
Their second inference was that the situation started changing with the rise of Hindu nationalism. “The Ram Janmabhoomi movement, in particular, sought to transform Ram from a quiet maryada purushottam (epitome of ethical perfection) to an aggressive and assertive symbol of Hindu power. Ram devotion was no longer simply an expression of religious piety, which could also embrace all with compassion.”
