19th Century Bengal’s Bid to Offset Western Influence
In fact, Bande Mataram — both the slogan and Chattopadhyay’s song — have been appropriated today by the BJP and its leadership. At a 27 June 2018 event in Bengal, Amit Shah had called the iconic song “an expression of India’s national revivalism. Our nationalism is cultural nationalism and Bankim Chandra is the fountainhead.”
Further, as author and political commentator Snigdhendu Bhattacharya notes in his book Mission Bengal: A Saffron Experiment, “the origin of the notion that Hindus are in danger – the principal reason that led to the creation of right-wing Hindutva organisations – can also be traced back to Bengal.”
Reminding Mamata Banerjee of the BJP’s Bengali roots, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari had said earlier in March, at a rally in Bengal’s Purulia district, “Mamata calls the BJP an ‘outsider party’, but the Jan Sangh, based on the ideals of which the saffron party was formed, was founded…