Saturday, December 20, 2008

Marx, Hinduism mix well in West Bengal



Marx, Hinduism mix well in West Bengal



Reuters
Posted online: Monday, October 02, 2006 at 1411 hours IST


Kolkata, October 2: Communists worldwide may eschew religion, but in West Bengal where leftists run the world's longest serving elected government, tenets of Marxism mix well with pantheons of Hindu gods and goddesses.







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As the teeming streets of Kolkata brighten up with dazzling lights and people dress up for the Durga Puja festival, communist party officials are using the religious occasion to propagate their political philosophy.

Durga Puja, the four-day Hindu festival of the goddess of power that ends on Monday, is the year's main religious and cultural event for Bengalis, kindling community fervour and sparking a spending spree.

Each neighbourhood in the city of roughly 12 million people organises community worship, and statues of Durga are placed in glittering and towering makeshift tents called "pandals".




















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In recent years, communist workers have quietly set up their own stalls at the pandals, selling books and other literature. These do not sing praises of the mother goddess but highlight the lives and works of Lenin, Engels, Marx and Stalin.

The book stalls are draped in bright-red cloth embroidered with traditional communist hammer and sickle symbols.

"Religion does not hold any meaning for us but the festival does provide an opportunity to reach out to people through social interaction," Ashok Bhattacharya, a veteran communist minister, said.

Piggybacking on the crowds that throng Durga Puja venues, the leftists also sell books on pet themes such as US "imperialism".

"Books on the India-USA nuclear deal or the ones on West Bengal's recent economic success are selling a lot," said Shyamal Chakraborty, a senior communist peasant leader, referring to a landmark atomic pact the leftists have opposed.

He forecast that his comrades would sell books worth Rs 4 million through about 2,000 book stalls across the state this festive season.

The communists are also organising street plays on Marxism and exhibitions on the lives of communist leaders near pandals.

West Bengal's communists, who came to power in 1977 and have won six straight elections since then, have traditionally shunned religious functions and public prayers.

This year, they surprised pollsters by winning elections with a big majority for a record seventh term.

But analysts say the communists have realised they cannot ignore religion in a state of 80 million where many people are deeply religious and pray regularly.

"The communists are going with the tide," said Mahesh Rangarajan, an independent political commentator.

Others, like sociologist Prasanta Roy, agree.

"They have learnt from the collapse of the Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc and now believe that recognising religious institutions of various communities is the way to go," Roy said.

"It is a tactical adjustment."


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