State of Bengal was used to be a cradle of Indian political thought during the British rule. There used to be a saying that what Bengal thinks today, India will think tomorrow.
With the shift of Capital of Undivided India from Calcutta to New Delhi, the political thought seemed to have shifted to North India.
The States of Kerala and West Bengal have, after independence seems to have preferred the leftist path. Other States were expected to follow suit, as per the above saying, but it didn't happen owing to the split of the Communist Party of India, in 1962.
The Communist Parties forming Governments in two densely populated States did not help the cause of Indian Communism, in any manner. This is because of many reasons. We can make particular mention of two reasons:
1. State Governments in India do not have required Constitutional and Statutory powers to usher in radical changes for bringing in a Marxist/Communist/fully socialist society. For example, they cannot remove private property. They cannot remove right of inheritance.
2. State Governments in India do not have the necessary financial strength to undertake the responsibilities which a truly Communist/Marxist/Socialist society and governance demands.
The adage 'power corrupts' has proven itself to be true. The CPM and its allies had to step down after nearly 40 years of rule of mixed results. Their performance was similar to the performance of other States of India which had/have bourgeoisie Governments. Neither better, nor worse. This is because Indian voters are controlled by village heads, caste-heads, landlords and other opinion leaders. The village heads et al in Bengal and Kerala cannot be different from the village heads et al in other States. Consequently, the CPM Govt. was as bourgeoisie as any other right or middle wing Government.
Bengal is a top densely-populated State.
Kolkata is an ailing City. Land is scarce not only for industry, but even for farming. At this critical juncture, CPM in Bengal made a Himalayan blunder of acquiring agricultural land from small and marginal farmers and handing over to TaTas for Nano car-making. Mamta Banerjee, seized the opportunity to flare up the already existing discontent of the people against the CPM, took the issues to streets and generated violent upheavals.
Mamata Banerjee got her life's desire fulfilled. She should have been satisfied with that.
She is now meddling with the History syllabus of the classes X and XII in schools. The new Govt. has ordered removal of Marx and Communism from school history text books.
She is foolish.
Every school text book says 'satyamEva jayatE'. Meaning: Truth alone triumphs. This is the official emblem of Government of India. Is there now, at least one Indian, who does not tell lies today? If students are going to mould their personality just by reading school books, India would have either been a total heaven or a total hell. India is a madhouse today. But this is a smaller madhouse within a larger madhouse called the 'world'. Every step of every citizen in this world is dictated by one small piece of paper i.e. the currency note.
In these circumstances, what would have been the harm even if the students of X Standard and XII standard, learn a little about two unpopular theories called 'Communism' and 'Marx'?
