LAWET

Kaustav Ghosh

India got its independence from the Britishers on 15 ^th August, 1947. People of India fought for the centuries for getting its independence. They forget their internal war on caste, creed, religion; they forgot hunger, they forgot family, they forgot everything except the fight against colonist. But the fact is you cannot write the history of India’s freedom struggle without the contribution of the bengalis and people from the then undivided Bengal. Bengalis are mainly known for its intelligence and intellects. Gopal Krishna Gokhale once said- “What Bengal thinks today, India thinks tomorrow.”

After the independence the time had come to have India’s first general election and it was really a very tough job. But India came out with flying colors under the leadership first Chief Election Commissioner of India, Sukumar Sen, a bengali. Bengalis are the third largest ethnic group in this world after Han chinese and Arabs. History of Bengal is approximately four thousand years old. After the independence the time had come to have India’s first general election and it was really a very tough job. But India came out with flying colors under the leadership first Chief Election Commissioner of India, Sukumar Sen, a bengali. Bengali’s won Nobel, Oskar, Pulitzer, Booker and many more awards. India’s national anthem and nation song both was written by a bengali. Bengali’s captained India’s both national cricket and football team. Satyendra Nath Bose, Meghnad Saha, Jagadish Chandra Bose contributed lot to the science which changes the course of this world. Dr. Subhash Mukhopadhyay created world’s second and India’s first child using I.V.F technology. India had bengali President, Pranab Mukherjee. India had bengali Chief of Air staff, Chief of Naval Staff, Chief Of Army Staff. India had bengali Chief Justice of India who presides over Supreme Court. Somnath Chatterjee, famous lawyer and Leader from West Bengal become the Speaker of Lok Sabha. But India never had a bengali Prime Minister and any people elected from Bengal to be the Prime Minister of this country. Stalwarts communist leader like Jyoti Basu got a chance but due to difference in its party he could not. Pranab Mukherjee may become Prime Minister if Dr Manmohan Singh not agreed to become P.M in 2004. But the fact is no bengali could not become Prime Minister of this country.

Now let’s go the bitter part- you may find news frequently on Bengal’s Syndicate rule, political violence, labor unrest, decline of industrialisation. Bengal which is known as West Bengal was hitted mostly by the partition in the 1947. But the fact which is less known that is Bengal was break apart even when there was British rule. In the year 1912 Goalpara was separated from East Bengal(In 1905 Bengal Presidency was partitioned by Lord Curzon which created East Bengal) and annexed into Assam. Bengal was divided and torned into pieces several times, hitted by drought, flood, cyclone and other natural calamities every year till now. West bengal usually had less religious rift and caste discrimination than other states in India. I also admit that West Bengal still hunts glory and badly needs it back. I hope one day India will have its first Bengali Prime Minister.