–Shankar Chatterjee
Vidyasagar University, located in the Midnapore district of West Bengal named after the most illustrious son of Bengal as well as one of the doyens of the Indian Renaissance, Pandit Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar. It was established that is, the classes started in 1986, The University is now in the news because of caste issues. The Deputy Registrar of Vidyasagar University has accused the Registrar of the University of caste discrimination against him. The Deputy Registrar filed a police complaint also, and he even approached the High Court. The Deputy Registrar complained of constant mental torture, starting from caste insults day after day by the Registrar. According to the Deputy Registrar, even he had to take sleeping pills for his sleep which is very unfortunate. This matter is in the court, so the court verdict will reflect the truth. My hunch is that Deputy Registrar (SC), who himself is a highly qualified person why, made the allegation (police complaint and filed a case in the High Court) against the Registrar. Probably, he was insulted by the Registrar. By reading different print media and observing electronic media about the news, I am very shocked and condemn such incidents. I feel a person cannot be abused in the name of caste or religion, or qualification or for any issue. ‘Humanity is the only Caste’. It is pertinent to mention that United Bengal once upon a time was great news as many stalwarts, whether in the field of literature, spirituality, sports, independence movement, etc, were born. Even many social activists and social reformers came from the United Bengal. But after the partition in 1947, West Bengal was created, and the State faced many problems, particularly lakhs of refugees came in the State. Anyway, I feel after the Communist rule, the deterioration of the State started because in the name of the labour movement for their so-called ‘rights’, many factories, business establishments, industries, etc., were closed down or became sick. As a result, at the cost of West Bengal, many other states of India developed, but ‘bhadralooks’ (meaning gentlemen) were silent. For them, as if nothing happened. Anyway, presently, Indians observed in the name of elections in West Bengal (Assembly and Panchayati elections) widespread violence, murder, arson, damage to properties, etc., took place. Even ballot boxes were found in the ponds. Unfortunately, West Bengal rulers ignored all these and diverted attention, blaming the Centre by citing examples from other states. Now the caste-related incident has upset me to a great extent as I never thought that in a culturally developed State like West Bengal, there will be discrimination in the name of caste. According to the Deputy Registrar, his senior, i.e., Registrar, used to give him non-academic activities such as supervising sweepers, etc. We all know long ago, there were caste issues in United Bengal (domination of Brahminism), and to neutralize the issue, Brahmo Samaj was promoted by leading personalities such as Raja Rammohan Roy, Devendra Nath Tagore father of Rabindranath Tagore, and many others. Now in July 2023, discrimination in the name of caste that too in West Bengal is news. I feel it should not happen in West Bengal when the people claim ‘they are Bhadralooks’ (Gentlemen). The political leaders of the state should not compare West Bengal with other states, whether ‘BIMARU’ or ‘non-BIMARU’.
References
Blunt, E. (2010). The caste system of northern India. Gyan Publishing House.
Hoff, K. (2016). Caste system. World Bank policy research working paper, (7929).
Sharma SN, editor. New perspectives in sociology and allied fields. EduPedia Publications (P) Ltd; 2016 Jun 3.
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