Bangaon the history & politics

Bongaon Parliamentary Constituency is one of West Bengal's 42 LokSabha constituencies and came into being after the delimitation of the parliamentary constituencies of the year 2009. According to Election Commission of India 2009 data the total electorates in the Bangaon Parliamentary constituency (constituency number 14) were 1,246,979 of which 595,874 are females and 651,105 are males. It belongs to the SC category and has a total of seven legislative assembly segments with 1,246,979 electors. It is one of the 28 constituencies which represent the North 24 Parganas District and the town of Bangaon is the headquarters of Bangaon subdivision. It has an average elevation of 7 m and is 77 km away from the Sealdah Station.

It is situated at the banks of Ichamati River and it is very near to the Bangladesh border.

As per the 2011 census data, the total population of Bangaon is over 110,668 with a male majority of 56,416. Child Population of Bangaon is over 8,452 and the sex ratio is 950 females per 1000 males. Hindus have a 76% majority in the area. With an average literacy rate of 76%, which is higher than the national average, the male and female literacy rates are 55% and 45% respectively. Bengali and English are the official languages here while Hindi is also widely spoken. The road network of the city is connected to the National Highways NH-35.

Muslims have a substantial population in this constituency. Amongst 42 constituencies in West Bengal, 25 constituencies have Muslim population above 20%. Bongaon has 24.2% Muslim population, ie almost a quarter of population. A report published by Business Standard just before 16^thLokSabha Poll in 2014 says so. 

Muslims plays a major role in Indian politics. That’s why Muslims are treated as vote bank in India. The Religious heads aslo comes into fray during elections, just before 16^thLokSabha Poll in 2014, Syed Ahmad Bukhari, Imam, Jama Masjid said,”the Nation faces danger from communal forces. We should ensure secular votes are not divided.” Appeasement is the trump card which is used by various political parties in India including national parties like Indian National Congress and regional parties like Samajvadi Part in UP, CPI(M) and Trinamool Congress in West Bengal. But political parties like BhartiyaJanata Party (BJP) has chosen a different path as BJP is a strong believer of “SabkaSaath, SabkaBikash” (Development for all along with all)

Another sect has a substantial population in Bongaon, the Matuas, having approximately 1.5 Crores population in Bongaon constituency.

Harichand Thakur, sometimes known as Sri SriHarichand Thakur, was a social reformer in Bengal. He worked among the subaltern population.ShriHari Chand Thakur was born inNamasudra (Namassej) Community in Bengal on 11 March 1811 in Orakandi of Kashianiupazila in Gopalganj, died at Odakandi in 1877.

He was one of six sons of Namasudraor Namassej(then called Chandala) peasant family that was thought to be belong to the Gautama clan (later, the community members agreed to be identified as belonging to Kasyapa clan; in the different census reports of nineteenth century the Namasudras were found to identifying themselves as belonging to four different clans or gotras). Born in 1812 at Safaldanga, Gopalgaunge, his birthname was Sri HarichandBiswas. He moved to Odakandi, Faridpur. At a very early age he accepted the path of religious reformation for giving service to and uplifting the subaltern people of Bengal.He experienced atmadarshan (self-realisation) and preached his ideologies and religious philosophy in twelve commandments and asked his followers to pursue his works. He established MatuaMahasangha. His followers consider him as God (Thakur) Harichand and as an avatar of Vishnu or Lord Krishna .Thus, he became known as Sri SriHarichand Thakur.He preached for education, for uplifting the population and for ending social conflict.Married with one son, Guruchand Thakur, Thakur died at Odakandi in 1877. His son has been the leader of the awakening of namasudra people.

Guruchand Thakur, son of Sri SriHarichand Thakur started Namasudra Welfare Association. He called an All Bengal Namasudra Conference at Duttadanga in the district of Khulna (at present in Bangladesh) in the year 1881. Guruchand Thakur was the President of the conference. Guruchand Thakur advised his people to start schools in the areas densely populated by them. In 1907 he appealed to the then Governor of Bengal and Assam for employment of the Namasudras in government services. His next movement was to remove the disgraceful term “Chandal” (which was then attributed to Namasudra by the higher caste Hindus) from the census report. Hewas successful in the same. The term “Chandal” was removed from census report of 1911.

MatuaMahasangha is not a religious organisation in the ordinary sense of Hinduism. There is no Gurutantra. MatuaMahasangha believes in self-Dikshitisation (self-realization). So anyone who has faith in the Darshan or Philosophy of God Harichand belongs to the MatuaMahasanhga.

Initially the MatuaMahasangha followers or Matuas formed an organisation in Orakandi, Faridpur(Bangladesh). After 1947, followers formed a second organisation inThakurnagar, West Bengal, India. Dr. C. S. Mead, a Catholic Missionary, was involved with the movement. At first, it was very difficult to form the Mandir(place to worship). The Mandir was initially looked after by Thakur's family, but as of 2011 it was managed by a trustee chosen by the followers. The State Government of West Bengal offered the MatuaMahasangha 20 cottah of land to build a research organisation.Followers may be found throughout India and Bangladesh. In some locations, they have worshipping places. In the beginning MatuaMahasangha followed simplified rituals, but later adopted Vaishnabism.

In 1963, P.R. Thakur, descendent of Harichand Thakur, resigned from the Congress and it took him till 1986 to revive the MatuaMahasangha. Thakurnagar in North 24-Parganasbecame the headquarters of the Namasudra refugees from Bangladesh.Many political parties including those of the CPM and Mayavati's BSP have tried to woo the community for political gains. It was Mamata who succeeded in channelizing the huge votebank in her favour.One of the major demands placed before Mamata by the MatuaMahasangha was amendment of the Citizenship Act of 2003. According to community leaders, thousands of Hindu families from Bangladesh were being forced to return after spending decades in India. Many of them have not been able to register their land India in the absence of citizenshipdocuments. Mamata carefully sidestepped the issue and said that she would look into all the demands. "Everything is not within my control. I do not make false promises. I shall do whatever is within my powers." Among the matters within her power is construction of a railway station near the MatuadhamThakurbari. This will be named Sri Dham after the Matua guru, HarichandGuruchand. Mamata said that she had plans for an agricultural or technical university at Thankurnagar. She also inaugurated a computerized reservation system at Thakurnagar station.Mamata also flagged off two ladies special trains to Sealdah one from Bongaon and the other from Canning.

During State Legislative Assembly in 2011 Mamata Banerjee gave ticket to Manjul Krishna Thakur, a son of Late P.R. Thakur and he won from Gaighata Legislative Assembly seat. He was given a berth of Minister of State for Refugee Relief in Mamata Banerjee’s cabinet.

During 16^thLokSabha Election in 2014, Mamata Banerjee gave ticket to Mr Kapil Krishna Thakur, elder son of Late P.R. Thakur on request of Binapani Devi Thakur (BoroMaa) wife of Late P.R. Thakur. Kapil Krishna Thakur won the election from Bongaon constituency by getting 555213 votes defeating his competitor Debesh Das of CPI(M) who got 404612 votes. Kapil Krishna Thakur died on 13^th October 2014 and to utter surprise none from Tinamool Congress went to offer last respect to him! His death has vacated Bongaon constituency which is undergoing by-election on 13^th February 2015.

All political parties are fielding their candidates for this by-election, TMC fielded Mrs Mamatabala Thakur, wife of Late Kapil Krishna Thakur, CPI(M) fielded Debesh Das and BJP fielded Subrata Thakur, son of Manjul Krishna Thakur.

In a recent report published in BartamanPartika, a Bengali daily newspaper in West Bengal, a substantial amount of Matua got irked by people from Thakur family joining politics but their main demand of Indian citizenship is yet to be resolved by any political parties. If at all this issue has to be politically resolved, they will form an independent political party and fight in this by-election. Another division in MatuaMahasangha!

Many a times, in our personal life, we hear from our well-wishers, when things are not favourable for us or during our rough times, “Get back to basics.” A basic for us is “Sabkasaath, sabkabikash.”