The Bharatiya Jana Sangh and the First General Election in West Bengal: The Enigma of Hindu Politics in early 1950s

Abstract

The first general elections proved to be a disaster for the Bharatiya Jana Sangh in Bengal in terms of its performance and its failure to make the Hindu Bengalis a consolidated political block. Prior to the election, the party had generated immense hopes and aspirations especially among the refugees from East Bengal. Dr. Syama Prasad Mookerjee, the leader of the opposition, appeared to be the sole spokesman of the Bengali Hindus and fought the election with a promise to secure the political fate of the Hindu Bengalis, especially the refugees from East Bengal. But very soon the party lost the essential spirit and enthusiasm to challenge the leftists especially in the refugee constituencies and failed to take a hold over the issues of multiple identities working parallel inside the refugee political space. The Hindu nationalist forces had never been a popular choice in Bengal; however, at least in the decades before partition they managed to make their presence felt in the political mainstream of the province. In this paper, an attempt has been made to understand why the Hindu nationalist parties in general and the Jana Sangh in particular lost its credibility among the Hindu electorate in Bengal after partition.

Keywords

Hindu election identity communal politics Bengal refugee BJS West Bengal Mookerjee Hindutva Savarkar

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