5 min readMay 8, 2026 05:11 PM IST
First published on: May 8, 2026 at 05:10 PM IST
Bengal was once the hotbed of nationalism. Its nationalist credentials were established repeatedly during the independence movement. One year that significantly stood out was 1911, which witnessed four major events that highlighted the nationalist fervour of its people. At the Calcutta football ground that year, the barefooted players of the Mohun Bagan football club defeated the East Yorkshire Regiment club to lift the IFA shield. Rabindranath Tagore penned his famous song for Mother India, Jana Gana Mana. On a cold winter day in Delhi in December, the visiting British monarch George V hosted a massive durbar, where he announced the revocation of the Partition of Bengal — a big victory for the nationalists. Finally, and most importantly, in that same speech, George V also announced the decision to shift the capital of His Majesty’s Government (HMG) from Calcutta to Delhi.
Calcutta’s European elite was not happy. “HMG” screamed The Statesman Daily, indicating not His Majesty’s Government but “Hardinge Must Go”. Lord Hardinge was the Viceroy who executed both the annulment of the partition of Bengal and the shifting of the capital. He tried to justify the demotion of Calcutta as punishment for the nationalists who had opposed British rule. But not all were convinced. An interesting debate took place in the House of Lords in London. Lord Curzon, who served as the British Viceroy earlier and was instrumental in the disastrous decision to partition Bengal in 1905, denounced his successor’s decision. “They desire to escape the somewhat heated atmosphere of Bengal”, he said.
Fifty-six years from 1911 and 20 years after Independence, Communists shared power with defectors from the Congress. Ten years later, the Left Front came to office and ruled West Bengal for 34 years, causing enormous damage to its nationalist fabric. At the stroke of the centenary of the British escape from the “nationalist heat”, in 2011, a regional party, the Trinamool Congress (TMC), came to office. Its politics in the last 15 years revolved around chauvinism, anarchism and appeasement of the worst kind.
After 115 years, the nationalists of Bengal have bounced back. In an election held in a truly “fearless” atmosphere, people of the state, yearning for “parivartan”, chose to show the TMC government the exit door. Fearless voting was the key because the Communists initially, and the
TMC subsequently, mastered the art of terrorising voters. Thanks to the determined efforts of the Election Commission, supported by the Union Home Ministry, the elections ensured that the mandate expressed the genuine sentiment of the people.
Bengal’s deliverance from TMC misrule is in the national interest. Continuance of that government for one more term would have been an unmitigated disaster not only for the great state but also for the entire country. India’s national integrity was at stake during Mamata Banerjee’s misrule.
In refusing to accept the verdict of the people, Banerjee is behaving like a sore loser. The winner, the BJP, always had a plan. Its success in elections depends on constants like Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership and nationalist ideology, while the variables include the party’s aggressive strategy and effective organisational mechanism. The opposition has no counter to the Modi factor. Western liberals tried to label him pejoratively as a populist. But he is a unique combination of liberal democratic values, good governance, and popular politics. Cultural nationalism was the heartbeat of Bengal during the freedom movement. It was a Bengali, Swami Vivekananda, who described India as “Dharma Prana Bharata” – a country with dharma as the soul. Subdued for decades, it has found its vigorous expression once again.
There is no better strategist than Amit Shah in the present political milieu. His determined efforts at mobilising the party’s grassroots workers played a critical role in this election. In a decade, Shah has taken the BJP in Bengal from a three-member legislature party in 2016 to a 78-member one in 2021 and then to a 207-member ruling party in 2026. The Opposition hardly has an organiser of Shah’s calibre.
The West Bengal victory is a major feather in the BJP’s cap. It now firmly controls North, West, Central, East and Northeast India. With Bengal in its kitty, the party is now poised for even bigger numbers in Parliament.
The writer president, India Foundation, is with the BJP
