Opinion | The Natural Default: Why Bengal Has Always Been Right Of Centre

Last Updated:November 08, 2025, 19:55 IST

What the Left and TMC represent is not the norm but the exception, and a relatively recent one

The common Bengali never abandoned faith, festivals, or community culture. (Representational photo)

For decades, the political story of Bengal has been told as if the state were naturally left-leaning. A 34-year communist rule followed by more than a decade of TMC populism has created the illusion that left-of-centre politics is Bengal’s instinctive choice. The truth is quite different. In the long view of history, Bengal’s cultural and political temperament has been shaped far more by spiritual rootedness, civilisational pride, and self-reliance than by class struggle or ideological populism. What the Left and TMC represent is not the norm but the exception, and a relatively recent one.

A Cultural Foundation that Preceded Politics

Bengal’s cultural bedrock has always leaned towards a worldview rooted in dharma and community life. This is visible in Bengal’s own literary and philosophical heritage. Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay’s Anandamath presented nationalism as a sacred duty. Swami Vivekananda linked India’s resurgence to spiritual awakening and personal discipline. Sri Aurobindo framed nationalism as a civilisational project grounded in Sanatana Dharma, not Marxist materialism.

Even the concept of cultural Hindutva emerged from Bengal through the writings of Chandranath Basu in the 1890s. The idea was clear. Bengal’s political vitality came not from imported theories but from its own civilisational confidence.

This instinct never disappeared. It remained in how Bengalis conducted their everyday lives. Durga Puja, Saraswati Puja, Lakshmi Puja, Nabanna, Poush Parbon, the village kathas, the rituals around the household thakur-ghar, and the unmistakable rhythm of the Bengali calendar show a society that never abandoned its cultural centre, regardless of who ruled Writers’ Building.

SP Mookerjee and the First Rightward Assertion

The most decisive demonstration of Bengal’s civilisational instinct came during Partition. When political negotiations moved towards placing all of Bengal in Pakistan, it was Dr Syama Prasad Mookerjee who led the resistance. His efforts through the Bengal Partition League ensured that West Bengal remained part of India. It was a clear assertion that Bengal’s identity was anchored in cultural continuity, not religious separation or ideological compromise.

Mookerjee’s subsequent founding of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh made him the first major figure to articulate Bengal’s right-of-centre political future in the national arena. That legacy matters because it shows that the rightward impulse in Bengal is not recent, nor imported. It is indigenous.

The Left Front Era: A Long Political Detour

After Mookerjee’s passing in 1953, Bengal’s political path shifted significantly. The Naxalbari uprising of 1967 and the ideological vacuum that followed allowed Marxist politics to rise sharply. When the CPI(M)-led Left Front came to power in 1977, it claimed to represent the “true people’s voice". What followed was a political detour that lasted 34 years.

The Left’s governance model replaced cultural rootedness with ideological rigidity. Textbooks were rewritten. Public discourse was steered towards class narratives. Organised party machinery penetrated schools, unions, local bodies, and even cultural institutions. Traditional festivals continued because of society, not because of the state. The common Bengali’s devotion to household rituals, community pujas, and annual celebrations carried on despite an administration that preferred to sanitise cultural identity.

Economically, the Left imposed an anti-enterprise ecosystem. Militant trade unions, frequent strikes, and ideological suspicion towards industry pushed businesses out of Bengal. A state that once led India in commerce and manufacturing slowly sank into stagnation. Youth migration increased because ambition had no runway at home.

This was not a natural evolution. It was a political imposition on a society whose instincts lay elsewhere.

Trinamool Congress: Different Colours, Same Model

When the TMC came to power in 2011, many expected a correction. But the model that replaced the Left was not new. It kept the same populist mindset, the same hostility towards institutional independence, and the same control mechanisms.

Instead of cadre-driven ideological control, TMC built a network of cut-money and syndicate politics. Economic incentives remained distorted. The culture of political intimidation did not decline. Governance became a distribution mechanism rather than a growth strategy.

Left-oriented economics continued under a new banner. The result was the same. Outmigration, limited job creation, and stagnation persisted. The political language changed, but the economic reality did not.

Return to the Natural Centre

When placed in historical perspective, the Left and TMC era appears less like a foundational identity and more like a prolonged deviation. For centuries, Bengal’s intellectual, social, and cultural life rested on a right-of-centre sensibility. It was grounded in dharma, cultural continuity, and an economic instinct toward enterprise and self-improvement.

The common Bengali never abandoned faith, festivals, or community culture. In para clubs, local pujas, and family rituals, Bengal retained continuity with its past. That sensibility survived political rule, administrative control, textbook changes, and economic stagnation. It survived because it lived in society, not in power structures.

This cultural rootedness is now expressing itself politically. It is not about adopting a new ideology. It is about returning to a worldview that never actually left. The resurgence of a right-of-centre imagination in Bengal is not a reactionary wave. It is a homecoming. It signals the rediscovery of Bengal’s historical temperament, which aligns Bengal’s political imagination once again with its civilisational foundations.

Dhritiman Mitra is a Member, National Team, Policy and Research Division, BJP Yuva Morcha. He tweets on @dhritiman_mitra. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect News18’s views.

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