The intellectual Bengal of Satyajit Ray, Mrinal Sen and Aparna Sen; the revolutionary Bengal of Naxalbari; the artistic Bengal of Ramkinkar Baiz, Bikash Bhattacharya and Jogen Choudhury; finally a resurgent Bengal with shopping malls, stylish arcades and state-of-the-art IT parks, highrises and flyovers — all this have suddenly been put to a rapid-fire test.

From a staid past synonymous with strikes, hartals, crippled and crammed streets to cramped infrastructure with crumbling buildings, the gateway to eastern India has been making a bold endeavour to fall in step with the rest of the country.

Just when a resurgent Bengal is on the fast track, undergoing a metamorphosis, obviously not from the pages of Kafka, the veneer of malls and happening city is peeling off and the eastern megapolis is fast returning to what it does best — protest. Not for the sake of it though, but for a right cause, to uphold the right of an individual, and more particularly, that of the civil society.

On more than one occasion, the city has witnessed a spate of protests that amply demonstrates that if there has been a change in the mindset with the advent of affluence, the change hasn’t hit the roots hard. It might cause heartburns or aggressive dismay among those who would have loved to see the hip and happening trend continued its sway after establishing a firm grip on the society.

But that was not to be. Nandigram, Rizwanur, ration riots and Taslima — the four that shook Bengal in recent times, apparently have no interlinks. Yet, in the backdrop of state’s latest history of citizen relationship and administration, the four tumultuous events have a common thread. In all these cases, the democratic process has championed the right to protest and the character of this protest was shaped by how the powers that be had handled it and whether it adopted a constructive view towards the slew of protests.

It is essential to remember that the same Kolkata that had seen bandhs paralysing life every now and then and a bevy of laid-back employees making a beeline to leave government offices two hours in advance despite reaching late, witnessed people from all walks of life lighting candles in silent protest against the mysterious death of IT techie Rizwanur Rahman or joining the massive protest march organised by the intellectuals against the mindless violence and carnage during armed aggression in Nandigram.

“I don’t see any contradiction between enjoying malls and using flyovers and protesting against injustice or demanding justice. It’s only natural for the civil society to be aware of both the positives and the negative aspects of life. The same people who shop in malls, drive on the flyovers, also walked in the protest march and that is Calcutta,” says Nabanita Deb Sen, professor in the Jadavpur University and former wife of Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen.

In fact, many believe that Bengal had reached its nadir and the only way to go from here happens to be upwards. That the Marxists have shed their dogma and been changing with times by openly embracing private capital is passe, as it had to happen.

“The new confidence of West Bengal is now attracting global majors and progressive Indian corporates. Chief minister Buddhadev Bhattacherjee has ensured that this confidence is backed by credible governance and this resolve has added a new dimension to the state’s competitiveness,” argues Nazeeb Arif, chief of corporate communications, ITC Ltd.

While there has been no denying the fact that the state has been sporting a new look, thanks to private capital that was once considered anathema by the Communists, Bengal has been making mistakes aplenty. “If it (the state government) had learnt a little from the protests, clashes and the blood-letting at Singur, the government would have been more careful in Nandigram. But that was not to be, it remained as arrogant as ever,” says Ashok Mitra, former finance minister of Bengal in the Jyoti Basu cabinet.

“The problem does not involve Singur and Nandigram alone; it’s much more deep and serious.The repetition of mistakes has become a habit. It has only been a year and a half since the Left Front has won a massive mandate. And what examples of arrogance and stupidity during this brief span!” Mitra, a staunch Leftist himself, contends. Nevertheless, Left baiters would concede that the Far Eastern Economic Review predicted in April 2004 that the City of Joy will become India’s surprise new hi-tech hub. None, including experts in Bengal, took it seriously then. But the table has been turned. Though many would remember how, back in the early 80s, Bengal denied access to computers as trade unions apprehended that it would rob the workers of their jobs. Today, the decision is being rued, albeit in hushed tones, as a historical blunder.

The late 60s and the 70s saw Bengal lapsing into the hartal mode quite too often as bandhs, sudden ceaseworks and long, serpentine processions leaving a trail of bumper-to-bumper traffic were considered as the only forms of protest.

The tradition continued in the 80s and spilled over even into the 90s. It was only from the middle of 2005 that the trend took a different turn and bandhs or hartals began showing waning symptoms.

However, the spirit of the protest didn’t die despite the advent of modern malls and flyovers. It only took a different shape; if the bristling confidence of the generation next, common visitors to the malls and arcades, is any indication to go by, there has been a radical change in the attitude towards the mode of protest. Take the example of the silent march followed by a silent protest in the wake of ghastly ‘death’ of young computer graphics designer Rizwanur Rahman.

The innocent candles turned out to be one of the most powerful protests City of Joy had ever seen to condemn the nexus between police and a section of industrialists. Shortly thereafter, a groundswell of support was witnessed from the common people on the street who joined in large numbers in the protest rally of intellectuals and thinkers in the wake of Nandigram killings.

Says Debesh Roy, one of the leading Leftist thinkers, “Flyovers, broader roads, river bridges, shopping malls and tower residencies are no index of development. To place changes in conscious public behaviour parallel to these urban developments is an invalid exercise. Historically, Bengal and so Calcutta is prime in political consciousness. That historical element has widened and deepened. The recent happenings from Singur to attempts of communal violence, including Rizwanur and Taslima Nasreen, are signs of that broadened politics.”

All this brings us to the core question — why these protests have suddenly been necessitated in this civil political society?

Kaushik Sen, one of the firebrand theatre personalities, sums it up succinctly. “First, when cops start losing their skill and credibility following increasing interference from powers that be, they tend to push their neutral roles to the backyard in such case as Rizwanur. One of its natural corollary is an appaling loss of faith in the administration by people, forcing them to opt for the protest path. The only silver lining that I find at the end from all this, is the bold assertion of the common man’s voice where the difference between ‘we’ and ‘they’ is increasingly being eclipsed,” Sen concludes.