Although currently residing in Bengaluru for several years, I always possessed a weakness for my own city and state – Kolkata and West Bengal due to passing my prime time – starting from student life to work and political life there.
The subsequent spontaneous outcry over the rape and murder of a 31-year-old post-graduate trainee doctor at RG Kar Medical College made me feel extremely proud, which surpassed the shame and pain I have felt due to the role of the West Bengal government. Thousands of people with women in leadership took to the streets of Kolkata as part of a mass protest on August 14, and the wave of protests spread to outskirts and, to a lesser extent, rural area. Overall lakhs of people protested throughout West Bengal on August 14 – an explosion of people enduring corruption, anti-social violence, increasing violence against women and the RG Kar incident put the final nail in the coffin.
“I worked eleven hours today, but still wanted to join the protest. This is how a woman should feel at night, to move freely and not be raped,” said a woman who participated in the protest. Waves of protests spread across the country and Bengaluru was no exception. A rally was called for on August 14 in front of the Town Hall from 11:00 PM through the “Reclaim the Night-RG Kar” WhatsApp group.
The objective was to show solidarity with the movement that erupted throughout West Bengal. Although we were not allowed to assemble due to not getting police permission, a few of us – about 100 people gathered at night to protest in favour of women’s rights, against commodification of women’s body and mind and rape culture that prevailed across the country. It is pertinent to note that such restrictions on gatherings in Bengaluru began in 2021 during the BJP rule when restrictions were imposed to give permission to do gathering only in Freedom Park.
Before coming the power the Congress government promised to withdraw this restriction, however once they came to power although some dialogues happened on this topic, the restrictions is not withdrawn. The trade union CITU got permission at the last minute for their pre-independence day program at the Town Hall on the night of August 14. From that gathering strong criticism of the RG Kar incident and the role of the West Bengal government has been made. Subhasree, one of the organizers of the ‘Reclaim the Night’ program in Bengaluru, spoke at the demonstration. The ‘Reclaim the Night’ group is a group formed by independent initiative and from our gathering on 14th August night, the decision of continuing the movement in Bengaluru has been taken.
Needless to say, the main reason for this enthusiasm was the determination of the masses of people in West Bengal to carry on the movement and the constant agitation of the junior doctors – the attitude of not giving up. On that day on 14th of August, around 600 students marched in IISc to demand justice. In Azim Premji University also, around 300 students demonstrated.
Many cynics may deride this unprecedented movement of West Bengal and throughout India, even outside India, which has not been seen in the last few decades, not even in the Nandigram phase during Left Front era, as a movement of the middle and upper middle class, but in fact this movement emerged in philosophy as a movement to demand women’s safety from poor to rich, for emancipation of women’s rights, against rape culture that prevailed in West Bengal and throughout the country. I witnessed the pain in women’s eye, where more than 1000 people assembled at Freedom Park on August 16th.
Although ‘Justice for RG Kar’ – was the call of the gathering, but from the demonstration voices were raised against the gang-rape of a Dalit girl by four upper-caste lumpens in Uttar Pradesh’s Hathras, against the gang rape incident of Bilkis Banu in post Godhra Gujarat and against rape culture as a whole. In spite of these demands, will the movement be still called merely apolitical? It is true that the rally was not organized under the banner of a political party, but the rally on the 16th was supported by the AIDWA (women’s wing of the CPIM). The main organizer of the rally was the group ‘Reclaim Night and Justice’ – the main organizers of which were IT workers like Shamani, Subhasree, Sumana, Sourav and many others. Common people from other professions and some workers of student organization AISA were personally present in the rally. While Bengalis were the majority, there was also a presence of other speakers and people from other provinces namely Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and some others. Various protests have been organized post August 16. On August 17, in another initiative, a gathering was held at Freedom Park on the same issue. On August 26, student organizations AISA, Collective and some other organizations organized protests jointly at Freedom Park. 14th September marked 4-year anniversary of the Hathras incident. On that occasion, the CPI (ML)’s women’s organization AIPWA organized protests against increasing violence against women in various parts of India, including Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Delhi, Manipur etc. besides a gathering in Freedom Paek in Bengaluru. Similar gatherings were held in other districts of Karnataka as well.
At the same place on same day, a protest meeting was organized by the initiative of ‘Reclaim Justice, reclaim night ‘. Different protest meetings were organized on the initiative of various Bengali organizations on different days of September. If anyone is surprised to see huge protests in the cyber city of Bangalore, we need to assure that this is not anything new. From the Nirbhaya incident in Delhi to the Hathras gang-rape, the anti-NRC, CAA movement, the mass movement against the Modi government’s new agriculture bill – Bengaluru was never left behind.
Reminding everyone about the origin of the ‘Reclaim Night’ movement. ‘Reclaim the Night’ or ‘Take Back the Night’ movement is a global protest and campaign against violence against women. The movement first started in Leeds, England, in 1977, when hundreds of women in Leeds took to the street to demand the right to safety.
Now let’s come back to the facts of continuous protest movement in West Bengal. Although the middle class was the leader, the lower middle class, poor people of cities, suburbs and slums joined this movement. Various steps taken by the West Bengal government and the Kolkata Police have given rise to a strong belief among people that these murders and rapes are the result of protesting against a long-standing criminal gang operating within the hospitals. Various left-wing organizations jumped into this movement but did not try to control it. BJP, the largest opposition party in West Bengal, was desperate to capitalize on the movement, but the gatherings of the civil society and the junior doctors’ movement condemned the BJP’s takeover attitude.
No matter how much Mr. Narendra Modi condemns the RG Kar incident, his party was nowhere present in Bengaluru’s protests. Hathras, Unnao, Bilkis Banu and the recent IIT BHU gang-rape cases have exposed the character of the leaders and the party. Politics of division and fascist dictatorial attitude is their basic philosophy.
We know that we cannot bring back smile on the face of Tilottams’s parents by bringing her back, but the fight will continue until justice is served.
From the famous short story of Rabindranath Tagore ‘The Living and the dead’ (‘Jibito o Mrito’ in Bengali): Kadambini proved after her death that she was alive, and Tilottama’s death proved that the conscience of many Indians, including Bengalis, is still awake.
