Bengali Passion

But once India attained independence and the intellectual base of the great Bengal awakening started whithering away, this passion found expression in trade union violence, jingoism and stultifying intellectual pride. An unhealthy obsession with culture and the glories of the past started paralysing the Bengali working classes—action was for those “other unenlightened states�?, we Bengalis were content to argue, score debating points and discuss Fellini and Bergman. After all we had the “cultural capital�? moniker to uphold. Let the state economy go to the dogs—we are above such corporeal things.

In an excellent post, Greatbong examines the causes for Bengal’s marginalization. I expect much passion in the comment section.