Death of a Hero - Hero after Death?

"State Hero" is how Jyoti Basu will be remembered. Bengali, Hindi and English language newspapers across the country have dedicated entire national sections to his record tenure in Indian politics. Basu died on Sunday and Monday was declared a state holiday. Volunteers laid eighteen sandbags over pot-holes to smooth the road for Basu's last journey as his body was carried through the city, with a escort of over one hundred car and motorbikes. For an outsider it would appear that Jyoti Basu was not only Kolkata's most famous politician but also the most popular. But as is so often the case, death seems to cast a shadow over imperfections and emphasise more remarkable traits. In this way the dead are often immortalised as Saints or Heros, as historical memory is swept over with rose tinted recollections.

Jyoti Basu began his career before the end of the British Raj and spent a formidable seven decades in politics, living to the incredible age of 95. Born in what is now Bangladesh he moved to England, and like many a determined politician studied law. Basu returned to Kolkata as a staunch communist. He was involved in Kolkata's more militarised plans for achieving independence and became a prominent figure in India's fight for sovereignty. In 1977 Basu became the Chief Minister of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPM) in West Bengal, which he remained for a record breaking 23 years. In fact he was on his way to take his seat as Prime Minister until his party changed tactics, in what Basu described as a 'historical blunder'. Superficially, his leadership of the CPM provided the democratic fodder against the Nehru's Congress party, but on closer look it appears to be a strange kind of democracy that would allow a leader to stay in power for nearly a quarter of a century. So exactly what was his legacy?

Reading through the endless printed pages attributed to his life and career, broad spectrum commentaries write about his meetings with prominent statesmen such as Gandhi, Fidel Castro, Yasser Arafat, Nelson Mandela and the Chinese Premier Zhou-en Lai. The Chinese connection refers to an interesting relation whereby Basu supported China during the Indo-China war of 1962. As a result of his communist views Basu was arrested and spent a short period in prison. In a overview of his life, S.K Dasgupta (West Bengal's Jyoti Basu: a political profile) touches upon his once extreme unpopularity by recalling that effigies of Basu's were burned in public demonstrations. But with the victory of the left in West Bengal, accumulating with the creation of the CPM, Basu quickly resumed center stage. He became popular for his proclaimed secular ideals, preventing him from being drawn into religious clashes, imminent especially during the partition of Pakistan in 1947 and later through the creation of Bangladesh in 1971. Despite this the CPM's headquarters were (and still are) situated in a predominately Muslim area (Alimuddein Street) giving strength to the rumour that this was a strategic placement, reflecting the CPMs covert pro-Muslim stance.

Basu is glorified as pacifing the demands of a Gorkha state by joining them to fight for specific rights such as for Nepali to be the recognised as their mother tongue, over the imposed alien language of their state's capital – Bengali. However, more recently, the Gorkha's demands (described as a 'thorn in the side of West Bengal') refuse to be dampened, and one of the hill stations main criticisms of the CPM is that it takes far more in revenue in taxes than it provides in public services. This is an echo which can be heard throughout the state, and gives clues to previous criticisms of the fallen hero. An interview with a local entrepreneur, R, reveals a totally different character from the Basu described in the papers. The words "corruption" and "stagnation" dominate our conversation, and it soon becomes clear that despite appearances much skepticism surrounds the leader, especially in regards to his commitment to the needs of the people.

Until 1911, Kolkata was the former capital of India. It used to be one of the four main metropolitan cities in the country. Once famous for its fine buildings, public schools and rich agricultural land, Kolkata's reputation has been transformed from a symbol of the splendor of the Raj to a haven for Mother Teresa from which she could 'save' the multitudes of dying and destitute. West Bengal is now among the poorest states in India and ironically it is the poor who form the largest base of the CPM's support. Abhijet Sen writes in The Times of India that Basu was responsible for a policy which transformed West Bengal from "being a famine-prone area" to a "leading agricultural producer.” Even though these reforms have been criticised as outdated and in need of revision, Sen also argues that this “paid electoral dividends and laid the foundation for the rural support base of Basu's party."

During the Bangladesh-Pakistan War 1971, the massive influx over the border of an estimated 10 million refugees, inflamed Kolkata's huge problems of over population. The refugee issue has continued ever since as severe flooding and cyclones continue to plague Bangladesh. With an infrastructure designed for a population one six of its present size, and additional problems of rural to city migration, Kolkata is now bursting at its bustees. The informal estimation of Kolkata's current population is over 15 million people. One could argue that by opening its doors to all those who are in need, the CPM has set an example for all to follow. However, R, disagrees: He argues that the CPM allowed refugees to flood the state for all the wrong reasons, and as a result public resources have been stretched leaving decent health care and education to be a provision only for those who can afford it. With the same mother tongue and with a common history, it is relatively easy for Bangladeshi refugees to receive Indian citizenship. According to R all it takes is a little baksesh, or at least a promise of a vote; and perhaps this adds further fuel for the continued electoral success of the CPM. Interestingly, R agrees that Basu was a legend, but a "legend for all of the wrong reasons; he was a business man and his business was politics. Basu understood and knew how to work the system and this is how he managed to stay in power for so long. History could have been very different."

I am writing this as I sit in a coffee shop which is still being in the process of being built. In between the flying chips of wood and through the din of the constant hammering, I ask one of seven men watching the implementation of a cappuccino machine what he thinks of Jyoti Basu. “Jyoti Babu” he replied affectionately “is a hero”. Why? I ask. “He just is and now he will always be a hero; history will remember him as a hero.” Indeed, yesterday thousands of people took to the streets to wish their farewells. There was no mass hysteria nor outbursts of emotions and as Mani Chatterjee in The Telegraph reported “some of them had never voted for the CPM in their lives, and many had ceased to vote Red in recent years.” Yet with Basu's death “an ear had come to an end...and they had come to make their tryst with history”. After a full life of nearly one century, witnessing his country's independence, partition and then entry into a global era of technology, booming business and then a dramatic and ever increasing poverty gap, Basu has lived a full life of change and development with the only constant being his position in power.