BJP's Quest for Bengal's Past: The Rise of Hindu-Nationalist Bhadralok

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), after winning West Bengal in 2026, seeks to ideologically govern it by reclaiming a Hindu-nationalist strand of the Bengali bhadralok (elite) that was overshadowed by secular and liberal influences post-independence. This involves selectively interpreting historical figures like Syama Prasad Mukherjee and Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay to align with present-day objectives, aiming to bypass the Nehruvian and Gandhian inheritance. The BJP's intellectual survival in Bengal depends on this act of retrieval, which may determine how far it can draw Bengal's secular bhadralok towards it.