As festivity soars high, a book on the great political leader, Mahatma Gandhi, is creating ripples in the sphere of socio-political culture of Bengal.
On Durga Puja, the Communist Party of Bengal, CPI (M) Bengal put up book stalls outside puja pandals to reach out to the masses. As the craze of pandal hopping in Durga Puja returns after a two-year hiatus because of the pandemic, the CPI(M) took this opportunity to launch a new book titled ‘Gandhiji Beleghata Parba: Ghatan-Aghatan Chabbish Din’.
The book provides an account of the tumultuous 26 days of stay of Mahatma Gandhi at Hyderi Manzil, now known as Gandhi Bhawan in Beleghata of Kolkata after India got Independence in 1947.
On the dawn of Independence on August 15, 1947, Gandhiji wasn’t in Delhi unfurling the national flag. Instead he was in Kolkata where Hindu-Muslim riots broke out post-partition and its people were overtaken by the growing tension, bloodshed, horror and misery. Gandhiji stayed at Hyderi Manzil, an abandoned house in Beleghata from August 13 to September 7, 1947 trying to quell the riots. These 26 days of his stay in Kolkata during the tumultuous period has been inscribed with blood and sorrow in the pages of history.
On September 1, Gandhiji observed Satyagraha from Hyderi Manzil and fasted for 73 hours straight after which the leaders who were behind the riots were compelled to surrender their weapons on his feet. This year, it marks the 75 years of Gandhiji’s stay at Beleghata, his last visit to Bengal.
To commemorate the great leader Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi and to recall the miseries brought in by the independence, former Left Front Minister Anjan Bera wrote the 159-page book ‘Gandhiji Beleghata Parba: Ghatan-Aghatan Chabbish Din’ that offers a detailed account of events that followed these 26 days of his stay.
The book was released by Left Front Chairman and former CPI (M) leader Biman Bose on Friday, September 30 at the State Headquarters of the party.