A 137-year-old hostel that is barely 10m from the state BJP headquarters hosted an iftar on Wednesday with students and teachers feasting together on the lawns. The Telegraph asked some of those who were at Eden Hindu Hostel about the significance of such a get-together at a time when communal flare-ups have been reported from several parts of Bengal. Here’s what they said:
Alifsha Jalal | 2nd-year BSc student of life science
The clashes that are happening are scaring us. But we are the future of India. As a student, we look forward to spreading the message of brotherhood. Iftar gives us this chance to exhibit that tolerance is very much in existence. It is not a myth. Here you can see all of us together. So from the college level, school level, if this message is built into our mind —that we are all the same, irrespective of our caste, creed and religion — we can counter this narrative of hatred. The fact that it is happening at the Eden ‘Hindu’ Hostel means a lot. This ‘Hindu’ stands for tolerance and brotherhood and it denounces hatred. It embraces the other and takes care of the other.
Hindol Das | 2nd-year MA student of political science
Today, the ruling dispensation in Delhi wants to establish a communal, authoritarian regime where the government will decide who is a citizen and who is not. An individual is at liberty to practise any religion. That is the core of our Constitution. This concept of secularism has come from all communities. There is no communal angle to this. By hosting an iftar, we are not seeking to appease anyone. It is our responsibility that we are discharging. The BJP uses the word “appeasement”. Are they not appeasing the majority community? As a student of political science, I can say that beneath the shadow of this communal violence, many corruption scandals of the cronies are being hidden.
Sheikh Shahidul | 3rd-year BSc student of physics
We have seen what happened in Shibpur and Rishra in the name of Ram Navami celebrations. Exactly the opposite is happening at Eden Hindu Hostel. I am a Muslim. But at this iftar, my close friend Rajarshi Burman is taking an active part in hosting the feast. He is slicing the fruits in the kitchen and carrying the platter to feast with me. I reached out to him on the occasion of Saraswati Puja. We need to take this message beyond the campus. Celebrating a festival does not mean that you have to hurl stones at others. This can be done by reaching out to each other. We learned this message at the hostel.
Arpan Maji | 2nd-year UG student of economics
I am from Asansol. I saw violence in Asansol in 2018 on the occasion of Ram Navami. The same violence has spread to different parts of West Bengal now. Be it the introduction of CAA, NRC or Ram Navami, the BJP believes in otherisation. Students across campuses stood up to the imposition of the new citizenship matrix. Now we will rise in protest against this conspiracy of spreading hatred in the name of Ram Navami celebrations. Our tool of protest is the iftar at Eden Hindu Hostel, where students have lived peacefully, irrespective of their caste, creed and religion. We want to show the fanatics that hatred cannot win. The massive gathering on the green lawns demonstrate the bonding that we share.
Rajibul Rehman| 2nd-year MSc student of life science
The main objective of any get-together is getting to know each other. What lies at the heart of any communal violence is the fact that we don’t want to know each other. In recent times, we have seen efforts to create a religious divide on campuses. Last year, the hijab row in Karnataka, the violence by the Sangh backed Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad at JNU on Ram Navami suggested a dangerous trend. Now we are witnessing Howrah and Rishra. As students of Presidency University, we have to uphold the spirit of plurality to counter this narrative of hatred.
Abhijit Paul | 1st-year student of English
Hindu Hostel was set up in 1886 to primarily accommodate Hindu students coming to Calcutta to study at the erstwhile Presidency College. But later the hostel opened its door to all. This legacy of inclusion was demonstrated in the iftar. At a time communal tension has reared its head, what has happened at the hostel is bound to be an eyeopener, at least for some. We carry the legacy of (Henry Louis Vivian) Derozio, Michael Madhsudan Dutt and Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, whose thoughts went beyond narrow religious identities. We want to carry forward this legacy to reinforce the idea of plurality.
Pictures by Bishwarup Dutta