Volume-XII, Special Issue, April 2026 |
বাংলা কবিতা ও কথাসাহিত্যে সিঙ্গুর-নন্দীগ্রাম আন্দোলন : দুই রক্তমাখা সবুজ প্রতিরোধ মহেন্দ্র নাথ পাল, গবেষক, বঙ্গভাষা ও সাহিত্য বিভাগ, কলিকাতা বিশ্ববিদ্যালয়, কলকাতা, পশ্চিমবঙ্গ, ভারত |
Received: 05.04.2026 | Accepted: 07.04.2026 | Published Online: 10.04.2026 | Page No: 78-88 | ||||
DOI: 10.29032/ijhsss.vol.12.issue.specialW.271 | |||||||
Singur–Nandigram Movement in Bengali Poetry and Fiction: Two Blood-Stained Green Resistances Mahendra Nath Paul, Research Scholar, Department of Bengali Language and Literature, University of Calcutta, Kolkata, West Bengal, India | ||
ABSTRACT | ||
When the British regime’s anarchy and exploitation of farmers in the Indian subcontinent reached an intolerable level, the farming community rose up in resistance with every ounce of their strength. Both in the pre- and post-independence eras, the majority of movements and acts of resistance in India were, in essence, manifestations of peasant uprisings. On the threshold of the twenty-first century, two such blood-stained ‘green’ resistances unfolded in the heart of Bengal: the Singur (2006) and Nandigram (2007) agrarian movements. In these events, the farming community—the very creators of the ‘green’—was left bloodied beneath the bulldozers of the rulers’ power and arrogance. When the then CPI(M)-led Left Front government of West Bengal sought to seize the fertile, gold-yielding lands of Singur and Nandigram—under the pretext of industrialization—by handing them over to capitalist industrial conglomerates, the local people stepped forward to defend their land—their very ‘Mother’—to their last drop of blood. It was then that the wrathful gaze of the Leftist rulers descended upon the peasant masses of Singur and Nandigram. Much like the dark days of the Partition, Singur and Nandigram became a crucible of murder, looting, rape, massacre, and arson. In that hour of crisis, the then Leader of the Opposition, Mamata Banerjee, and her party, the Trinamool Congress, rushed to the aid of this helpless and dispossessed farming community, risking their own lives in the process. With intense vigor and resolve, she emerged as a powerful voice of resistance on behalf of the helpless people of Singur and Nandigram as they faced a looming, tragic fate. Under her leadership, the local farming community found the strength to protest and resist. In those days, the educated class and the intellectual community alike spat in contempt at the brutal, barbaric carnage and anarchy that unfolded around the government’s land acquisition drive. The pens of Bengal’s poets and fiction writers, too, roared with intense protest and indignation. Through their poetry, short stories, and novels, literary figures such as Mridul Dasgupta, Joy Goswami, Shankha Ghosh, Nirmal Brahmachari, Mamata Banerjee, Mahasweta Devi, Suchitra Bhattacharya, Anita Agnihotri, and Samaresh Majumdar captured the stark reality of the volatile situation in Singur and Nandigram. There, confronted by resistance and protest from all strata of society, the barrel of the ruling power’s gun faltered slightly and was compelled to retreat. Serving as faithful chronicles of the bloody history of Singur and Nandigram—a turbulent epoch of strife—and as enduring testimonies to the rulers’ compromised humanity, these literary works remain rich in artistic appeal to this day. Within the blood-stained annals of Singur and Nandigram, this struggle waged by the farming community for the sake of their land will forever stand as a pair of resolute, vibrant acts of resistance. | ||
Keywords: Singur and Nandigram, A Bloody Chronicle, Rulers’ Arrogance and Menace, Rape and Massacre, Capitalist Industrial Conglomerates, Land Acquisition, Emotional Bond with the Land, Mamata Banerjee, Organized Resistance, Intellectuals’ Protest. |