Storytelling has long been a tactic in the toolbox of colonized people. For survivors of genocide, it validates their experience against those who deny that the horror ever happened.
Bhashani did not try to position himself beyond the parameters of a single religion. Bhashani's way of identifying only with Islam, it may be argued, limited his scope for incorporating syncretic elements derived from other faiths into his own world view.
In fact, looking at elections over two decades, we found that it was in municipalities that lost population that the radical right was able to score big gains.
It is saddening that the government is not only apathetic towards irrational ideas on health on the contrary is subtly promoting them. Use of Cow urine, Astrology in the hospitals, the ‘Garbh Vigyan Sanskar’ by Arogya Bharti advising couples to recite Shlokas so as to have customized babies of their choice – the Uttam Santati are few examples.
He is energetic, revolutionary, and extremely conscious of the maladies of untouchability, poverty, superstition, illiteracy, and the pathetic position of women in the society of colonial India.
