‘What Bengal thinks today, India thinks tomorrow’

This was a famous quote once said by Gopal Krishna Gokhale. There are a lot of things which Bengalis take pride in, like our food habits, football, passion for literature, even our city – our architecture! If you are someone from outside Bengal, and you talk to a fellow Bengali, you can easily get an idea of how our culture is inclusive and worth pride taking. This is visible when we try to express something about us as a whole- Kolkata!.

Well, you might have some questions like what makes us take so much pride.  It’s our inclusive and flexible behavior, and humanitarian understanding towards every religion, ethnic groups, and their culture in the soil of Kolkata. The history of this land has always been shaped by the history of co-existing different ethnic and religious identities, their cultures. And, we’ve molded our understanding of religion with regard to this. Bigotry and discrimination in the name of religion have never been tolerated here.

Bengal is the only place in this country where you can see two different religious cultures forming a singular identity and is being worshipped; ‘Satyanarayan’, an incarnation of Vishnu (Hindu deity), being accepted as ‘satyapeer’ by the Muslims in rural provinces. Not just that, both Hindu and Muslims participate in his ‘puja’. Christmas and New year is one of the biggest celebrations, here. The ode of harmony and love gets reflected from our country-folk-songs. We also have a Chinese colony in Bengal, where Ma kali is worshipped.

Bengal is, and always was something different; Something in which it can take pride in itself. No matter what happens, we know that there is no place for communal atrocities in this land. The land of Tagore,

the land of Lalon can never accept the communal divide, and as long as it cherishes its culture – Communalism has no place here!