Director Vivek Ranjan Agnihotri, busy cementing the preparatory work of his political drama 'The Delhi Files', has now found a calling in the complex politics of West Bengal. He wants to get to the bottom of why so much blood was shed in this region.
Recently, Vivek Ranjan Agnihotri shared from his long journey of research, unveiling one of the most tragic chapters of Bengal's history. A deep reflection on what he found brings into sharp focus that the infernal massacres of Bengal, for which he substantiated in that concise piece with a riveting story and pictorial evidence from his visits to the National Museum.
He wrote, "#TheDelhiFiles Update: Bengal's story, told by its people. From last 6 months, across cities and villages, interviewing local cultures, histories, trying to make sense of Bengal's turbulent past for our forthcoming."
He drew attention to the peculiar historical experience of Bengal, which explained the unprecedented division of the state on two occasions, followed by successive phases of internal turmoil, before and after independence. He drew attention to a clash of multiple ideological currents—Hinduism, Islam, Communism, and Naxalism—that shaped the socio-political tapestry of Bengal.
"In today's India, Bengal becomes a miniature of cross road national ideologies—Hinduism versus Islam, together with ideological undercurrents of Communism and Naxalism. Its rich heritage of nationalism, social reform, art, and literature has gone on perpetrating a state of decay," he said.
Vivek Ranjan Agnihotri expressed his lament regarding the fact that partition wounds still persist in Bengal and claimed what was apparently the case of two different nations inhabiting one state, governed by divergent constitutional frameworks. This therefore immediately and indisputably created a need for some visionary leadership to spearhead a cultural renaissance in Bengal—it called for '#IndicRenaissance 2.0'.
His research journey from Kerala to Kolkata and Delhi stretched distances, just to put together an integrated narrative attributed by wide reading—over 100 books, 200 articles, and intense archival studies across 20 states.
Abhishek Agarwal of Abhishek Agarwal Arts and Vivek Ranjan Agnihotri are producers of what is called 'The Delhi Files.' It is going to break open one engrossing saga deeply buried under the socio-political history of this land.
Read also | Shatrughan Sinha Hospitalized for Severe Fever
