"The traumatic event of the 1946 Great Calcutta Killing drove many
into the underworld. The name which finds constant mention in this
context is of Gopal Mukherji (alias Gopal Pantha) of Malanga who raised
the ‘Bharat Jatiya Bahani’ to protect Hindus during the riot. 1/9

The Bahani, to quote a police report, was a ‘private army’ trained in the use of explosives and firearms. According to Gopal Mukherjee’s own
submission the Bahini had at one point 400 activists. 2/9
Most of them were like Krishna who had to abandon their quarters in Muslim majority areas in search of safety. Others like Dinabandhu Datta (alias Andrew, alias Indu) or Santosh Kumar Pal or Bhanu Bose belonged to middle class families and joined the Bahini to avenge... 3/9
the humiliation suffered by their community at Muslim hands.

Sometimes known ‘musclemen’ such as Basanta of Beadon Street were recruited by Gopal Mukheijee to repulse, what he called, ‘Muslim marauders’. 4/9
There were also examples of people like Lakshminarayan Parel (alias Lakha) who joined the Bahini to acquire a skill in manufacturing unlicensed firearms.
The Bahini received liberal financial help from prosperous Hindu
personalities during the communal fury. 5/9
But when rioting subsided the
Bahini lost this support, and the very figures who had been once hailed as
saviours from Muslim brutalities were now looked down with social
contempt. This probably induced Gopal Mukheijee and his followers to
take recourse to...6/9
organized ‘crime’ as a means of livelihood.

Their involvement with ‘lawless acts’ now ranged from armed dacoities like the Sonarpur Dacoity case and the Guinea Mansion Dacoity case, to armed hold ups, house burglaries, smuggling, petty snatching and thefts. 7/9
Many of Gopal’s followers continued to nurse a deep communal antipathy
towards Muslims and were ‘energetic participants’ in the 1950 communal
clash in Calcutta. A section of Gopal's Bahini also developed a close
association with the Congress party. 8/9
But others like Ram Chatterjee
became involved with Left politics and at one time served as a minister in
the Left Front government." 9/9

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Lyrics:

When we lift the covers from our feelings
We expose our insecure spots
Trust is just as rare as devotion —
Forgive us our cynical thoughts
If we need too much attention —
Not content with being cool
We must throw ourselves wide open
And start acting like a fool

If we need too much approval
Then the cuts can seem too cruel

Right to the heart of the matter
Right to the beautiful part
Illusions are painfully shattered
Right where discovery starts
In the secret wells of emotion
Buried deep in our hearts

It’s true that love can change us
But never quite enough
Sometimes we are too tender
Sometimes we’re too tough
If we get too much attention
It gets hard to overrule
So often fragile power turns
To scorn and ridicule
Sometimes our big splashes
Are just ripples in the pool

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