Kolkata, Sep 14 (IANS) When at an election rally at Esplanade in central Kolkata before the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, Union Home Minister Amit Shah mentioned the name of Late Gopal Mukherjee and described him as the Hindu braveheart who took the lead role against the post-Independence violence by Muslim mobs in Kolkata in 1946, the name hardly cut any ice among Gen X Bengalis in West Bengal then.

However, with the recent controversies over the newly released Vivek Agnihotri-directed ‘The Bengal Files’, whose screening has been banned in West Bengal following silent threats from vested interests, the name of Gopal Mukherjee, a.k.a. Gopal Patha, has now become almost a household name in Bengal these days. All are discussing his role in taking up arms against the violent Muslim mobs unleashed under ‘Direct Action Day’ initiated by the All-India Muslim League, to carry out the mass slaughter of the Hindu population in 1946 in Kolkata.

Mukherjee and his role against the 1946 slaughter of Hindus in Kolkata were portrayed in a major way in the movie. Sourav Das, who played the role of Gopal Patha in the movie, also received critics’ accolades for the movie.

Mukherjee (1913-2005) assumed the name of the Gopal Patha because of his ownership of two retail mutton shops. In Bengali, Patha is referred to as a particular type of ‘desi’ goat whose meat is considered especially delicious and tender, making it suitable for sale as mutton.

Although there have been claims that Mukherjee, born into a Bengali Hindu family, was himself a butcher, there has been no authenticity behind that claim.

He organised a resistance group to protect Hindus from the riots, arming local youth with meat cleavers and swords to defend their community. He is often referred to as the man who saved Calcutta from falling to the Muslim League, although this is a controversial and debated narrative.

Now in the present context, the question is how the unnecessary controversies over ‘The Bengal File’, first because of the ruling Trinamool Congress’ official reservations about its context and thereafter a virtual but unofficial ban on its screening, had led to surfacing of Gopal Mukherjee’s name as an “unsung Hindu hero” of 1946 thus making it an almost household name currently.

Historians feel that till the past, Mukherjee’s name was hardly in discussion in the political context, and his name and role against mass Hindu slaughter in 1946 were confined to the research works of historians and research scholars on the 1946 Kolkata Killings.

“The little fame that Mukherjee had till yesterday was that he was the right-hand strongman of the first Chief Minister of West Bengal, Dr Bidhan Chandra Roy. However, controversies over ‘The Bengal Files’ made people of Bengal and even the new generation inquisitive about Gopal Patha’s role as an “unsung Hindu hero” of 1946, and many of them started studying the history of the 1946 Kolkata Killings. This is a typical example of how unnecessary controversies over a movie could result in the surfacing of an ‘unsung hero’ in a society,” said city-based historian R. Dutta.

This is not the first time that any movie, which was to the disliking of Mamata Banerjee, faced a screening ban in West Bengal. Earlier, Sudipto Sen-directed ‘The Kerala Story’ too was denied release in theatres despite a court order.

According to the Leader of Opposition in the West Bengal Assembly, Suvendu Adhikari, under the Trinamool Congress regime of Mamata Banerjee, a ban on the screening of movies has become a regular feature in case the subject and the plot of the movie do not suit the convenience of the ruling party in the state.

Meanwhile, Sourav Das, who played the role of Gopal Patha in the movie and who joined Trinamool Congress in 2021, has started feeling the heat for acting in the movie. Trinamool Congress leadership had already claimed that the party does not have any relationship with Das anymore.

Another popular Bengali actor, Saswata Chatterjee, who had played the important role of a Muslim leader in the film, had claimed that he didn’t know the full story and was only told about his role.

–IANS

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