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By:

Correspondent

23 August 2024 at 4:29:04 pm

Deadly Neglect

The deaths of three tribal girls following a snakebite at a residential school in Gadchiroli have cast a distinctly unfavourable light on the standards of care in Maharashtra’s tribal hostels. A total six girls were bitten while sleeping on the floor, raising questions about basic accommodation, preventive measures and the oversight of institutions entrusted with the care of some of Maharashtra’s most disadvantaged children. A properly maintained hostel and basic preventive measures can...

Deadly Neglect

The deaths of three tribal girls following a snakebite at a residential school in Gadchiroli have cast a distinctly unfavourable light on the standards of care in Maharashtra’s tribal hostels. A total six girls were bitten while sleeping on the floor, raising questions about basic accommodation, preventive measures and the oversight of institutions entrusted with the care of some of Maharashtra’s most disadvantaged children. A properly maintained hostel and basic preventive measures can certainly reduce the likelihood that a snakebite becomes a mass casualty event. Residential schools for tribal children exist precisely because many of their students come from remote and disadvantaged communities. The state assumes responsibility for their education, accommodation, food and safety. The inevitable official response of a detailed inquiry into the tragedy is hardly reassuring. The district administration has said it will establish whether adequate protective measures were in place and whether the school management complied with safety rules. The Maharashtra administration has conducted enough inquiries till now to know that the discovery of a lapse is not the same thing as fixing the system that produced it. The questions are elementary. Were sufficient beds available? If not, why not? Was the hostel building properly sealed? Were doors, windows and drains inspected? Was pest and snake control undertaken? Were mosquito nets and other basic protective equipment provided? Was there adequate lighting and night supervision? How frequently had the hostel been inspected? And were funds allocated for these facilities actually spent on them? The last question deserves particular attention. Tribal residential schools have for years been vulnerable to the familiar maladies of public administration, most notably gross corruption. Inadequate oversight, poor maintenance, opaque procurement and the fact that money and food intended for children disappears somewhere between the budget and the beneficiary has become all too common. More crucially, Gadchiroli is not politically ownerless. Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis is its guardian minister, making the quality of governance in the district an especially important test of the state government’s claims about tribal development. The answer cannot be another round of condolences followed by an inquiry whose findings gather dust. The government should use this tragedy to conduct a comprehensive and independent safety audit of every tribal residential hostel in Gadchiroli, with the findings and corrective measures made public. Beds, sanitation, building maintenance, pest control, emergency medical arrangements and night-time supervision should be treated as measurable standards, not discretionary amenities. Three girls have died in the most appalling manner. The least the state can do is ensure that their deaths expose a failure that is then corrected, rather than an outrage that is briefly mourned and administratively forgotten.

Reawakening of Hindu Civilisational Sovereignty

Bengal has long stood as one of India’s foremost civilizational heartlands—a land of Vedic wisdom, Shakti worship, Bhakti, intellectual renaissance, revolutionary nationalism, and cultural brilliance. Yet this same sacred geography also endured successive centuries of political dislocation through Islamic invasions, colonial domination, Partition, ideological Leftism, and prolonged appeasement-driven politics.


When the Sena dynasty fell in 1204 CE under the assault of Bakhtiyar Khalji, Bengal’s last great Hindu political sovereignty suffered a historic rupture. While political control was lost, Bengal’s Hindu civilizational memory endured through its spiritual, literary, and cultural institutions.


Today, with the decisive rise of nationalist governance in Bengal through an unmistakable democratic mandate, many view this transformation not merely as electoral change, but as the restoration of a deeply rooted civilizational selfhood interrupted for nearly 800 years.


Lakshmana Sena represented the final major expression of Hindu imperial authority in Bengal before the onset of foreign domination. Assuming power in the late 12th century, Lakshmana Sena projected himself as a Chakravarti ruler—an emblem of political sovereignty rooted in dharmic legitimacy.


His administration was not merely territorial; it embodied the integration of political power, religious duty, scholarship, and cultural guardianship. Under his rule, Bengal flourished as a center of Sanskritic learning, temple patronage, Vaishnav devotion, and Hindu social order.


Lakshmana Sena’s reign demonstrated a classical Indian model of governance where the state was seen not only as an instrument of administration but as the protector of civilization itself.


Among the luminous jewels of Lakshmana Sena’s court was Jayadeva, whose immortal Gita Govinda became one of the greatest spiritual-literary contributions to Hindu civilization.


This was not incidental patronage—it was strategic cultural statecraft. Lakshmana Sena understood that while kingdoms may fall to invasion, a civilization fortified by literature, devotion, and philosophical continuity can survive political catastrophe.


Through this foresight, Bengal’s Hindu identity remained culturally resilient even after political upheaval.


Sacred Geography

Lakshmana Sena’s influence extended beyond Bengal into the broader Gangetic sacred sphere, including regions associated with Kashi, Prayag, and Gaya.


This expansion reflected more than military ambition—it represented the defense and preservation of India’s sacred civilizational geography. In his political imagination, governance was inseparable from safeguarding dharma.


Such a framework stands as a reminder that pre-modern Hindu kingship often saw sovereignty as a sacred responsibility rather than merely an administrative function.


Political Fragmentation

The 1204 invasion by Muhammad Bakhtiyar Khalji marked a decisive turning point in Bengal’s history.


Lakshmana Sena’s fall symbolized more than the defeat of a king—it exposed the vulnerabilities of a politically fragmented Hindu order confronting highly mobile and ideologically driven foreign aggression.


The tragedy was not solely military; it was civilizational. It underscored the costs of disunity, strategic complacency, and inadequate political consolidation.


Though Bengal passed through Sultanate rule, Mughal influence, British imperialism, Partition trauma, and decades of Left domination, its Hindu civilizational spirit never vanished.


Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay gave India Vande Mataram.


Swami Vivekananda rekindled spiritual nationalism.


Syama Prasad Mukherjee articulated a modern political defense of national unity.


Each phase reaffirmed Bengal’s enduring contribution to India’s nationalist and civilizational consciousness.


Identity Crisis

Post-independence Bengal witnessed prolonged ideological governance that often prioritised class narratives over civilisational concerns.


Issues such as border infiltration, demographic anxieties, religious appeasement, and weakening cultural confidence increasingly shaped public discourse.


For many Bengalis, these developments created a growing perception that the state’s civilizational roots required renewed political assertion.


The emergence of decisive nationalist governance in Bengal in 2026 represents, for many observers, a watershed moment.


This transformation is widely interpreted not merely as a political turnover, but as a profound reassertion of Hindu political confidence in a region where such sovereignty had been absent since the fall of the Sena dynasty. For nationalist thinkers, this moment symbolises the democratic restoration of Bengal’s civilisational agency.


(The writer is a resident of Mumbai.)

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