Click to play videoNew Delhi: Kolkata's Burrabazar is considered the Mecca for the city's Marwari community. When they came to Kolkata decades ago this is where they all set up shop. Today they rub shoulders here with Punjabi, Gujarati and Bengali businessmen. But traditionally this has always been a Marwari bastion.
In the Burrabazar the Aggarwal family have been earning their livelihood for the last 65 years. Like many people before and after them the Aggarwals, who are from Rajasthan, came to Bengal to set up businesses.
Today they have six shops in Burrabazar and five generations work together.
Shop owner Vivek Aggarwal says, “I think we have done well in Bengal because we are better businessmen. Bengalis will shut down their shutters early but we work longer. We work harder.”
His 24-year-old brother Vishal has been honing his business acumen in this shop ever since he passed class XII. A fifth generation Marwari he is some times acutely aware of the undercurrents between Bengalis and Marwaris.
Vishal Agarwal says, “It's a thought echoed by a lot of these businessmen here but most of them just smile and wave away our cameras. Now being a Marwari suddenly means being associated with the Todis.”
Far away in Kolkata’s fish markets and buzzing bazaars an old animosity is rearing its ugly head. Traditionally it’s been the battle of them and us. Of Bengalis and Marwaris. The Priyanka - Rizwanur affair has made the faultiness even more apparent.
Almost as if it's a small victory he has orchestrated he says Ashok Todi's brand Lux cozy isn't doing too well any more.
But influential Marwari businessmen are very careful to ensure that they get identified as Kolkatans first and then as Marwaris.
Rahul Todi is your hip executive in a plush office in an upmarket neighbourhood in the city. He is today the heir to the multi crore Srachi Group that his grandfather set up five decades ago.
A third generation Marwari he is not surprised that Ashok Todi wanted his daughter to marry within the community.
It's a thought echoed by Vinod Bamalwa who will one day inherit one of Kolkata’s most well known Marwari jewellery shops on Theatre Road. Nemichand Bamalwa and Sons. He employs only Marwaris from the salesman to the doorman. The clan must stick together.
The battle today raging in Kolkata over Rizwanur and Priyanka is not a clash of communities. If it was then the Muslims of Tiljala would have spilled blood in Burrabazar. It's the battle of the rich versus the poor that the city is protesting against.
It's a campaign that started in this small room in Tiljala in Rizwanur’s house. But they didn't have to carry the torch for Rizwanur’s justice alone.
So far the middle class uprising has found its voice in cities like Delhi and Mumbai. But now sleepy laid back Kolkata has risen to the occasion to lend their heart, soul and time to a poor Muslim boy from Tiljala's narrow lanes.
Today the spot outside St. Xavier's College, where Rizwanur studied is referred to as the shrine. The posters cry out in anger, candles - a reminder that Kolkata will not let Rizwanur die.
Strangers come here and sing songs. Others come and leave a bunch of candles and markers for unknown faceless Kolkatans who may come along next. Why are they doing it?
Most of the names one can see on the posters are those who never knew Rizwanur. But every day every hour some one walks up to these posters and scrawls a message and a signature.
Kolkata is geared up to fight. Justice for Rizwanur is now a battle cry and is a war this city is bent on winning.
(For updates you can share with your friends, follow IBNLive on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and Pinterest)
More on IBNLive Right Now
TOP NEWS
MOST SHARED
PHOTOGALLERY
