Portrait of a protester: When a commoner, and not a member of political or social outfit, joins the Kolkata marches

Damayanti Dasgupta joins Kolkata protests for justice, against corruption, and unity, emphasizing the importance of continuous activism.

Like any other Bengali from Kolkata, Damayanti Dasgupta grew up with the word michil, or procession, something the city is synonymous with, always having something to protest against. Even the standard war cry of the current Chief Minister is Dharmatala Cholo — march to Dharmatala — the place in central Kolkata where michils usually converge.

For a lay Kolkatan, the announcement of a big michil either means staying home ideally or avoiding that road like a plague. But today Ms. Dasgupta, neither an activist nor associated with any political ideology, is voluntarily participating in processions, be it in the dead of the night or under a scorching sun or in rain.

She has already participated in seven protest events in a span of two weeks, starting with the demonstrations that took place across Kolkata in the early hours of Independence Day, and will take part in three more marches this week: on Thursday (August 29, 2024), a procession from College Square to Dharmatala; and on Sunday (August 25, 2024) yet another michil on the same route and then a meeting at Lake Town. All she wants is justice — for the rape-murder of a post-graduate medical student at the R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital, a case that has triggered unprecedented public outcry in Kolkata, its tremors felt across the country.

“We have a 26-year-old daughter, our only child. We can feel from the core of our hearts what the parents of the brutalised young doctor are going through. This is the main reason behind my participation in these agitations — to seek justice,” Ms. Dasgupta, who is accompanied by her husband — and the not the other way around — to these protests, told The Hindu.

“I am also against the endless corruption at the R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital that is now coming into light and that is perhaps the main reason behind the brutality that the young doctor had to suffer. It does not matter whether the State police or CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation) is investigating the case. There are so many layers of corruption attached to it at so many levels that we, the common people, need to scream for justice,” she said.

Ms. Dasgupta, who has edited an anthology of travel writing by 19th century Bengali women and has also authored a biography of Abala Bose, the wife of scientist Jagadish Chandra Bose, said that she chooses to attend only those protests in which political parties are not directly involved.

“It is highly satisfying to see common people, irrespective of their social status or political and religious beliefs coming together with such intense emotion,” she said. “Never in my life have I participated in any social or political protest. But this incident shook me so much that I could not hold myself.”