The backstory: How language helped me cut through political minefield of reporting on Bengal polls

Malda was the imperial centre of medieval Bengal, seating the Palas, Senas and the Bengal sultanate. But today it is one of the poorest places in the subcontinent with, as it so happens, terrible roads.

After a particularly gruelling hour on the district’s roads, I requested my taxi driver to take a break at a small market town. I got down, stretched my legs and made a call in, as it so happens, in Hindi (we’ll come to why the language was important in a bit).

Why was I road tripping through Malda? I was reporting on the 2021 Bengal Assembly elections – the most bitterly fought polls after the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. The BJP was giving it its all, in terms of money and media outreach. And the Trinamool had battened down its hatches, as it called on its organisational apparatus and home advantage to try and see out this saffron surge.

A surprising view

I decided to utilise the pit stop to do some reporting. I was in a small, one-horse, largely Muslim town called Milki. Initial conversation revealed something startling. It seemed the Muslims of Milki, based on the sample group I was chatting with, were rather favourably inclined towards the BJP.

The saffron party had…

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