India, July 13 -- Did this happen to Bengal, really?" This was the question among the tribe that has prided itself in standing apart and shaping the thoughts and culture of a State by sheer endowment of history than an interactive understanding of contemporary reality, namely the intellectual. Soon after the Lok Sabha verdict had announced the inevitable, that the syncretic liberalism that the State had been a product of was now slowly endorsing a majoritarian conservatism, Bengal's intellectuals began groping for explanations. And thrown into a sea of confusion from their ivory tower constructs, they clutched at the next best thing. Survival. Even if it meant changing perspectives overnight. If something had fallen, may be there was some...