Bangladeshi slur comes into play in row over feeding strays
Times of India | 7 September 2025
Kolkata: A confrontation erupted in Anandapur on Friday night, spotlighting two contentious issues — feeding stray dogs and the use of racial slurs against Bengalis.
Arup Dasgupta, a local resident, filed a police complaint after a youth allegedly insulted him with a racial slur, accusing him of being a Bangladeshi and sullying the environment by feeding stray dogs.
Dasgupta said he was still reeling from the shock of being labelled a Bangladeshi in his very city.
Despite the youth's accusations of environmental harm, other residents supported Dasgupta's actions. An accountant in a private firm, Dasgupta has been feeding strays since the pandemic.
Describing the incident, which began when a stray dog barked at a pet Spitz, leading to the youth's verbal attack, he said: "I usually feed two dogs that stay in our lane and four others that live on the main road around 10.30-11 pm.
Around 11 pm on Friday, when I was serving food to them, they spotted a Spitz and began barking. A youth and a man who appeared to be a domestic help were out to take the pet on a stroll. One of the strays excitedly ran towards the Spitz, but I called it back.
However, this enraged the youth who came over and started to hurl abuses at me and remarked that I was Bangladeshi filth who was sullying the environment."
Although the situation became heated, it did not escalate into a physical confrontation.
Dasgupta proceeded to Anandapur PS and lodged a general diary against the youth after narrating the incident. Police said they would attempt to mediate and ensure that there was no further flare-up.
A day after the incident, Dasgupta remained disturbed over the slur and said the issue of racial abuse against Bengalis in other parts of the country that he was reading about in newspapers had hit home following Friday night's incident.
"I read about an attar seller being branded a Bangladeshi in Tollygunge but thought that it was a stray incident involving some fringe elements. What happened on Friday night shows that it isn't a stray incident and that a section of people have no qualms being communal. This is extremely disturbing," he said.