Dear Moderator,
The attached article titled "Consumerism, corruption, and the corporate
hegemony" is for possible publication in your esteemed website.
With kind regards.
Md. Anwarul Kabir
Assistant Professor & Research Coordinator
Department of Computer Science
American International University-Bangladesh
Kemal Ataturk Avenue
Banani, Dhaka
Dhaka 1213
Bangladesh
9890415, 8815386 Fax 00 88 02 8813233
url: http://www.aiub.edu
alternative email: kabiranwar@yahoo.com
Thoughts of Pohela Baishakh: Bangla language and cultural heritage
Md. Anwarul Kabir
Following the Bangla calendar when the Pahela Baisakh comes and we step into a new year, we try to search our soul with a view to rediscovering our cultural heritage originated from this deltaic land mingled with the Bengali ethnicity. On this day, most of the Bengalis, especially those from the middle class are engrossed in nostalgic feelings, appreciating the glorious past of our nationhood.
Yes. Indeed, once upon a time we had the colourful cultural spectrum. Agro-based village society of the land had the multi-dimensional cultural aspects. Literally we observed, 'Baro masee tero parbon' (thirteen festivals in twelve months) based on various features of six seasons, religious festivity and other social issues. In secular manner once all Bengalis celebrated many festivals like Nabanna, Poush Mela, Chaitra Sankranti, Eid, Moharam, Durga Puja, Kali Puja and so on. Among these festivals, many were purely secular (e.g. Nabanna, Poush Mela) and some were religious. However, many of pure secular festivals like Nababna, Poush Mela, have been sent to the museum at the point of history when most of the solvent middle class people were urbanised keeping behind their past peasant roots in remote villages.
In the past, the boundary between religious communities was blur, especially in festivals. Hindus invited their fellow Muslim friends in their Pujas, conversely Hindus also participated as guests in the Muslim's events and at that time there was no social taboos as we sometime observe in our 'modern' time. In those days, Islam of the land did not raise any question whether that particular festival originated from Hindu religion and whether Muslims should be debarred from participation. The reason behind this lay in the way of preaching Islam which began in around the 14th century in this region. Most of the people who were converted into Islam in the erstwhile East Bengal were from the lower strata of the Hindu community and they were inspired by the 'Peers'/'Aowalias' who followed the Sufism, contrary to the orthodox view of the Islam. This Sufism stressed on a spiritual union with God and did not require its newest adherents to abandon their traditional beliefs and practice totally. So, the influence of the indigenous Bengali cultural practices is predominantly evident among the Muslim community in this region. For this, the majority of the Bengali Muslim maintained liberal outlook and traditionally believe in the principle of peaceful coexistence with other religious communities.
Amazingly, the era of drawing distinct communal boundaries in the domain of religious festivals has been initiated in independent Bangladesh, especially after the fall of Bangabandhu. The reason is no doubt political. Irony is that being a valiant freedom fighter, General Ziaur Rahman in the independent Bangladesh first encouraged communal politics against the spirit of independence by amending some of the constitutional provisions. General Ershad, following his predecessor dictator Zia, embedded Islam as the state religion in our original secular nature of constitution. These, in turn, have promoted orthodox Islamists in the society. In time, this orthodox group could efficiently influence, especially the younger generation in line with their own defined 'Islam.' The involvement of many youngsters in Bangla bhai-Shaikh Abdur Rahman led terrorism in the name of Islam in the recent past has justified this assertion.
Though over the time, we have lost some of our traditional festival days, still we can be proud of our addition of Ekushey as a very special day which grew out of love for our mother tongue Bangla. Language is the most powerful instrument for smooth propagation of cultural heritages from generation to generation. Bengali languages in the recent past has reached in such a position when we can confidently assert that this is an one of the richest language of the globe. Bengalis from both Bangladesh and India have promoted Bangla to that extent that we are about to establish Bangla in all aspects of our life, starting from education to other private and public domains. Unfortunately, if we asses the present scenario of Bangla practise, our outmost failure in this context will definitely be revealed.
At present, in day-to-day conversation, in general, many youngsters are using mangled Bangla infused with large scale English and Hindi vocabularies. In this context Farhad Mazhar (New Age February 2000), a noted poet and writer has asserted that the advertisement of various cellular phone companies capture the language of the urban middle-class youth which is mixed up with English, Hindi vocabularies to a large extent in Bengali dialect in order to appear smart and cool. This new Creole (popularly known as dejuice Bangla) has a greater impact on the everyday conversation of this generation. Even the electronic media, especially private FM band radio stations and some private TV channels, are promoting this sub culture of language practice in their different programs . In Bangla practice discourse, Syed Badrul Ahsan, an eminent columnist, (Daily Star, February 2008) has observed that proper pronunciations and accents of Bengali words are not being maintained by the new generation and the electronic media show little respect to the issue.
In academic domain also, we are promoting English, as all pervasive globalization dictates us to do so, otherwise we will lie behind in the present competitive world in all context. In fact, we wrongly perceive the globalization as one way traffic and we are only the receiving end. If we compare, Bangla with other modern languages then it can be asserted that it has all properties to be a global media for communication. However, this is our collective failure to resist the aggression of this neo-colonial linguistic practice.
Finally, if we really want to portray ourselves as a self esteemed nation then we must uphold the inherent essence of Bengali nationalism --- the secularism and Bangla language. For this, we have a long way to go. Mich/ael Billing (1995), a contemporary sociologist of the UK, in his book entitled 'Banal Nationalism' has suggested that if a nation wants to uphold its cultural aspects and heritage in the psyche of its people, continuous flagging of cultural aspects of that nation is a must. This assertion relates the popular Bengali songs, 'Ek tara bazaio na/ Dui tara bazaio na/ Ek tara bazaile mone poira jai/ ek din Bangali chhilam re' (Don't play ektara/Don't play duitara/The tunes of ektara reminds me/One time I was Bengali). So, if we want to instil our cultural heritage and traditions into the mindset of the people, we need to practise our cultural ethos in our everyday life. We need to beckon the people, especially the younger generation under the parasol of our own culture, exposing the richness of our cultural heritages and traditions.
Md. Anwarul Kabir is an educationalist, working at the Computer Science Department of AIUB and is a freelance writer.
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