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Monday, November 21, 2011

[ALOCHONA] Re: Dr. Dipu Moni's NY visit !!!!!!!!!!

I said it because I do mean it. You need not wish for me to mean it. Rather you should wish for a bright day when you can express your own political opinion freely.

The hypocrisy of our intellectual classes are a big part of the problem in Bangladesh. I complain about these classes and their hypocrisy all the time. I am not an intellectual.

I never said some should be accountable and others not. I said the government in particular should be held accountable. An elected minister condoning murder and an opposition scoundrel condoning murder - both must be held accountable but the minister's action is more serious.

Only in Bangladesh will they be seen as the same. As contextualised and normalised in democratic terms by hypocritic intellectuals.

Sincere chamchas tend to stick up for sincere chamchas. You can spot them in the oblique way they stick up for Dipu Moni.

Ezajur Rahman
Kuwait

--- In alochona@yahoogroups.com, shafiq013@... wrote:
>
>
> Well said and very well said about Jamaat. I wish you mean it also.
>
> Very unlike you, I don't claim to be an intellectual. And democrat,
> who told you "democracy means holding politicians accountable -
> particularly those running the country". Everyone should be
> accountable for his/her good or bad deeds. Be it be Politician (in
> position or in opposition), Bureaucrat, Engineers, Doctors and you name
> it.
>
> You are critical of Dipu Moni because she was hugging the PM very
> joyously. You said " She broke free from the group and hugged the PM
> with great happiness. Her happiness and the happiness of the PM, on
> finally making it to the US was clearly visible. Which is what you could
> only expect from a Bangladeshi PM and FM".
>
> Which is what you could only expect from a highly visionary Bangladeshi
> intellectual.
>
>
>
> Shafiq
>
>
>
>
>
>
> --- In alochona@yahoogroups.com, "ezajur" <Ezajur@> wrote:
> >
> >
> > Well what else could you say?
> >
> > Jamaat deserves to suffer for allowing Golam Azam, Nizami and Saydee
> to
> > lead it when they had such serious accusations against them.
> >
> > I want Jamaat leaders currently under trial to be found guilty so that
> > our country can move forward.
> >
> > I do not believe that Jamaat has a right to partake in electoral
> > politics.
> >
> > I do not believe that any Islamist party can claim divine guidance.
> >
> > Jamaat practices hypocrisy in its dealings with JP, AL and BNP.
> >
> > Shibbir should be prosecuted, even banned, for violence committed by
> > it's members.
> >
> > I joined my Sylheti brothers in blockading Saydee in East London
> Mosque
> > when he made outrageous statements.
> >
> > Jamaat needs reform just as much as BNP and AL.
> >
> > I am against creating division of our children between state education
> > and madrassahs.
> >
> > Jamaat has failed to take the moral lead on many issues - just as much
> > as AL and BNP.
> >
> > Jamaat has failed to promote Islam as a fundamentally moderate,
> > enlightened and forgiving religion.
> >
> > Jamaat places its strategic and commercial interests above the
> immediate
> > needs of our suffering poor.
> >
> > Jamaat has risen partly thanks to the failure of AL and BNP to claim
> the
> > moral lead in centre politics in Bangladesh.
> >
> > If Jamaat was in government and behaving wrongly I would, and could,
> > condemn it more than any closet AL supporter ever could.
> >
> > Jamaat stands against the Sufi traditions of Islam in Bangladesh. I
> > stand with these Sufi traditions.
> >
> > The point is it is not in government - AL is in government. And
> > democracy means holding politcians accountable - particularly those
> > running the country. Unless you are a Bongu - then you can talk crap
> > about everything else except your own political party and still claim
> to
> > be an intellectual and a democrat.
> >
> > Ezajur Rahman
> >
> > Kuwait
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > --- In alochona@yahoogroups.com, shafiq013@ wrote:
> > >
> > > Mere Dost. Don't be upset. We don't require X-ray eyes to know you.
> It
> > > is crystal clear that you are a Jamaat activist. Come on man admit
> it.
> > > You cannot hide it anymore.
> > > Shafiq
> > > --- In alochona@yahoogroups.com, "ezajur" Ezajur@ wrote:
> > > >
> > > > Sounds like you know everything about me too :)
> > > >
> > > > So x-ray eyes are needed for one Deshi to spot political bias in
> > > another Deshi. I didn't think this was a possibility :)
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > --- In alochona@yahoogroups.com, shafiq013@ wrote:
> > > > >
> > > > >
> > > > >
> > > > >
> > > > >
> > > > > The man with x-ray eyes. He is eye-witness of everything. Sub
> kuch
> > > janta
> > > > > hai mera ya dost. Aacha aadmi hai magar Natri ne mar dia.
> > > > >
> > > > >
> > > > >
> > > > >
> > > > > Shafiq
> > > > >
> > > > >
> > > > >
> > > > > --- In alochona@yahoogroups.com, "ezajur" <Ezajur@> wrote:
> > > > > >
> > > > > >
> > > > > > Spoken like a true blind closet supporter of AL who serves his
> > > > > ideology
> > > > > > by diffusing, diluting and diverting criticism of his Nethri J
> > > > > >
> > > > > >
> > > > > >
> > > > > > Never criticizing her, her says her critics love her
> > > > > >
> > > > > > Never saying anything, he says others have nothing to say
> > > > > >
> > > > > > Never being able to speak about his politics, he call others
> > `poor
> > > > > > fellow'
> > > > > >
> > > > > >
> > > > > >
> > > > > > Haireh Bangal J
> > > > > >
> > > > > >
> > > > > >
> > > > > > --- In alochona@yahoogroups.com, Shafiq Ahmad shafiq013@
> wrote:
> > > > > > >
> > > > > > > I told you. Poor fellow. He seems to be in love with Natris.
> > > Cannot
> > > > > > live without it. Or nothing much to say.
> > > > > > >
> > > > > > > Shafiq
> > > > > > >
> > > > > > > ________________________________
> > > > > > > From: ezajur Ezajur@
> > > > > > > To: alochona@yahoogroups.com
> > > > > > > Sent: Friday, October 28, 2011 2:24 AM
> > > > > > > Subject: [ALOCHONA] Re: Dr. Dipu Moni's NY visit !!!!!!!!!!
> > > > > > >
> > > > > > >
> > > > > > > Â
> > > > > > > Ah! The closet nethrist returns! Actually I didn't use the
> > word
> > > > > Nethri
> > > > > > but your appearance has reminded me of the term :)
> > > > > > >
> > > > > > > Hows your Nethri doing?
> > > > > > >
> > > > > > > --- In alochona@yahoogroups.com, shafiq013@ wrote:
> > > > > > > >
> > > > > > > >
> > > > > > > > As if he was present there. Must be day-dreaming. People
> who
> > > make
> > > > > > such
> > > > > > > > remarks forget Dr. Goebbels tactics does work all the
> time.
> > > > > Believe
> > > > > > me
> > > > > > > > I know what will be his response. He will again take the
> > > refuge
> > > > > > behind
> > > > > > > > the word "Natri".
> > > > > > > >
> > > > > > > > Shafiq
> > > > > > > > --- In alochona@yahoogroups.com, "ezajur" <Ezajur@> wrote:
> > > > > > > > >
> > > > > > > > > Not really. It is possible that her visa was
> deliberately
> > > held
> > > > > up
> > > > > > in
> > > > > > > > Washington for the past few months in order to make a
> point.
> > > Just
> > > > > > > > because she got it in the end is no justified cause for
> > > gloating
> > > > > on
> > > > > > your
> > > > > > > > part.
> > > > > > > > >
> > > > > > > > > When the plane door opened at JFK and the PM took her
> > first
> > > step
> > > > > > into
> > > > > > > > the narrow passage, Dipu Moni could not control her joy.
> She
> > > broke
> > > > > > free
> > > > > > > > from the group and hugged the PM with great happiness. Her
> > > > > > happiness,
> > > > > > > > and the happiness of the PM, on finally making it to the
> US
> > > was
> > > > > > clearly
> > > > > > > > visible.
> > > > > > > > >
> > > > > > > > > Which is what you could only expect from a Bangaldeshi
> PM
> > > and
> > > > > FM.
> > > > > > > > >
> > > > > > > > > Ezajur Rahman
> > > > > > > > > Kuwait
> > > > > > > > >
> > > > > > > > >
> > > > > > > > >
> > > > > > > > > --- In alochona@yahoogroups.com, Muhammad Ali
> manik195709@
> > > > > wrote:
> > > > > > > > > >
> > > > > > > > > > Dear All,
> > > > > > > > > >
> > > > > > > > > > FM Dr. Dipu Moni was in NY for a short visit. Her
> visit
> > > was a
> > > > > > slap
> > > > > > > > to the relentless fradulent propaganda by Abu Jafar and
> gang
> > > for
> > > > > > last
> > > > > > > > few months regarding denial of her visa to enter US. Now
> we
> > > demand
> > > > > > Abu
> > > > > > > > Jafar, Mohiuddin Anwar and others to come up with good
> > > explanation
> > > > > > > > > > about this visit.
> > > > > > > > > >
> > > > > > > > > > Dr. Manik
> > > > > > > > > >
> > > > > > > > >
> > > > > > > >
> > > > > > >
> > > > > >
> > > > >
> > > >
> > >
> >
>


------------------------------------

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[ALOCHONA] South Asia’s water: Unquenchable thirst



South Asia's water: Unquenchable thirst


A growing rivalry between India, Pakistan and China over the region's great rivers may be threatening South Asia's peace

SONAULLAH PHAPHO has spent half a century picking a living from Wular lake high in Indian-controlled Kashmir. Today he is lucky if he scoops a fish or two out of the soupy mess. Push a boat into the knee-deep lake and the mud raises a stink of sewage. A century ago Wular and its surrounding marshes covered more than 217 square kilometres (84 square miles), making it one of Asia's larger freshwater lakes. Now, thanks to silt and encroachment, the extraction of water by nearby towns and tree planting on the shore, it measures only 87 sq km and is shrinking.

Compared with much of South Asia, Kashmir, a disputed territory in northern India, has many rivers and relatively few people. But even here fresh water is running short. To see how contentious this can be, drive half a day south to where the Baglihar dam (shown above) is rising up. An enormous wall bisects the valley, dressing it in white spray, and three huge jets of water blast from its sluices.

Half complete, the dam is already a local wonder that tourists gape at. It generates 450MW for the starved energy grid of Jammu and Kashmir. Once the scheme fully tames the water, by steering it through a tunnel blasted into the mountain, the grid will gain another 450MW.

The river swirls away, white-crested and silt-laden, racing to the nearby border with Pakistan. But there Baglihar is a source of bitterness. Pakistanis cite it as typical of an intensifying Indian threat to their existence, a conspiracy to divert, withhold or misuse precious water that is rightfully theirs. Officials in Islamabad and diplomats abroad are primed to grumble about it. Pakistan's most powerful man, the head of the armed forces, General Ashfaq Kayani, cites water to justify his "India-centric" military stance.

Others take it further. "Water is the latest battle cry for jihadis," says B.G. Verghese, an Indian writer. "They shout that water must flow, or blood must flow." Lashkar-e-Taiba, a Pakistani terror group, likes to threaten to blow up India's dams. Last year a Pakistani extremist, Abdur Rehman Makki, told a rally that if India were to "block Pakistan's waters, we will let loose a river of blood."

Assorted hardliners cheer them on. A blood-curdling editorial in Nawa-i-Waqt, a Pakistani newspaper, warned in April that "Pakistan should convey to India that a war is possible on the issue of water and this time war will be a nuclear one."

Upstream such outbursts are usually dismissed as proof that troubled Pakistan is, as ever, spoiling for a fight. Water is merely the latest excuse. India is not misbehaving, says Mr Verghese placidly. It fails to take all it is entitled to from cross-border rivers in Kashmir. Run-of-the-river dams like Baglihar consume nothing, since water must flow to run turbines. Such a dam, he says, merely briefly delays a river.

Indians point out, too, that Pakistan enjoys a rare guarantee: the Indus Water Treaty, struck in 1960 by far-sighted engineers and diplomats who saw that after the partition of land, water had to be shared out too. The treaty, which has survived three wars, details exactly how each side must use cross-border rivers. Mostly this applies to the tributaries that flow from Kashmir to form the massive Indus river, Pakistan's lifeblood.

If Indians abide by the treaty, then in theory at least they cannot be misbehaving. They see Baglihar as proof of co-operation, not a threat. When Pakistan objected to the dam's design, India accepted international arbitration, the first case in the treaty's history. Outside experts studied the dam and ordered small changes. But in effect they said it posed no threat to Pakistan. And last year the dispute was officially ended by the two governments.

Downstream, however, few sound satisfied. "The Baglihar decision…allowed a reservoir on a river coming into Pakistan, and now a precedent is set," laments John Briscoe, a water expert formerly of the World Bank who advises Pakistan. The Pakistanis fear Indian control over the headwaters of the Indus. And Indian bureaucrats fuel these fears with obsessive secrecy about all water data.

Bashir Ahmad, a geologist in Srinagar, Kashmir who studied the Baglihar dam, gives grim warning about the Indians' future intentions: "They will switch the Indus off to make Pakistan solely dependent on India. It's going to be a water bomb." A less excitable report in February by America's Senate offered a similar assessment: "The cumulative effect of [many dam] projects could give India the ability to store enough water to limit the supply to Pakistan at crucial moments in the growing season." Dams are a source of "significant bilateral tension", the report concludes.

More dams are to come, as India's need to power its economy means it is quietly spending billions on hydropower in Kashmir. The Senate report totted up 33 hydro projects in the border area. The state's chief minister, Omar Abdullah, says dams will add an extra 3,000MW to the grid in the next eight years alone. Some analysts in Srinagar talk of over 60 dam projects, large and small, now on the books.

Any of these could spark a new confrontation. The latest row is over the Kishanganga river (called the Neelum in Pakistan) as each country races to build a hydropower dam either side of Kashmir's line of control. India's dam will divert some of the river down a 22km (14-mile) mountain tunnel to turbines. To Pakistani fury, that will lessen the water flow to the downstream dam, so its capacity will fall short of a planned 960MW.

Pakistan also claims (though the evidence is shaky) that 600,000 people will suffer by getting less water for irrigation. Again it insisted on international arbitration at The Hague. In September, to Pakistani delight, India was ordered to suspend some of its building for further assessments to be made. But India still looks likelier to come away happy in the end, as the treaty foresaw and permitted the Indian design, and India is likely to finish its dam ahead of Pakistan in any case, by 2016 rather than 2018.

When China's upstream

Countries downstream have genuine reasons to fret. Pakistan is exposed. Like Egypt it exists around a single great river, though the Indus is nearly twice the Nile's size when it reaches the sea. It waters over 80% of Pakistan's 22m hectares (54m acres) of irrigated land, using canals built by the British. In turn that farming provides 21% of the country's GDP, as well as livelihoods for a big proportion of its 180m people. Many of them are already thirsty.

On average each Indian gets just 1,730 cubic metres of fresh water a year, less than a quarter of the global average of 8,209 cubic metres. Yet that looks bountiful compared with each Pakistani's share: a mere 1,000 cubic metres. Worse yet, South Asia's fresh water mostly falls in a few monsoon months. The dreadful floods this year and last showed that untamed and unpredictable rivers can be both resource and threat.

More rows between India and Pakistan are certain. India may keep on dismissing them as Pakistani bluster, an easy thing to do if you are upstream. But India is downstream in another highly tricky area: its border with China.

Tension already exists over the status of India's Arunachal Pradesh state, which China refuses to recognise. A quarrel over rivers in the region could serve as a focus for wider disputes about territory. A measure of the recent slump in relations came when, to the fury of India's authorities, China blocked an attempt by the Asian Development Bank to prepare for a dam project in Arunachal Pradesh. And one of India's largest rivers, the Brahmaputra (Tsangpo in China), flows south from the Tibetan plateau and into Assam not far from the disputed land.

Angry Indian politicians, activists, bloggers and journalists claim that water-starved China (with 8% of the world's fresh water but 20% of its population) has plans to divert the Tsangpo/Brahmaputra to farmers in its central and eastern regions. Feelings are running so high that India's prime minister, Manmohan Singh, felt obliged to issue a statement on August 4th saying that China's leaders had assured him there were no such plans afoot. And though a few run-of-the-river hydroelectric schemes are being built upstream on the Tsangpo, none of these could change the river's course. Cool heads point out that speculation about China channelling the torrent from near the border, at a spot known as the Great Bend, looks fantastical, at least at present.

Chinese engineers would need to use nuclear explosions to have a chance of making tunnels through a series of ridged mountains to get water east from the Great Bend. Although plans have existed since the fourth century to take water from China's west to the east, and the scheme was pushed by Mao Zedong, the engineering, at least for now, appears to be technically impossible. Yet broader Indian strategic fears—the fact that the Chinese control the Tibetan plateau, which is the source of water for parts of densely populated northern India—will evaporate no more easily than Pakistani fears of India.

An ever-thirstier region

The scarcity of water in South Asia will become harder to manage as demand rises. South Asia's population of 1.5 billion is growing by 1.7% a year, says the World Bank, which means an extra 25m or so mouths to water and feed: imagine dropping North Korea's entire population on the region each year. Greater wealth in South Asia brings with it a soaring demand for food, especially for water-intensive meat and other protein. Industry and energy-producers also use water, though unlike farms they return it, eventually, to the rivers.

Worse, overall supply will not only fail to keep up with rising demand but is likely to fall (unless a cheap way is found to turn sea water fresh). The Himalayan glaciers are melting. A Dutch study last year of the western Himalayas reckoned that shrunken glaciers will cut the flow of the Indus by some 8% by mid-century. Flows may also get less regular, especially if glacial dams form, withholding water, and then collapse, causing floods.

Others give even scarier predictions. Sundeep Waslekar, who heads a Mumbai think-tank, the Strategic Foresight Group, which has picked water as a long-term threat to Asian stability, sees a "mega-arc of hydro insecurity" emerging from western China along the Himalayas to the Middle East and farther west. The strain of bigger populations, diminishing water tables and a changing climate could all conspire to produce a storm of troubles. South Asia is especially vulnerable: Mr Waslekar sees a cut of 20% in total available fresh water over the next two decades.

The greatest threat of all would be from any change to the monsoon, which delivers most of the region's fresh water each summer. Here, again, worries arise. Indian meteorologists who have studied rainfall data from 1901 to 2004 have noted signs in recent decades of more dry spells within the peak monsoon months. If these lead to weaker, or less predictable, monsoons in future (though this year's was about normal) the consequences for farmers could be dire.

In any case, the cost of running short of water is already becoming clearer. The Lancet, a British medical journal, reported last year that up to 77m Bangladeshis had been poisoned by arsenic—the largest mass-poisoning in history. It was the result of villagers pumping up groundwater from ever deeper aquifers. The same poison is now entering crops and more of the food chain.

Filthy water and bad sanitation spread diseases, such as diarrhoea and cholera, which kill hundreds of thousands of Indian children every year, says Unicef, the UN's children's agency. Several South Asian rivers, suffering from weaker flows, have become a sludge of human and animal waste, dangerous to drink and wash in and unsafe even for watering crops.

All over the region water tables are dropping as bore holes drive deeper. In the dry season even some of the larger rivers slow to a trickle. Knut Oberhagemann, a water expert in Dhaka, Bangladesh, says that the flow of the mighty Ganges where it enters Bangladesh is at times a pitiful few hundred cubic metres a second, so low that "you can walk across the river". When the same river, at this point called the Padma, reaches the coast, it is often so feeble that the sea intrudes, poisoning the land with salt.

The same problem curses the delta of the Indus in Pakistan. There a semi-desert was turned into some of the most fertile land on earth by British-built irrigation canals. But as the sea encroaches on low, flat land, rivers at times are flowing backwards, laments a local environmental activist. Take away the fresh water—around 60% of which is now lost to seepage and evaporation because of the bad management of those canals—and the desert will eventually come back.

Save or snatch

Governments in South Asia can respond to growing scarcity in one of two ways. The first is to improve the way they use the water they have, both by managing it better and by co-operating with one another. The second is to try to grab as much water as they can from their neighbours.

Better management of irrigation canals and better farming techniques would help hugely to cut waste. In Pakistan bitter rows between provinces have long scotched coherent planning. Wealthy Punjab, a big farming province, is routinely accused by downstream Sindh (and by others too) of taking an unfair share of the water.

And Pakistan badly needs more dams to control floods, store monsoon water and make electricity (China is said to have offered to help Pakistan build a series of big dams, and has already sent engineers to help speed along the new one on the Neelum/Kishanganga). Only about 10% of the potential hydropower of the Indus has been tapped so far, and only 30 days' average river flow can be stored (by contrast, the Colorado in America has dams to store 1,000 days'-worth).

Many governments are at least thinking in terms of dams and co-operation. Mr Waslekar reckons that 60-80 big dams (mostly for energy) will be built in South Asia in the next two or three decades, at a cost of hundreds of billions of dollars. In many cases—as for example in mountainous Bhutan, where the economy gets a huge boost from selling hydropower to India—this can foster economic and diplomatic co-operation. India has visions of one day persuading unstable but immensely water-rich Nepal to follow suit. The country is the source of more than 40% of the Ganges's water, and Indian analysts talk dreamily of 40GW of hydropower potential waiting to be used.

Other cross-border water deals are pending. Cosy ties with Bangladesh's government mean that India can more easily build dams on some of the several dozen rivers that cross their shared frontier. In September Mr Singh visited Dhaka to sign a deal with Bangladesh to allow the latest hydro dam to go up on the Teesta river. Though the deal was postponed at the last minute by a row with a regional Indian leader, it now looks set to go ahead. However there are bitter memories in Bangladesh of an earlier deal, on the Ganges, which allowed India to put up a barrage to block the river's flow in the dry season.

Tentative signs of wider co-operation exist. China issues twice-daily reports on the Tsangpo river flow in the flood season, separately to India and to Bangladesh. This could be seen as encouraging, if the two giants of the region wished to consider getting together over water. Indeed if full-scale friendliness were ever sought, an immense opportunity awaits.

Mr Verghese points out that the Tsangpo/Brahmaputra falls 2,450 metres (8,000 feet) over a few kilometres in China just before it reaches the Indian border. Send it through a 100km tunnel from the Tibetan plateau down to Assam and an enormous 54,000MW could be generated. One day its power could light not only much of north-east India and Bangladesh, but nearby Myanmar and beyond. Such a mega-structure would become a keystone for regional co-operation.

It will almost certainly never be built. Analysts have suggested that, given the generally dire relations between South Asian countries, water will provoke clashes rather than co-operation. A 2009 report for the CIA concluded that "the likelihood of conflict between India and Pakistan over shared river resources is expected to increase", though it added that elsewhere in the region "the risk of armed interstate conflict is minor". And a Bangladeshi security expert, Major-General Muniruzzaman, predicts that India's "coercive diplomacy", its refusal to negotiate multilaterally on such issues as river-sharing, means that "if ever there were a localised conflict in South Asia, it will be over water."

http://www.economist.com/node/21538687




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Re: [ALOCHONA] RE: Background of 'Amar Sonar Bangla'



Rabindranath Tagore – The Poet And The Man An Analytical Perspective

By Mohammad Abdullah

Rabindranath Tagore is the greatest literary figure in Bengali language. He is often regarded as Rabi Thakur or Tagore having a number of revered titles as he remains the only hero in the Bengali language. In a period of over sixty-six years he has generated massive, 40 exactly, volume of literary treaties consisting of at least 1000 poems, some 2800 songs, 400+ short stories, 100+ sonnets, some 100 novels, about 24 dramas and dance-dramas, 8 romantic fictions, and the list goes on. He has also written on philosophy, theology, politics, social questions, autobiographical sketches and memoirs, languages, and even on science and technology.

Like a literary production machine Tagore rolled the pen throughout his self-devoted long career in a wide spread arena of the Bengali literature as a whole and filled much of the empty spots. He was also versatile in translating his own writings into English and used several other languages to translate in Bengali for himself. In the history of mankind, perhaps, there is no other example of such a myriad-minded man concerning contributions in every branch within the literature world. Nobody knows if there could be anyone in the future who would match this genius with such a gigantic versatility and volume. This is what a large section of Bengali-speaking people, living in Bangladesh and in the Indian Province of West Bengal, strongly believes. It takes much of time to go through Rabindranath's each piece and evaluate them precisely. It is not an easy task to absorb this massive contribution by a single interested reader.

Tagore is also the only global writer who has the honour of having his two distinctly different songs as the National Anthems of two independent countries of the world, India adopting one of his songs in 1947 after achieving independence from the British rule and then Bangladesh adopting another one in 1972 after seceding from Pakistan in 1971. It is an unparallel example of adopting each song as the National Anthem for two countries after his death. Till to date Tagore's popularity is enormous, though often goes blindly with or without understanding his exact contribution to the Bengali literature.

Throughout West Bengal as a whole and in some scattered levels in Bangladesh, Tagore is considered not only as a writer or as a poet but an unparalleled universal literary genius or giant. Invariably Tagore is still a controversial figure within some levels inside Bangladesh which began in post-independence period from the British in 1947. Till to date many Bangladeshis do not know his name correctly, and then what for he is regarded or revered within Bangladesh this is also not clear. In fact, Tagore is so unfamiliar to the common mass that he needs to be familiarized at all walks of life. This massive population did never get access to read Tagore's works or visualize the size of his contribution to the Bengali literature.

Thus, acclamatory documents on his works and biographical sketches are being published each year exactly in the manner as his own literary production used to come out from the printing press when he was alive. Most of the Bengali-speaking people are amazed by Tagore's extra-ordinary talent, and many now accept and often as a religious rite believe, that Tagore was not only a great poet but the "guru of the poets (Kobi-Guru)" and "the poet of the universe (Bishwa-Kobi)." One example of this belief was very loudly and clearly proclaimed by none but one of the most famous writers of the History of Bengali literature, Sukumer Sen. He mentioned profoundly his verdict on Tagore as: "Tagore's poetry is as much Bengali poetry as Indian, and as much Indian as universal, because he has gone to the deepest where the stream of eternal life runs, the ultimate source of creation and continuation of life in every form."

Such commentaries on Tagore are not isolated acclamations but common assertions on the poet by many Bengali-speaking writers and critics, famous and obscure, especially after he won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1913. A careful but neutral judgement on the poet, however, may sadly prove the given dictum very much over exaggerated if not totally nonsense.

During the united Pakistan era when Bangladesh was the Eastern part of Pakistan, political leadership of the Western wing and their ruling appointees in the then East Pakistan always down played Tagore's importance in the Bangladeshi cultural life stating no obvious reason. Thus, they initiated directly in developing a group of irrational and overzealous supporters of Tagore in Bangladesh while this group was concurrently opposing cultural domination by the Western part of Pakistan. There were reasons, rightly or wrongly, for their ill attempt but now Bangladesh is an independent nation and there is no reason why Bangladeshis cannot and should not judge Tagore and evaluate his contributions in proper perspective having neutral vision. What Bengali-speaking population of West Bengal does, that is their business but let Bangladeshis be rational and adjudge Tagore as it is justified.

The Bengali-speaking people strongly believe that Tagore's contribution to the Bengali literature is great but many of them are dismayed to find the way his greatness has been exaggerated by overzealous Bengali writers and critiques both in West Bengal and in Bangladesh. Thus, a proper evaluation of the fact delineated from the massive volumes of Tagore would place the Bengali-speaking people in a right corner, and then one should see the poet and the man from the global perspective. This is certainly the most desirable approach for every body, both in Bangladesh and in West Bengal as such a correct evaluation would not underscore Tagore's talent but take leverage, and thereby benefit the global readers to advance more to sanity and less to emotional slants and prejudices.

While considering Tagore's disposition as a "guru of the poets (or Kobi-Guru)" at all times people seriously need to ponder and see to what extent the underlying concept of this title is globally appropriate. Several serious questions, whatever congenial or unpleasant it may be, need to be addressed to find a correct conclusion. As members of the Bengali-speaking society and also as contemporary global members one needs to do so for the sake of rendering justice to Tagore as well as to the Bengali-speaking people.

Rabindranath was the youngest of the fourteen children of his wealthy parents. He was born in Calcutta on May 8, 1861 (corresponding to 25th Baisakh, 1268 B.S.). Sometimes his birth date is recorded as May 6 or 7, 1861 and often coincides with May 9 for B. S. leap year, but the date in Bangla Saal (B.S.) remains fixed as 25th Baisakh. His father, Debendranath Tagore (known as Maharishi), wanted him to be an advocate but Rabindranath did not like to attend the school. As a student, apparently, he was not very promising either by showing weakness nearly in all the distinct subjects such as Mathematics, History, Geography, etc. Despite visiting England with his father at the age of 7 in 1868 he was reluctant in studying in the regular school. He began learning things at home, and his rich father encouraged his home schooling. Tagore wrote his first verse at the age of 12. His first publication came out when he was 14, and he continued writing relentlessly until he died on August 7, 1941 (corresponding to 22nd Srabon 1348 B.S.).

He had enormous capacity for writing but most of it, sadly, became banal and at best sentimental assertions of themes and substances. When one compares Tagore with other great world class poets and novelists one can easily draw that moderate conclusion. Some critics even described Tagore's verses as "greeting card poetry." That is too much to think of a hostile and a very unkind remark. But the fact remains that his poetry has very little originality if one measures his contributions with outstanding poets in other languages like Shakespeare (1564 – 1616) or Goethe (1749 – 1832).

There are many poets in the world those who are more gifted and versatile in many respects than Tagore. Thus, he may be the 'Kobi Guru' in Bengali literary domain but to imply that decoration in world's literary context, which often some people do, is utter nonsense or absolutely invalid. His novels and dramas are excellent if one compares his works with other Bengali novelists and dramatists but certainly these never come close to Leo Tolstoy's (1828 - 1910) or George Bernhard Shaw's (1856 - 1950) class. Both of them overlapped and termed as his contemporary, one being a great novelist and the other an exalted dramatist.

Some people strongly believe that Tagore has annexed many lyrics from Lalan Shah (1773? - 1889), the great mystic of medieval undivided Bengal and put them into new format for which he was a great original master. To collect Lalan's unwritten poems Tagore conducted rampant search by making payments to the poor peasants, mostly Muslims, across the former district of Kushtia and adjoining areas. This only happened after the demise of Lalan while Tagore became Zamindar of the same district almost at the same time.

Tagore was, indeed, a great craftsman in Bengali language. He knew well as how to modify or repair things and present ingeniously the resulting substance to the audience. It is extremely difficult to corner Tagore and then confirm whether he had been the architect of restructuring and refurbishing the Persian giants having a new appearance such as Ferdousi (940? - 1020?) or Omar Khaiyyam (1050? - 1123?) or Sheikh Sa'adi (1174? – 1291?) or Tabrizi (1184? - 1247?) or Balkhi (?1207 - 1273?) or Hafiz (1320? - 1389?), and vice versa imagining them as contemporaries. Tagore was well-versed in Persian and was always in touch with the works of these Persian giants.

Tagore's controversy on Lalan Shah (Lalan Fakir) or the aforementioned Persian poets is a kind of illusion to the general readers. Through his great and unchallenged quality craftsmanship Tagore created works and presented them so marvellously that it seemed to be very original, and thereby he did surpass all other writers in Bengali literature of his time and writers to come even until the present day. He had no parallel in Bengali language that could graft words or phrases or use adjectives or verbs or synonyms so appropriately. Indeed he gave a new format and style in the Bengali language. He used many new words of foreign origin in Bengali including their spellings. Also new way to spell several Bengali words had been introduced by him. His way of using words and their spellings are now a kind of norm in Bengali literature.

Overall, Tagore's expression was new, very graceful, and quite enchanting considering the time-space-era when he started writing in Bengali. It was the time when Bengali was still a developing language and was just getting a solid format with direct help and involvement of many European scholars. In this context it is worthwhile to mention that Sir Drinkwater Bethune (circa 1865) encouraged Michael Modhusudan Dutt (1824 – 1873) after reading "Captive Ladie" to contribute in his mother language rather than spending time on founding English literature. Nevertheless, this was the beginning of the foundation of the Bengali language concerning several directions of literature.

The sonnets of Michael Modhusudan Dutta competed ruthlessly by Tagore, which equalled in number but indeed lacked in quality or skill or underlying appeal to the sophisticated audience. Thus, the number was matched to just about 102 without having versatility or quality. For the sake of matching, Tagore matched the number with Michael Modhusudan nicely but did not achieve the variability or versatility of the sonnets. Invariably the impact as a sonnet writer Tagore does not become the front runner.

The versatility of Michael Modhusudan to compose six distinctly different subjects (or topics) giving dictation simultaneously was totally absent in the myriad quality of Tagore. Invariably Tagore's handling manner was sequential and rather steady as evidence suggests. Even a miniaturized poet like Kazi Nazrul Islam (1899 – 1976) had the novelty of instant writing and singing a song or generating a poem in front of the public function, and then recite, was utmost rare in Tagore.

Composition of a song in front of public was a sort of panic for this poet Laureate. He needed traditional cushion and writing amusement around him to produce or compose anything he wanted. Indeed Tagore cannot be compared with such extempore production qualities as what inherently Michael or Nazrul had. Michael was heavily influenced by the European literature and he used the concept and the style of Italian, German, French, and English literature freely while Nazrul imported a bunch of foreign words only in his poems and songs giving a new dimension to the Bengali literature making more melodious and rhythmic.

Concerning the production of songs, Tagore provided a unique singular type tune which does not differ drastically from one to the other. Thus, variation is either nearly absent or difficult to visualize in these songs. Common listeners have difficulty in comprehending the essence of Tagore's songs. These listeners do not find inherent rhythm outright as listening continues. It requires extra miles to digest complete wording before anything is comprehended by any ordinary listener of the music. Thus, unless a listener is equally levelled with Tagore it is extremely difficult to digest the songs for any ordinary fan speaking Bengali language. The nature of rhythm and melody made Nazrul versatile having a large margin of superseding number over Tagore having a broad appealing quality. Such a quality is totally absent in Tagore while the admirers blossom with the heavenly praise of unique one-dimensional melody.

Tagore also read and subsequently drew ideas and themes heavily from Sanskrit, Persian, Arabic, and old scriptures including medieval European literary wealth. He had complete access to the contemporary global literature which often became a sort of challenge for him whether to supersede. Is superseding taking place in quality or quantity? As an example, Tagore continued production of short stories regardless of quality and eventually reached a milestone that surpassed Guy Maupassant (1848 – 1893). Only a few out of massive number of short stories are of quality and the rest do not match with other contributors for a single language contribution.

Thus, Bengali-speaking people do not recollect a chunk of the short stories other than about a dozen or so. Only too few to name were attracted by the film makers during his life time. The same situation prevails for the novels as well. But nonetheless Tagore proved to be a formidable poet, novelist, and songwriter in Bengali language. Indeed, once again, nobody came close to him in Bengali literature in generating volumes and thereby quantity alone. At this conjecture one may know that he had extraordinary memory for composing rhymes and generating rhythms which he exercised to produce grafted and crafted products.

Considering both the quantity and the type of quality within Bengali literature alone Tagore is invariably a great figure. However, this cannot make him a single-handed the "greatest of all" dramatist or the novelist or the short-story writer or the poet of the world. Overplaying of things is not good for any single society or even for the mankind. By exaggerating the greatness of Tagore's works many blind admirers in West Bengal as well as in Bangladesh have made his works laughing objects to serious critiques.

Tagore introduced new style in his texts that was simple in reading or often to understand but highly ornamental, powerful, and obviously to the sharp point. Often the underlying theme is quite difficult to comprehend by an ordinary reader. This was the ornamental aspect of his literary championship. Thus, the first 40 years of the Twentieth Century became Tagore's nearly unchallenged monopoly. He is the deserving candidate for his great ability of crafting new format for the Bengali language and writing on borrowed ideas and themes from every corner of the world. The borrowed ideas are often so severely masked in the Bengali-speaking world that it is difficult to point out the portions that are modified and ornamented by Tagore. The workmanship is indeed marvellous for Tagore.

Tagore's inherited wealth allowed him to use the way he wanted to acquire championship. Thus, family wealth helped him to buy fame in England as well as in the Bengali-speaking domain. He kept driving extra miles in the European soil to sell his supremacy before becoming Nobel Laureate. Eventually his hard working salesmanship earned him the eventual fame. But making him the supreme poet of the world must be more fantasy of some generous admirers than any authentic finding of any serious expertise.

The noted glamorous poet, Tagore, is also greatly admired by many blind supporters as the "Bishwa Kobi – the poet of the universe." But sadly, majority of his poetry do not come to the world class standard if they are truly classified and compared to many other giants in other languages. He has many poems, as some critics wrote, are very good to be "greeting card poetry."

However, it would be wrong not to appreciate some of his poems and short stories that are indeed top class literary works, and surely has crossed the "Bengali domain" to draw universal appeal. His songs are also very special and it has no doubt won the hearts of both Bengali-speaking and many non Bengali-speaking populations of the world. However, his songs are often too far from the level of understanding for a common Bengali-speaking person. In modern Bangladesh, the essence of the melody and rhythm of the National Anthem is hardly comprehended by its total uneducated people including a large cross-section of the educated group.

The educated group of Bangladesh tries hard to pronounce as correctly as possible for the National Anthem but it had hardly gained popularity in over the last three decades. The generic phase lag in utterances of the phrases of this Anthem is overall tedious. It is absolutely difficult to fathom this National Anthem by the common mass of Bangladesh. Here again, overzealous admirers have crossed the boundary and made Tagore vulnerable to serious critics. If one reads Shakespeare (1564 – 1616) or Milton (1608 – 1674) or Cowley (1618 – 1667) or Pope (1688 – 1744) or Cowper (1731 – 1800) or Shelley (1792 – 1822) or Keats (1795 – 1821) or Wordsworth (1770 – 1850) or Thackeray (1811 – 1863) or Longfellow (1807 – 1882) or Tennyson (1809 - 1892) or Whitman (1819 – 1892) shall hardly find any format of the "greeting card" poetry.

These are only too few to name in the English literature as the rest of the world languages are left out. Each of these poets had some sort of speciality with their poems (in a single domain) comprising of finest words and their order but that is not so when one goes through Tagore's creation. Similar observation could be comprehensible when one wanders with Gorky (1868 – 1936) or Dostoevosky (1821 – 1881) or even Pasternak (1890 – 1960). Among the contemporary champions Rudyard Kipling (1865 – 1939) gave a new horizon where English literature saw the role of the foreign characters viewed by the colonial rulers.

The era Tagore found around him for his whole life was circumvented with British ruling necklace. His literary contribution did not focus the concept of the liberation struggle of his homeland from such a foreign master. He neither supported the freedom methodologies against the British nor talked against it although many contemporaries sharply used their pen against the British colonialism. Was he a coward poet Laureate? Was he a shy person to proclaim that he needed freedom from occupation of the British? This is the difference with many freedom loving writers and poets in other languages. For genuine cause Gorky is remembered by his compatriots for their release from dictatorial climate.

Nazrul may be viewed as the rebel of the soil for identical cause. However, Tagore did not restrict to visualise the possibility of internal conflicts that might have existed within the then freedom loving forces. He explored the freedom loving characters by the imaginary fascination of foreign products purely based on speculations. His imagination seemed to be a charming speculation for nearly everything that he composed. Exactly this is what he has done successfully experiencing writing massive poems on the "rainy season or rain" sitting in the dry hot or humid lands of the district of Birbhum where rainy season or rain barely touches. It was not necessary for him to feel or experience everything that he wanted to convey about the rain or rainy season. Yet he earned the title of "Borsha Kobi (rainy seasonal poet)" without any problem. Hardly the readers or the fans have any vision or knowledge about these over guaranteed facts.

Another side of his literary contribution is void of any sensation for the religiously majority of the Bengali language speakers. His contribution assumed that such a majority population as if did not exist or never been there on his soil. However, one should not down play Tagore blindly but to place him in the "right space" that he genuinely deserves based on all spheres of his credibility in the global context. Critical appreciation from serious readers and/or writers may throw light on the shadow that has been created by this write-up. However, there is no shortage of degeneracy in comprehending the actual concepts conveyed by this ever lasting Nobel Laureate.

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PART 2: TAGORE – THE MAN
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[Introduction: The content presented in this topic had already been published as "RABINDRANATH THAKUR – THE POET AND THE MAN: An Analytical Perspective" in two parts: (1) The Poet, and (2) The Man at NFB the following two successive days after the birthday anniversary of Rabindranath Tagore in 2000. At that time this writer had responded to a number of critics besides receiving personal appreciations, and faced fictitious challenge from a few ultra-secular despotic cyber characters.

This time the writer is presenting nearly the same content having some additions and alterations such that the sequential and chronological events are not disturbed. If there are criticisms of this analysis the writer requests to present them in a logical sense point by point which will be addressed in a professional manner at NFB.]

Tagore is known very well in the world as his ancestors voluntarily chose with this way of spelling that pronounced "Thakur" shortly after the emergence of the British in the throne in the then Bengal. By that time Murshidabad was still the capital city where palace politics of Munni Begum was determining the lineage of Mir Jaffer Ali Khan as the puppet Nawab of Bengal by overshadowing Robert Clive's role.

The Anglicized name TAGORE was coined by the first English learning Bengali-speaking person of the sub-continent who happened to be the forefather of both Jorasanko and Pathurighata TAGORE family members. This ancestor of Rabindranath reached the court of Maharaja Krishna Chandra (Krishnanagar is named after him) in Shantipur from former district of Jessore in Bangladesh. There he was acquainted with poet Varat Chandra Roy (1712 – 1760), and served as the chief advisor of Maharaja Krishna Chandra to establish anti-Sirajuddowla camp in 1756.

Earlier he was engaged in forming a class of people comprising of Krishna Chandra and a few other associates against Ali Verdi Khan. The visibility of this group comprising of subversive elements was very feeble in the post-Sirajuddowla history. This is because Tagore's ancestor did not prefer to be a political hero except for beneficiary of wealth. This ancestor absorbed English very quickly through self-teaching to communicate with the British conspirators and became high visible by 1765. Then he became fluent in English and served as the translator during the time of Warren Hastings in 1772. This is the way Rabindranath Tagore's ancestors earned support of the British and eventually gained monetarily that rolled in two branches of "Tagore" in Jorasanko and Pathurighata since 1785. That is why Rabindranath Tagore has had a solid passion of puppets for the British masters.

Anglicized name for the original family name is a clear distortion having no precise meaning and purpose, unless having attitude of serving the new master with an unlimited commitment. Changing and reformatting family name often bears a precise meaning that the Nehru family (forefathers of Jawaharlal Nehru) had from their ancestral name Kaul. But the change of ancestral name for Nehru came from a reason which is not to please the Moghols or masters. It was associated with the flow of water in the river from Kashmir which was a vehicle for his ancestor to arrive in touch with the Moghols. Due to Tagore's drop out of schooling he had no name registration as such. Therefore, the use of TAGORE remained at his personal discretion for the rest of his life.

The selection of "Tagore" was made as if it was quite beneficial adjusting the Bengali pronunciation Thakur (or Thakoor) to the convenience of the foreign ruler. Why Tagore continued keeping this style of his name, particularly, while writing in English, is also a great puzzle for the readers and the critiques.

This abnormal psyche is not a standard for any sophisticated philosopher. Of course, any foreign reader (non Bengali-speaking world) only understands that his name was embedded with Tagore. Often foreign readers cannot imagine that this name is a distorted version arose from the beginning of the British colonial rule on the soil. What was the rationality for overnight transition of the name pronouncing Thakur to Anglicized Tagore? Wasn't it to please the Englishmen? Or, could there be any other sensible explanation to this rubbish approach for any wise human? Was Tagore truly a wise man or a puppet of the British master?

Thakur was also a "Zamidar (landlord)" and he depended for his grand livelihood on the rent he collected from the destitute peasants of the then Eastern part of the British Bengal. Most of these people were extremely poor given the standard of Tagore family. His "Zamidari (ownership of land being a landlord)" was extended in the districts of Kushtia and Pabna, geographically situated within modern Bangladesh. These are the two districts where he spent much of his professional time as Zamidar. He continued there with his writing skills as his monetary fund kept piling upward from the rents of the poor peasants. During the British era the "Zamidars," in general were a class oppressive local rulers and real sustaining back-bones of the colonial power.

Many experts pose question how this famous son of Zamidar Debendranath Tagore took up this profession out of his fourteen children. Also why he continued to this position even after wining the Nobel Prize is still a great mystery. Tagore was a very successful Zamidar as he increased the income or revenue of their estate by at least three-fold after he took it over from his father. He knew quite well how to manage the Zamidari apart from his superb writing skills. He collected every "paisa (pice)" very effectively that he needed for his own and other Tagore family members' luxurious life in the British-built City of Calcutta. The greedy Tagore went even to the court to fight his relations to gain lion share of his estate income. Controversy traces that Tagore utilised his estate income for the education of his son, Rathindranath Tagore, and his son-in-law, Nagendranath Gangopadhaya husband of Myra Devi, in the U.S.A. at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign well before he won the Nobel Prize.

The Tagore family encountered a suicide of a female, sister-in-law, member around 1884 which was suppressed by bribing the then British administration. It is more than likely that there was a hand of the Tagore family for this suicide which was never been unmasked. Diluting family affairs was overlooked by Tagore by skipping the role of his penny-counting father following this suicide. Tagore remained silent about this incident for the rest of his life. Many speculators envision that Tagore probably coined characters out of this sister-in-law in several writings.

The biography of Leo Tolstoy somewhat resembles Tagore's. By birth Tolstoy was an aristocrat and he came from a noble origin. The mentality of the Tagore indicates that they were not noble people even by Bengali-speaking standard of his religion or caste. Tagore searched for Brahmin-Brahma candidates for match concerning the marriage of his own children being a high-visible member of the Brahma Samaj founded by Raja Ram Mohan Roy (1774 - 1833), a noted reformer of the Hindu society. Brahma Samaj was primarily based on the non-caste system for the Hindu origin people.

A Brahmin-Brahma is regarded as the member of the Brahma Samaj coming from the Brahmin background. Similarly Kshtria-Brahma or Baishya-Brahma or Sudra-Brahma comes forward as a social demarcation among the Brahma Samaj members. Those ejected from the caste system among the Hindus were asked to form a single society by Ram Mohan Roy in early nineteenth century. The Tagores belonged to the Brahma Samaj because they went to England like Ram Mohan Roy and, thus, violated the norm of the traditional Hindu Society. The distinction was predominant among the Tagore family when marriage becomes a key issue. Is this humanity under the umbrella of Brahma Samaj?

Tagore's grandfather, Dwarakanath Tagore (1794 - 1846), was a phoney "prince" and he tried his best to impress the Englishmen travelling to England by his own ship, and by spending lavishly on Englishmen using the money he earned by exploiting poor Bengali-speaking people. Tagore was also a fake saint and a pretender of idealistic human. The difference is monumental if one compares Tagore's lifestyle with Tolstoy's. Tagore exploited poor peasants in Bengal and lived a grand life on their sweat and blood but Tolstoy gave up his wealth, lived poorly with the peasants and as a peasant. Tolostoy talked to them with mutual respect and praying with them for the sins of the exploiters of mankind. He died of pneumonia at Astropovo railway station in a freezing winter day having not a single penny with him. His funeral remained mystery as he was found one of the penny-less unidentified people. Does anyone need to talk about great men? Many more examples of great men can be cited with the similar calibre in the context of Tagore. Let us make no mistake and be aware of the counterfeit saints.

Tagore is said to be a great philosopher. His philosophy, some sort of natural pantheism, does not seem to be much deeper than some shallow rivers of former Eastern Bengal where he sailed most often to collect rents from the poor. Bertrand Russell (1872 – 1970), the great philosopher of the modern era, wrote after hearing Tagore's lecture on 'The realisation of Brahma': "Here I am back from Tagore's lecture, after walking most of the way home. It was unmitigated rubbish- cut-and-dried conventional stuff about the river becoming one with the Ocean and man becoming one with Brahma. The man is sincere and in earnest but merely rattling old dry bones. I spoke to him before the lecture afterwards I avoided him." Russell had more such strong and strenuous comments on Tagore and as quoted recently in the work of Krishna Dutta and Andrew Robinson: "I regret I can not agree with Tagore. His talk about the infinite is ague nonsense. The sort of language that is admired by many Indians unfortunately does not, in fact, mean any thing at all."

In general, almost all world philosophers had some background in Mathematics. Tagore never had any such background. Though he understood to the penny for the equation of money but he did never comprehend simple algebraic equations to solve Mathematical problems as his upper chamber remained vacant since childhood. Yet many people call him as philosopher. Often it is a subject of surprise as how this sort of personality can be regarded as a philosopher while fundamental perspectives of life are blunt without the basics of Mathematics. Calling him a philosopher is a simple misnomer.

Those were very high scar-marks on Tagore's philosophy by the most contemporary distinguished philosopher of his time. Tagore's personal religion and inconsistency of teaching and believing often put many individual critiques in bewilderment. He was a member of the "Brahma Samaj" like his father and grandfather but he hardly could ever give up Hinduism from the set-up of his mind that contradicted the concept of Ram Mohan Roy. The Tagores did many religious rituals at home that were quite objectionable to Brahma faith that they claimed to be belonged to. For example, they regularly performed "Durga Puja" since 1867 and continued "Idol Worship" which was totally contradictory to the Brahma Samaj faith or ideology.

In mind the Tagore family was Hindu but outward Brahma and that is the way Tagore himself portrayed so in public. As a member of the "Brahma Samaj" Tagore could have found some rationality in the monotheistic religions of the Middle-East such as Islam or Christianity or Judaism rather than disdaining it, and associating himself with the communal Hindus as he had quietly done all through his life. In this context it is ridiculous to evaluate PRARTHONA poem which is nothing but hypocrisy. This poem is a joke for him concerning monotheistic perspective.

It is a fact that Bankim Chandra Chatterjee (1838 – 1894) had brought high-ranking communalism in Bengali literature that propagated discrimination and hatred against the Muslims. Instead of fighting against spreading it, Tagore silently joined the followers of the Bankim gang while he was a teenaged writer in 1878, and in someway peacefully enhanced their strength. He became a silent supporter of communal "Bondey Matorom" slogan coined by Bankim in 1874, and chose to favour it with hearty and mind until his death. Tagore even expressed that "Bondey Matorom" would be the National Anthem of liberated India if at all India is liberated for which he had scepticism.

In 1931 Tagore accepted a free air trip to Persia at the invitation of Reza Pahlavi. At about 10,000 ft high he was about to collapse as the aircraft began bouncing. Since it was a free pleasure trip then he swallowed it and took the old-age trouble. Of course he did not document such events in his memoir but preferred Muslim cooked delicious dishes. His fascination for Persian-Turkish dishes was never ending. Tagore liked delicacies that the Muslims brought to the sub-continent. Polau, Biriyani, Korma, Rezala, Kofta, Kabab, etc. were his favourites and favored Muslim cook for those items. This is not a bad choice but unfortunately Tagore never knew anything about the Muslims as the neighbors of the Hindus.

In 1936 Tagore favored Hindi as the National Language of liberated India while meeting Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. Despite differences with Gandhi both tuned Hindi with the same frequency. While Bengali was a solid rich language in the Indian sub-continent having the oldest history of derivation Tagore supported Hindi as the future National Language for the liberated people. How Tagore supported a bastard language for which there was no basis as the National Language? Was he truly a nationalist or a fake Bengali-speaking character possessing sufficient show-off expertise as a member of the Bengali folks? Exactly where did he belong? His character of not touching the water but catching the fish is as wave-particle duality as dubious.

When Muslim community complained about ignoring them in Bengali literature by the powerful Hindu writers, Tagore did not listen to their protest but ridiculed them and wrote to one of his fans and relation: "The Muslims complain these days that the Hindu writers express only their mental state in (Bengali) literature. The only solution (to this problem) could be to arrest each and every Hindu writer and convert him or her to Muslim religion (by force). We are at the end of our days. Now the burden would fall on your shoulders (to do it). The untouchables are already determined for conversion (to Muslim faith). Soon your turn would come. You better start reading Koran right now if you find any translation of it at your hands." What a novel derogatory mentality of a genius? Is there any controversy of Tagore's statement about the Muslims that he was not a communal?

Tagore's Noble Prize is also a matter of controversy. It does not mean that he was not good enough or worthy of the prize. Many undeserving people got Nobel Prize many a times. It is not the question of qualification but his marketing strategy as a candidate of this prize. He approached anybody to make his candidature strong and considerable. Lobbying was the viable vehicle.

It was also surprising that William Butler Yeats (1865 – 1939) and William Rothenstein (1845 – 1923), the two personalities, who helped him most to advocate his case to win the Noble Prize in 1913 became unfriendly with Tagore in the long run. Rothenstein was introduced to Tagore by his diehard communal nephew Abanindranath Tagore (1871 – 1951) a number of years before his Nobel winning.

A great deal of comprehensive analysis on his achieving Nobel Prize was presented in Calcutta's "Desh" magazine during 1991 – 1992 period and also in an early periodical from Bombay (Mumbai) during 1984 in India Today. Per those analyses lobbying factor cannot be deleted as Tagore projected in 1909 but launched in 1910.

Tagore's political philosophy was equally controversial and incredulous. He was a reactionary and that is what many believed and the Chinese passed this unpleasant judgement on Tagore loudly and clearly when he visited China in 1924. It is very interesting to note that how his public lectures in China was marred by opposition and hostile commentaries. It goes this way:

(1) We have suffered much from ancient Oriental civilisation, which include discrimination between the sexes, the worship of Emperors, oppression of the people, the feudal system, caste distinctions and the blind observance of ceremony. We cannot but oppose Dr. Tagore, who tries to uphold these useless and dead aspects of our civilisation.

(2) Dr. Tagore shows a hearty sympathy with the Tung Shan Spiritual Society, a contemptuous and vicious organisation in China which combines Taoism and Buddhism. Dr. Tagore speaks of the 'Heavenly Kingdom', 'Almighty God' and 'soul'. If these could remove us from misery what would be the use of man endeavour to reform the world? We oppose Dr. Tagore, who tries to stunt the growth of self-determination and the struggle of the oppressed classes and races.

The Chinese observation on Tagore's political, social, religious and cultural philosophy was also in relevance with the Bengali-speaking people or the Indian context. Tagore's constant endeavours to find out solace and amity in rotten Indian mysticism must have been a great puzzle to any rational critique. He had praised and firmly recognised greatness of Western civilisation and culture at one hand but nonetheless he himself practised and tried to impress others with bogus and rotten old Indian Hindu philosophy.

During 1926 Tagore visited the City of New York and encountered a barbershop to trim his beard and hair. This particular shop had several Nobel Laureates for the same purpose visiting the City of New York that included one of the contemporary scientists, Albert Einstein (1879 – 1955). Tagore's behavior was so erratic with this barber, presumably overwhelmed with the supremacy of the super-caste Hindu orthodox philosophy, that this barber noted him in his memoirs as an "uncultured and arrogant" Nobel Fellow of the century. It reveals that Tagore was lacking politeness outside the country where he might have exercised championship that could be attributed to the Zamidar style.

Tagore's political sympathy was always with the upper caste Hindus. He was the greatest writer in Bengali literature but like other communal Hindus he ignored completely the Muslim or the Christian or the Buddhist community of Bengal in his works. He considered them "inferior" and he never did anything for their welfare either. He earned his high living from former Eastern Bengal, mostly from Muslim peasants, and never contributed in building any school or college that many other contemporary Hindu Zamiders did in the same soil. Even Tagore had hardly opened any door for the non-Hindus in his University that took a complete shape after his Nobel achievement.

Rumour traces that Tagore spent Nobel money to complete this University. Syed Mujtoba Ali (1905 – 1974) was an exceptional example who described himself on several private and informal occasions as a rear-sitter pupil in Tagore's class. He noted in the 1972 interview after the liberation of Bangladesh that Tagore had no inclination toward the people of the Eastern Bengal yet the same people honoured him by adopting his poem as the National Anthem. Mujtoba Ali also pointed that the general mass of Bangladesh does not know how to pronounce Tagore's writings.

An impartial critique would find Tagore a sophisticated but a complete communal Hindu behind the screen masking himself for the apparent outside viewer. His Brahma faith was a total irrelevant show-off. Under the Brahma veil he was a diehard communal Hindu. He joined the reactionary upper caste Hindus to oppose the communal Award of the Government of India Act of 1935 without ever appealing to the Hindus for treating the Muslims fairly and correctly. Why this poet Laureate joined such a communal activity at a matured age? It is no wonder that shortly movement began to divide British occupied India. Directly or indirectly Rabindranath Tagore was a politically oriented figure against the Muslims of the same soil.

The Calcutta-based Hindus opposed the establishment of the University of Dacca with the lame excuse that the result would be harmful for the Calcutta University. This excuse had no solid ground except for visualizing the difference between Muslim majority regions versus Hindu dominated regions. Ashutosh Mukerjee (1864 – 1924) was the underground intellectual and the main player of the movement of the anti-University in Dacca. All upper class Hindus combined together with some middle level caste Hindus formed a communal platform to oppose the establishment of the University in Dacca. The strength accumulated from the professional angle as many of them were Calcutta lawyers and donors to the University of Calcutta.

The profound Nobel Laureate of Bengal was highly vocal against Communal Award but one does not know if he ever even criticised mildly those Hindus who considered it dangerous that the Bengali Muslims could get higher education at the University of Dacca. He joined Ashutosh Mukerjee in the "anti University of Dacca" propaganda as he was concurrently progressing with the influential banner to absorb his U.S. educated (from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) son-in-law from Barisal, Nagendranath Gangopadhaya (1889 – 1956), as the Faculty member of the Calcutta University. The hiring committee of the University of Calcutta could not absorb Gangopadhaya due to the standard selection procedure. Tagore's influence did not work for his son-in-law. In personal life Tagore had soured relationship with his son-in-law. At a later date in 1926 Gangopadhaya earned the British Ph.D. degree and stayed in Britain as a citizen there until his death.

Being a Nobel Laureate and a dignified human of the world Tagore could have played a significant role in the prosperity and unity of the Bengali-speaking people regardless of religion. Instead he fabricated communal poetry (called "Shibaji"} before turning to the 20th century where he envisioned the noted seventeenth century Marathi despotic criminal as a hero. This hero was indeed communally motivated die-hard Hindu extremist known as Shibaji Bhosle (1620 - 1681). Tagore portrayed Shibaji as a dreamer of "one-religion-land (aek dharma rajya)" in the British occupied sub-continent. Isn't it an ironical blow on the integrity and the religious harmony of the multi-cultural cum multi-lingual society? Did he echo with the Marathi orthodox political leaders?

What did Tagore mean by "one-religion-land?" Outwardly he was a giant figure against the division of Bengal but inside the cultured communal Hindus dominated his mind and liked the division of Bengal. In the same way he preferred to remain as "knighted" in his mind but outwardly he had given up the same after the British killing mission on the freedom-seeking people in 1919. In his legacy "The Religion of Man" had the SIR title before his name though it was re-printed in his lifetime. Did Rabindranath ever drop SIR from his name? Is there any solid proof?

On what consideration the National Anthem of Bangladesh was adopted in 1972 is not known except for the unilateral dynamics of the then leadership. Without debate or proceeding Tagore's poem became National Anthem of Bangladesh almost overnight. The lawmakers had no voting or any opinion to review any alternate of the same poem. The underlying meaning of such an Anthem is a superb puzzle for the absolute majority of the people of Bangladesh as they are primarily illiterate, ignorant, and overall do not understand the style of the language that Tagore used. Even an educated Bangladeshi cannot sing this Anthem easily and steadily except for the first two lines of the selected first ten lines of that poem.

The pronunciation of the people of Bangladesh, in general, is invariably tough and no where near perfect of the regional accent of Bolpur or Shantipur or Krishananagar. Rabindranath used throughout his life the utterances and phrases of that part of the Bengali-speaking land and felt use of standard Bengali for all time and for all purpose. Still the people of Bangladesh often prefer to praise Tagore's poem though their tongue does not give perfect pronunciation as Tagore and majority of his communal followers possessed.

As stated earlier Tagore is also the composer of the Indian National Anthem. The content of this Anthem refers to a geographical portion belonging to India's neighbour that raised frequently the sovereignty of Pakistan, a country that was taking a shape during the later part of his lifetime. Despite knowing the communal harmony in jeopardy, Tagore did not make any effort with his literary image to diffuse such turmoil. However, Tagore is not the "national poet" of Bangladesh or of India.

This situation must be quite puzzling and mystery for any impartial critique as why Tagore is not, at least, the National Poet of India. It seems Tagore is a controversial character within the variety of regional Hindus in India. The general conscientious agreed to accept Tagore's poem as the National Anthem of India but did not agree to have him as the National Poet.

One can go on and find many black and unholy spots on Tagore's piecewise literary, social, cultural, religious, and political activities. These are harsh words and strong comments on Tagore but it should not make any one blind to see that his literary works have also given pleasure to the millions of Bengali-speaking people though many of them cannot pronounce correctly. Tagore does not have any connection with Bangladesh as he never had. He did not visit all parts of Bangladesh except of a few personal interested-oriented spots. For collecting estate taxes from the poor peasants he did not forget to make trips to the remote corners of Kushtia and Pabna.

As a human being Tagore had good and bad sides. This critical analysis of the great contributor of the Bengali-speaking society, as said before, is not to minimise his status among the poets and literary giants around the world. What is expected and requested is that from his overzealous fans to ponder for a while and put a barricade in their unnecessary exaggerations on Tagore's true human qualities. Let us honour Tagore as much as he deserves. Foolish and reckless volume of praise and unnecessary adoration of an individual are the acts of the knavish persons. This is invariably not good for any honest and sincere judgement. However, there is no shortage of degenerated ideas when the issues relate to this Nobel Laureate.

--------------------------------
Acknowledgements and References:
Numerous pertinent and relevant publications at various places available on Rabindranath Tagore have been freely used to generate this note. Therefore, the listing is enormous and, thus, beyond the scope of the pages here. At least one highlighted reference "Rabindranath Tagore: The Myraid-Minded Man by Krishna Dutta and Andrew Robinson" is quoted. In addition, several translations and quotations including plentiful sources of information (such as the letter to Amita Sen, 4th June 1939) were obtained from Mr. Tayeb Husain, currently living in Sweden.

http://bangladesh-web.com/view.php?hidDate=2006-05-05&hidType=FEA&hidRecord=0000000000000000104864

On Sun, Nov 20, 2011 at 3:06 PM, Isha Khan <bdmailer@gmail.com> wrote:
Tagore, Nationalism, Patriotism and Culture.

Mohammad Gani

My recent write up "Bangladesh National Anthem, its Vision at Origin" has invited many interesting, meaningful and heavyweight comments from our distinguished "Bengali contributors". Some of our writers have come up with their articulate and delicately designed political statement to convince our readers of their logical lies and/or logical truth if not fictional tales.

My motive was not intended to generate any fog on Tagore's national and international reputation though visible derailment from Bangladesh national anthem to several other issues of conflicts between West Bengal and Bangladesh has surfaced. If Bangladesh national Anthem were written by Kazi Nazrul Islam or Kabi Shamsur Rahman; and was written for only specific purposes and vision other than "Bangladesh nation anthem", I would have come up with the same view as I have for Tagore's "Amar Sonar Bangla".

I was modestly critical of only the appropriateness of this song, not its writer Tagore himself. I also believe, along with a host of others, this song was written to rekindle the unified spirit of Bengal though it is said that the music of this song was inspired by the Baul singer Gagan Harkar's song "Kothay Pabo Tare". Tagore and Kazi Nazrul obviously are "Bengali poets" of Indian sub-Continent and not poets of West Bengal by any means.

In my following write up as "Rabindranath Tagore; A non-contemporary politician", I have highlighted a "general picture" on his political, patriotic, communal and cultural views. I think if Einstein was a politician, then Tagore was also a politician indeed which is certainly an interesting open discussion to explore.

Among all those carefully worded follow ups on Tagore, Nationality, Patriotism and Bengali culture from some of our self proclaimed researchers, atheist and beyond ordinary contributors, I have discovered their attractive logical lies and also political statements on Tagore's life as well as on Bengali culture.

Colors of Nationalism and Patriotism as logical lies: There is no moral basis in drawing boundaries and dividing the world and its people into countries and calling one of them of our own. It happened due to various social, economic and religious reasons over long period of time. Someone is accidentally or coincidentally born in a country and he is supposed to like, love and accept everything about it is known as patriotism! However, one never chooses to be born in a particular country but is supposed to feel proud and great about it irrespective of its past deeds or present stance or future intentions.

There is nothing noble about patriotism. It only helps countries to exist and survive. But there is no absolute morality behind existence of countries or the love for our own country. An individual may choose to love his country and feel proud of it, but that does not make a person who chooses not to, a traitor or a person of lower moral standing. A person has the moral right to refuse to recognize the existence of a country, its laws and its citizen's rights of ownership. One must have the strength and courage to do so and still survive in this world.

Logical truth, nationalism, patriotism and culture: Precious nationality of mother Theresa can not be defined (born in the city of Skopje, Macedonia) and citizens of Macedonia could call her a traitor for abandoning (?) her own nationality, thus having no "true patriotism" for her homeland in a true sense. She maintained no specific traditional culture and only embraced the culture of universal humanity. So, may we say that nationality and especially patriotism were indeed unimportant (useless!) to her? Did Tagore put and embrace humanity over traditional patriotism and traditional Indian culture? I have some difficulty to see Tagore, Banmkim and Sarat Chandra spinning around the same axis and have no difficulty to say that Tagore's opposition on establishing Dacca University was certainly a big political mistake.

Irrespective of some isolated incidents among Hindu, Muslims, Buddhist, Christians, Sikhs and all other races, the people in Indian sub-Continent have been living with love, respects and happiness for thousands of years until (from time to time) a few "politically ambitious religious fanatics" come up with a sword of racism and declare all out war by inciting "easy to sell quality" racial and religious hatred; only to achieve their own political mission of gaining control of nation's administrative power.

These "resources of hatred" are conspired, intelligently designed with the wicked wisdom to work as an effective political tool by this belligerent group of hatred from all religious groups. They find political power above all the humanity and are always alert for their prey as and when they find it appropriate to apply. We also have some individual-level intelligent, well-educated fanatics who instead of delivering positive messages, never stop digging dip to keep this "racism" tastefully active and alive for years and thus kept working for superior humanity!

I do not outright dismiss racism in religious groups in India and in Bangladesh, but those visible incidents are statistically far less than those we see in other countries of today's modern civilized world. Interestingly, sometimes it becomes almost impossible to recognize their true nature and identity whether they belong to or maintain clandestine ties with any political parties too.

A Bangladeshi agency namely Hindu, Buddha,Christian, Oikka Parishad (HBCOP) in NY is a brilliant example of its kind who have been spreading hatred, magnifying issues against people of Bangladesh and creating stonewalls between majority population and their politically designed "minority". If someone takes a close look on their activities, he will find no difficulty to discover that they are simply a political wing, like student wing of a leading political party of Bangladesh.

Should once their mission accomplished (of grabbing the administrative power of Bangladesh), you will find them taking several years vacation! I have not yet come across any such organization of "Muslim, Buddha, Sikh, and Christian Oikka Parishad" to protect the rights of "minorities in India"! Is it something that India has no such problem?

Cultural difference: Ordinary citizens in West Bengal and Bangladesh took a big bite out of their cultural difference based on religious belief many years ago and always feel free to live together peacefully for so many years. This identical Bengali Culture may have some differences as polarized at home cultures and those are mostly ceremonial; like (religious festivals) Eid, Puja, Buddha Purnima, Christmas etc and inter-religious marriage. Do we see the same cultural common grounds between West Bengal and Orissa or Punjab?

Finally, I see prospect of a "United Bengal" is very remote in a foreseeable future regardless of anyone likes it or does not. Current regional separation of two Bengal is the process and consequence of series of historical events. However, if a 3rd world war begins and spread covering entire Indo- china subcontinent, will certainly expedite the prospect of a "United Bengal"! But I prefer not welcome a "United Bengal" at the overall total cost of a 3rd world war!

http://bangladesh-web.com/view.php?hidDate...000000000104479

On Thu, Nov 17, 2011 at 11:08 AM, Isha Khan <bdmailer@gmail.com> wrote:
Response to the Comments on Bangladesh National Anthem

Mohammad Abdullah

I do not repent on what I have written on the National Anthem of Bangladesh. This was not the first time I did so. I have gathered series of negatives of Bishwa-Kobi-Raj-Guru and his legacy which need to be conveyed to the interested people. This is regardless of what you orbachins (guys) say about Bishwa-Kobi-Raj-Guru or me. Now this is a response to a series of individuals who interestingly addressed on the note on the National Anthem of Bangladesh.

Mr. Probir Paul suggested Arabic or Urdu National Anthem. This was not the issue. I did not advocate for any other language other than Bengali for the National Anthem of Bangladesh. I did not play any politics while I expressed fair opinion substantiating with evidences and logistics. Please come to the logistics and causes that you do not prefer. Therefore, wise argument is preferred rather than your whimsical and perverted overthrow of the political ball.

Next in line is the political crusader Mr. Toufique. Could you tell me the definition of Bengali culture? What exactly it is? Independence of war of Bangladesh never took shape through many years of political process with the spirit of Bengali Nationalism. This is absolutely wrong. If Sheikh Mujibur Rahman would have been given power to become the Prime Minister of Pakistan in March 1971 by agreeing with the electoral process by defying Legal Frame-Work Order (LFO) then there would have been no Bangladesh during 1971.

Also there was no need to battle for independence. Pakistan would have been intact with 6-points implemented per people's demand and 11-point in place per students' demand. How the war of independence came all of a sudden while Mujib was vowing to become Prime Minister of Pakistan and he was consistently advocating for the transfer o0f power to the people elected representatives. Mujib strongly asserted on this issue on his Math 7th 1971 speech in front of at least two million people where I was present. During March 1971 the poem of Bishwa-Kobi-Raj-Guru was not adopted as the National Anthem. This was never been documented anywhere unless in your mindset.

Could you show me evidence that Bangladesh was established by March 1971 and then the National Anthem was adopted? Who wrote this kind of history? I am a Bangladeshi by birth, heritage, by descent, and by blood I possess Hindu tradition but became a convert with my ancestors for which I have no shame to disclose as nearly many Bangladeshi falls into this category. My family also feels that they possess a high degree of Aryan tradition and possibly over two thousand years ago came from modern central India. It was the time when caste system was taking shape.

My forefathers were warrior class and, thus, belonged to Kshatriya or Kaisthya or second caste below Brahmins. My forefather was converted to Islam shortly after Ikhtiyar Mohammad Bakhtiyar Khilji conquered Bengal in 1204. My ancesters joined his army and marched toward Assam expedition sometime around 1210. Later my ancestors served several administrations and served as court members during the days of Sultans of Bengal. When my ancestors were involved in these professions at that time the forefather of Bishwa-Kobi-Raj-Guru was in the cradle of civilization.

My ancestors recollect once Kritwibash Ojha (translater of Ramayan to Bengali) was their neighbor circa 1399. For the first generation educated people in modern Bangladesh is problematic. These creatures do not understand their past history or heritage but keep jumping on newly envisioned theories and baseless or artificial celebrations. Indeed National Anthem reflects culture and tradition of a nation. But what is Bengali culture by any standard? Is there any meter-stick to measure such a standard? The neo-learners need still miles to go to reach maturity. During the Pakistani era the people of Bangladesh began to get education at a mass scale. See the demographic changes since 1947.

Bengali speaking Muslims oppressed for centuries came forward and began to receive education. This was the beginning of the first generation education. Only two known Muslims had Western higher education before 1947 and they were late Dr. Mohammad Qudrat-e-Khuda (Chemist) and his close relative Dr. Mohammad Hedayetullah (Botanist). After 1947 both served the same organization until mid 1960s. The rest Western higher educated people are seen only after 1947. Backward Muslims of modern Bangladesh became advanced creatures only after 1947. They came out of suppression then. Now what Bengali culture is reflected in these majority backward and suppressed people?

The next contender is Mr. Anwar from Bangladesh. Indeed a Swiss is never been a German, not even hyphenated. The hyphenated nationality is obscure. Where did you find such a definition of being German? The Swiss people were never German at any given cross-section of chronological history. Similarly Austrians were never been German. Let me give the difference among these nations. Orissa or Assam is a sort of neighbor of Bangladesh. Their language is a sort of cousin to Bengali language. That is why these languages are easily understood and one can communicate with each other without problem.

Furthermore, when Mujib landed at the Delhi Palam Airport then the running commentary was given by a person from Orissa named Jatin Das. He was also the Oriyya language news reader from Aakah Baani. Again extending example further, once upon a time Voice of America had a Bengali news reader by the name Ronen Paine (or Payne). He was from Orissa and easily read news in Bengali for global listeners. Another piece of information for the dear readers: Nawab Sirajuddowla brought the district of Medinipore under Bengal administration as a SUBA from Orissa. Since then Medinipore became part of undivided Bengal and remained under West Bengal today. As a bargaining point, Tagore does not belong to all of us. Tagore never accounted for the Eastern part of the Bengali speaking land. His dictionary had no room for Chittagong, Noakhali, Faridpur, Sylhet, etc. places.

The next revered scholar in line is Mr. Khairul Tipu. He has addressed me as Mr. Mullah Abdullah. Indeed I have no Mullah prefix in my name, unfortunately. Where did you get this prefix for me? Who has authorized you to distort my name? Please do not distort my parents given sacred name. Did you get any smell of Mullaism in my presentation? Could you site exact text as where I noted Mullaism? Now for your bona fide "Bangalitto (not Bangalittwo per your prescription)" let me tell you the "Mullah" is not spelled this way in Arabic or Persian.

Once I had argument with some ultra-secular fellow at NFB and came to the conclusion that it spells as MULLA because of Arabic or Persian mim-lam-alif. There is no "h" in it per Arabic and Persina prescription. By the time you'll read this portion, you must have crossed the segment written for Mr. Toufique wherein I have summarized my ancestry. Indeed my family members learnt both Persian and Arabic quite fluently for centuries. The most recent fluent person for these two languages was my great grandfather who served the British Secretariat in Calcutta called Writers Building and elsewhere in British India until 1922. He used to translate Persian documents into English and Bengali. Of course he earned the scholarly title and his colleagues and friends besides relatives used to address him with due respect. Indeed he was older than Bishwa-Kobi-Raj-Guru and died in 1931 at a matured age. The then British administrative members had some special respect for him.

Also my grandfather was the Chief Railway Mechanical Engineer for Bengal Railway and later became supervisor of All India Railiway in 1911. In those days there was no official Engineering degree. He was trained in Kanchrapara Workshop by the British Mr. Campbell and installed as the native Engineer with title circa 1896. Eventually he was succeeded by the British educated Abdul Barry Malik in 1933. He was the elder brother of Dr. Abdul Motaleb Malik commonly known as Dalal (or Tthyata) Malik, the Pakistani Governor of the then East Pakistan.

If Mr. Khairul Tipu has gone my previous pieces on Bishwa-Kobi-Raj-Guru at NFB forum then would find how much appreciation I have for him for the creation of Bengali literature. Regarding your suspicion let me write the spelling of Banglittwo exclusively for you as you are having great Banglittwo. Indeed the spelling is not "Bangalitto." You know so much Bengali but I take courage to correct it and feel sorry for that. You must know that in Bengali language there are two "ba" or "b" sounds. One of them is used for "wo" or "w" indeed. Now go and ponder about my logic. Bishwa-Kobi-Raj-Guru is so brilliant in writing 400+ short stories that his no short story except for a dozen or so do not go nearer to those limited number created by Guy Maupassant.

Remember Guy Maupassant died in 1893 when his work was available to the Kobi-Raj-Guru to absorb and surpass in number without quality. Tell me how about the rest 300+ short stories of Kobi-Raj-Guru. Why the readers do not incline for them at all? The quality is a serious problem for this Kobi-Raj-Guru. To become a critique one does not need to be a parallel in volume to the hoist. Was Mohit Lal Mojumdar equal in volume to Bishwa-Kobi-Raj-Guru? How do you digest his criticism? Some how Kobi-Raj-Guru managed the number to exceed Guy Maupassant but without unfortunate quality except of those dozen only. Indeed Kazi Nazrul Islam was born outside Bangladesh. But the people of Bangladesh accepted him as the National Poet of the country without any opposition.

If all these are true then why this national poet is buried at the University of Dhaka Mosque graveyard? What kind of shame is this, Mr. Khairul Tipu? Is Bishwa-Kobi-Raj-Guru associated with Bangladesh like Kazi Nazrul Islam? What we had (or have) with Bishwa-Kobi-Raj-Guru? Did he have any passion for modern Bangladesh? Did he support the creation of the University of Dacca? How this enemy of Bangladesh becomes an associated person like Kazi Nazrul Islam? Further Nazrul's frist wife was from Dacca. His second wife was from Comilla. Are these two persons in the same boat? In what way they could be in the same boat? Please define and then find your logic in a better way to wrestle.

The last person in this response is Mr. Nilanjan Bhattacharya. You seem to have much intelligent derogatory presentation. I appreciate your coining sentences and logistics. No Mr Nilanjan Bhattacharya, the people those who resided in 1971 in Bangladesh they were Bangladeshis. More accurately Mujib Administration gave a profile of citizenship of Bangladesh. This was adequate to define citizenship as it was not a concern for the citizens. Please get to the point as I have nothing to do with the voluminous creation of Kobi-Raj-Guru. The bottom line is that the so-called national anthem coined by Kobi-Raj-Guru needs to be abolished permanently.

The people of Bangladesh may not wipe him out as numerous writers and poets are alive in the society not only from Bengali language but from other languages. Could you discard the logistics that are presented about either the national Anthem or the Bishwa-Kobi-Raj-Guru? This mischievous character is the enemy of modern Bangladesh and its people, unfortunately majority is Muslim. Again Mr. Nilajan Bhattacharya, do not skew from the mean path with your concern for policemanship on Kobi-Raj-Guru's songs. This is not the subject here at all.

In general, twisting is a character of your names. For further information, Bishwa-Kobi-Raj-Guru did not use or write anything in Kolkata Bangla. More precisely he used the language of Nadia-Shantipur-Krishnanagar areas. In other words, needless to say, he has often used Bolpurian (of Bolpur) language. Are you familiar with the variation of accents and languages of various domains of the Bengali speaking lands?

Remember the Kolkata Bangal is actually original 24 Parganas accent as Calcutta originally was produced from the land piece of Sher-Shah's 24 Parganas. Do you know that Sher Shah used 24 Parganas to initiate Grand Trunk Road (G.T. Road) in 1542 from Howrah to Punjab where 24 Parganas became the background layer on the Eastern shore of Bhagirathi? Later British built the Howrah Bridge in the same site which Sher Shah used often. You may make other fellow compatriots fools but you are in a wrong hand to explain me with you Kolkata Bangla. Always the spelling is not like "kuzhwatika" but situations are often more complex, if facts are not properly known.
http://bangladesh-web.com/view.php?hidDate...000000000102199

On Tue, Nov 15, 2011 at 10:36 AM, Isha Khan <bdmailer@gmail.com> wrote:
Bangladesh National Anthem

Mohammad Abdullah, U.S.A.

Most recently revered contributor Mr. Mohammad Gani has given an interesting songkshipto biboron (brief) about the National Anthem of Bangladesh. Anyone will be carried away emotionally with the National Anthem. Why not? National Anthem is a sort of national pride. Thus, any Bangladeshi will be udbuddho (encouraged) with the National Anthem as what we have today. This is because of the potovumi (introduction) of the National Anthem.

The National Anthem of Bangladesh is written by a diehard Hindu inward but having a visible innocent feature outside. This Hindu is known as Rabindranath Tagore, the infamous Hindu Samrat (King) Bishwa-Kobi-Raj-Guru and the member of the great Brahma Samaj. Mr. Gani expressed his innocence about how this song became the National Anthem. Like Mr. Gani many Bangladeshis are facing this surprise on a day-to-day basis.

This song was used intermittently during 1971 without knowing whether it will be the National Anthem of Bangladesh as Bangladesh then was up in the air. In fact, there was no Swadhin Bangla Betar Kendro on March 26, 1971 as Mr. Gani noted. Fabricated dates are available like dime a dozen by the emotional scribbler. This name of the radio center was not heard until at a later time in May 1971 as a regular channel.

Until then the clandestine radio center was discrete and arbitrary names were used from various corners as the center was broadcasting in short wave as well as medium wave using irregular operational times. When regular program started twice a day (once in the morning and once in the evening) without definite timing it appeared that such a radio center was unstable but continued until achieving Victory Day on December 16, 1971. Thereafter this radio center continued until Su-Sree Tajuddin Aamed gang came back from Mujibnagar by the Indian Airlines' propelled twin-engine Fokker Friendship on December 22, 1971.

The then Dacca radio center was kept off the air since December 18, 1971 until further order from the puppet of India Su-Sree Tajuddin Aamed issuing from Mujibnagar through the Aakash Baani. During 1971 the Swadhi Bangla Betar Kendro used play a song at the beginning of each program in the morning and in the evening. This song was taken from the film named JOY BANGLA sang by a group of the then singers and recorded in early 1970. During 1972 this film was released but did not attract viewers.

Many individuals noted that this film was released during 1971 but the viewers of Dacca missed it. Many distinguished people noted this song belonged to the leftist corner as it propagated equality. Though the underlying concept of this film was great but did not attract public at all except for the song during 1971 through the Swadhin Bangla Betar Kendro. Any way, one can see how we pay tribute to a well thought film.

Let us examine the prescribed posthumous certificate to Bishwa-Kobi-Raj-Guru given by Mr. Gani. Of course he has described Kobi-Raj-Guru as a superb patriot as if he liked Bengal and Bengali-speaking people. This Kobi-Raj-Guru favored Hindi as the official language of liberated undivided Hindustan or India in 1936 when he met Hinduder miniaturized Debota Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. His meeting with Gandhi did not hesitate to bow down to the scoundrel bastardized language known as HINDI.

Well, Gandhi had Gujrati as the mother tongue but favored Hindi as the Hindu majority dominated post-independent India. This poet laureate was a great chamcha not only of the British but also to the Western Regional Hindu leaders of the then British India. He had passion for Gokhle, Balgangadhar Tilak, M. K. Gandhi, dead Shivaji, dead Shambhuji, and many other non-Bengali-speaking Hindus. Subhas Bose or Sher-e-Bangla Fazlul Huq was no leader for him.

Concurrently he had no value of M. A. Jinnah while belonging to Congress party (i.e., until 1929) or Congress believer Abul Kalam Azad. Bishwa Kobindranth accepted M. K. Gandhi, Moti Lal Nehru, and Jawarher Lal Nehru as the only leader of British India as he maintained liaisons with them. Of course he had no room for one-third non-Hindus of the same soil. His patriotism extends to the puppet philosophy toward the British and, thus, coined novels like Ghorey Bairey posing controversial characters of the freedom fighters. Any reader would be in a dilemma for a while.

Such controversy indicates that he was a confusing character until his death in 1941 whether freedom could be achieved from the British. He would be the first British loving person on the soil if measured by the patriotic scale based on chronological history of that time.

If Bishwa-Kobi-Raj-Guru had true love for united Bengal then he would act directly for the unity. Does he have any example of such an act? Did he talk against the British rule or did he point out what British were doing wrong to the people of the soil? Rather he enjoyed KNIGHT profoundly using a jacket loose enough to give up easily. He said that he gave this up KNIGHT tile after the Jalianwalabagh killing but his books published after that date were seen with SIR title in front of Rabindranath Tagore.

This is the hypocrisy that is visible publicly. In disguise he used it but publicly he gave up as utterance only. This means he preferred to use the tile but felt ashamed at given times. In his mind he had dual character of hypocrisy and became one of the greatest hypocrites of the twentieth century.

At one hand he was a great Bengali language lover and on another hand he used to advocate Hindi language surrounding him as well as on the Bengali-speaking lands. He did not see anything wrong in that. Will Bangladeshis like Hindi environment in Bangladesh? Seeing or watching Hindi films are not the same as visualizing Hindi environment around the Bangladeshis. He never wanted or advocated for the Bengali-speaking land as a single entity or as a single independent nation. He had no Bengali nationalism in his dictionary. He understood chamchagiri of the non-Bengali speaking Hindu Congress leaders. He echoed with them by hook or by crook.

This poet laureate had never supported freedom struggle from the British. He was rather a sarcastic critique and never documented such utterances to individuals in public. He expressed doubt to achieve freedom from the British. He was fascinated by the supremacy of the British and paid tribute to the British Raj. He exploited poor Muslim peasants of Kushtia and Pabna (former districts) and enhanced estate revenue by three-fold. His MAHARSHI father was very happy seeing child's success with the Money-Collection-Box. Maharshi had boundless joy for this success.

This laureate was very much after penny collection so that his pocket remains warm for years (generations) to come. There is no record that shows humanity from him for the Muslim peasants of those two districts. He was the blood-sucker ZAMINDAR BABU served as a butcher during under the British shelter.

That is why he preferred British Raj to exist. Further he paid money to the poor Muslim peasants to collect the works of LALAN SHAH (FAKIR). His rampant search for Lalan's work was marvelous. Later Kobi-Raj-Guru colored those and published as his original work. No one realizes such work whether originated from Lalan or Kobi-Raj-Guru. Of course this success goes as his credit.

After Sheiklh Mujibur Rahman came back from the Pakistani custody he captured the Premiership position from Su-Sree Tajuddin Aamed. Shortly after installing his cabinet by putting Abu Sayed Chowdhury in the President's chair on January 12, 1971 Mujib got engaged in choosing NATIONAL ANTHEM. He set a drama for about couple of days in the media to choose the National Anthem.

This was only a show. On the eventual day in mid-January 1972 he declared unilaterally Bishwa-Kobi-Raj-Guru's song as the National Anthem of Bangladesh. On the same day Aakash Baani proclaimed joy with Bishwa-Kobi-Raj-Guru stating single writer laureate for two countries. There was no voting or selection or election process. Briefly many leaders named Dwijendralal Roy's song. Before debate started Mujib hurriedly adopted his desired national anthem per pre-cooked prescription from his Guru in New Delhi. This is the way present National Anthem was adopted or chosen.

Mr. Gani recapped Mujib's 160 seats and Bhutto's 81 seats and portrayed Mujib party had the electoral victory. This misunderstanding still exists as Mujib and his diehard followers never clarified the impact of the LEGAL FRAME-WORK ORDER (LFO) of Yahya Khan coined by Punjabi bottle-khor Justice A. R. Cornelius. Even today the people of Bangladesh understand that Mujib was the absolute winner in the Pakistani National Assembly which is completely untrue per Legal Frame-work Order as Mujib signed and agreed to the content of this document.

Mujib was never been a leading or majority party leader in the Pakistan National Assembly per the result of the December 7th 1970 election. He became a Provincial majority leader just like Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto in Punjab and Sindh. Mujib never had the mandate to frame the constitution of Pakistan. Neither had he earned to establish 6-point formula of AL and 11-point formula of the students.

Mujib remained as good leader as Bhutto having deficiency of earning majority in another province of Pakistan which Bhutto had. If Mujib would have not signed Legal Frame-Work Order then he was not eligible to participate in the election. By introducing that LFO Mujib was trapped and made a scapegoat of the election result. He was fooled enough by Yahya gang which Mujib overlooked as his advisors remained stupid in actions. One such advisor is still alive and known a famous guy by the name Kamal Hossain. This tout leader knows everything about Mujib's role during 1970 through 1975. He must be arrested immediately and quizzed for the sake of developing true history of Bangladesh. This quizzing process will eliminate any ambiguity that exists in the Bangladeshi political playground.

Overall we have a taste of freedom and independence since 1947. The freedom in Bangladesh is a total freedom as a nation. This is indeed a great achievement for us which the Indians don't have at all except for their Hinduism as a unity vehicle despite caste system. The fragile Indians were never been united in the history of mankind.

Coming back to the National Anthem I must note that this song is hardly remembered or used by the Bangladeshis as nearly everyone breaks the tongue to get to the pronunciation. The language used in fabricating this song is not used by us in any corner of Bangladesh. This sort of language is Hindu Audhyushito (washed by Hindus) and dominated by them. It is hard for Bangladeshis to comprehend the meaning of this song too. Common people of Bangladesh do not remember such a song.

This is very impractical for a nation of 150 million people. I doubt whether any President or Prime Minister of Bangladesh could recite first ten lines of this song which is the National Anthem. This kind of foolish song needs to be abolished as the National Anthem. It must be written by a Bangladeshi.

Such a song must not be imported from another country. We should have our own for the soil and the people as we use our language on a day-to-day basis in our news item, song, natak (drama), speech, verbal program, etc. in the media like newspapers, TV channels, Radio, etc.

Today Bangladesh has many talents and they can fabricate more popular songs as they demonstrate regularly in many cultural events both at home and in abroad. Bangladesh must delete an obsolete imported song and adopt a new song as the National Anthem. Biushwa-Kobi-Raj-Guru is not the National Poet of Bangladesh. He is not even National Poet of India. Everyone in the sub-continent understands this poet laureate as a controversial character. If the song is produced by a Bangladeshi only then the song will be an own product. Pride will be achieved this way for the Bangladeshi nation and not by using a borrowed song from the Indian Bishwa-Kobi-Raj-Guru.

Bishwa-Kobi-Raj-Guru opposed the creation of the University of Dacca during 1910 through 1920 and echoed with Ashutosh Mukerjee. Had Kobi-Raj-Guru believed in united Bengal then how could he differentiate one part of Bengal versus another part of the same Bengal? Didn't he differentiate between Eastern Bengal and Western Bengal in those days and took side with Western Bengal in the name of Hindu supremacy and believed in subduing Muslims of Eastern Bengal? Do we need to evaluate further his hypocrisy? The major problem is that present young Bangladeshis do not know the history perfectly of this scoundrel laureate. If little was known then Mr. Gani could avert singing about Bishwa-Kobi-Raj-Guru. I urge Mr. Gani to go through the communal act of 1935 and see his role in that. I suppose more worms will come out if the can is properly adjudged.

Finally, I would like to ask Mr. Gani if a Swiss speaks German does that mean the Swiss can be called a German. Similarly if an Austrian speaks German then would that Austrian be called as a German? Similarly if an Indian speaks or writes or cultures Bengali language deeply should that person be called as Bangladeshi? I hope Mr. Gani will comprehend the difference and stop dreaming about united Bengal. If united Bengal comes as a wave let it come from the Indian secessionists. Let them realize the meaning of freedom. Only then such a welcome would be meaningful.

http://bangladesh-web.com/view.php?hidDate...000000000101848


On Mon, Nov 14, 2011 at 11:13 AM, Isha Khan <bdmailer@gmail.com> wrote:
Factual Perspective on Sonar Bangla

Mohammad Abdullah ,U.S.A.

I thank both Mr. Abid Bahar (Canada) and Mr. Saleh Ahmad (Bangladesh) for their deliveries at NFB concerning the present National Anthem of Bangladesh. I would add further information to their notes. Their observations and perspectives are highly valued.

Regarding Bengali culture, let us get back for a moment to Sarat Chandra Chatterjee. In his wonderful writing we found "Bangalee Chhelera Musholmaan Chheleyder Sathey Khelchhey …football(?).. " What does "Bangalee Chheley" or "Musholmaan Chheley" mean while the game was going on presumably in the Hooghly Mohsin College playground? There must be a clear distinction between the two groups that Sarat Chandra Chatterjee observed. This infamous writing is very famous to the Hindus, in particular. Of course there are some blind supporters of this infamous text and those who are the Bengali-speaking Muslims. Sarat Chatterjee has defined the Bengali culture in this way.

Further he has written: "…….. Nerhrey Holey Ki Hobey, Ra(n)dhey Valo …." From where Nerhey came in Sarat Chatterjee's text? We know clearly that Sarat Chatterjee coined GAFOOR wherein he enjoyed the hearts of the Muslim readers. This is how diehard Hindus had observed the Muslims though both speak the same language. The irony is that a Hindu eats "Hindu Mangsho" while a Muslim eats "Gosto (or Gos-t)" or simply "Gosh." The difference remains between the PANI and the JOL.

In the same way if one observes Bishwa Kobi-Raj-Guru's writing the same trickery will be visible. Rahamat Kabuliwala is a murderer, a character of a Muslim. Is this true that each Afghan Pathan is a murderer? As we know from the history, Emperor Asoka captured power by superseding his brother almost the same way nearly two thousand years later as Aurangazeb. The same Emperor was involved in mass killing from day one in the throne. Ultimately circa 262 B.C. he wanted Kalinga (present Orissa and adjoining southern areas) by hook or by crook.

The battle did cost him a total of nearly 40,000 lives. This number is similar to that of nearly 1800 years later Babur observed in Panipath. After that Babur was dismayed with battles but he had to take cannons again when Sangram Singh and a few other miniaturized Hindu and Muslim opponents did not leave him in peace. Seeing the dead bodies Asoka was very much disheartened and ultimately changed the religion to find peace. In the human history killing is a normal observation regardless of religious bias of the leader.

Bishwa Kobi-Raj-Guru ignored such historical facts but decided to portray a Muslim character as a murderer. This mean writer also enjoyed the hearts of the Hindus and Muslims alike regarding Rahamat Kabuliwala as the loving father and heart-breaking affection for a daughter. This baloney logic is no where nearer to viewing Rahamat as a murderer.

No one finds Muslim characters in the massive production machine of Bishwa Kobi-Raj-Guru except for Rahamat and in Musholmaani Didi. A Hindu pronounces Musolmaan as Musholmaan as found in Oi-ishlamic instead of Islamic. Bishwa Kobi-Raj-Guru had the same problem and deliberately ignored 57% Bengali-speaking Muslims. No wonder that the Bengali-speaking land was eventually divided. Such a scoundrel laureate was one of the responsible fellows for the partition because of his Hindu-oriented role being a member of the Brahma Samaj.

If he had any sense of humanity as a laureate then he would not have pursued to stop establishing the University in Dacca. Ashutosh Mukerjee initially opposed with his lawyer group members. His main instrumental was infamous communal Jadu Nath Sarkar. In order to strengthen the team against the establishment of the University in Dacca these communal despots gathered to include Bishwa-Kobi-Raj-Guru.

The amazing thing is this laureate Bishwa-Kobi-Raj-Guru accepted such an invitation and worked against the establishment of the University to be located in Dacca. As a trade Bishwa-Kobi-Raj-Guru tried to install his son-in-law (husband of Myra Devi) Mr. Gangopadhaya (of Barisal origin; 1889 - 1956) as a Faculty member in Soil Science (basically Soil Chemistry and Geology) at the University of Calcutta. This 21-year old son-in-law had a Bachelor's degree then from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Somehow hiring committee did not approve a Bachelor's holder to be a Faculty at the University of Calcutta. Even then Bishwa-Kobi-Raj-Guru continued tuning his focus on damaging the approval of the new University. At that time he was already a Nobel Laureate.

This shameless laureate fought shoulder to shoulder with the management by shaking hands with the communal group members of the University of Calcutta as well as the lawyers of the Calcutta Court. HOW MANY BANGLADESHIS ARE PROUD OF THE UNIVERSITY OF DACCA? These sons of the soil must speak loudly that they are the products of that institution. HOW MANY BANGLADESHIS KNOW THAT Bishwa-Kobi-Raj-Guru OPPOSED THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE SAME UNIVERSITY BETWEEN 1910 AND 1920?

Why the Bangladeshis need to honor such a scoundrel laureate? If there was no University in Dacca then the entire population would face a situation like Nepal or Bhutan or Afghanistan. What was the prime reason for Bishwa-Kobi-Raj-Guru to oppose this University? Do we have answer? Indeed Bishwa-Kobi-Raj-Guru was communally motivated

Evidence shows that when Chandrasekhar Venkat Raman died in 1970, at that time no scholarly people attended his funeral. Almost every Indian knew this despotic character as a great CHEAT of the science and technology arena. Poor Krishnan ultimately died as a madcap. If Raman could be honored in this way in India then why Bangladeshis are hesitant to abolish a communal laureate from the political and literal playground pf Bangladesh? A bill must be taken by the Parliament to approve the change of the National Anthem of Bangladesh.

A Bangladeshi must be the writer of such a National Anthem that nation can sing better without breaking tongue. Furthermore, the compatriots will not have to come across a communal any more. The nation will look perfect as filled with Bangladeshi citizens.

Finally, Bishwa Kobi-Raj-Guru had no connection with Bangladesh before 1947 and after 1947. His no family member or relatives belong to Bangladesh. His son-in-law was a British citizen and died there. His situation is not the same as Kazi Nazrul Islam. Again, Bishwa Kobi-Raj-Guru is not the National Poet of Bangladesh. Such a laureate has no room in India as well as a National Poet.

The prime reason for that he regarded as a scoundrel tout writer who had no fame in any branch of literature. Name any branch – he has touched, but never acquired championship. He has no parallel work compared to the champions in other languages. He was a mere reproducer and copier of old works of some less known people such as Lalan Fakir. He also stole many concepts from the Persian literature beside English competitors. Why Bangladeshis need to bother about such a stupid garbage copier? Since his ashes were thrown in Bhagirathi then we need to throw his legacies in the Bay of Bengal.

Mohammad Abdullah ,U.S.A.
mabdullah51@hotmail.com

http://bangladesh-web.com/view.php?hidDate=2006-04-28&hidType=OPT&hidRecord=0000000000000000103429

On Mon, Oct 31, 2011 at 11:24 AM, Isha Khan <bdmailer@gmail.com> wrote:
Rabindranath Tagore-A Non-Contemporary Politician.

Mohammad Gani (USA)

How do we see Galileo, Newton, Einstein and Tagore as politicians or did they ever engaged, took side or participated in any politics in its real term? Well, their political lives though were not that luminous, the answer is yes and they surely did not come off with flying colors as they did in their other fields of international prides and fames.

For example, Einstein's life was "divided between politics and equations" and most of us knew his politics of nuclear bomb as well as his famous letter to President Franklin Roosevelt. Einstein's political activities started during First World War when he was a professor in Berlin and was sickened by what he saw as waste of human lives, became involved in anti-war demonstration. His post war efforts to prevent nuclear war are also well known. His advocacy of civil disobedience and post war international reconciliation efforts did not make him any popular and actually his politics later were making it difficult for him to visit/enter US, even to give lectures.

His second great cause was Zionism. Though he was Jewish by decent, Einstein rejected the biblical idea of God. However, a growing awareness of anti-Semitism during and after the First World War made him an outspoken supporter of Jewish Community. His "mind's free speech" on his theories also came under attack; an anti-Einstein organization was even set to repudiate and assault him.

At one point, a man was convicted of inciting others to murder Einstein that ended up with $6 (six dollars) fine! In 1933, Hitler came to power and Einstein was in America and decided not to return to Germany. His efforts towards peace achieved little except only few friends. However he was duly recognized in 1952 for his support for Jewish cause and was offered Presidency of Israel. He declined it, perhaps; equations were more important to him, knowing very well that "Politics is for the present but an equation is something for eternity".

Background: The Indian Independence Movement was a series of revolutions empowered by the people of India put forth to battle the British Empire to a complete political independence. It began with many organizations like the "Sepoy Mutiny or Rebellion" of 1857, reaching its climax with Indian National Congress, All India Muslim League, Mahatma Gandhi's Quit India Movement (1942-1945) and Subash Chandra Bose's Indian National Army invasion of British India during World War II and culminating eventually in full freedom on August14/15, 1947.

Kabi Guru Rabindranath Tagore was not deeply or visibly involved in any Party politics but never detached himself from maneuvering actively with current political events either. His political views marked complexities to characterize when he joined "Swadeshi Movement" in 1906 with the Indian National Congress, a Hindu-dominated political organization supported by the Calcutta elite against Lord Curzon. He strongly voiced against the partition of United Bengal and fiercely and forcefully opposed the division of Bengal in his essay published in "Bangadarshan". All India Muslim League supported Lord Curzon for historical reason and voiced against "Swadeshi Movement".

Tagore was uniquely complex in his attitude towards nationalism. He inaugurated the meeting of the Congress party that took place in Calcutta (Kolkata) in 1896 by singing "Bande Mataram" to his own tune. He composed his celebrated piece "Shivaji's Utsav" at that time and was inspired by the Shivaji Festival introduced by Maharashtra's Balgangadhar Tilak. In his many articles like "Sadhana", "Bangadarshan", and "Bharati", he passed many intransigent opinions and views on many contemporary political situations.

In 1925 he stated that British imperialism was not a primary evil but only a political symptom of our social disease. He urged Indians to accept that "there can be no question of blind revolution, but of steady and purposeful education". Such views inevitably enraged many, placing his life in danger.

During his stay in a San Francisco hotel in late 1916, Tagore narrowly escaped an assassination attempt by Indian expatriates; the plot failed only because the would-be assassins fell into an argument. Yet Tagore wrote songs lionizing the Indian Independence Movement and renounced his knighthood in protest against the Jallianwala Bagh massacre in13 April 1919.

Tagore was also the key in resolving a Gandhi-B.R.Ambedkar dispute involving separate electorates for untouchables. Though Tagore wrote for the movement of self-rule, he never supported extreme nationalism or terrorist activities and had disputed admirations for Netaji Subash Chandra Bose as a leader of Indian Independence.

Gandhi and Tagore severely clashed over their totally different attitudes toward political philosophy, culture and science. In January 1934, Bihar was struck by a devastating earthquake that killed thousands of people. Gandhi was then deeply involved in the fight against "untouchability"; and extracted a positive lesson from that tragic event. He argued, "A man like me cannot but believe this earthquake is a divine chastisement sent by God for our sins; in particular the sins of untouchability.

For me there is a vital connection between the Bihar calamity and the untouchability campaign". Tagore equally abhorred untouchability and had joined Gandhi in the movements against it, but fulminated against Gandhi's interpretation of this event that had caused suffering and death to so many innocent people including children and babies. He also hated the epistemology implicit in seeing an earthquake as caused by ethical failure. He wrote "It is all the more unfortunate because this kind of unscientific view of natural phenomena is too readily accepted by a large section of our countrymen".

Tagore was predictably hostile to communal sectarianism, such as a Hindu orthodoxy that was antagonistic to Islamic, Christian, or Sikh perspectives. Even nationalism seemed to be a suspect to him because of his attitude toward traditional Indian culture over broad cultural diversity. He wanted Indians to learn what is going on elsewhere, how others lived, what they valued, and so on, while remaining interested and involved in their own culture and heritage. Unlike Gandhi who promoted traditional Indian culture, Tagore was not dismissive to Western civilization. It could be found in his advice to Indian students abroad and in his letters wrote to his son-in-law (1907) Nagendranath Gangulee who had come to USA to study agriculture.

Rabindranath rebelled against the "strongly nationalist form" that the independence movement often took. This approach made him to refrain from taking particular active part in any contemporary politics. He wanted to assert that India's right to be independent without denying the importance of what India could learn freely and profitably from abroad would not compromise traditional Indian culture.

Tagore's criticism of patriotism is a persistent theme in his writings. In 1908, he expressed his position clearly in a letter replying to the criticism of Abala Bose, the wife of a great Indian scientist, Jagadish Chandra Bose, "Patriotism cannot be our final spiritual shelter; my refuge is humanity.

I will not buy glass for the price of diamonds and I will never allow patriotism to triumph over humanity as long as I live". His novel "Ghare Baire" (The Home and the World) has much to say about this theme. In this novel, Nikhil, who is keen on social reform including women's liberation, but cool toward nationalism, gradually loses the esteem of his spirited wife, Bimala, because of his failure to be enthusiastic about anti-British agitations, which she sees as a lack of patriotic commitment. Bimala becomes fascinated with Nikhil's nationalist friend Sandip, who speaks brilliantly and acts with patriotic militancy and she falls in love with him……….

Tagore also was not invariably well-informed about international politics. He allowed himself to be entertained by Mussolini in a short visit to Italy in May-June 1926. It was arranged by Carlo Formichi, a Professor of Sanskrit at the University of Rome. During that visit Tagore wished to meet Benedetto Croce, an Italian Philosopher/ politician, but Prof. Formichi called it "Impossible"! Mussolini told Tagore that Croce was "not in Rome". As Tagore continued insisting and said, "I would go wherever he is". Mussolini then said to him that Croce's whereabouts were unknown!!

Warnings from Romain Rolland, a French writer and Nobel Prize in literature in 1915 and other friends should have ended Tagore's brief involvement with Mussolini more quickly than it did. But only after he received graphic accounts of the brutality of Italian fascism from two exiles, Gaetano Salvemini and Gaetano Salvadori and learned more of what was happening in Italy. Tagore did publicly denounce the regime and published a letter to the "Manchester Guardian" in August 1926. The following month "Popolo d'Italia" a magazine edited by Mussolini's brother, replied: "Who cares? Italy laughs at Tagore anyway and also at those who brought this unctuous and insupportable fellow in our midst."

(Thanks to Prof. Amartya Sen, Swedish Nobel Academy and some periodicals).
Mohammad Gani (USA).

http://bangladesh-web.com/view.php?hidDate=2006-04-28&hidType=OPT&hidRecord=0000000000000000103575


On Sun, Oct 30, 2011 at 4:26 PM, Desh Bondhu <desh_bondhu@ymail.com> wrote:
 
Dear Miss,
You missed the point,

It was not about the beauty of the song, it was the context or background of the song. 

It was Robi Thakur who opposed actively against a university for the then children of East Bengal. 

He was cruel Zamidar who oppressed the farmer. 
He was a tool of British oppression against us. 

The beauty of his songs or poetry or literature do attract us not his political stance. 

Desh-Bondhu,
'Desher Kotha Bolay'

On 28 Oct 2011, at 22:07, Farida Majid <farida_majid@hotmail.com> wrote:

 

      The exhibition of naked communalism, in both the article and the comments, is appalling! Communalism is a product of British colonial administration in India as is abundantly evident from the article's information about the division of Bengal in 1905. Any indulgence in communalism today is therefore a form of licking the boot of foreign Colonial Masters of pre-Independence, 1947.

     There is so much more to our National Anthem than this silly discussion about the political background of the song being written by Rabindranath, and not by a Muslim author. By the way, Kazi Nazrul Islam's song for the motherland begins: 'namo namo namo, Bangladesh momo, chiro-monoromo chiro-modhur' which is a lovely song, but no one dares sing that song these days for fear of arousing even more communal wrath with our Islam-pasandwallahs.
 
        For the Rabindranath-haters it should be solace to know that the National Anthem is only half a Rabindra-sangeet, since its tune is not composed by the poet.
 
     'Amar Sonar Bangla' is set to a traditional baul tune -- 'ami kothaye pabo tare, amar moner manush je re' --  very popular to both Muslim and Hindu bauls at the time and was commonly sung by ordinary people of East Bengal. Tagore heard the tune in the voice of Gagan Harkara in Silaidoho, which is in Bangladesh. Besides the sheer enticement of the tune, he might have chosen it for the ease of making it popular in people's voices across Bengal.
 
     It is written in simple language without the use of a consonant conjunct in any word, so even a 5-yr old literate can read the lyrics.
 
    Because it is set to a Bengali folk tune, there is no need of Scottish bagpipe or kettle drums to accompany the singing of it (as was necessary for singing 'Pak shar zameen shaad baad').  Local dugdugi, mandira, khol, ektara, dotara, or even a broken harmonium could accompany the singing of this Bangladeshi anthem any time anywhere.
  
     The magic of the tune of 'amar sonar Bangla' is so fabulous that it has touched other people's hearts for over a hundred years. It has been judged one of the 10 best National Anthems in the world by a music journalist in 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. The journalist felt that the wonderful tune "sounded like it was written for a stroll along the bank of the river Seine." It is astounding how he understood " ki anchol bichhayechho boter mule nodir kule kule" just by hearing the tune!  He had listened to the anthems of 205 countries, and those that seemed to him written by a band leader of Royal Navy, or a military marching band, were considered 'lifeless' and perfunctory.
 
   This traditional, spiritual baul tune is composed by an unknown. Its charm and magic will never fade and will continue to inspire love of the land in the the hearts of generations of Bangladeshis to come.  We should thank Rabindranath's musical genius for choosing this pure, authentic Bangladeshi tune for his song in praise of Mother Bengal.
 
                Farida Majid
 
'আমার সোনার বাংলা' মানে অবিভক্ত বাংলা, নিউ ইয়র্ক টাইমসের মতে ইতিহাসের পরিহাস
 

মঙ্গলবার, ১১ অক্টোবর ২০১১,

স্টাফ রিপোর্টার: 'আমার সোনার বাংলা আমি তোমায় ভালোবাসি' রবীন্দ্রনাথ ঠাকুরের এই বাংলা কোনবাংলাবাংলাদেশের ১৬ কোটি মানুষ বিশেষ করে স্কুল-কলেজের ছেলেমেয়েরা প্রতিদিন আসলে কোনবাংলার গান গাইছে। এই প্রশ্নটি অনেকের মনে বিশেষ করে বর্তমান ৫৮ হাজার বর্গমাইলের স্বাধীন সার্বভৌম বাংলাদেশের নতুন প্রজন্মের মনে একটা আন্দোলন তৈরি করতে পারে। কারণ বিশ্বের অন্যতমশীর্ষস্থানীয় প্রভাবশালী দৈনিক দি নিউ ইয়র্ক টাইমস এবিষয়ে একটি চমকপ্রদ তথ্য প্রকাশ করেছে।     
পত্রিকাটির গত ৩রা অক্টোবর সংখ্যায় সামন্ত সুব্রামনিয়াম 'দেশ ভাগের আগে দেশভাগশীর্ষক নিবন্ধেতথ্য দেন যেপশ্চিমবঙ্গের মুখ্যমন্ত্রী মমতা ব্যানার্জি সম্প্রতি ওয়েস্ট বেঙ্গলকে পশ্চিমবঙ্গ করেছেন। এখনথেকে আর বাংলা পশ্চিমবঙ্গকে ইংরেজিতে ওয়েস্ট বেঙ্গল লেখা যাবে না। পশ্চিমবঙ্গের নাম ইংরেজিতেওপশ্চিমবঙ্গ লিখতে হবে। ওয়েস্ট বেঙ্গল লেখার রীতি আসলে ঔপনিবেশিক শাসনের ধারাবাহিকতা। বৃটিশভারত ছেড়েছে ১৯৪৭ সালে। তবে অবিভক্ত বাংলা দু'ভাগ হয়েছিল আরও আগে১৯০৫ সালে। ওই সময়েঅবিভক্ত বাংলার মোট জনসংখ্যা ছিল প্রায় ৮৪ মিলিয়ন। সেই বাংলা আয়তনে ছিল বর্তমান ফ্রান্সের সমান।১৮৯৮ থেকে ১৯০৫ পর্যন্ত ভারতে বৃটিশ ভাইসরয় ছিলেন লর্ড কার্জন। তিনি ভেবেছিলেন এতবড় বাংলাকেশাসন করা  সামলানো বেশ কঠিন তিনিই তাই বাংলা ভাগের পরিকল্পনা করেন। বৃটিশদের যে মূল নীতি'ভাগ করো  শাসন করোতার সঙ্গে কার্জনের পরিকল্পনা বেশ খাপ খায়। ১৯০৪ সালে ভারত সরকারেরস্বরাষ্ট্র সচিব এইচএইচ রিজলি লিখলেন, 'যুক্ত বেঙ্গল একটি শক্তি। এটা ভাগ করলে আমাদের শাসনেরবিরুদ্ধে চ্যালেঞ্জ সৃষ্টিকারী প্রতিপক্ষকে ভাগ করা হলে তারা দুর্বল হবে।লর্ড কার্জনের মনে এই সুপারিশবিরাট প্রভাব ফেলেছিল। 
১৯০৫ সালের ফেব্রুয়ারিতে ভাইসরয় কার্জন সেক্রেটারি ফর স্টেট অব ইন্ডিয়া জন ব্রডনিকের কাছে লিখলেন, 'কলকাতা হলো কংগ্রেসের ঘাঁটি। এখান থেকে তারা সমগ্র বাংলা এমনকি গোটা ভারত পরিচালনা করেথাকে। আইনজীবী শ্রেণী খুবই শক্তিশালী। এখন যদি বাংলা ভাগ করা হয় তাহলে তাদের দাপট কমে যাবে।এটা করলে প্রচণ্ড চিৎকার-চেঁচামেচি হবে। তবে আমাকে একজন বাঙাল ভদ্রলোক বলেছেনআমার দেশেরলোক কোন কিছু নিষ্পত্তি না হওয়া পর্যন্ত অনেক হৈচৈ করে। এরপর তারা থেমে যায়। এবং মেনেও নেয়।'এরপরই বাংলা ভাগ হলো। 
সুব্রামনিয়াম এরপর লিখেছেনবাংলাকে এভাবে ভাগ করা হলো যাতে ইস্ট বেঙ্গলে উল্লেখযোগ্য সংখ্যকমুসলিমরা একত্রিত হতে পারে। তারা ভাগ হয়ে প্রথমেই তাদের শোষণ-বঞ্চনার বিরুদ্ধে সোচ্চার হলো।বৃটিশরা দরিদ্র মুসলিমদের অনুভূতি নিয়ে খেললো। ১৯০৪ সালের ফেব্রুয়ারিতে কার্জন ঢাকায় বলেছিলেন, 'ইস্ট বেঙ্গল হওয়ার ফলে মুসলমানরা এমন এক ঐক্যের স্বাদ পাবে যেটা তারা বহু আগে যখন মুসলমানরাজা-বাদশার আমলে পেয়েছিলেন।
১৯০৫ সালের ১৬ই অক্টোবর বাংলা আনুষ্ঠানিকভাবে ভাগ হলো। আনন্দবাজার পত্রিকা পরদিন সম্পাদকীয়লিখেছিলকলকাতার জনগণ এদিনটিকে শোক দিবস হিসেবে পালন করবে। এই দেশভাগ বিশেষ করেরবীন্দ্রনাথের জাতীয়তাবাদী চেতনাকে নাড়া দিয়েছিল। এর আগে সেপ্টেম্বরের মাঝামাঝি তিনি লিখেছিলেন, 'বাংলার মাটিবাংলার জল এবং 'আমার সোনার বাংলা' তখনও বাংলা ভাগের ঘোষণা আসেনি।
কলকাতা শহরে প্রথম বাংলা ভাগের প্রতিবাদ হিসেবে 'আমার সোনার বাংলাগানটি গাওয়া হয়েছিল।১৯১১ সালে দুই বাংলা পুনরায় একত্রিত হয়েছিল তবে তা ১৯৪৭ সালে পুনরায় ভাগ হওয়ার জন্য। নিউইয়র্ক টাইমসের ওই নিবন্ধের শেষ বাক্যইতিহাসের অনেক পরিহাস। তবে বঙ্গের অন্যতম পরিহাস হলো-১৯৭১ সালে ইস্ট বেঙ্গল স্বাধীনতা পেল আর তারা কিনা তাদের জাতীয় সংগীত হিসেবে বেছে নিলো 'আমারসোনার বাংলা' প্রথম দশ লাইন। সেটি ছিল রবীন্দ্রনাথের এমন একটি কবিতাযা অবিভক্ত বাংলারচেতনায় অনুপ্রাণিত। 

 











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