Re: [mukto-mona] Bangladesh Wins Freedom (Bangladesh vs West Bengal); please post this one, discard the earlier one that contains at least three typos.

There was (and still is) a huge difference between Urdu and English. One can criticize the British for ruling almost the whole world, but there is no denying the fact that English has become the world language today. Just 25 years back, most good US universities required Ph.D. degree candidates in most science subjects to learn a science-rich foreign language, such as German, Japanese, Russian, and French. That is no longer the case today, because most high-quality foreign language journals now have English editions. Thus, for the Indians to use English as a common language is a smart choice. Urdu was the language of the Muslim aristocrats and worth almost nothing for the mass population of Pakistan. It is not only because aristocracy and empires are in the declining mode in the whole world, it is also because Urdu is practically useless outside the Indian subcontinent.

 

Waiting for Urdu to be acceptable probably would have been a smarter decision. But even the wide acceptability of Urdu would serve no real purpose for Pakistan. Of course, Bangla was the only language that could be legitimately claimed as the national language of Pakistan when that country was born; assuming that the colonial rulers' language (English) was not acceptable for that purpose, and assuming that there would be just one "national language."

 

"Our Brother and sisters from West Bengal already surrendered their culture, language etc. to Indian union and from a nation it reduced itself to a "State" of India!!" There are quite a few fallacious points here. Let me note some realities here.

 

1)      Bangla language and culture are very much alive in West Bengal. In fact, the way I see it, a majority of college educated Bangladeshis are much poorer than similarly educated people of West Bengal, when it comes to writing and speaking abilities in the Bangla language. All the emphasis on Bangla language in Bangladesh should ultimately make Bangladesh the principal custodian of this language in the world; but I do not think Bangladeshis are anywhere near that today.

 

2)      Being part of a bigger cultural sphere is not the same as surrendering one's own culture. If one talks about the Bollywood culture, that is very much in Bangladesh also.

 

3)      West Bengal was never a nation; there is no question of reducing itself from a nation to a state. One might argue that West Bengal could have been independent like Bangladesh. But did they have a good reason to be independent? Would Bangladesh be independent today if we did not have a good reason to separate from Pakistan? Thus, it would be plain foolish for Bangladeshis to brag like 'we are independent, you are not'.

 

4)      BTW: Hindi was (and still is) the majority language in India, and thus the legitimate national language of that country. The Bangalees of West Bengal never had a reason to fight for their language the way we in East Bengal did. It would be also unwise for Bangladeshis to brag like 'we fought for Bangla, you did not'.

 

Sukhamaya Bain

From: qar <qrahman@netscape.net>
To: mukto-mona@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Friday, October 21, 2011 1:47 AM
Subject: Re: [mukto-mona] Bangladesh Wins Freedom

....................For example Urdu is not a native language of Pakistan. But it was accepted as a common language of Pakistan (Like English is used to bind Indians today). If Pakistani leadership had a functioning brain they would have waited a little longer to get accepted. Our Brother and sisters from West Bengal already surrendered their culture, language etc to Indian union and from a nation it reduced itself to a "State" of India!!.........

 

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