1. National poet Nazrrul was a soldier poet one of whose songs have been adopted as the marching song of E Bengal Regt, the premier inf regt of BA. Nazrul appealed to all - but particularly the youth, the downtrodden and the have-nots. He was a revolutionary and talked of freedom and asked people to rise against the British for which the British had jailed him. But his greatest contribution was to arouse the subjugated Bengalee Muslims to action. He was nearly a contemporary of Allama Iqbal.
2. No govt in BD can downgrade him. His 112th birth anniversary was celebrated with due fervor and govt patronage. The main function was at Trishal, Mymensingh where the poet had spent his boyhood. The President of BD himself performed the opening ceremony with most of the cabinet attending. Some surviving members of Nazrul's family including two grand daughters were present. PM Hasina is abroad.
3. BD celebrated the 150th anniversary of Tagore with India jointly. After all Tagore was born in present day India and wrote that nation's national anthem. He also wrote ours and SL's anthem (in a form). However, the outgoing Left govt of W Beng was not too enthusiastic about Tagore. Tagore was a zamindar/bourgeois. He wrote for the elite. He was close to the colonial rulers. He was also not a Hindu, but worse; he belonged to a family where the Brahmo Samaj, which renounced Hinduism, was born. On the contrary the Left govt preferred Nazrul for his revolutionary messages and life full of fights against the imperialists and the exploiters. Mamta of TC has been more enthusiastic about these celeberations.
4. Only mischievous politicos and intellectuals discover a contradiction between Bengalee nationalism and Bengalee Muslim nationalism (coined Bangladeshi nationalism). On the other hand the ultimate flowering of Bengalee nationalism will overflow into Indian states of W Bengal, Tripura and later Assam. In which case, these states will either look for independence or unification with BD. In the interim these areas will convert into an advantageous(forBD) buffer between Delhi and Dhaka.
5. Geographical nationalism and Pan Islamism preached by the great sage Jamaluddin Afghani exist in two different planes. They neither oppose each other nor are they contradictory. Turks, Arabs, Iranian/Persians, Afghans, Indonesians, Malaysians, etc all have national nationalism while remaining entities of the Ummah.
6. Let me close drawing attention to the flow of demographic graph of this sub-region. In the last census, BD had 91% Muslim population. The rest are Schedule Cast/ Low Cast Hindus (who do not relish to be called Hindus), Buddhists, High Cast Hindus and Christians - in that order. Officially the Muslims constitute 35% of W Bengal's population. Retired Lieut Gen Srinivas Kumar Singh, considered an intellectual among soldiers in India, was a popular and successful Governor of Assam (1997-2003). He had submitted a 42 pages report on the state to Indian Prez. In that he had cautioned about the growing Muslim population, which had reached 25%.
6. A situation is drawing inexorably when to be called a Bengalee would be to call a Muslim.
2. No govt in BD can downgrade him. His 112th birth anniversary was celebrated with due fervor and govt patronage. The main function was at Trishal, Mymensingh where the poet had spent his boyhood. The President of BD himself performed the opening ceremony with most of the cabinet attending. Some surviving members of Nazrul's family including two grand daughters were present. PM Hasina is abroad.
3. BD celebrated the 150th anniversary of Tagore with India jointly. After all Tagore was born in present day India and wrote that nation's national anthem. He also wrote ours and SL's anthem (in a form). However, the outgoing Left govt of W Beng was not too enthusiastic about Tagore. Tagore was a zamindar/bourgeois. He wrote for the elite. He was close to the colonial rulers. He was also not a Hindu, but worse; he belonged to a family where the Brahmo Samaj, which renounced Hinduism, was born. On the contrary the Left govt preferred Nazrul for his revolutionary messages and life full of fights against the imperialists and the exploiters. Mamta of TC has been more enthusiastic about these celeberations.
4. Only mischievous politicos and intellectuals discover a contradiction between Bengalee nationalism and Bengalee Muslim nationalism (coined Bangladeshi nationalism). On the other hand the ultimate flowering of Bengalee nationalism will overflow into Indian states of W Bengal, Tripura and later Assam. In which case, these states will either look for independence or unification with BD. In the interim these areas will convert into an advantageous(forBD) buffer between Delhi and Dhaka.
5. Geographical nationalism and Pan Islamism preached by the great sage Jamaluddin Afghani exist in two different planes. They neither oppose each other nor are they contradictory. Turks, Arabs, Iranian/Persians, Afghans, Indonesians, Malaysians, etc all have national nationalism while remaining entities of the Ummah.
6. Let me close drawing attention to the flow of demographic graph of this sub-region. In the last census, BD had 91% Muslim population. The rest are Schedule Cast/ Low Cast Hindus (who do not relish to be called Hindus), Buddhists, High Cast Hindus and Christians - in that order. Officially the Muslims constitute 35% of W Bengal's population. Retired Lieut Gen Srinivas Kumar Singh, considered an intellectual among soldiers in India, was a popular and successful Governor of Assam (1997-2003). He had submitted a 42 pages report on the state to Indian Prez. In that he had cautioned about the growing Muslim population, which had reached 25%.
6. A situation is drawing inexorably when to be called a Bengalee would be to call a Muslim.
...All these poets are our shared heritage . No way one country can lay sole claim to.