Gandhi through a Marxian lens

Originally written in Bengali in 1955, an English version is only available now and it reveals the Indian freedom fighter's affinity towards communism and socialism.

Did you know that India’s independence father Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi had leftist leanings? Or that he had no hesitations in calling himself a socialist or even a communist?

In fact, Gandhi’s ideology to develop the nation, which was then under colonial rule, was premised on the concept of socialism, claims a newly published translated version of an original Bengali book on the iconic statesman.

Translator KV Subrahmonyan has done a brilliant job in painstakingly translating “Gandhi Gabeshana” to become “Revolutionary Gandhi”. The book was originally written by Indian author and a top communist leader Pannalal Dasgupta in 1955 and the English version offers an insight into the thinking of Gandhi on socialism and how he thought it could help form a nation.

Full report here Free Malaysia Today

Tagore's 69th anniversary of death today

The 69th death anniversary of Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore will be observed across the country today, paying due tribute to the most celebrated Bengali poet, playwright, novelist, composer and painter.

Tagore, who enriched the Bengali language and literature in the late 19th and early 20th centuries with his astounding talent, died on Sraban 22 in Bangla calendar at the age of 80.

Different social and cultural organisations have chalked out elaborate programmes to mark the day.

Tagore, popularly known as Biswakobi, dominated the Bangla literary scene with copiousness of works: over 10,000 poems, nearly two dozen plays and play-lets, 12 novels, over 100 short stories, more than 6,000 songs and a mass of prose works on literary, social, religious, political, and other topics.

His English translations, travels and lecture-tours in Asia, America, and Europe; and his activities as an educationist, as a social and religious reformer, and as a politician made him the most widely regarded literary figure in the subcontinent.

full report here Daily Star

I for identity, I for inclusion

In 1944, a boy of 11 was playing in the garden of his house in Bangladesh when he witnessed a scene of pure horror. Suddenly, a poor Muslim man, grievously stabbed by a fanatic Hindu mob, entered through the gate, pleading for a drink of water.

Kader Mian had made the fatal mistake of coming into the wrong neighbourhood, at a time of intense communal unrest, in the hope of earning some money to feed his starving family. As he collapsed, the little boy laid the dying man’s head on his lap. Later, Kader Mian died in a hospital, where the boy’s father had taken him.

The experience was to haunt, and grow on, the young boy’s imagination for years, until such a time when, as a Nobel-winning economist, he would recount the episode in one of his highly acclaimed books, Identity and Violence — The Illusion of Destiny, first published by W.W. Norton in 2006.

Speaking at the launch of the Bengali translation of the book, brought out by Ananda Publishers, on Tuesday at the ICCR, Amartya Sen recalled Kader Mian’s harrowing end to meditate on some of the most urgent issues of our times. How could one difference, religious in this case, become so important as to take an innocent life? Does this not imply that a sense of identification with a certain group of people not just bridges distances but can also open up dangerous new abysses?

Sen’s book, which has been rendered into Bengali by Bhaswati Chakravorty, takes on the problems and paradoxes of identity, its relationship with economic freedom, as well as with the forces of globalisation. And the answers and arguments that Sen offers in this work are bound to stir debates and discussions.

Full report here Telegraph

Language pill for minorities

After jobs for Muslims, it's time for quality education. English education, in fact.

Chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee will be walking the next crucial step when he lays the foundation for an English-medium madarsa at Suri in Birbhum on July 31 — possibly the first such madarsa in the country. Over the next few months, each of the state's 12 minority dominated districts will have such institutions.

In February this year, Bhattacharjee — who also holds the minority welfare portfolio — had adopted the Ranganath Mishra Commission's recommendations ahead of the Centre by reserving 10% quota for backward Muslims. And by deciding to set up 14 new English-language madarsas (including three in Murshidabad), the Left Front government has again admitted that it was wrong in dropping English in primary education in the 1980s. The CM had himself acknowledged this while re-introducing English from Class I in 2001.

The rectification process continued with the government setting up state-run English-medium schools this year. It will come full circle with the English-medium madarsas. So far, the teaching medium in Bengal madarsas has been Urdu, Hindi or Bengali.

Full report here Times of India

9 languages launched in Brampton Library

In a function held at South Fletcher’s library in Brampton nine books in different languages were launched on the occasion of Canadian multicultural day.

The occasion was jointly inaugurated by Adele Kostiak CEO of Brampton Library, and Janice Awde, Chair of the board. Nine languages were added to the existing 13 languages including Bengali, Croatian, Korean, Malayalam, Persian, Romanian, Serbian, Sinhalese and Turkish. The existing 13 languages are Arabic, Chinese, Gujarati, Hindi, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, Punjabi, Spanish, Tamil, Tagalog, Urdu and Vietnamese. Sarala Uttangi, Coordinator Multicultural Services introduced and gave a description of the different languages and welcome the gathering. A representative from each language spoke few lines from a book in their language .Harikumar resident of Brampton introduced Malayalam by reading few lines from the renowned writer of Malayalam & English Late Madhavikkutty.

Full report here South Asia Mail

Plea for renewal of Taslima’s visa

People from various walks of life from France and the UK have written a letter to the Prime Minister to request that Bangladeshi author Taslima Nasrin’s visa be renewed.

Excerpts from the letter: We are citizens of the world, intellectuals, writers, attached to women’s rights and to freedom of expression.

Your party leads the largest secular democracy of the Asian subcontinent and even of the world. A rare and precious exception. After years of wandering, Taslima Nasrin, a Bengali writer, found refuge there, at the same time as she rediscovered the pleasure of living in a country where she could be read in her language.
But while she thought herself finally safe, she must once more suffer the hatred and rage of fanatics who will never forgive a woman for being free and for saying so.

On several occasions these last months, tens of thousands of enraged people called for her head and burned her effigies. Your country protected her against death, but no longer wishes to protect her against intimidation.

Full report here Hindustan Times

Tripura urges UN to adopt Bengali as official language

Tripura has urged the UN to introduce Bengali as one of the world body’s official languages, in the run up to the 150th birth anniversary of Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore.

‘The assembly during its just concluded budget session passed a unanimous resolution urging the UN to make the Bengali language as one of the official languages,’ assembly secretary Subhas Bhattacharjee told IANS.

He said the assembly resolution was sent Thursday to the UN secretary general through the union human resource development (HRD) ministry.

‘On the momentous occasion of the 150th birth anniversary of Nobel laureate poet Rabindranath Tagore, the Tripura assembly resolves to urge the UN to introduce Bengali language as one of its official languages.’

Seeking attention of the union HRD Minister Kapil Sibal, Bhattacharjee in his letter to the HRD ministry secretary said: ‘The relations of the internationally acclaimed bard with the then kings of Tripura were extremely close and the poet had visited the state as many as seven times between 1899 and 1926.’

Full report here Calcutta Tube

‘I Am An Assamese, A Bengali And A Sylheti. What Exactly Am I?’

I COME FROM a small town, Karimganj, tucked away like an inconvenient problem on the southernmost fringes of the Indo-Bangladesh border. The widely-spoken languages here are Bengali and Sylheti — I never spoke Assamese until I joined Cotton College in Guwahati. My mother, for instance, spoke Sylheti at home, to haggle with the vendors in her tongue. She taught Bengali at the neighbourhood school in town.

As a young child, I had asked my mother if we were Sylhetis or Bengalis. She had told me a story — my grandmother’s extended family’s roots originated in Sylhet, in what is now Bangladesh. As communal unrest grew in the pro vinces, they fled to the relative safety of Karimganj. Many Bengali Hindus who had fled their erstwhile homes sought refuge in this land. In course of time, they made it their own little paradise, picking up the pieces of their erstwhile memories. Nostalgia pervaded every aspect of their daily existence. I understood while growing up that Barak Valley was never going to be a part of Assam as was being demanded.

Full report here Tehelka 

Tagore tales on talkies

The works of Rabindranath Tagore have always fascinated filmmakers, as these are universal — in time, space, emotions and human relationships, writes Shoma A. Chatterji

Rabindranath Tagore’s writings bring up images of lyricism and romance. Many filmmakers feel that the horizon of a Tagore creation — be it poetry, fiction, essay or drama — is too large, all-encompassing, complex and alien to Indian masses, conditioned to ‘popular’ literary figures like Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay and Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay. Their creations, it is felt, are more cinema-friendly. The 14 remakes of Devdas in different Indian languages is an example.

The homespun philosophy of Sarat Chandra and the romantic spirit of Bankim Chandra had more appeal than the non-conformist and feminist themes, which Tagore dealt with. Yet, Tagore has been recognised as a rich literary source for very good cinema. Satyajit Ray’s films based on Tagore’s works offer the best example. In 1961, Ray made Teen Kanya (Three Daughters), on three Tagore short stories — Postmaster, Monihara and Samapti. The other Tagore works he filmed are Charulata and Ghare Baire.

Tagore’s works are universal — in time, space, emotions and human relationships. They offer filmmakers a challenge to make the film as powerful, credible and appealing on celluloid as it is in print. A film based on, adapted from, interpreted from Tagore’s oeuvre offers scope for argument, discussion, analysis, debate and questions among the audience, critics and scholars. A massive volume of scholarly treatises came out after Satyajit Ray’s Charulata, leading to a new genre — writing on films based on Tagore’s works.

Full report here Tribune

Writer left red-faced by Akademi error

For well-known litterateur Veena Alase, it was the most embarrassing moment in her life when the Sahitya Akademi informed her that the prestigious award declared for her translation work is being withdrawn, since her name was earlier declared by mistake. ‘‘It was a human error, we express regrets,’’ Krishnamurthy, Sahitya Akademi secretary informed her.

On February 14, Alase was informed that she had been selected for the Sahitya Akademi award for her translation work in Marathi. Then the Akademi had asked her to submit comprehensive information on her literary work in the prescribed format.

Besides submitting her career details, Alase specifically informed the administration that she was selected for the Sahitya academy award in 1994 for translation work, then she had translated a book authored by social reformer Mahatma Jyotiba Phule in Bengali. ‘‘She sent the entire information to the academy in February itself,’’ a senior official said.

Full report here Times of India

A new voice

English translation of Bengali classics find new avenues

Sankar’s 1973 novel Jana Aranya is often talked about only because of its film adaptation by Satyajit Ray. As a part of Ray’s Calcutta trilogy (the previous two being Seemabaddha and Pratidwandi), Jana Arnaya performs a definite function. It talks about the moral corruption of the youth in the ravaged 1970s. It was a well-written book made into a thought-provoking film.

Celebrated? Not really. Yet, close to four decades after it was written and 35 years after it was made into a film, this novel has enamoured Pradipta Biswas, a first year student of English with the Jadavpur University. “I am reading the translation of the original novel and I love every bit of it. It evokes a different era but the ethos remains the same. The protagonist is torn between his morality and ambition and I can identify with his struggle,” says Biswas.

Full report here Indian Express

His constant presence in a changing world

While the world celebrated Tagore’s 150th birth anniversary on Friday, his home state is gearing up to honour him on the date of his birth, May 9, as per the Bengali calender

‘Tagore remains quite alive in the Spanish speaking world’

The radical liberal ideas that we encounter in Tagore’s works look refreshingly modern even by today’s standards. He was constantly experimenting with form (eg, ‘the novel of ideas’ as in Gora) and drew as much from Indian cultural forms as from his encounters with Western cultures, internalising everything in the process and revealing India to itself.

In fact, there is a recent UN document that hails Tagore as the key reference point for the notion of a “reconciled universal” of the 21st century. In other words, all humanity — not just jingoistic Bengalis —should look to him in order to move forward and learn how he was capable of embracing the world while still rooted in his own soil, that is, being adaptable and resilient at the same time. This stands in sharp contrast to today’s fashionable multiculturalism, which leads to apparent widening of knowledge but only produces shallow minds.

Full report here DNA

Clues to the Mising link

It’s not everyday that the emotions and drama that unfold along the banks of the Brahmaputra can be felt and simulated on the lapping waters of the Hooghly. But thanks to the efforts of the students of Jadavpur University and experts from the Sahitya Akademi, the song of a Mising ollung dunê (boatman) can now be enjoyed and distinguished from that of a bhatiali (boatman’s song in Bengal) in Calcutta.

The Centre for Translation of Indian Literatures, Jadavpur University, and Sahitya Akademi, Calcutta jointly organised a Mising-Bengali translation workshop in Calcutta recently to bring the two cultures in contact with each other.

The students had previously translated Jiban Narah compilation Listen My Flowerbud: Mishing (sic) Tribal Oral Poetry of Assam from English to Bengali. Listen My Flowerbud is actually the English version of Narah’s Assamese compilation Shuna Mor Phul Koli.

Aveek Majumder, co-ordinator of the course, pointed out that translation from one language to another always leaves a “cultural gap”. “What we did was a translation of a translation. We figured that there had to be a double gap,” he said. To overcome this, we invited experts from Sahitya Akademi to sit with us for a three-day Mising-Bengali Translation Workshop, he added.

Full report here Telegraph 

Bengali to English

"Prepone” is now a word in the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. So is “airdash”. For those who squirm at the made-in-India opposite of “postpone”, the dictionary-makers say: “It enriches the language”. Not just Indian English. Shuddh Hindi words like attar, dhoti, dal are already there in the dictionary.

At the same time, the latest edition of Samsad Bangla Abhidhaan contains words as intrinsically English as “blade”, “blackboard”, “breakfast”, “captain”, “calendar”, “estate”, “envelope” and “engine”, to mention only the first part of the tome. Why not enrich the English dictionary with some Bengali? Worldwide, there are 20-25 crore speakers of Bangla.

Educationist Pabitra Sarkar says it is difficult to find the English equivalents of two kinds of words in Bengali. One: cultural terms like abhisar and abhiman, used to such rich effect in Vaishnava padabalis. Two: kinship terms — beyai, beyan, bhayra bhai, nonod, ja, bhashur… Metro draws up a list:

Abhiman: The original meaning was pride, but the current usage — anger, or something close to it, at being upset with a loved one. This one word is one whole chapter in any relationship, be it between lovers or between parent and child or between siblings or friends. Or just think Radha, when Krishna comes back after having spent the night with Chandrabali.

Full report here Telegraph

Creating a Classical Indian Canon

In the library sales from the crumbling houses of Calcutta, or Delhi, or the hill-station homes, the keen-eyed book-buyer would often come across sets of bound classics. These were usually in the printer’s binding — vellum, blue leather and gold — or occasionally bound in red with the owner’s initials stamped on the spine or on the frontispiece.

Over the decades, the contents of these classics changed. Everyman’s Library of classic works was a favourite, as was the Modern Library set; but depending on the owner’s tastes, you might have complete sets of histories, or the World’s Greatest Short Stories, or Masterpieces of World Literature, or a complete set of Greek mythology. You would very rarely find a similar set of Indian classics — individual books, almost always the Mahabharata, the Ramayana and perhaps the great poets or favourite Hindi, Gujarati and Bengali writers.

Full report here Business Standard 

PREPAK imposes ban on book

The proscribed Peoples Revolutionary Party of Kangleipak has imposed blanket ban on Keisham Birchand`s newly released book `Manipur Kangleipak kouremde, Kangla konna leirakkhi`.

The outfit also imposed ban sale of a book written by Bengali writer Subalchandra Mitra Saral Bangla Abhidhan - an Encyclopaedia of the Bengali literature` to which the Manipuri writer took reference in preparing his book.

Announcing this during a press conference held somewhere in Imphal East district today, Lt Ningtamba, commander Imphal West district told media that Birchand`s book is a piece of Indianisation process that has been taking place in Manipur.

While asserting that Manipur has its own distinct identity and culture, the PREPAK leader said the outfit would never allow sale or distribution of books in Manipur which could enhance Indianisation.

Full report here Kanglaonline

Murthys gift Harvard $5.2 mn to publish classics

N R Narayana Murthy, Chief Mentor of Infosys Technologies, and his family have donated $5.2 million to Harvard University and Harvard University Press to establish a new publication series called The Murty Classical Library of India.

The endowed dual-language series will feature contemporary English versions of works originally composed in classical languages such as Sanskrit, Persian and Urdu, as well as literature from Tamil, Bengali, Kannada, Punjabi and other Indian languages.

“I am happy that Harvard University Press is anchoring this publishing project,” said Murthy. His wife, Sudha, said, “We are happy to participate in this exciting project of taking the rich literary heritage of India to far corners of the world.”

Full report here Indian Express

Now, a film to be made on Tagore's story

With the 150th birth anniversary of Rabindranath Tagore being celebrated this year, Bengali filmmaker Pranab Chaudhari has decided to pay homage to the Nobel laureate with his film Muslomanir Galpo, based on a story written by Kabiguru a few months before his death.

Muslomanir Galpo is about Hindu-Muslim harmony and atrocities against women. In the story, the lead character Kamala transforms herself into Meherjan and leads her life for the welfare of abandoned and repressed Hindu girls.

"I was searching for a different story for my film. Tagore wrote the story just one and a half months before his death (on Aug 7, 1941). Probably he wanted to tell his readers to stop these atrocities," Chaudhari told IANS over phone from Kolkata. He plans to release the film May 9 to commemorate the 150th birth anniversary of Tagore.

Chaudhari says the story of Muslomanir Galpo is relevant even 68 years after Tagore's death. "I have made this film to give the message to the wider section of viewers to stop atrocities against womanhood and to keep Hindu-Muslim amity, the main essence of Kabiguru Rabindranath Tagore's story.

Full report here Hindustan Times

Nazrul in contemporary society

Any discussion on Kazi Nazrul Islam gets weighted down with superlatives. His incomparable writings, in a very short spell, established Nazrul as a genius in the arena of Bengali literature.

Nazrul was born on this day in Churulia, Burdwan, near Asansol, West Bengal. His father Kazi Fakir Ahmed was the Imam of the local mosque; his mother was Zaheda Khatun. Nazrul's family was quite poor, and Nazrul was often referred to by the locals as Dukhu Miah (the ill-fated one).

Nazrul ran off from home at a young age but trouble never ceased to follow him. He worked for a while at a bakery in Asansol, where his literary talent first came to light. At the age of 18, whilst still a secondary school student at Raniganj (in West Bengal), Nazrul thought of joining the distant World War 1. He joined the Bengal Regiment as a habildar (corporal) and was posted in Karachi. Although the regiment was never in the thick of battle and was disbanded in 1920, the lilt of the soldier's parades and marches permeated much of his writing. Nazrul emerged at a time when the presence of Tagore loomed large on the Bengali literary scene. He was a great admirer of the latter.

Tagore reciprocated by admiring the young talent. The morning after composing Bidrohi, Nazrul rushed to Tagore's house and read out the poem to the maestro. Nazrul had a powerful voice - at times embodying the swaggering rebel, and at times the gentle, creative poet -- diversity reigning supreme in his songs.

Full report here New Nation 

Jugasankha literary award to Bikash Sarkar

Renowned poet and litterateur Bikash Sarkar was conferred the prestigious Jugasankha Literary Award-2010 on March 24, for his contributions to Bengali literature from the North East. This was stated in a press release. The award is conferred every year by the Jugasankha Group to a distinguished literary figure, who has made outstanding contributions to the field of literature in the State.

The award, which has been constituted to commemorate the birth anniversary of Barta-Bhagirath Baidyanath Nath, the founder of the Jugasankha Group, includes a cheque of Rs 1 lakh, a citation, a medallion and a pen.

Sarkar was conferred with the Jugasankha literary award at the Vivekananda Kendra Institute of Culture in Uzanbazar, Guwahati, by the chairman of Sankha Press Pvt. Limited Bijoy Krishna Nath. Noted litterateurs Mamoni Roisom Goswami, Samaresh Mazumdar and Yasodhara Ray Choudhury were present at the award function.

Full report here Assam Tribune