My article in the strange journey of Bengali Hindu progressivism: from cosmopolitan internationalism to invoking the threat of ‘outsiders’
https://twitter.com/swapan55/status/1331807023327969280?s=19
OPINION | Bengal has a history of peculiar exceptionalism. @swapan55 writes on Bengal's history of peculiar exceptionalism
https://twitter.com/ttindia/status/1331787509106356226?s=19
Today, when we talk about Aatmanirbhar Bharat, we remember Sri Aurobindo.
His vision of self-reliance included keeping our mind open to best practices from all over and excelling.
He also had a dream of furthering education and learning among the youth of India. #MannKiBaat https://t.co/oMYn6IVh5I
https://twitter.com/PMOIndia/status/1332925844092641281?s=19
What Sri Aurobindo teaches us about Aatmanirbhar Bharat and the vitality of education. #MannKiBaat https://t.co/m8pfSXCaa9
https://twitter.com/narendramodi/status/1333021801887059969?s=19
Great to see @narendramodi emphasizing Sri Aurobindo, who has been regarded as the Rishi behind India's Independence Movement and the seer of future India and future humanity.
https://twitter.com/davidfrawleyved/status/1333074547990556672?s=19
The main Vedic text I have studied and found inspiration in is Rigveda, following Sri Aurobindo and Kavyakantha Ganapati Muni. There are deeper yogic meanings to all its mantras, yet few know these and academia ignores them. Gayatri Mantra is but one example.
https://twitter.com/davidfrawleyved/status/1330319985013628929?s=19
The problem with invoking Sri Aurobindo is that he invokes the spirit of Vedantic Questioning...
Even the Gods of Death are not spared by the Nationalist Nachiketas... https://t.co/cNC9I7kGfd
https://twitter.com/raghav4india/status/1333076211442958336?s=19
We are indeed grateful to @PMOIndia @narendramodi ji for his inspiring words on Sri Aurobindo in his #MannKiBaat today. https://t.co/Zseocn0SZE
https://twitter.com/AUROSAFIC/status/1332951401727574020?s=19
Before embarking as a footsoldier in the struggle for realising PM @narendramodi's vision of #SonarBangla, offered homage, this morning, at Sri Aurobindo’s shrine at his birthplace - Sri Aurobindo Bhavan- in Kolkata... #EbarBangla https://t.co/p44eJKqE0i
https://twitter.com/anirbanganguly/status/1332562019438923776?s=19
Dr Syama Prasad Mookerjee stands as an iconic symbol & lighthouse of inspiration & resolve in our struggle for realizing the dream & vision of #SonarBangla. He strengthens our sankalpa to #SaveBengal.
Offered homage to him this morning at Red Road #Kolkata. #EbarBangla https://t.co/tm4r7GdeIh
It is good news for us that Sri Aurobindo is getting more limelights these days. The Congress forgot his name since 1969!
https://twitter.com/GoutamGhosal3/status/1332960033814970370?s=19
PM @narendramodi: He also used to say that Swadeshi means that we give priority to the things made by our Indian workers and artisans. It is not that Sri Aurobindo ever opposed learning anything from abroad
#MannKiBaat
https://twitter.com/DDNewslive/status/1332930351367299073?s=19
Other than the cultural history of Bengal, this article gets the political history of India wrong too. Claim: C. R. Das, Subhas Chandra Bose, Bengal revolutionaries charted a path different from the rest of India. A short rebuttal in the thread below: https://t.co/4LD5Xk7kFx
C R. Das had become Congress President and subsequently founded the Swaraj Party along with Motilal Nehru. In opposition to Gandhi. The Swaraj Party established a foothold in all of India & forced Gandhi to a political retirement for a few years.
Swaraj Party was the strongest in Bengal but had strong presence elsewhere too,looking at the luminaries who joined it, eg, Vittalbhai Patel, Vallabhbhai’s older bro. How can any 1 in right mind say C R Das charted a path different from rest of India unless Gandhi is their India?
The Revolutionary independence movement was the strongest in Bengal but had presence in many other parts of India, eg, Punjab. Bengal revolutionaries helped organize the revolutionary movement in United Province, South India. Read: https://t.co/r9wLfAI2KU
So, how can any one say in his right mind that the Bengal revolutionaries charted a path different from the rest of India? Implication being that the revolutionary freedom fight was confined to Bengal alone. What a gross injustice to the exemplary revolutionaries from elsewhere?
Finally, the elephant in the room - Subhas Chandra Bose. He became the Congress President defeating Gandhi, Nehru, Gandhian Congress Working Committee. The strong support from Bengal played a major role in his victory, but it won’t suffice by itself. Read: https://t.co/aYNq2lrH2e
In his battle for Cong Presidency Subhas Chandra Bose received strong support from Punjab, Karnataka, Madras province, United province etc https://t.co/aYNq2lrH2e How was he moving different from India, unless Gandhi, Nehru, Gandhians are your India?
Must Anglophiles be ignorant in even the subject they received their doctorate in, even when that doctorate was awarded by a reputable institute? Sad!
The claims I expect are a product of supercilious ignorance- but the messaging is insidious. Bengal has remained outside India throughout, now is her opportunity to join India, read Hindia. And the messaging also denies a historical fact-Bengal led the freedom movement of India
This article reveals the enormous problem the BJP-RSS faces in Bengal. It has no one who knows the history of Bengal, nor has any lived experience there, nor has any affection for Bengal. So, the messaging will be off. Thread follows: https://t.co/4LD5Xk7kFx
First, let us discuss the deeply flawed knowledge of recent history of Bengal revealed through this article, ironically authored by a Bengali-born, who has a doctorate in history and from a reputed institution.
Claim: Until the advent of Swami Vivekananda, the Bengal Renaissance movement entirely discarded the Hindu heritage of Bengal, except for Bidyasagar, Bhudeb, Bankim. This claim shows an acute ignorance of the history of the Hindu reform movement of Bengal.
The Bengal Renaissance started with Rammohan Roy, leading to Brahmo Samaj. The entire movement was deeply Hindu, just not the Sanatani kind. Rammohan Roy got Sati banned through arguments based in Hindu scriptures.
To say, Rammohan discarded the Hindu heritage of Bengal is indicative of the worst of Right Wing ignorance of history, and a deeply perverted notion of Hindu heritage of Bengal as also misogyny. Is the Hindu heritage of Bengal only widow burning ?
Then the Brahmo Samaj. Brahmo Samaj was a Hindu Reform movement, again not the Sanatani kind, and stopped the conversion to Christianity. Urge reading a good summary of its contributions given in Indian Struggle, by Subhas Chandra Bose.
The writings of Shibnath Sastri, Michael Madhusudhan Dutta, Kaliprasanna Sinha (eg, authoritative translation of Mahabharat from Sanskrit which is read till today) are stellar examples of Hindu heritage of Bengal.All predate Swami Vivekananda. Nothing cosmopolitan in the writings
Sad that a man promoted as the intellectual face of currently a major party in Bengal has no knowledge of writings of such stalwarts. Of course, even worse he has a Phd in history from a reputed institute. And writes on history of Bengal. Anglophiles do not need to be ignorant!
Now, let us come to the lack of lived experience in real Bengal. That would be knowledge of Bengali literature post independence, popular Bengali movies, and discourse in Bengali homes. The commentary in the drawing rooms of Anglicized elites do not count, sorry.
Yet,what does the author believe is culture of Bengal? Lenin, Stalin,Ho Chi Min, Mayokovsky,Pablo Neruda.Tells me that the author has not read any Bangla literature post 1947, nor seen any popular nor avant-garde Bangla movies.Effectively he didn’t live in Bengal, even if he did!
Let’s look at the writings of the stalwarts of Bangla literature post 47. Jibanananda (a bit), Sharadindu, Ashapurna, Tarashankar, Samaresh, Satyajit, Sunil, Shirshendu are some names that readily came to my mind. None of them wrote of Neruda, Mayakovsky, Lenin, Stalin,Ho Chi Min
Their works, at least the celebrated ones, are set in urban and rural Bengal and sometimes elsewhere in India. The characters were mostly Bengali. So, very little cosmopolitanism. Educated Bengali homes read those, discussed those.
Growing up in an educated middle class Bengali home (i.e., a Bhadralok home), I never heard of Neruda, Mayokovsky while in Bengal. I heard of Neruda later after moving to US. It is in US that I read the translation of one Russian classic. Mayokovsky, I heard this evening
But, I did read the major works of the literary stalwarts mentioned in my thread above.Their works capture Bengali society reasonably well (Sunil misses the relig. component in middle class homes due to his communism). But you won’t read of Neruda, Mayokovsky, Stalin, Lenin there
Next, the popular and avant- garde Bengali movies. The popular genre were the actings of Uttam Kumar, Soumitra, etc. Most of those movies are set in urban and rural Bengal. Characters are Bengali. 0 cosmopolitanism. No Neruda, Mayokovsky, Lenin, Stalin, Ho Chi Min.
The avant garde ones - direction of Satyajit, Mrinal Sen, Ritwik Ghatak. Tapan Sinha straddled in both avant- garde and popular categories. Again, same story - set in urban, rural Bengal mostly, characters are Bengalis.
And the characters do not read nor discuss Lenin, Stalin, Ho Chi Min, Russian classics, Mayokovsky, Neruda. At least largely.
Guided by these, the leadership of BJP-RSS, which is entirely outside Bengal, would miss educated Bengalis entirely! Finally, read the article, you will singularly miss any affection for Bengal. But then, you can’t love something you haven’t experienced.
All that comes across is a mind entirely focused on protecting the interests of Hindi speakers&imagining threats to them that do not exist.But then the same politician entirely ignored the plights of Hindu Bengalis in Assam.Just reinforces who the real masters of BJP-RSS in WB is
I see on SM quite a few Bengalis sympathetic to BJP-RSS who certainly know much more about Bengali culture, literature, history than the politician author in question. But, then showing subjects in good light is rarely the object of colonizers. End.
Scratching my head vigorously 4 long,I could find a bit of cosmopolitan internationalism in 2 popular Bangla works: 1) Sukanta’s Thikana amar cheyecho bandhu ঠিকানা আমার চেয়েছো বন্ধু 2) Sunil’s Purbo Paschim পূর্ব পশ্চিম Just 2,but even that’s only a bit! https://t.co/4LD5Xk7kFx
I could not recall a single popular or avant garde Bangla movie showing Bengalis discussing Lenin, Stalin, Mayokovsky, Russian classics, Pablo Neruda etc.
Sukanta’ Thikana Amar Cheyecho Bandhu song, sung by Hemanta https://t.co/DGMEgZFt0Y Topic is internationalism,but appears to conclude at a contradictory note -says, finally we meet at our own country, Swadesh. Explicit cosmopolitanism is limited 2 1 mention of 4 foreign countries
Bhupen Hazarika’s Ami Ek Jajabor https://t.co/DGMEgZFt0Y Most internationalist in the Bangla popular genre. He is Assamese, but the song is Bangla.
The third will be Bhupen Hazarika’s আমি এক যাযাবর song. Hazarika is however Assamese, and though the song became a hit in Bengal where Hazarika lived for some time, it was probably originally Assamese. So, we get a grand total of 3, even that nowhere near what Swapanji posits.
There is actually a comprehensive examination of the Bengali renaissance in Pandit Sibnath Sastri's `রামতনু লাহিড়ী ও তৎকালীন বঙ্গসমাজ'. If @swapan55 had read that, he would have known just how totally Hindu Bengali reformers were. BTW, there is an English translation of the+
+same book called `A History of Renaissance in Bengal - Ramtanu Lahiri: Brahman and Reformer' edited by Sir Roper Lethbridge.
Why hit and hurt the Bengali distinctiveness which has inspired the country for ages?
Chaitanya rebelled against the Islamic rulers of those times in the footsteps of Sri Krishna.
Even the Gitapress Founder Hamuman Prasad Poddar ji got his spiritual visions at Shimalapal.
You will find amazing similarity between say Jawhar Sircar & Swapan Dasgupta (both ideologically opposite) in the way they spread falsehood abt Bengal's history.
In a Lit fest, both Swapan & few other Left-Liberals agreed that Bengal's "golden age" was during British rule 🤡🤪
Funny thing is ,In recent times, the only person who came somewhat close to writing authentic history (from ancient times to modern times) of Southern fringes of Calcutta was a member of Communist party !!! He wrote a well researched book though with some usual Leftist biases.
1) Boral, on southern fringes of Kolkata near Adi Ganga.
Several archeological excavation near the 800 yrs old Tripura Sundari Mandir were done.
2 idols of Vishnu from 7th/8th century AD (apart from many other idols of Hindu deities, sculptures, artifacts) were discovered. https://t.co/0l69IXbUsN
Greco-roman style of sculptures found, more than 2000 yrs old..
https://t.co/kuRzQcKkXX
