Rabindranath
Cultural heritage must reflect history
Even after the people of Bangladesh established an independent and sovereign state through a nine-month-long bloody war, they still cannot contemplate the distinct national culture of Bangladesh. Their perspective is backward-looking. A section of Bangladesh’s writers, artists, and politicians exhibit a strong aversion to the culture of India, particularly the culture of West Bengal. These individuals trace the origins of Bangladesh's culture to the medieval Middle Eastern culture, especially the history of the spread of Islam. They do not wish to look beyond the conquest of Lakhnauti and Gour by Bakhtiyar Khalji. They focus on the propagation of Islam in Arabia, the Turkey, Afghan, and Mughal periods of rule in Bengal, and follow the trend of the Wahhabi and Faraji movements, leading to the establishment of the two-nation theory and Pakistan, and then to Bangladesh’s history. They emphasize the two-nation theory. It seems as though, not long ago, in 2004, a group of intellectuals gathered in Paltan Maidan with 17 horses to commemorate the 800th anniversary of Bakhtiyar Khalji's conquest of Lakhnauti, an event that gained significant media attention. A section of Bangladesh’s writers, artists, and intellectuals are devoted to Rabindranath Tagore, while another section is devoted to Kazi Nazrul Islam.
Rabindranath illuminated light like the sun
I am remembering Kobiguru Rabindranath Tagore with deep respect on his 163rd birth anniversary. Today, I want to share my thoughts about anti-Rabindranath sentiment during the Pakistan period as even after 53 years of Bangladesh's independence, anti-Rabindrasentiments still exist. So, the new generation needs to know the historical context of such ideology.
Desirable multilingual education in Bangladesh
In the 1950s, Sapir-Whorf hypothesis claimed that each language shapes and describes life and the world differently. If true, multilingual education could be more effective and complete than monolingual education. Multilingual education can be either natural or organic, like the Latin-based system in ancient Rome when Latin was alive, or artificial, like the Latin-based system in the Middle Ages when Latin was a dead language. The argument posits that natural multilingual education ensures general and effective education, while artificial multilingual education fails in both aspects. In Bangladesh, a Bengali language-based multilingual education system would be natural and effective since Bengali is the language of the masses. Conversely, an English-based multilingual education system would be artificial because English is not the language of the masses in Bangladesh. Moreover, it might undermine the use of the Bengali language, causing ultimate harm.
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