When I woke to the news West Bengal Assembly unanimously passes resolution to change the name of the State to ‘Bangla’, mind played out ‘From Bangla. Speak Bangla. Drink Bangla’—a fitful parody of age-old campaign: Eat football. Sleep Football. Drink Coca-Cola. This played ad nauseam in the mind of many Bengalis for years.
We (Bengalis) were always very high about the term ‘Bangla’ that our local liquor is also called ‘Bangla’ with no variant unlike famous Feni of Goa; and so very obsessively possessive about it that we locally renamed sty/conjunctivitis as ‘Joy Bangla’. Now it makes into our being. Think of the plight of a Bengali in other State: ‘I am from Bangla’ and there would be quip query, ‘Bangladesh?’ and one have to bring in all facts to defend himself as an Indian. One online video cloaked this consternation in black humour.
British Bengal was split into West Bengal that stayed with India and East Pakistan (formerly East Bengal after the first partition of Bengal Presidency in 1905 on the communal lines) went to Pakistan during partition in 1947. Through Liberation War, Bengali nationalists and self-determined people of East Pakistan achieved independent People’s republic of Bangladesh in 1971. Certainly, when there was no existence of East Bengal, there was no logic in bearing West with Bengal for so long. Now there is an attempt to remove ‘West’ from ‘Bengal’. But ‘Bangla’?
Mamata Banerjee meandering through number of names, since she became ‘Honourable’ Chief Minister of West Bengal, could come up with ‘Bangla’ to seal upon? It could be only ‘Bengal’ or ‘Poschim Bongo’ or just ‘Bongo’ for instance. When ‘Calcutta’ became ‘Kolkata’, it could be passed as a more accurate phonetic transliteration to get an effect of the local language. But it swirled the argumentative (so-called) intellect class into an unsettling debate and caused huge upheaval both inside and outside the four wall of the Assembly. Kolkata won. It’s peculiar that whole Bengal, over the years of her regime, as aligned with her and the whole house in chorus demonstrate subservience to her choice.
Uprising in Singur and Nandigram for the rights of the people against the system (then Left Front) is still fresh enough, so it’s heartening to see that ‘Didi ideology’ has so effectively suffused vociferous intellects that they have lost their spine.
Recently, Banerjee waged a fervent protest against Centre for saving Bengal from NRC following the upheaval in Assam.
Bengal, regardless of 35 lakhs homeless in the State, Banerjee was up in arms against the move to deport undocumented migrants back to Bangladesh. Natives will hardball a negotiation for their own space, silently, but they will not nudge Didi in the right direction. How Bangla?
