Dear readers, The following article is appeared in NFB : http://www.bangladesh-web.com/news/may/10/g10052002.htm#A2 . The author criticized Tagore most probably from Islamic mind set. I forwarded here for reader's interest. Readers may wish to comment.

Avijit.

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Paying Homage – Died of Harness!

Mohammad Abdullah

U.S.A.

E Mail : mabdullah51@...

Enough is enough! Enough tribute has been paid to the Bishwa-Kobi-Raj-Guru Rabindranath Tagore on the 141^st birthday of this milestone Indian Hindu poet laureate. There is no shortage of paying tribute to this Bangladeshi peasant’s blood sucker poet by the people of Bangladesh. The people of Bangladesh have digested a national anthem that was written by this poet laureate. Indeed this poet is a marvelous icon of the Bangladeshi etiquette by norm and standard that some individuals obey.

Some scholarly analysts have presented Bishwa-Kobi-Raj-Guru’s contribution and provided a commendable commentary. Let us put some questions (only a few) that need to be answered. I hope these analysts will pay attention to these questions. If this poet is the world poet then where is the room for others to become the poets in other dominant world languages? Was Milton or Shakespeare or Tennyson or Wadsworth or Michael Modhusudan Dutt or Kazi Nazrul Islam a less poet?

Is this Bishwa-Kobi-Raj-Guru famous for SONNET? Is this Bishwa-Kobi-Raj-Guru famous for the variation of the tunes and lyrics? Why this poet laureate worked hard to get against the materialization of the University of Dacca during 1910s? Why he sided with communal Vice-Chancellor of the Calcutta University, Ashutosh Mukherjee? Why he tried to influence Ashutosh Mukeherjee and his lieutenants to induct the son-in-law (Nagendranath Gangopadhaya – Meera Debi’s husband) in the faculty of science possessing the lowest most qualification by the standard of the then Calcutta University? [Of course This Mukherjee earned the highest degree in 1926 and became a Professor at one of the prestigious University in Britain and died therein in 1956.]

Why this poet laureate was in favor of the 1935 communal act? How much blood he sucked as a zamidaar of the Muslims majority peasants (predominantly Muslims were the peasants) Kushtia and Pabna to jack up the revenue to three-fold of his father’s estate? How much he produced literature about the majority of the Bengali-speaking people? Is "Gharay-Bairey" or "Kabuliwala" or "Musalmani Didi" etc. enough to support the question?

While being a strong supporter of Bankim’s "Bondey Matorom" during 1880s and 1890s this poet laureate how come became antagonistic with the Bondey Matorom after 1905? Wasn’t Bankim his central ideal person until Bankim died? {One can probe several of Bishwa-Kobi-Raj-Guru’s writings such as Noshtoneerh – written around 1880s when Kadombori’s life was reincarnating in this laureate’s newly married – conjugal life.] If Bondey Matorom had a communal overtone then how come he did not speak about it loudly since 1880s? Wasn’t he enough young to protest this communal overtone? How come he supported then?

If Bishwa-Kobi-Raj-Guru dropped out the honorable KNIGHT of the figurehead British Emperor following Jalianwalabag killing then why in the subsequent publications his name contained "SIR" title? Where this comes even today? Was it a fashionable show like those of the fashionable pro-Western leftists of Bangladesh or India? While enter life he and his forefathers were the lieutenants of the British how come all of a sudden he turned anti-British? [His writings do not reflect that he was anti-British or disliked the British.]

As he arranged the marriage of a widow for his son, but why then he did not practice it for himself? Is it like Raja Ganesh of Dinajpur (about 1320 A. D.) who enforced his son to become MUSLIM and succeed him as a king? {But Ganesh did not become a Muslim yet he was deposed by his converted son and then he went on hiding.] Doesn’t charity begin at home first? If Bishwa-Kobi-Raj-Guru’s mind was so open then why he admitted that he did not know enough about the Muslims of India?

The flow of questions never ends. How Mr. A. H. Jaffor Ullah brings an analog of having electricity during 1861? Michael Faraday is regarded as the father modern electricity (particularly alternating current) who died in 1867. Even direct current was yet to be commercialized in Europe then? Undivided Bengal has produced Varatchandra Roy (1712 – 1760), a court poet of Maharaja Krishna Chandra (after his name Krishnanagar has been named in the modern district of Nadia) who existed over a century before this Bishwa-Kobi-Raj-Guru. What was the environment then?

Is it a big deal that the death news of Abraham Lincoln reached London city after 15 days in 1865? Many poets were born before the Bishwa-Kobi-Raj-Guru. For example, Michael Modhusudan Dutt was born in 1824 and spent his life primarily in Calcutta during his literature culture days. This is similar to that of Ishwar Chandra Gupta (1812 – 1859) who spent his life in Calcutta. Antonie Firengi, Alaol, several Arakan courtiers, etc. poets contributed to the Bengali literature. Hemchandra Bandopadhay is still remembered. What is the exact analogy for the Bishwa-Kobi-Raj-Guru as Mr. A. H. Jaffor Ullah noted being born in 1861? What is the uniqueness of 1861? Doesn’t the same thing apply for Chaucer or Shakespeare or Milton or Shelly or Keats or Wadsworth or Tennyson?

Talking about the story writers, I suggest reading the short stories of Guy Mopassant (1848 – 1893). One can probe the quality and depth of each of his short stories. To become famous one does not need to produce volume but need intensity of less massive volume having quality. Exactly this is what we see with Satyen Bose who had only 24 scientific publications but earned honor before Einstein as Bose-Einstein Statistics.

Of course Einstein was also in the same corner with the number of scientific publications. Bose did not get Nobel Prize but his contribution has marked severely in the scientific arena. Only quality that matters not the volume or quantity. The Bishwa-Kobi-Raj-Guru has matched the number of SONNETS with that of Michael Modhusudan Dutt. But how many of them are of quality? On the other hand each of the 102 SONNETS of Michael is famous. Not only that, each had a remarkable fashion and pattern including the content. Can any of the World Poet’s SONNETS match even with William Wadsworth or Alexander Pope?

Indeed Chitta Ranjan Das or Shubhash Chandra Bose was benevolent Bengali-speaking leaders who loved to see Bengal as a single unit land containing the Muslims as the majority. Did Sarat Chandra or Bishwa-Kobi-Raj-Guru accept this fact? If so, then when? Sarat is more known of his pervert nature just as E. M. Forster (writer of Passage to India). Being a pervert, how could this novelist visualize his righteous path of integrated Bengal? Didn’t he distinguish between the MUSHOLMAN CHHELERA from those of the BENGALI CHHELERA although both were speaking Bengali language? Only a pervert can coin such a phrase and produce it in the name of literature as Bankim produced Anandomoth.

The Bishwa-Kobi-Raj-Guru was so confusing that he did not know whether, given the choice, he prefers Bengali-speaking BENGAL or HINDU INDIA. This confusion is as much reflected in his "Gharey Bairey" as a confused writer whether looking for freedom or looking for loopholes within the character of the freedom fighters? Did he portray the freedom fighters correctly in 1926? Being a Bangladeshi should I represent the freedom fighter (Mukti Joddha) or freedom fighting (mukti juddho) as a confusing item of the society that was experienced during 1971 or should I produce something in favor of both finding the positives? Let dear readers fix up the answer of this question.

If this poet laureate was so naïve then how many times he visited Sylhet or Chittagong? I hope Mr. A. H. Jaffor Ullah has the answer. The fact is that this communal minded poet never did care to expose much where the Muslims are the majority. He preferred to retain his time mostly with the Hindu dominated areas in the name of Zamidari such as Birbhum or Calcutta but never left the chance when there was an opportunity to eat POLAU cooked by a MUSLIM. When he stayed in Kushtia or Pabna at that time there were many Hindus around him but the majority was the Muslims. It is of course an irony part for him. Therefore, he elected to suck more for the Muslim peasants of these districts to raise the revenue of his father’s estate by three-fold during the last decade of the nineteenth century.

The people of West Bengal want the masters of Delhi. They are not Bengalees as Mr. Ullah portrays. These creatures are the Indians having heart and mind integrated with the Hindus of Shivaji brand Bondey Matorom. Does Calcutta need any film industry? Their national language is HINDI. Definitely they love to see HINDI everywhere. If they are BENGALEES then they would come of out of the umbrella of Delhi and merge with Bangladesh. Only then they can call themselves as the BENGALEES if the people of modern Bangladesh accept to be called themselves so.

What is Chaitra (not Chatra) Sankranti or Pahela Baisakh to the people of Bangladesh? Each of these is a day of the month. What is the big deal about it? What we had on these dates in the past? It is well established by now that Mr. Ullah has basic problem in expressing BENGALI words using the LATIN alphabets. His way of spelling a BENGALI word is very typical and usual. The amusement of dhol or gaa or nagardola, etc. is some sort of fun features indeed. But how are they directed within a massive society of 135 million people? The people of modern Bangladesh do not like to accept these amusements as their identity. What is wrong with that? The taste is invariably changing just as the girls or women like to put on more of non-sharee dress in the cities of Bangladesh.

In modern India - Akash Baani – Kolikata (or relayed Bengali news from Delhi) Kendra notes the calendar of Shok as it is recalled as Shokabdo. This calendar is running seven days (exactly a week) behind each year having the name of the months identical. The Bengali year was introduced by King Akbar in 1563.

The people of West Bengal are now used to with the Shok calendar and they prefer to celebrate their occasions per this calendar. In Bangladesh we have different calendar than West Bengal where Sankranti and Pahela business do not exist much as these are more serving the Hindu festivals or process of the so-called paramparaya (tradition) than the features of modern Bangaldeshis. Can anyone recollect CHORHOK? Does any one know what is it? Of course Mr. Narayan Gupta will jump on it.

West Bengal has retained this tradition through their Hindutwa. It is not a culture but a form of Hindu brand celebration similar to that of HOLLI. How this could be the cultural practice of Bangladesh while people are having difficulty in adopting such a clown rather than a real LANGOOR of Western India? Who bothers about such a fun having a clown that draws no attention of the people?

Most certainly it has no appeal to the Bangladeshi feature and, no wonder; as such a worthless issue will disappear from the country. Indeed Waaz Mahfil or Bishwa Ijtema is popular now in Bangladesh. More is being spoken against these celebrations; more attraction will be created for the people. No one can stop this affinity for such celebrations. Eventually Chaitra Sankranti or Pahela Baisakh will disappear from the annual Bangladeshi life. The role of the Calcutta Babus will bring the Bangladeshis more nearer to these features as a daily life soon. Those days are not very far ahead.

The major problem is that when a movie is made with deep root love in Bangladesh then it is hard to appreciate. Several movies were made in 1960s that deserved credit. Unfortunately those moviemakers lived for a short time and had obvious economic demise in most cases. One example may be cited here if dear readers remember about Kacher Dewal or Anowara or several movies acted by late Kazi Khaleque. Anowara was the first novel ever produced by a Muslim writer in Bengali language in 1914. What was wrong with the filming of these novels? How poor these were with respect to Satyajit Ray’s direction? One needs to be real neutral to find the difference. Let us appreciate what is real and not recall as all of them are trashes.

If Rabindranath is Bangla or Bangla is Rabindranath then why such a world class poet laureate is not the national poet of Bangladesh? Furthermore, why such a great Hindu poet is not a national poet of Hindu majority modern India? What is the underlying problem of this WORLD POET – the Bishwa-Kobi-Raj-Guru to be accepted as the national poet of either country? Doesn’t he possess merit for secular figure? Didn’t he initiate the Hindu-Muslim unity? Didn’t he coin the amity of these two religious groups? Is he really a WORLD POET or a mere exaggeration to satisfy the souls of his lovers?

If the entire copies of Bishwa-Kobi-Raj-Guru’s writing is inundated in the Bay of Bengal, BENGALI language will remain alive for ever that evolved through past two thousand years or so. This communal poet laureate must be extinguished from the lives of Bangladesh where a culture exists that got cultivated over centuries. The so-called WORLD POET has nothing to do with that. Some day will arrive sooner than later when the present national anthem of Bangladesh will be erased and a new dynamic dimension will replace it.