| Text of the Chair's Speech
[read Saturday, April 5, 2003]
Ladies and Gentlemen- Delegates to the BSC, Members of ABAC and
participants as presenters of papers and lay audience!
I hope you would agree that the Conference that is about to conclude
may already be considered a success. As an assembly of gregarious
people it has offered new opportunities by new and interesting ways
for them to socialize-in terms of personal reaching out, making
new friends and of course building on friendship of earlier years.
Music and food have been excellent. We shall hopefully take the
decision to meet again. The promise of this assembly is that the
next one would be even more successful. What more can we expect?
Since this is also an assembly of scholars who have presented papers,
we have to also in our own way assess the knowledge-old or new or
freshly packaged-that we have gained in the course of these tumultuous/
hectic/frenetic days- 4,5, and 6 of April, 2003.
The most interesting part of the Conference -- so far as the papers
are concerned -- is its range and scope. The papers have covered
multifarious subjects -- history, literature, culture, etymology
etc. This is so befitting as this conference is an area studies
program -- and essentially interdisciplinary. It comprised papers
like Transliteration Scheme in Bengali computing -- this suggests
how we are thinking and keeping steps with the changes of time and
age-, even political soothsaying. If there are exclusions of certain
subjects it is because of the pressure of limited time and also
because at the last minute some members could not accommodate us
in their busy schedule. It has tried to be an inclusive conference.
The conference has found time to listen to worthwhile topics including
(nation-building), even religion -- two of the most difficult topics
that tend to rattle most of us at the drop of a hat. Economics of
Poverty, Feminism also have found place in the psyche of concerns
of our presenters.
All of the presenters have contributed immensely to our knowledge
of topics forming what we call "the rubric of Bengali studies."
Upshot of all this and more that I could not specifically and individually
refer to is this: The knowledge that has existed has been enriched
and has been made more acute and /or intimate. In some cases, new
knowledge has been added for which we are grateful. The style of
presentation has in many cases has made our newly gained and revived
knowledge more easily digestible.
Two of the papers have made particular impressions on me. One is
on Gajan ( Ralph Nicholas). This one makes us deeply aware of our
cultural heritage. This is essentially part of our popular culture,
rising as it does from village folks. At the same time, these Saiva
popular observances suggest a long-term process of assimilation
of Dharma Thakur into Siva. This illustrates in a very interesting
way a characteristic feature of popular Hinduism in which local
divinities get all-India identities. And what about "Devis
in the Diaspora..."? It is of compelling Interest, not the
least because, it adds a new, emerging study-the socalled "diasporic
study." It has even developed a framework.
Many of the papers presented have to do with present-day Bangladesh.
Still another panel on "Identity Politics in Bengals"
touched upon politics of both halves of former united Bengal. Since
it was a round table talk, it also produced an interesting and more
rounded discussion. As we would expect, the two greatest literary
figures--Bankim Chandra and Rabindranath--did get attention again
as they always should. But interestingly, Samaresh Basu and Annadashankar
Roy for the first time in many many years got a long-deferred, but
a very due deserving recognition as fit subjects of study.
A most satisfactory thing was that after many many years of waiting
we hear the name of Shahid Dhirendranath Datta and mention of his
invaluable role as the pioneer of Bengali language movement in Bangladesh.
This is historic. We are glad that for the first time in an international
cultural meet Datta’s contributions to the making of a new
nation and to world’s linguistic movement in general at least
as far as I am aware is sought to be recognized. Rabindranath once
said in his own inimitable way in the context of Shibaji:
Oyee itibrittakatha khanta karo mukhar bhasan!
Ogo mithyamoyee tomar likhanparey bidhatar abyartha likhan habe
aji joyee!
I am so glad and thankful that finally Providence has goaded our
scholar here Dr.Waheeduzzaman to set the history of Bangladesh’s
Bengali Language Movement finally true and straight !
Finally, a reference has to be made to the city of Kolkata. Just
as Paris, despite the existence of many other cities in France,
truly represents France, similarly Kolkata, then Calcutta, inspite
of other population centers in Bengal, particularly now in West
Bengal, truly represents the Bengali spirit that allowed a cosmopolitan
feeling to grow. It has been from the time Job Charnock built it
in its present form home to many many people, not just Bengalis,
not just Indians from other states, but many non-Indians also. People
from the British isles were its prominent denizens-controlling its
government, commerce, law and order, and of course military. So
long as Calcutta was India’s Capital up until 1905, this situation
continued. They came here, many of them were born here, even died
here. It is not the Englishmen alone. In this conference, a paper
showed that here lived a Greek community, who took shelter here
from the rapacious practices of their Ottoman oppressors. The community
lived in Calcutta and Dhaka from the early 18th century to about
1970. Of the most well known merchants of India, based in Calcutta,
were the Rallis (c. 1850). Their company was dissolved in 1970.
The Greek Church of Metamorphosis, built in 1923, attest to their
existence. The community and the cemetery they left behind must
be considered a cherished part of the history of Calcutta, and it
should be preserved for all posterity.
While we dwell on Kolkata, we would do well not to forget about
its antiquities. How old is Kolkata? Is 1670 the year when it was
founded by the East India Company official, Job Charnock? Although
papers presented to the conference did not cover this topic, I thought
I would use this forum accorded the Chairman to refer to, if not
discuss in detail, the history of Calcutta, which the recent excavations
going on under the auspices of ARCHITECTURAL survey of India, seems
to bring to our attention. Charnock plucked the place not out of
nowhere but because of its location and already existing importance.
Near Dum Dum and near Bethune College in N. Calcutta where the excavations
are going on figurines, coins, plaques have been discovered that
can be traced to Sunga-Kusana empire (First century BC to 2nd c.
AD). The various artifacts discovered at the site point to the existence
of a busy trading center.
The excavations that are going on under the auspices of Archaeological
Survey of India (ASI) first were initiated to preserve and protect
the house which Robert Clive, who came to India as an East India
Company clerk, and ended up as the victor of Plassey and the founder
of the British Indian Empire.
Excavations starting that way led to new revelations; a figure
of a single-horned rhino, belonging to Kusana period, a seal on
which, scripted in Nagari was written "samapasasya," or
"belonging to Samapasa." Later other things including
Sunga terracottas, beads and crystals, copper coins, stones-including
agate, jasper and lspid lazuli were found that attested to the area’s
standing as a prosperous trading center. Findings from the Gupta
period (4th to 7th century A.D) included Yakshinis, Mahisasuramardini,
etc.
These should be seen against the background of other Calcutta University
findings, having to do with Chandraketugarh, near Barasat, which
is only 25 kms from N. Calcutta. It was a considerable urban center
in ancient times.
It is also true that the entire southwestern and deltaic Bengal
was from early days a populated region, and Gange was named by Claudius
Ptolemy as a river port in this area.and identified by others as
Chandraketugarh on the Medinipur coastline.
In the ancient and medieval Sanskrit literature including the Mahabharata,
Ramayana, Raghuvamsa (Kalidasa), Pavanadutam (Dhoyi), Dandin’s
Dasakumaracharitam , there is a reference to Sumbhadesa which includes
present day centers like Tribeni, Pandua, and Saptagram, all parts
of present-day Hooghly district. The Gupta empire of which it was
part, yielded Gupta coins in Kalighata, South Calcutta, in 1783
(Warren Hastings).
In the period from 12th to 14th centuries it became a part of Bengal
Sultanate. In addition to Gange, Tamluk and Saptagram were considered
them important ports, as attested to by Ibn Batuta (Morocco) and
by Akbar’s hiustorian Abul Fazl (16th century). Kalkatte in
Fazl’s account was considered as part, a pargana, of Saptagram.
The end of 16th century saw the center shift to Gobindapur, still
on the Ganga river. And adjacent to it was Sutanuti and Kolkata,
presumably two other villages included eventually to form Calcutta
of today .
So Kolkata was not built by Charnock one fine morning. So it is
the consensus of scholars now that it has a history and is a product
of many centuries going beyond 1690 A.D. Careful consideration must
have gone into its present incarnation.
Maybe, this little excursion into Kolkata’s past could very
well pull a curtain of finality over our conference.
Meeting friends and making new friends, learning new things and
refreshing new knowledge must be considered a blessed happening.
Equally, parting with friends is just its opposite. As the French
would say: "Partir, c’est un peu mourir." - "Departure
from them is like dying a little."
But the last word we must all utter together is that this Conference
will meet again and this time it would be in Bangladesh’s
Dhaka, the capital of a free country.
Thanks
- Sauri P. Bhattacharya
Chair, 36th Bengal Studies Conference |
