Culture is such a group of component which is associated with human life and human society that people sometimes can’t differentiate betweenwhich ones are their normal daily life events and which one istheir culture.
by Swadesh Roy
Bengali Nationalism is not only a linguistic nationalism but also a conceptual nationalism. Though, ninety-nine percent of the people in this country speak in Bengali. We have a great history of Bengali language movement. So, it seems our nationalism is the linguistic nationalism.
Despite, the glorious history of Bengali language movement, why Bengali Nationalism is a conceptual nationalism? We know that when nationalism stands upon the cultural base of the geography, its all characters are built up and flourished through that geographical diverse culture, (each geography based culture is diverse) that nationalism is called conceptual nationalism. Because its roots are not only existed in the language of that geography but also spread all the components of the culture in that geography.
We know that geographical culture grows and flourishesthrough thousands of hundreds of yearsall over the world and it is like a living thing. Its evolution is a continuous process. People cannot understand or see any kind of evolution that happens in the world. But they get it through the analysis of the history.
Culture is such a group of component which is associated with human life and human society that people sometimes can’t differentiate betweenwhich ones are their normal daily life events and which one istheir culture.
So, when nationalism is built-upon the culture or the concept of the culture then it is little bit tough thing to clear the common people’s mind about the nationalism. And it is true, when Bangladesh fought or struggled for sovereign country, our leaders did not clarify about Bengali Nationalism, thoroughly, to our countrymen. It was only confined in the political speeches that as a nation, we are Bengali. Or our nationalism is Bengali-nationalism. Even though, in the then East Bengal, we had many scholars, but they did not write any elaborative thoughts about Bengali Nationalism. Nationalism is always a secular concept. Because, it grows from the culture and there is no relation between culture and religion. Culture is a practical matter. It comes through the experience of the civilization with the scientific reality. On the other hand, religion is a dogmatic belief. So, these two are the inhabitants of two different World. However, in the era of Pakistan,some politicians and Pakistani state tried to mix up culture and religion which was absolutely impossible effort; like a mixture of oil and water. Yet, followingthis situation in the Pakistan era, our learned and respected scholars wrotein their perspective that mixing up religion with the state is not good. But they did not clarify the matter, which is, there is no relation with Bengali Nationalism and the religion. That's why, when the country became independent or during the war of independence people only knew, they are Bengali Nationalist, but they had no clear idea about it.
After the liberation, the political forces who liberated the country did not give importance regarding the issue that they have to clarify their people’s mind about what Bengali Nationalism is. It has not only come from the language but also it is inherent or a natural component of our geographical culture. Still, it may be said that, it was not only the fault of our founding fathers that they did not address it to the people. Rather, we may consider, they did not get time. Because, though it was the best time of our history, our nation but it was the worst time of our economy and the country. Because, the country was devastated by the war. All the infrastructure of the country was ruined by the war. So, our founding fathers thought they should save the people's life first and then make the country’s regular infrastructure. However, they did not get time to clarify regarding Bengali Nationalism. Before that, along with the father of the nation all the founding fathers were brutally killed through the coup d'état. After this Military coup d'état, the military ruler of Bangladesh started the previous works which were tried in the Pakistani era. Even, they started to impose on the Bengali people’s life, conservative Semitic culture (not the liberal Semitic culture, beside people inhabitant with culture through its geographical circumstance, it is not the matter of imposing,) in the name of religion. Their goal was to intermingle Semitic culture with religion, and destroy the Bengali culture with its cocktail.
Unfortunately, none of the progressive political parties of Bangladesh did not protest it or prepare any materials for writing or speech which could explain clearly aboutthe Bengali Nationalism and what our thousands of years old Bengali culture is. Rather, eventually all the fundamentalist, conservative and the progressive partiesdirectly or indirectly thought around the cocktail of the Semitic culture and the religion.
So, Bengali culture and Bengali Nationalism are now going to be faded from the life of the people and the state and the geography. That's why, now the big question in the year of 51 years of independence is, `Where is the Bengali Nationalism’?
The author is a senior journalist of Bangladesh and also a highest state award winning media person
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