10-01-2006, 01:45 AM
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Is Durga Hindu or Bengali?</b>
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Priyadarsi Dutta
With every passing year, the number of Durga Pujas organised by Bengalis keeps on increasing. While Indians join the celebrations, the organisers are, by and large, Bengalis. The media, especially television news channels, elegantly projects Durga Puja as a Bengali festival. This rekindles the old debate between Hindu and Bengali identities.
The puja per se, whereby the theological part is implied, is Hindu. But the cultural aspect is Bengali, although nothing of it is outside the Hindu fold. The core mantras are in Sanskrit. The legend of autumnal Durga Puja goes back to Lord Ram invoking Shakti on the battlefield of Lanka to defeat Ravana, the blessed devotee of Shiva. The event is euphonically described in Surya Kant Tripathi Nirala's Hindi poem Sri Ram ki Shakti Puja. Neither Ram nor Ravana was from Bengal.
This should stimulate us to reconsider the relationship between Hindus and Bengalis. Most Bengali Hindus are blissfully ignorant of the fact that 65 per cent of those for whom Bengali is their mother tongue profess Islam as their religion. The communal percentage composition of undivided Bengal was 55 per cent Muslims and 45 per cent Hindus of all castes. Muslim Bengalis don't celebrate Durga Puja, but Eid.
But one may ask what is so Bengali or Indian about them who celebrate Eid. Muslims from Mauritania to Malaysia celebrate Eid. So, Bengali Muslims are basically Bangla-speaking Muslims. And being Bengali is not merely a function of language. Possibly this view stems from the historical fact that Muslim rulers of Bengal, including Siraj-ud Daula, were actually of Turkish origin.
Even 'secular' Bengalis - and most of them are secular - view Muslims as Muslims. They distinguish between 'Bangali' and 'Musolman', which actually proves that they are passively communal. <b>Bengal in the 19th century was the cradle of an intellectual Hindutva movement. But possibly with the growth of literature, Hindus of Bengal began to project their identity in terms of language. At times, sadly, Bengali identity got pitted against Hindu identity publicly.
This exposes a suicidal tendency among Hindu Bengalis to 'secularise' their identity; they would not accept themselves as Hindu unless mortally threatened by Islam. In Bangladesh, Durga Puja is a Hindu festival; while everywhere else it is a Bengali festival</b>. <!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
www.dailypioneer.com
Priyadarsi Dutta
With every passing year, the number of Durga Pujas organised by Bengalis keeps on increasing. While Indians join the celebrations, the organisers are, by and large, Bengalis. The media, especially television news channels, elegantly projects Durga Puja as a Bengali festival. This rekindles the old debate between Hindu and Bengali identities.
The puja per se, whereby the theological part is implied, is Hindu. But the cultural aspect is Bengali, although nothing of it is outside the Hindu fold. The core mantras are in Sanskrit. The legend of autumnal Durga Puja goes back to Lord Ram invoking Shakti on the battlefield of Lanka to defeat Ravana, the blessed devotee of Shiva. The event is euphonically described in Surya Kant Tripathi Nirala's Hindi poem Sri Ram ki Shakti Puja. Neither Ram nor Ravana was from Bengal.
This should stimulate us to reconsider the relationship between Hindus and Bengalis. Most Bengali Hindus are blissfully ignorant of the fact that 65 per cent of those for whom Bengali is their mother tongue profess Islam as their religion. The communal percentage composition of undivided Bengal was 55 per cent Muslims and 45 per cent Hindus of all castes. Muslim Bengalis don't celebrate Durga Puja, but Eid.
But one may ask what is so Bengali or Indian about them who celebrate Eid. Muslims from Mauritania to Malaysia celebrate Eid. So, Bengali Muslims are basically Bangla-speaking Muslims. And being Bengali is not merely a function of language. Possibly this view stems from the historical fact that Muslim rulers of Bengal, including Siraj-ud Daula, were actually of Turkish origin.
Even 'secular' Bengalis - and most of them are secular - view Muslims as Muslims. They distinguish between 'Bangali' and 'Musolman', which actually proves that they are passively communal. <b>Bengal in the 19th century was the cradle of an intellectual Hindutva movement. But possibly with the growth of literature, Hindus of Bengal began to project their identity in terms of language. At times, sadly, Bengali identity got pitted against Hindu identity publicly.
This exposes a suicidal tendency among Hindu Bengalis to 'secularise' their identity; they would not accept themselves as Hindu unless mortally threatened by Islam. In Bangladesh, Durga Puja is a Hindu festival; while everywhere else it is a Bengali festival</b>. <!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->