A fellow bangali can only understand the pain of missing Kolkata's Durga Puja. During my first year in college I missed Durga Puja as it had clashed with Harmony. I had tried to do some compensation by offering Anjali at a Chittaranjan Park pandal, but the attempt was not a successful one. After coming to Germany I went to a Prabasi pujo in Cologne. I didn't have very high hopes, thanks to my previous experiences. And I couldn't have been more wrong. It was one the best pujas I have ever spent. During the Sandhi pujo one of the elderly women (she has been associated with this Pujo for the last twenty years) was looking for a thala (plate). And she announced on the microphone, “Thala kommt”, kommt being the German equivalent for coming in the third person. The whole hall burst into laughter.
Today when I think about this incident I understand how these two small words gave us a hint of her socio-cultural identity. She represents a generation of Bengalis who came in the 60s and 70s to settle here in Germany. Interestingly, most of the people involved in the Puja, be it a Dadu or a Khoka, were fluent in German and Bengali. When probasis living thousands of kilometers away from Kolkata can speak such fluent Bengali it is really painful to hear “What's up bro?” at Maddox square. I am not writing this article to rant against “aaj kalkar chelegulo” (today's generation). Every society passes through a period where the idea of social, ethnic and linguistic identity is reformed. Today our beloved City of Joy is undergoing such a change. Rather than complaining against it, I suppose it is better to view it from a critical perspective.
We live in a society, where multilingualism is the norm. The idea of identity in a multilingual society is not very well defined. But it can't be denied that pedagogical linguistic training is one of the most infIuential factors in defining the identity of a given individual in such a society. But we surely cannot write off other factors like financial well-being, family background, availability of cultural capital and many more. Maintaining a fine balance in the way different languages are taught is highly crucial in the process of building a truly multilingual identity. A working knowledge of English is highly needed in today's globalised world. But one cannot undermine the importance of gaining equal proficiency in both English and Bengali. It helps the student to appreciate the multi-faceted beauty of our society. A close look at the statistics shows that we are neglecting our own vernacular. In a recent rural ASER (Annual Status of Education Report) survey it has been shown that 68.3% Class V students can comprehend easy English sentences whereas only 51.3% Class V students can comprehend a Class II Bengali text. The story is different in urban areas. A growing cosmopolitan culture has resulted in a mixed Benglish dialect where only the B of Bengali is left, although most students are quite proficient in Bengali. From a strictly economical perspective this is not a problematic trend. Nowadays an average student is much more proficient in English which highly increases his/her employability. In a German company good knowledge of German is a must to get employed. In a country like India this is impossible, but the state government can encourage the use of Bengali as an official language in certain government sectors. This will motivate the students to learn Bengali in a better manner.
With growing economic mobility there has been a dilution of a strict ethnic or linguistic identities. It may seem that this breaks lot of cultural barriers but it also results in the loss of subtle cultural features.Preserving our ethnic identity is very important in this globalised world. After coming to Germany, I have met numerous Bangladeshis. They call Euro as Taka. Their sense of identity revolves around the Bengali language. Obviously having such strong linguistic sense of identity has its own drawbacks but we can surely learn from them. After living in Germany I have learnt how a race can strike an exact balance between preserving their own culture and being highly immigrant friendly. The first step in doing so is respecting the part of your identity which is defined by the anthropological aspects of your culture. We need to do this first. Bengalis are privileged to have a strong cultural capital, we should learn to respect and preserve it properly.
Nowadays very few Bengalis of our generation have an in-depth knowledge of Bengali literature or Bengali movies or Bengali theatre. Most of us are busy indulging in pseudo-intellectual nostalgia which moves around Tagore, Ray and sunset pictures of Princep ghat taken in a sepia tone by a DSLR camera. It is unfortunate to see how most of us have built an identity by attaching fish hooks to certain stereotypical ideas about Bengalis. Probasis who are not fortunate enough to have all the resources of learning the minute details of our cultural identity will rely upon Bengalis brought up in Bengal to present them with the exact picture of the breathtaking landscape of bangaliyana. It is high time we Bongs understand that Chau naach is as important a part of Bengali culture as Rabi Thakur is.
