Bengal’s civil society rally behind TMC protests against ‘attack’ on Bengali language

KOLKATA/NEW DELHI, Aug 4: Members of the civil society and a section of intellectuals from West Bengal have expressed solidarity with West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Trinamool Congress’ sustained protests on the attack of the “Bengali” language and alleged harassment of Bengali-speaking migrant workers in other states.
The outcry intensified after a letter from a Delhi Police inspector at the Lodhi Colony police station — seeking a translator for the “Bangladeshi language” in connection with a matter at Banga Bhawan — went viral on social media. The use of the term “Bangladeshi language” to refer to Bangla sparked outrage across West Bengal.
On Monday, Bengali intellectuals condemned the Delhi Police’s move, stating that Bangla is one of the constitutionally recognised languages of the country.
National award-winning filmmaker Goutam Ghose said that such discrimination of “Bengalis” and “Bengali” language was not “acceptable in a democratic country” and appealed to all stakeholders to stop this immediately to protect peace, tolerance, and unity in the country.
The renowned filmmaker stated that there are multiple dialects of Bangla, which vary according to geographical area.
“The language is the same. The dialect changes with geography. Bengalis in West Bengal speak in one dialect. Bengalis in Bangladesh speak another dialect. People in Jharkhand also speak Bangla with a different dialect. In addition, Bangla is spoken by a large number of people across the world. So this is nothing but a kind of cultural vandalism,” he added.
Bangla poet and writer Subodh Sarkar wondered whether people speaking in Tamil and Urdu in the country will be branded as Sri Lankan and Pakistani, respectively?
Veteran actor and theatre personality Koushik Sen echoed the concerns, linking the incident to a larger pattern of targeting economically disadvantaged Bengali migrants.
Educationist and professor of philosophy, Miratun Nahar, called it a move to impose Hindi across the country.
Bengali filmmaker Srijit Mukherjee took to social media to denounce the language of the Delhi Police.
“That’s not Bangladeshi language, morons, that’s Bangla or Bengali, the same language in which your national anthem was originally written and one of the 22 official languages of India,” the filmmaker wrote while sharing a photocopy of the Delhi Police letter.Singer and frontman of Bengali rock band “Fossils”, Rupam Islam, also registered his protest. “What is this? Isn’t BANGLA one of the 22 official languages of India? Why must it be mentioned as BANGLADESHI LANGUAGE? Height of Ignorance and stupidity,” Islam wrote in a social media post. (IANS)