Return to Bengal - A Sentimental Journey through Ages

Asoke K. Laha President & MD, Interra IT Two important developments have happened in the last few days since my last article in August. Both the events are connected to my home state of West Bengal. First, a case of irredentism! Let me explain the otherwise complex word said to be of Italian origin. The word has a pan-nationalist connotation, so says Wikipedia. The contextual relevance is the change of name of West Bengal into Bengal or Bangla or any other word sounding the same, knocking off the prefix West. Though, for a fellow Bengali, this may be an important development on account of its sentimental and cultural appeal, I do not know how the rest of the country has taken this development. The second development is the canonization of Mother Teresa, the Albanian nun, who had spent most part of her life with the Missionaries of Charity and worked out from Kalighat, a crowded Kolkata area of the city. Again, the celebrations of canonization, which took place in Rome, reverberated in Kolkata in the right mix of excitement and also triggering some informed or otherwise criticisms. While a significant majority eulogized her contributions to the city in looking after the poor and destitute, a small minority has questioned her ulterior motive with a tinge of skepticism. In retrospect, such raging arguments for and against is a part of the eclectic culture of Bengalis. The deductive analysis provides some ammunition to the intellectual fervour of a quintessential Bengali psyche – to question the conventional and popular wisdom and to accept the credos after considerable deliberations and introspection. Let me briefly touch upon the semantics of irredentism and the relevance in the present context. Here, I would admit that this subject has occurred to me after reading the seminal article of well-known journalist, political commentator and now Rajya Sabha member – Swapan Dasgupta. His exhortation that the new name should be taken as a cultural and sentimental appeal and not as a suggestive prescription to come together around a jingoistic notion is well taken. The historical perspective on Bengal would make it clear to the readers what he meant. I fully endorse the view held by Swapan Dasgupta that the new state of Bangla, or whatever it may be finally called, should have only a limited appeal of synthesizing common culture, history, cordiality and bonhomie. It also can leverage and harness economic potentials. Now let me come to informatics and related aspects. Sky is the limit for two regions to come together to reap the potentials in information technology. IT is relatively a nascent industry in Bangladesh. The elite and rich may be exposed to IT in Bangladesh in as much as their counterparts in India. But the vast masses in the rural areas are cut off from the informatics mainstream. Could we devise plans to reach out to these people and empower them in IT and applications of IT. I might submit that language can build strong bonds and people-to-people contacts. This bonding cuts across nationalistic barriers and narrow thinking. Can Shakespeare’s work be confined to the English language? Great works of people like Rabindranath Tagore, Bankim Chandra Chatterjee go beyond the time and space they lived. That should be the essence and resonance of the new name for the state – Bangla or Bengla. As someone lightly puts it, the change of name has definitely helped the state to move up in the pecking order in terms of alphabetical order but also shortened the name by a full word and that way easier to name it. Let me come to next development – the canonization of Mother Teresa who has been named now as Saint Teresa of Calcutta by the Roman Catholic Church. One thing that struck me was the controversies that triggered in the wake of canonization. A medical practitioner, who has done extensive research on the life of Mother Teresa, had questioned the methodologies she followed while treating the patients. While the Missionaries of Charity could have afforded to extend better quality treatment to the patients who were housed in the ill-kept shelters, Mother Teresa did not do so by habit or otherwise. The other issue was relating to patronages she received from people even with dubious character, such as arms and drug dealers, etc. There are accusations of religious conversions attributed to her. There are innuendoes to suggest that the Western world wanted to project her more than what she deserved and the coveted Nobel Prize awarded to her was part of a conspiracy to elevate her to the heights that she did not deserve. What I offer to such criticisms, direct or veiled, is that sainthood bestowed on her has to be seen from a more empathetic perspective. She lived and worked in an era where medical facilities were very limited and sparse as compared to the present conditions. For instance, the concept of disposable syringes is a later entry into the Indian scene. Till some years back, the needles were sterilized and reused on several persons. Secondly, the type of treatment prevalent in India, a few decades back, even to the rich and those who can afford, was relatively inferior either due to lack of facilities and medical technology. For an X-ray or diagnostics, people would have to travel to cities and towns. Then, we cannot cast aspersions on the type of treatment meted out to the destitute under the care of Missionaries of Charity. About the source of funding, a few years back we did not have a system to trail the flow of income from various destinations. The system was too opaque and there was no single source to check from where the funds come in or are being routed. So, the benefit of doubt should be given to those who had received the funds, provided they had put them to the best possible use. What struck me in the discourse is not who is right or wrong. It is the ability of the people to express their views without any fear or prejudice. Everyone should have the right to express his or her views and put them in the public domain to trigger an informed debate on that. We have to distinguish between divine and physical aspects of a religion or a faith. Divine nature is abstract, pure and beyond corruption or any other malpractice, whereas physical nature is often subjected to outside influences and that way is susceptible to human corruption and manipulation. The dichotomy between the two concepts is subtle and should be clearly understood. Physical apparatus of any religious faith should be subjected to scrutiny and criticism in a civilized society. That way, I am happy that we are developing tolerance towards questioning hypotheses, which we dreaded to question earlier and just followed. In conclusion, I might say that the change of name of the state augurs well to bring about a sense of purpose and direction among the Bengalis around the world to think proactively and creatively and to foster a brotherhood and bonhomie that can set a role model for other linguistic groups to follow.