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Bangla is our hard-earned brand

 M K Aaref

·        Published at 07:00 pm July 31st, 2018

What’s in a name? BIGSTOCK

The renaming of West Bengal to Bangla will unleash a world of confusion

Ever since Yugoslavia broke up into fragments back in 1991, the area, already notorious for giving the world the word “Balkanization,” lived up to its name and erupted into fragmented wars based on ethno-religious lines.

Bosnia, Serbia, and Croatia hogged the world’s headlines for some time, before settling into the peaceful co-existence of today. 

One region which did not suffer the consequences of war, but went through a severe identity crisis, was the newly minted Republic of Macedonia.

Their very legal existence was vetoed for the past two decades within NATO and the European Union by their southern neighbour, Greece, who also happens to have a province named Macedonia just south of the new Macedonian republic.

The latter ended up using abbreviations like FYROM (Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia). Only very recently has the conflict with Greece been solved, when they renamed the country Republic of North Macedonia. A cultural and political compromise has been finally reached. By the way, there is also small province called Brittany, south of Great Britain, that is undisputedly French, in spite of its history.

Now, our neighbouring Indian state of West Bengal/Poschim Bongo is opting for being named “Bangla.” So we have Bangla and Bangladesh as two geo-political entities now. While populations of both places have the rights over Bangla culture, language, and heritage, I personally believe that a distinction is necessary. 

Given the additional historical weight we have on our side for the sake of Bangla, not just as our language, but also as an indistinguishable part of our national identity, this rings too many bells of nomenclature appropriation. 

During the second partition of Bengal, we on the eastern side, colloquially known as Purbo Banga, became East Pakistan and the attempt to replace Bangla was instigated from the earliest days of Pakistan. 

Then of course, the language movement culminated with the martyrdom of our students, and the establishment of February 21 as “Bhasha dibosh.” Language Day, and also adopted by UNESCO with the same motif. 

Since that day, our nationalism was piqued, we never looked back, and established Bangladesh in 1971, through a lot of sacrifices, as the home of the Bangla nation. Simply put, we earned the right to be the Bangla Nation, Bangla Desh more than anyone else.

However, our cultural umbilical cord does encompass our brethren across the border. Tagore was born there, and the epicentre of Bengali Renaissance was more based there than here. 

I get it. They are of the Bangla culture too. However, this recent attempt to rename the state to Bangla -- initially from West Bengal, to “Poschim Bongo,” now to the simplified Bangla -- creates an identity confusion. 

Apparently, when the chief ministers of the Indian states are summoned to Delhi for presentations, they are called alphabetically using the western letters. Therefore, the CMs of Andhra and Bihar get all the attention, whereas the attention span goes out the window when the last state of West Bengal is called. 

New names and states in India are not new. There have been new states created from larger states such as Uttarakhand, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, and Telangana recently. However, this is the first attempt to rename an existing state entirely.

There could have been other options too. They could have renamed as “Banga,” or “Banga-Rajya,” and still be ahead of Bihar. It could also have been the simplified “Bong,” from which the word Bangla was later derived. 

I do recall the novel Bong Thekey Bangla by Rizia Rahman from decades ago, where she chronicled the evolution of this region from the ancient Gangaridai to present day Bangladesh. Given the apparently intense pressure of Hindification over there, the attempt to re- impose a Bengali identity is very commendable, but not at the expanse of diluting our Bangladeshi identity of this side. 

The state of Western Bengal is undisputedly a part of a much greater Indian territory and its economic future is also undisputedly tied to the west than to the east. Therefore, this reassertion of the name “Bangla,” as if Bangladesh is behind you and out of one’s sight, is sad. Having said all this, I am also saddened by the non-response of our own civil society and cultural icons who have not taken a stand about this renaming issue. 

Our national anthem is “Amar Shonar Bangla” and not “Amar Shonar Bangladesh.” All Bengalis used to call Bengal Bangladesh once, but now it is our hard-earned brand. 

However, Bangla, as a language, as a culture, as an ethnic identity, and a name cannot be specifically appropriated. Some diplomatic efforts are also necessary to avoid this confusion about to be unleashed geographically, of having a Bangla and a Bangladesh right next to each other.

MK Aaref is a freelance contributor.