Reflections

The First World War led to what was till then an unprecedented slaughter of men and women. It was not realized then that this was a prelude to an even greater slaughter just 3 decades later.However the Great War as it was then called, formally started in July 1914. India was also at war, not that Indians had much to say about it. However the Indian army which was even then the largest voluntary fighting force in the world comprised 240,000 men; by the time the war ended the size had nearly doubled. Despite the fact that India and particularly Bengal had been extremely restive during the years previous to the War, the colonial masters were pleasantly surprised to find that Indians responded to the needs of the empire wholeheartedly. Even Bengal which had recently “unsettled” the settled fact of the partition of Bengal and had been punished by the shift of the capital to Delhi, responded positively to the war effort, in the form of an ambulance corps, a signal company and an infantry r...

Today is the 21st February, celebrated worldwide as the International Mother Tongue day. This day was notified by the General Conference of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in November 1999. It Is a matter of pride for all Bengalis and particularly for the Bangladeshis that this day was designated in recognition of the struggle for their mother tongue that the then East Pakistanis conducted in 1952. The history of this day is not so very well known, even among the Bengalis. It will be instructive to recall the struggle for the Bengali language that took place in 1952. The foundation for this struggle was laid immediately after Independence which left India divided on the basis of religion into a largely Hindu, but secular India and a largely Muslim, but, now almost forgotten, secular Pakistan. Jinnah, the architect of the partition speaking on the occasion of Independence said “You are free; you are free to go to your temples, you are free ...

I was in Dhaka last week. It was a business trip, but it was an occasion to renew some friendships and to also renew acquaintance with the second great city of Bengal, now unfortunately in two parts, thanks to our own stupidity. The Partition of Bengal was a traversty of history, but the conditions were such that there was an inevitability about it in 1947. I don’t hold with those who happily blame the politicians, the Britishers and everybody else for the division of Bengal, but the people of Bengal must take the final blame. If they had not turned into animals, the partition could have been averted. But the mistrust that ordinary people of each religion bore to each other overcame 1000 years of cooperation and in the event the Partition was inevitable. However, that it need not be permanent has been proved by the events in Germany. I firmly believe that in the next 15-20 years the partition will be reversed, not perhaps in the sense of a political reunion of the two Bengals, but in ...