Bengali Literary Studies – Future is Built on Past

As it usually happens, articles of contemporary authors give me a scope to ‘think’ – my favourite pastime! This time it was an article on enhancing interest in regional languages in India, written by a contemporary non-resident Bengali author.

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The author addresses the issues in general applicable to all regional languages in India, but being a Bengali speaking reader, I find the story is worse in case of Bengali – as a language practiced in West Bengal.

True – technology boom in last ten years made localization turn into a lucrative business even in West Bengal, thanks to mobile service providers, FMCG and electronic goods makers; but on the other hand, there is a visible decay in literary language practice. How many of regular readers read Bengali these days?  I remember my parents reading Bengali newspapers 30 years back. These days, not even my mother, once a proud student of Bengali literature, wants to read Bengali newspaper. Her simple explanation is that the quality of news and language shows that we are not target readers. Who are the target readers then? One can realize only by comparing vernacular newspapers of 1970s and post 2000. Those are published for readers of less literate class, containing very little information from the world outside West Bengal. National or international news is given importance only when an incident has considerable impact on West Bengal. One can hardly expect detailed report on global politics, science and technology, economic or industrial issues in these.

Once upon a time, middle class Bengali homes used to wait for Magazines published on the eve of Durgapuja – in which literary creation of all contemporary authors used to be published first – books used to be published after a couple of months. What are names of Bengali contemporary authors in 21st century? Did anyone author a significant Bengali fictional novel in last five years? I don’t know – none of my Bengali friends knows. I still remember Travelogue like Nirad Mazumdar’s ‘Punashcha Pari’ or art history like “Palyuger Chitrakala” by Sarasi Kumar Saraswati read in a weekly Bengali Magazine. Where is that literary magazine now? It is still being published – but worthless to collect – even though this sounds rude.

I tasted European literature first in Bengali. I somehow managed to preserve a couple of Pragati Prakashan translations of Russian literature too till date. Starting from Iliad – Odyssey’s children’s version to Grimm’s fables, everything used to be available in Bengali, which actually created interest about others cultures among children even though there was no conscious effort to fulfill a ‘target’ of creating ‘global citizens’. I discovered German war literature – also Hemingway and Maupassant and Chekhov when I was in fifth or sixth standard – in Bengali! Originals were not easily available in towns and villages thirty-five years back– but translations by Mohanlal Gangopadhyay or Nani Bhowmik were too good to introduce the world outside India to potential readers staying far from Calcutta. Had I not read those, perhaps I wouldn’t be interested to learn European languages later. I found translations of Marquez etc. even when I was in college. But stories started changing drastically by mid nineties.

Or was the change really so ‘drastic’? I studied in vernacular medium - credit goes to my liberal socialist (autocrat?) father. Except a handful of liberal socialists, none of Bengali middle class was ready to send their children to vernacular medium school even forty years back unless forced to - due to lack of ‘Elite’ schools in locality or monetary issues. As a result, scope to learn literary Bengali was already reducing for children from educated Bengali families. Though liberal socialists went on dominating Bengali cultural life till nineteen eighties, their number started reducing by nineteen seventies itself. Well, Globalisation brought a radical change in this dominance pattern.

How to change the scenario? The author suggests “inward translation” that is, translating more global literature into Bengali than translating Bengali to English would be able to bring a change. We cannot deny that improving the quality of vernacular newspapers or making contemporary world literature available in Bengali may convince senior citizens to read in Bengali. But what about younger generation from educated families who rarely read anything in Bengali since childhood? Or the neo-middle class which takes up reading as a way to earn certificates that in turn helps in earning a particular standard of living? Is there any way to attract future generations to read in Bengali?

Educated Bengali started moving out of Bengal one fifty year’s back, as British colonialists established themselves well in this country. Bengalis were among the first Indians to get along with European education system and hence, became trusted employees for British to work in different parts of the country with them. Anyway, there were still enough Bengalis staying in own region while eastern zone of the country provided enough jobs being an industrially developed part of the country. Independence brought partition of Bengal which forced a good number of Bengali speaking people move to other parts of the country – West Bengal alone could not provide space for approximately two millions of migrants. People who had to move out, could not avoid forced detachment from Bengali reading-writing practices.  But the aversion to Bengali reading and writing actually developed during post seventies socialist regime. Socialist governance lead to downfall in industry sectors in West Bengal in the one hand, and on the other, blanket ban on English as a subject in vernacular medium school in mid-eighties pushed children of job-oriented Bengali speaking middle–class out of these schools – who wants to educate own children in a way that that they would never be able to communicate with outer world – eventually loss the scope of being recruited for any professional service? Hence, Bengali came down to the status of second language in late eighties. Obviously, children of these days, do not need to read global literature in Bengali - they read it in English, their first language.

In post globalization scenario, moving out of the state even for a civil engineer’s job became unavoidable to every Bengali. Why to learn Bengali with importance then? Isn’t it enough to speak a little Bengali and attend Durgapuja celebrations to prove Bengali identity?

Neo-middle class is usually not interested in literary studies or cultural studies anywhere in the world, but also to traditionally-educated Bengali families, Bengali as a language lost its significance. Migration became a must for all – neither children of our Bengali authors nor the children of neo-middle class are able to stay in the state due to professional reason. When we do communicate in another language fourteen hours a day, one hour of forced reading in vernacular does not help much in growing literary skill.  On a personal note, even though I was taught in vernacular medium, after staying outside West Bengal for nine years, I, a middle aged of Bengali-literature enthusiast, am more comfortable communicating in English rather than Bengali.

The inclusion of contemporary literature in school curriculum is an excellent idea, but most of the Bengali reader class does not read in vernacular medium any longer. Vernacular medium schools in rural areas these days are meant for providing basic education to children of backward class who mostly come to school for a free meal, not to study literature.  

Bengali literary studies in West Bengal have limited future. And I do not see any scope of change in the scenario unless Government and academic bodies have a plan to radically change it. Well, the language and literature written in Bengali will always retain its glorious place in researcher’s dissertation and thesis papers, of course!