Sandipan Deb writes in the Indian Express about the weaknesses of the Bengali character and specifically about the futility of the actions of the passionate Bengali, seen in the larger context of history. As an example of this, he tells us how insignificant the contribution of Bengali revolutionaries was to the freedom struggle and how incompetent Bengali freedom fighters (as opposed to those from other parts of the country) were on the whole. (the Bengalis could not even hit their targets).
But Bengali passion has traditionally been unproductive.Thousands of young Bengalis went to the gallows or to the living nightmare called Cellular Jail for terrorist attacks on the British. But their fervour and their sacrifice hardly made a dent in the Raj. And most of the time, they could not even hit their targets. Sometimes, they ended up killing innocent men and women.
My grandfather Jyotirmoy Ray was one of those people who endured the living nightmare in Andaman Cellular Jail (Regular visitors to this blog may have read this post which is based on a letter my mother wrote to me after visiting Andaman Jail where my grandfather spent many years as a guest of the British empire. If you have not, kindly do so). So allow me to be a bit surprised when Mr. Sandipan Deb not only denies the impact my grandfather and his fellow Bengali revolutionaries’ sacrifices had on India’s history but also impugns their competence by saying that they were so punch drunk with “passion” that they could not shoot straight.
I used to think that passionate Bengalis uniting as one to unsettle Lord Curzon’s “settled” plan to partition Bengal in 1905 was historically significant. Well according to Sandipan Deb, it was not. And since Bengali revolutionaries had no effect on the British, it is inconceivable that they transferred their capital from Calcutta to New Delhi because of the political unrest in Bengal. I was also under the impression that the Indian National Congress’s successes with the British was based largely on its being perceived as the safety valve that would keep the more radical revolutionary forces under control. Evidently I was wrong there too. Or perhaps Sandipan Deb agrees to that statement—what he is merely saying is that the British were afraid of revolutionaries based in parts of India other than Bengal.
After all who would be scared of a few raggedy Bengali revolutionaries like Jatin Mukherjee, Surya Sen, Rashbehari Bose, Manabendranath Roy and Bhupendra Kumar Dutta? Who would even consider dangerous the bungling Babus who raided the British armoury at Chittagong? Or those three bookish Bengalis who walked into Writer’s Building and shot down British administators? By the way, was not the Anushilan Samity a group of Bhadralok who sat together over tea and thin arrowroot biscuits to discuss East Bengal football?
Did the Bengalis miss their targets? Yes they did. Khudiram Bose did. Perhaps a few others did too. And so we can now generalize those very few failures into the could-not-hit stereotype of the Bengali revolutionary who almost always acted from a well of ill-thought-out adventurism.
And since we have now established that Bengalis are defined by their impetuous streak because of which they have no impact on history (i.e. “unproductive”), let us excommunicate from the tribe of Bongos the likes of Rammohan Roy and Ishwarchandra Vidyasagar, who painstakingly through scholarly knowledge and prolonged debate (as opposed to passionate verbiage), were able to make Sati illegal and legalize widow remarriage. Or let us keep them as Bengalis and just say that these social reforms had no impact on India.
Yes it’s all falling into place now.
Thank you Mr. Deb for educating me. And putting my grandfather and his fellow comrade’s sacrifices in the proper historical perspective.
Oh. Happy Netaji Janma Divas, a day in advance.
Aah which remind me: if only Subhash Bose had been able to reign in his genetic hotheadedness and not resigned from the Indian Civil Service.
It’s not as if he did anything significant after that rash act.
Some Bengalis try to present unbiaed views on their community and in their over zealousness over-compensate and I think Sandipan has done just that.
He merely knows anything about Bengal revolutionaries history and wrote such a stupid article, moron!!!!
The quality of journalism has hit an all-time low. The article by Sandipan shows just that. He is poorly educated on the subject he has written on. Bengalis has always been a community of bravehearts who had the guts to defy the system and bring in changes. It is such a pity that many fellow-Bengalis does not realize that. The strength of a Bengali character is unique and is a cause of envy for many others.
I think having close family associated with the freedom struggle has made you as passionate as the average bong on this. So at least you are true to type. Sandipan’s article does go to an extreme at one level, but the article’s more about the amazing example that Ganguly has set.
And the streotype Bong, while certainly not as effete, unwarriorlike and what not as Macaulay says, is in fact, a lot like Sandipan is
Let’s face it, what of historical Bong freedom fighter’s, we donot even remember the worth or sacrifice of any freedom fighter sometimes. Especially the poor soldiers copping it on the borders and elsewhere even today, who die unsung, unappreciated.
Perhaps Sandipan, by flagellating bongs, shows a subliminal desire to be more like Ganguly, by doing something totally unbonglike,namely, introspect on bongs with such a negative bias…
Granted, Sandipan is an ass. But how justified is the impact that we Bengalis ascribe to Netaji ? The man’s slogan was ‘Delhi Chalo’ but the INA’s attempt to capture Imphal was a total failure. Not only is Imphal almost a continent away from Delhi, even if he had succeeded militarily, it would have led to an India dominated by the Imperial Japanese. Does anyone really think they would have been an improvement over the Brits?
Since I’m making my comments over the internet, my ‘passionate’ fellow-Bongs cannot lynch me. So please take the trouble to educate me
Hi Arnab
Been a regular reader for quite some time, commenting for the first.(Had to get that out of the way.
)
It’s extremely irritating and an insult to our freedom fighters to see such apologists air their views. These people seem to be at the other end of the spectrum, diametrically opposite to the fundos who hate others, but sometimes, one thinks that they are not too far from each other..hate, for one’s own community or another’s is still hate. (I am assuming Mr.Deb hails from Bengal)
We in Maharashtra come across quite a few of these guys as well. They crib about how Maharashtrians are lazy, corrupt, lost in their saints, natya sangeet and bhavageets and do not have a head for business (some of these charges are true to an extent)…however, to generalize for a population of 80 million is ridiculous (in the case of Maharashtra)…Bengalis seem to face this problem too and that ‘profiling’ seems to give way to easy conclusions about people hailing from the state.
I remember a quote from an Indian born comedian in the US about why Indians can never be terrorists: ‘Terrorists hate Americans; Indians…hate each other’ (and I guess, their own communities as well)
However, it is great to see this idiocy countered, that too with sarcasm…keep up the good work!
Bad Generalisation………..
I guess there are a few rotten apples everywhere.But that doesn’t mean One can say anything anywhere.
And to demean a Legend like Netaji is unacceptable,
GB,
I can just shake my head. While I am sure Bengalis can be faulted for many things, not having impact on freedom stuggle or reawakening of Indian spirit is certainly not one.
Isn’t the writer a Bengali himself ? If he is I find it ironical. Problem with analysis of history is it is always hostage to peddling of ideology, and therefore prone to creative (re)interpretations.
@AndyS:
FYI…The implact of Netaji… the very fact that he reached Imphal made the British decide on granting India independence after the end of the war…. and this is not me talking… it is according to a CNN documentary called “The Swastika and the Samurai”… you should check it out sometime.
@Arnab :
This morning I too read this outrageous and totally baseless post , the only objective of composing which can be gaining some cheap publicity.
It was when I had just started writing about it in my blog, it occurred to me that such a post may not have eluded your notice and may be you had already posted something on it. This proved to be right when I visited your blog and saw it right there.
By writing such a post, what this person is trying to do is : to be the Ganguly-fans’ favourite on one hand and to attract attention of anti-Ganguly (incidentally most of whom are anti-Bengali) readers on the other. And, in fact, he has got some success, too. Like, I had never heard his damn name before this but now I know that there is a SOB-ish sports columnist with Indian Express called Sandipan Deb, who if required, may come up with a ‘GENERALISED’ article having contents like “My momma slept with my grandpa so so do all Bengali women”.
What I strongly believe is, this guy hails from one of those very few Bengali families of which no member ever was associated with the freedom movement of India and/or the cultural/social upliftment of Bengal. That is why, out of sheer inferiority complex, and to show the readers how cosmopolitan he is, he came up with this wonderfully ‘GENERALISED’ work of literature. How broad-minded !!!
The social engineering of the Left is showing its effect. These self-hating “intellectuals” are a dime and dozen.
These mofos will denigrate and humiliate their own kinfolk unless hounded up and dumped into Bay of Bengal.
Look at the larger picture, these types have been indoctrinated to hate everything Indian, denigrating a small province is a trivial issue.
What bullshit. He is a fool looking for cheap publicity. I wonder how it is published by Express.
One more thing…I don’t know who’s with me and who isn’t but to me, that this chap writes for them is a god enough reason not to read Indian Express ever again…
@Nandan:
It is only when a self-hating Bengali or a Marathi takes to pulpit we notice, but we ignore more serious India haters.
See it like this, if an XYZ individual from other state ridicules your state, we jump to anti-Bengali or anti-Marathi arguments.
It really hits us when one from our clan does it.
A Romila Thapar or Irfan Habib doing it is readily acceptable and digestible. The rot starts there itself when historical interpretations are allowed to presented with ideological colours. Mr. Deb and his ilk are product of such historical interpretation and ideological indoctrination.
Lets not loose the larger picture.
After reading the article it seems his only target was to prove that saurabh is “non-bengali”??
and THEREFORE justify saurabhs fantastic performance!
;-(
Bravo. Well put. Passionate, but on-target, for instance
Oh Shabaash! Two intelligent Bongs passionately attempting to prove their points! There is nothing more fun to watch.
Imagine, if a similar article was written in Indian Express by some Saradaar-ji in an attempt to generalize all Sards. Another Saradaar-ji would have thought to himself “saradaar hai saalaa – what does he know†and life would have moved on, Punjab would have kept on prospering. But in the Bengali world action of a bong has an equal and opposite reaction i.e. a customary protest followed by a strike of another Bong! Bass yaheeN maat khaa jaataa hai Bengal.
To me, the ‘unproductive’ part is – a smart guy like Great Bong taking time to reiterate well-known facts about bong achievement. I don’t see a need! This post – though a good read, gave Sandipan’s article the attention it did not deserve!
@E-Swami: What brings you here to make a post at expense of your “productivity”?
“Bass yaheeN maat khaa jaataa hai Bengal“.
Add to that BIMARU belt low on social index , all terrorist infested states, Naxal infested states, J&K, LTTE loving TN, rioting B’Lore and Punjab due to its Khalistani past.
Dear Greatbong,
As a Bengali you would be familiar with the concept of “Atmaghati Bangali” or the self – deprecating Bengali race. Why, one of us even tried to bring Amartya Sen down -his contention: Amartyababu can’t be hailed as a Nobel Laureate as what he got was not really a Nobel prize (i.e., it was not provided for by Alfred Nobel in his famous will) but rather constituted by the Bank of Sweden in memory of Nobel (anything for self-deprecation, you see)!
Sandipan Deb is merely carrying this dubious tradition forward, and geting himself noticed along the way! All I can say is – shame on Mr. Deb and his kin – let me say that by pulling down the freedom fighters of Bengal they have made themselves articles of pity in our eyes!
Bengal was the source of Indian nationalism. And revival of Hinduism.
But then Sandipan Deb was the editor of that Congressi/leftist mag Outlook, or maybe he still is. Come on now, given his credentials, he cannot be taken seriously, can he?
Sad to see that most of that land is now Bangladesh. The rest of that land is not much different from Bangladesh, thanks to brainwashed secular leftists that abound there.
No single act of Indian patriotism forced the British to leave. So, calling the efforts of every individual revolutionary (Bengali or otherwise) to be useless is a bit juvenile. Which is what Sandipan Deb has done.
Even reasonably intelligent men occasionally fall prey to the lure of 15-minutes-of-fame and make inflammatory comments, which are not grounded in reality. This is one more example of this. (I have read a lot of Mr Deb’s writings and I would say he is a pretty good journalist, notwithstanding his latest effort!)
Also, I think this blog has a readership higher than Indian Express. So, you may have just ended up giving him 20 minutes of fame!
BTW, I was expecting a post on yesterday’s 98!
I feel that Bengalis have always had a significant contribution to India, pre as well as post independence. A quick glance through a ICSE history text will provide enough examples. Even today, Bengalis are at prominent positions in all fileds , be it sports or corporate world. Even if one were to accept Sandipan’s arguemnts (rhetoric) in toto, the sheer jest of living a full life would set Bengalis apart. I am not a bengali by birth but have a deep association with Calcutta and hence Bengal where I lived for 6 years before shifting to Mumbai.
GreatBong,
forget Sandipan Deb, he is another rabid secular.
The reason for Bengal not doing well is nothing to do with Bengali-ness etc, but the fact that Bengal has become too secular and leftist. See what years of leftism has done to Bengal. You may praise Buddhadeb bhatacharya, but ultimately, he is part of the system that has sent Bengal to poverty and wasted its potential.
@shadows:
“Secular”s like Sandipan Deb are more dangerous than Buddhadeb types. The later will be forced to mend ways due to public pressure (kick in the a$$ in Nandigram is just a begining), but the former is not accountable to anyone.
The first comment from Bisabhi seems to sum up the entire issue here, even more pointedly then the GreatBong himself! When will Bongs (great and not greats) stop missing the woods for the trees. Actually came here looking for comments on the terrific come back of Saurabh. Arnab has ignored the actual issue in Deb’s article, and has strangely raked up a non issue. I am sure Deb was not generalising about all Bengali freedom fighters, but was just a bit carried away. GreatBong – there is another great performance from a greater bong, could we have your unique take on that please?
@GB You can’t fight ignorance and prejudice.
VonRunstedt,
Commies have a long and bloody history of violence and hypocrisy… Also, commies and seculars are in the same boat.
I dont know about everybody else, but I thought that I detected a sarcastic undertone in his article.
First question in my mind after reading the IE article was, ‘Why does Mr. Deb hate his own identity so much?’ .
Given that there is much gone wrong with West Bengal post independence (for which GB himself makes no apologies in previous posts) I really cannot understand the need to denigrate the contribution of Bengali freedom fighters to show Saurabh’s ‘fighting spirit’ and ability to make a comeback as supposedly being non-Bengali attributes.
For that matter, a comparison with other members of the Indian squad would have been enough.
Thinking all over, I have come to realise that humanity, per se, never came upto much.
After all, everyone dies.
Mr Deb has put the entire creation to test.
Nobody and nothing comes upto much.
Stars die, black holes collapse… Stephen Hawkings runs out of equations………….
So, a few Bengali bomb throwers who decide to take on the might of an Empire…..
Legends are written of such stuff.
Mr Deb, likes to call a spade a digging tool, and does not have the insight to feel the throb of a bygone era.
For all I know, he may have even read history beyond the X level. But to him, history was dry rustling pages, never the thrill of understanding actual events.
Stupid, stupid article. In his attempt to praise Ganguly, Mr Deb has decided to re-interpret history. Also his generalizations dont make sense e.g.
WTF is the Bengali physique ? Mr Deb obviously hasnt seen Manohar Aich and co.
Arnab,
Eighteenth Century: The Baboo learns Farsi and Arabic, and considers the amalgamation of Hinduism with Islam. Raja Ram Mohun Roy.
Nineteenth Century: The Baboo learns English and German and considers the independence of India to compete with European nationalism. S.N. Banerjee.
Twentieth Century: The Baboo learns Marxism because independence is false, real independence is required. Jyoti Basu, aka Jyoti-da, aka Jyote-Pnatha.
Twenty-first Century: The Baboo learns neo-liberalism because the above three proved misleading, yet neo-liberalism might work. Sandipan Deb (aka Sandi?).
All the above sets of people from Bengal have worked to Relieve the Baboo from the nightmare of Macaulayite existence. Being brown on the outside and white on the inside. Incapable of going to Kalighat because it is too dirty, yet proud that he won the plaudits of white men by articulating (deforming) his own culture (read Nobel Prizes and other Art/Literary Awards).
Sociologists will label our actual revolutionary freedom fighters as ’second-tier’ elites. Educated in Bengali medium schools, aware of what ‘India’ actually meant, not what it was supposed to mean in a Nehruvian sense, they fought for people who did not even exist in the aforementioned Baboo framework.
Pray, tell me how Mr. Deb is supposed to comprehend that? He wants plaudits from his South Delhi audience; composed of westernized exiled elites from all over India. Debasing his own background to establish his cosmopolitan credentials is acceptable to Deb. He just replaces those who sought applause from Delhi/Lucknow, London, Moscow, and now seek it from New York/Washington DC. By the way, I like his turtle neck and tweed outfit in the profile; perhaps, Mr. Deb is a New ‘England’ intellectual.
Cheers,
Vasabjit
Sandipan Deb is actually a Stephens, IIT, IIM type product, hardly a template for a commie. He used to write mildly provcative articles (and largely unread) for Outlook, but as far as I know doesn’t any more. He decided that enough was enough, and that he needed sme publicity. What better way than to juxtapose Sourav and anti-Bengali provocation in the same article? Bingo!
He is obviously not well versed in either Bengali history or the freedom movement, and shot off the cuff remarks off – remarks that would make more sense in a coctail party then a newspaper article. And because of his relative fame, the editor probably decided to print it as it was.
In short, that’s what it was – a stupid article.
But of course, trust Shadows and VonRuntsted to bring all discourse to the level of oppressed Hinduism and extremist Islamism. Not to mention commies, pinkos etc. etc. Utterly predictable!
@Bisabhi: Overcompensate? Well ahem.
@Aniket: I wish he could have used some “facts” to support his assertion. This being a newspaper piece and all that.
@Aby: And the Hindu has a cartoon showing bloggers as monkeys.
@Prasanna: “Let’s face it, what of historical Bong freedom fighter’s, we donot even remember the worth or sacrifice of any freedom fighter sometimes.”
Yes exactly. The reason you don’t remember is that there were no Bong freedom fighters. Right.
@AndyS: “Not only is Imphal almost a continent away from Delhi”
Point. Netaji should just have waited for Captain Kirk to beam him and the INA into Delhi from USS Enterprise. If only he had, he would not have had to “walk” in from a border area of India.
Your second point of Netaji allying with Facists. The theme of this post is whether Bengali revolutionaries had any effect on the Raj. Not if it was bad or good. If Netaji had won and Fascism established in India, even then he would have had an “effect”. Right? And even with Netaji’s defeat, it is a historic fact that the INA trials were a turning point in India’s freedom struggle.
@Nandan: True.
@Kailas: Hm. Incidentally I do not think that historical deconstructions of legends is a “bad” thing. It’s just that Mr. Deb is not even doing that.
@Gaurav: Yes he is Bengali himself. As to why he did what he did, I would say Vasabjit’s comment says it all.
@SKDB: Yes.
@deBoLIN: The “Ganguli is not a Bengali” angle isnt particularly innovative incidentally. Niradh Chaudhuri used to keep Vidyasagar from his list of great Bengalis because according to him, Vidyasagar was “not a Bengali”.
@VonRunstedt: While I do not know Mr. Deb’s political slant and its not relevant here, the desire to get intellectual brownie points by flogging yourself is a trick as old as the hills..mastered by the so-called “intellectual liberals”.
@Mallik: How it got published in the Express? Simple. Sandipan Deb is the editor of Financial Express.(http://expressgroup.co.in/editors.php)
@Fullstop: I wonder what he was trying to show.
@Mr. D: Thank you
@E-Swami: Great. However I am not a Sardar. And as to me “re-iterating” well-known facts. If it was so well-known wonder why Mr. Deb does not know it. Rather than seeing my piece as Bong against Bong, why aren’t you able to see it as just a concerned reader correcting inaccuracies in an editorial piece on a national daily?
@AR: Indeed.
@Shadows: He is now the editor of a financial newspaper. Does that still make him a Commie? Please not every ill-conceived idea can be traced to “Leftism”. And the point is not whether Bengal has achieved nothing or not, it’s what Bengali revolutionaries achieved in the context of Indian history.
@Diptakirti: Higher readership than Indian Express ! Aah I wish.
@Alok: Hmm.
@SM: I was going to write on SG’s innings when I read this piece. And yes, I thought that pointing this out had higher priority than discussing a cricket innings. Some people actually learn history from the newspapers nowadays. So yes it is important to have a rebuttal on record.
@An Ideal Boy: You can try.
@Tantrik-Porter: Sarcastic? You mean that the paragraph above was sarcastic. I dont think I got it. And I presume lot of others didnt also. Can you please explain the sarcasm you detected in Mr. Deb saying that Bengali revolutionaries missed their targets and had no impact on the British Raj?
@Kaustav: Me neither.
@Swati: We do not need Mr. Deb to be thrilled by history. We dont mind if they were dry facts to him. We just want to see how the “facts” support his assertion.
@BongoP’o'ndit: Indeed.
@Vasabjit: Perfectomundo ! Hit the nail on the head.
@Shan: Editor of FE. I had no idea till I googled him after reading that article.
Let’s leave Deb and come to you for a while. I remember an article on this very blog that took on “Bengali passion”, ribbing it quite ungently at times, but when someone else does it presenting it differently and in a different context, you seem to react ohh so kneejerk sensitively. In a sense, what you said then and what Sandipan is saying here, is quite akin – both of you accept stereotypes, indulgently castigating this so-called passion, accepting it as a potential virtue but protesting quite vehemently its excess, demanding that it be tempered, trying your best to come across as analytical and unbiased. Which is why such a damning response comes across as ironical. Sarcasm is an essential element of your literary ouvre but somehow this irony seems to be totally lost on you. Interestingly in another place you described the Naxal movement as something carried out by idealistic but essentially misguided youth -again a striking parallel to what Deb does that here with the revolutionary terrorism of the national movement. You are outraged because your grandfather ( my genuine respect for him) was an Indian nationalist – somebody else may be outraged with you because his father was a Naxal. Your post at the end of the day is emotional and reactionary and not at all well-thought-out – another evidence pointing to this is your repeated reference to “revolutionaries from other parts of India” – Deb doesn’t refer, hint at or implicate them in any way. This has to be seen as some sort of over-sensitiveness on your part. What Deb does here is in no way above criticism, but he does give expression to a very real collective complex that plagues not just Bengalis but all subaltern races in general. But he is a bad postcolonialist, playing into a very imperialist myth of the “martial races”. At the end of the day, GB da, I fee,l like many other readers of your blog have expressed in the past, humor,Bollywood,culture and the spicier aspects of life in general are more in your line. I am a serious reader and admirer of your posts, that is why I take the pain to criticise here. Expecting some serious sarcastic prods now, but then I had to say what I had to say.
@Kinjal: If you had taken any effort to read my old post, I lampooned Bengali passion AFTER independence where in the absence of worthy causes, it degenerated to rail rokos and strikes , misguided idealism for the well-compensated farmers of Singur, misplaced pride in past achievements and the glorification of the state’s poverty. But then you are a “serious reader” using words like “subaltern” and “postcolonialist” and you must have taken these things into consideration before blessing me with your pearls of wisdom.
The reason why I refer to revolutionaries from other parts of India is that its not as if Sandipan Deb is making a point about the futility of the *entire* revolutionary movement. He is only making it about the Bengali one. I would have expected a “serious reader” like yourself to understand that. But hey.
BTW, there is a huge difference between Naxalism and the Indian freedom struggle. I would love to discuss it with you. But if only I was competent enough for that.
>> He is now the editor of a financial newspaper. Does that still make him a Commie?
@ GreatBong,
Maybe no. Or maybe Yes. Very much possible. I googled for it. Editor of financial Express. Well, it hardly sells, compared to Economic Times or Business Standard.
But dont you think Bengal has suffered a lot due to commies. A friend of mine, a Sarkar, used to tell me of their actions while in engineering college. Currently, he is in IIM-A.
>> the point is not whether Bengal has achieved nothing or not, it’s what Bengali revolutionaries achieved in the context of Indian history.
But Sandipan did not exactly stick to the context of revolutionaries, did he?
@Shan,
He was the editor of Outlook magazine. Need I say more? Also, Stephenites are quite susceptible to Marxism, as far as I have seen.
Also google for Sandeep Pandey, another IIT product.
Generally, political affiliation is no way a function of the institution of learning. (Except in very few cases, like JNU, and they too have exceptions.)
BTW, most “left-leaning” (I wont say leftist) scientists in the US have come from MIT. Figure that out.
Do you have to negate me just because I am saying it ?
Can we please tie Sandipan Deb up in the Maidan and leave him the outrage of the angri mashima’s who can pelt him to a sugary death with Chomchoms. I shall applaud from the wings and call him a Nonsense person.
The idea of Bengalis as a non-Marital race was British construct created after the mutiny. After all it was the Bengalis and the Bhaiyaas in the Bengal Army who revolted against not the Raj. Not the loyal Rajputs, Gurkhas, Pathans and Punjabis. Amardeep Singh does a fantastic writeup on the same
http://www.lehigh.edu/~amsp/2006/12/myth-of-martial-races.html
Bengal also had an extraordinany number of women who took to revolutionary terrorism with practised ease. Whether it was schoolgirls shooting the Vicechancellor or an aged widow marching into a lathi charge.
@Shadows
I am not negating you just because you are “saying it.” My problem is your one track agenda where every issue somehow comes down to the same issues – commies and Islamists destroying India. Maybe you should open your mind a bit more instead of ranting about yur favourite bugbears all the time in in ALL contexts.
Although that takes some skill I admit, but it is indeed tiresome.
first of all apologies for the long comment – pl feel free to delete or cut short this over long piece, of course.
I think Sandipan Deb wrote a piece that was his opinion and it was definitely a over-simplication and generalisation of the truth. Being a probashi bangali and also extremely ignorant about the contributions of bengal, I am still very very impressed by the awesome heritage this region brings to the country and the world. Even today, the culture, the thinking prowess, the intellectual capabilities by far are higher than the average Indian I have met elsewhere and yes, true this too is a generalization.
But I do tend to agree really that by and large, the Bengali is more about passion, emotion, impulse, strength of character and beliefs than well thought out strategies. Very often I feel that this led to less of success since they were really not very result oriented. However, I thank my stars that the bengali is like that – still capable of thinking beyond purpose and strategy for the poetry he or she brings to the world, and thereby is capable of being a leader and a visionary.
With all due respect, i may have missed the point but I think you did not exactly refute what he said. Individual acts were awesome, the contributions of people like Rammohan Roy, Ishwar Chandra Vidya Sagar, Surya Sen and even Jyotirmay Ray are not only unforgettable but also leave intangible but indelible imprints that have far reaching consequences in each of us. It is hard for any of us to actually realise the effect such sacrifices, sheer grit, character has on the future generations but I have no doubt on long term effect of such things.
However immediate results of the freedom fighters from Bengal, to the best of my knowledge, did not do much more than cause discomfort and irritation to the British. Again I am sure they lost morally but not in the political sense.
I do hope though that you will take criticism in the spirit its meant – I notice that you tend to be a little unforgiving Sir, of people who dont agree with you:)
And its a pleasure as always to be reading your blog….
@Auritra: “However immediate results of the freedom fighters from Bengal, to the best of my knowledge, did not do much more than cause discomfort and irritation to the British. Again I am sure they lost morally but not in the political sense.”
Would you kindly support your assertion with “facts”? Like how there was no immediate results of the Bengali revolutionary movement but there were tangible ones for the one in say Maharashtra? Again Mr. Deb’s contention is not that revolutionary movements as a whole had no effect…but only the ones in Bengal. I hope that asking for facts is not considered to be “unforgiving” .
@Red: Chomchoms from Mashimas ! Nice nice ! Diabetic death for sure.
I agree that the quintessial bengali culture definitely smells of “babu-yana”, lethrgy, and day-dreaming. However, our history of freedom struggle also speaks volumes on the armed revolution, which saw people like Khudiram, MasterDa, Bagha Jatin, Netaji to name a few. In fact, the Bengalis were one of the people to take the route of armed liberalisation. Lets not forget suresh biswas here, who fled through the waters of Indian Ocean to become the colonel of brazil. if someone claims that bongs never did any great to the nation or to the society in general, I would say such claims are atrocious. because no culture/community is perfect, we need to perfect it.
If a journo does not know his spades, and just try to self-malign himself (and million others), I think he is suffering from amnesia, and needs to be treated with healthy doses of history.
good job, great bong!!!
Hey its Aurita not Auritra!
Anyway, well, let me put it this way :
GB: “Like how there was no immediate results of the Bengali revolutionary movement but there were tangible ones for the one in say Maharashtra?
When I read my history (and of course the best historians say that there is no such thing as objective history), the general opinion of the historians is that the revolutionaries had an effect of de-stabilising the empire but not really to the extent that it seriously was jeopardised. It was only when MK Gandhi came into the fray and made it a mass movement and when the British Empire was already weakened and a variety of other factors were in play, that the British really considered moving out. Before that, although the masses did not obstruct their rule. So if you consider driving out the British out of India the immediate key desired result, then I really do think they were not very organized or effective.
On the other hand, if I don’t take that as the key result which is what my earlier comment statedf, then they were very effective, because they spawned a whole generation of thinkers, revolutionaries and idealists who I believe were critical to nation building.
I am basically saying that Bengalis are awesome revolutionaries but they are not result oriented.
GB: “Again Mr. Deb’s contention is not that revolutionary movements as a whole had no effect…but only the ones in Bengal.”
Regarding comparing the revolutionary movement in Bengal with other areas, this probably will come across as very ignorant but to the best of my knowledge India did not have a substantial revolutionary movement anywhere else at all. So the question of comparing does not arise.
I don’t think he is referring to any revolutionary movements in India and comparing those in Bengal. He is saying that Bengalis are passionate and full of fervour but not impactful. Unfortunately he seems to be saying this with a sneer – without taking into account the most wonderful Bengali trait (again an extreme generalisation but nevertheless worth mentioning) of being focused on the thought and not on the results. and thoughts have more power that he imagines.
GB: “Is asking for facts considered to be “unforgiving?—
Nope, not at all Dr Roy. very valid point. Wish I knew more of my history and you certainly make me want to run to the library at this point! I just posted another comment on your blog on Jyotirmoy Roy on this same point so will desist from further comments.
Happy blogging…
@shadows:
errr…..Berkeley might have something to say about that ! Anyway, a high percentage of scientists in the US are what you’d call ‘left-leaning’ ie they hold liberal values and mostly vote for Democrats. It is rare to come across an US scientists who will say that George W Bush is the best thing to happen to his country.
Oh! education for the intellectually challenged.
I have been a great fan of your posts. I have recommended your blog to several of my friends as the best on the net. Actually, the best ever. But now I am not quite so sure. Your posts are becoming increasingly parochial. Or maybe they always were and I never noticed.
@Aurita: Two apologies. One for spelling your name wrong and too for mistakenly deleting your comment on the RDB post. That happened when I was subject to a spam attack and I made a mistake in ticking your comment as spam. Sorry.
Now as to your comment, kindly do read about revolutionary societies in several parts of the country with today’s Maharashtra being a major hot-bed of such activities.
@Raj: Yes you never noticed. Like you never noticed that parochialism is defined as provincial narrow-mindededness. Am I being narrow-minded?Am I casting aspersions on the competence on any other group:Marathis, Tamils etc?
No.
I am merely opposing (with facts) an unfair and unsupported-by-facts allegation made against people who gave their all for their country (that of them being incompetent). And if defending Bengali freedom-fighters is deemed parochial (note I am not demeaning any freedom-fighter from anywhere) I am proud to be parochial.
what an outrage !!
Next they’ll be saying that Dada’s innings didn’t matter against SA in the last ODI.
Arnab, a bit off-topic but I’m expecting a post from you on the tight slap Greg Chappell got yesterday in Orissa.
GB,I am not against historical deconstructions of legends.But I dislike the very Idea of Half Baked ,Self Styled “Bujjies”( AKA Buddhijeevis/intellectuals) doing this.!!
Think it was Sandiapan Deb who wrote a very emotional article in Outlook when Kapil Dev sobbed in front of Karan Thapar.
The article was quite amusing, shall always remember the final sentence which was something like this ‘….Doesnt matter if Kapil took money but he will always be my hero….’
GB, the post about your grandfather is awesome. There are some articles/poems which I read often just for the emotional tug & inspiration this post figures very much in that list.
@Shan: Why bother to reply to Shadow’s comment? He won’t/can’t change his views, and we could spend our time more fruitfully than trying to make him change it.
@Arnab: Why waste your time on Sandipan Deb? Accepted that the guy has made an ass of himself in this article, I feel that wanted to debase Bengalis to better glorify Sourav. And of course he’s written a silly piece (I wonder if he was sober when he wrote it), but given how long an op-ed piece remains in public memory, the best thing that can be done is to quietly bury it along with millions of such pieces that no one remembers.
Discrimination exists all over the world. Sometimes it takes the form of race, sometimes color, sometimes language and so on. In our country, it has typically and historically been on language, caste and religion. Through these discriminations, people form groups and favor each other. Take any other linguistics community in India. GENERALLY, they stay in close groups and favor each other in offices, businesses, administration etc. I hope some of you too must have made the same observations. But there is no hue and cry about that, though it is sometimes so obvious. Here if you are not parochial, you loose because others are.
Given this situation, it really hurts to see a bengali potraying martyrs from our soil as failures without trying to potray their sacrifice as a strength of their character and determination.
I have not seen any non-Bengali Indian community who speak against themselves as much some of we do. Unfortunately, some Bengalis try to be in the good books of the non-bengali communities by bashing their own community and allow others to do the same.
I would request people of the kind of Sandipan Deb to explore the history and current reality in other communties. Probably then you would be able to appreciate the fact that we are really fortunate to be born as Bengali.
I had a tough time locating the Deb article and finally found it here:
http://www.indianexpress.com/printerFriendly/21470.html
Firstly what a ridiculous comparison. Ganguly has no doubt made a good comeback, but to compare his tenacity and fighting spirit etc. to those who indulged in acts of revolution is sloppiness at its very best. Also, can the words tenacity, fighting spirit etc be measured only by bravado? If an academician or a scientist achieves something agaisnt all odds, is it not a sign of courage and panache?
“Ganguly’s hallmark as player and captain has been his near-manic desire to win.”
Just too much bullshit to digest!
“But their fervour and their sacrifice hardly made a dent in the Raj. And most of the time, they could not even hit their targets. Sometimes, they ended up killing innocent men and women.”
Then the counter question can be asked even if we somehoe digest Deb’s fabricated history- who were the non-bengali people who successfully ‘hit the targets’ and didnt end up “killing innocent men and women”? MK Gandhi? JL Nehru? I should stop belaboring on Gandhi as he has been analyzed in the last post quite extensively. But shallow knowledge of history is worse than no knowledge at all. I was at an NRI party the other night and a young girl who was born and brought up here told me that she thought that the only revolutionaries in India had were the ones shown in that film- yes you guess it right- Rang de basanti. Sighs.
I also liked Nandan’s comment about racial stereotyping above. Why even during WW2, Gen Patton was skeptical about the fighting abilities of African Americans. Have a look at their proportion in the US army now. Also there is this tendency to label people who are not attending business meetings every hour or always thinking of an opportunity to make more money as not being industrious. (Note the sentence: “Hardly a very noticeable trait in the average Bengali, who is willing to avoid an important business meeting for a leisurely adda.”). If recreation is seen as a sign of failure, then well Americans are failures too as they never miss out on an opportunity to have fun. So by the logic of Deb, “slackers” here are the intercontinental brothers of Bengalis?
I am also appalled at the quality of the piece. I grew up reading “The Statesman” and such a piece would have never made to their columns…at least back then. I however don’t agree with many of you up on this page that he deliberately wrote this to appear cosmo. I think he tried to compensate and in doing so overcompensated. His first few lines on Ganguly were so effusive that he thought that by making pejorative remarks about Bengali freedom fighters, he would not only compensate any palpable parochialism but also glorify Ganguly’s comeback even more than it would have been possible otherwise….a bit like adding sugar to compensate if you added too much salt while cooking Chilly Chicken which also added to the sweet and sour taste. The result was a weak contrast, and the fact that he tried to somehow forcibly juxtapose the apples and the oranges…. the achievements of an OK test player and an all time great ODI player, an epithet he desreves no less and no more for what he has done; and the shameless iconoclasm …was pathetic…and quite irksome.
GB,
A swift kick on the asses of people like Raj who are blinded by their anti-Bengalism. It is a pity that people like Raj who enjoy the fruits of the freedom your grandfather toiled for have no compunction in looking at him as a “Bengali” (which is why an insult to his legacy does not affect them) and as nothing else .While we celebrate Netaji Divas and Republic Day and wallow in “patriotism” what could be worse than that realization?
Rohan,
You and GB are welcome to kick my ass anytime. But let me tell you that I have nothing against Bengalis. My closest pal ever is a Bengali and I am a great fan of Dada too. My only problem is that Arnab is posting blogs on Bengal related issues way too frequently. I yearn for the days of “1-900-Hotties” and “Mithunism” just as I yearn for the innings Sachin once used to play.
“Arnab is posting blogs on Bengal related issues way too frequently”
That does not make him parochial. All his posts are related to India. Does it make him a chauvinist?
Also it is a pity that you find him defending freedom revolutionaries as something “Bengal related”. The great names Arnab mentions in his post did not just sacrifice their all for Bengali independence but for the independence of India as a whole. That you even consider his defense of true heroes as “parochialism” shows you up for the totally disrespectful ignoramus that you are.
Rohan,
Maybe my choice of word was wrong. I was just venting as a common man who follows GB’s posts. But you butting in with words like “kick ass” and “disrespectful ignoramus” is something I can’t understand. Are you a great patriot or just GB’s chamcha? I think I know…
Raj,
I always thought that comman man is a moron, thanks for confirmation.
PS If you have to abuse, abuse. If you want to be polite, be polite. Dont act like a wuss as in “I dont know what parochial means, but will use it anyway because it sounds heavy”.
GB, care to explain why you feel that there is such a dramatic difference between these two great revolutionary movements that seized the imagination of bhadrolok Bengali youth either side of 1947? No such political movement is without its excess and failures, and none can be said to be completely insignificant at the end of the day.
Deb does just that and makes a complete fool of himself. I know where he is coming from though. The Englishman created the Macaulayian Babu to be a sort of middleman, a complicit native agent in the colonial machinery, and congratulated himself, but then was afraid of the subversive potential of the new Westernised elite bhadrolok, and found it convenient to frame a comical bungling stereotype – the brown man who tries too hard to match up to the English, his efforts and over-zealousness is merely comical for he isn’t quite equipped to get there. Colonial literature often tries to undermine the influence of bhadrolok terrorism by portraying it as weak, effeminate and error-prone. In fiction it does so with Kipling’s immortal Hurre Chunder Mookerjee – in real life, Bina Das’s failed attempt on the life of the Bengal governor is made light of with flippant humor – the governor was of course a cricketer and easily ducked under the shots fired by Miss Das! Netaji’s efforts are similarly marginalised. Deb just buys into these stereotypes, god knows, whether intentionally or not.
But I’d like to know what your perspective really is? I don’t believe any movement is really above criticism. There is of course the Marxist historiography that critiques the violent swadeshi movement for its communal profile, and the total failure of the bhadrolok elite to involve Muslim peasants in Eastern Bengal in their movment leading to the infamous appellation of “Maa Kaali” bombs. But you don’t necessarily have to look as far as the leftists – Rabindranath does it powerfully in Ghare Baire.
If bandhs and hartals in leftist Bengal are over-the top self-damaging moves, so were to a certain extent the enforced swadeshi bonfires. Most Naxals have been swept by the state into the category of common criminals – swadeshi biplobis in their time were also nothing but dakaats to many native folk.
Today’s Hindutva brigade delights in the Bengal “before” and “after” independence
dichotomy. They propagandise that Bengal was all about producing heroes and great men in the past ( no doubt because this period starting from Bankim is marked by cultural Hindu revivalism which they can identify with), and now it’s a degenerate commie-infested treacherous extension of Bangladesh. But given your knowledge and sensitivity towards issues involving Bengal, I wouldn’t expect your motives to be so simplistic and narrow-minded.
@Kinjal: As you rightfully pointed out, the Swadeshi movement alienated the Muslim traders in Bengal who were the worst affected when people started boycotting Manchester cloth and at places started forcibly burning inventory. However this Swadeshi movement was not part of the native “revolutionary” movement in Bengal but a part of Gandhi-an struggle—something that I am sure Mr. Deb would not consider to be a failure (how else did we win our freedom !). In “Ghare Baire” Nikhilesh makes this distinction clear between his brand of Swadeshi (constructive) and the destructive one of Sandip. The Bengali revolutionaries who according to Mr. Deb did not shoot straight were, by and large, not part of this “burn British goods” brigade.
Again I repeat. If this piece above was a critique of the revolutionary movement in general then it would be fine. However it is exclusively a bashing of Bengali revolutionaries with their “competence” being questioned.
The difference between the Naxalite movement and the freedom struggle was the worthiness of the cause—-World War II was a war and so was Vietnam. But there is a difference between the two—right? One was a war to prevent genocide of a race of human beings and the other…well…we know why that was fought. [I know I am being simplistic here but this comment space is really not the place for a deconstructive analysis of the revolutionary and the Naxal movements]
Incidentally, the Naxal movement now flourishes in AP and in parts of UP, Bihar and Nepal. Does that make people of those regions idealistic bumpkins?
I condemn this attempt of Mr. Deb’s to humiliate Bengalis. How can he deny the impact of Bengali revolutionaries! If I set aside everyone else, the actions of Netaji alone will be enough to prove Deb false.
Thanks for taking the pain ( given what must be a very packed blogging schedule) to clarify: I am honored. But I will continue to entertain enormous reservations about WW2 being “a war to prevent genocide of a race of human beings”. Also it would be really glossing over to imagine Ghare Baire to be a critique of Gandhian swadeshi. Come on Gandhi was still in South Africa in the period when Ghare Baire is set. Agreed that “Gandhian” methods like boycott are being used then also, but there has yet been no strong advocacy of Ahimsa; revolutionary terrorism and enforced boycott are probably strategies being used by the same set of people; there can yet be no clearcut distinction drawn within their ranks. And alongside the manipulative Sandip, do not forget the young man, his protege, ( Amulya I think was his name) who loots a zamindar’s house for money for the Swadeshi cause-a Khudiram of sorts – through him doesn’t Tagore try to convey the misguided violence aroused by extremist nationalism?
>> GENERALLY, they stay in close groups and favor each other in offices, businesses, administration etc.
@ Aby,
I have even seen Bengalis do it. During my college days and in my workplace. And other communities do it too, like you say. Sad.
##Since the article has disappeared from the Indian Express website, here is the Google cache version:
By the time Sourav Ganguly fell at 98 on Sunday, he had left a nation slack-jawed. Has there ever been a man with greater grit in cricket history? Has there ever been a cricketer with such self-belief, such tenacity, such indomitable spirit? For it is the quality of his mind and the strength of his will that have powered the most remarkable comeback in recent cricketing history. At 34, Ganguly is not getting any younger. And for the sort of player he is — his batting is based on eyesight and reflex rather than the bedrock of textbook technique, like say Rahul Dravid — 34 is quite an age. Add to that the fact that he is not a natural left-hander (he is right-handed in everything but batting), and wasn’t actually setting the field ablaze during his exile. Has there ever been such a cricketer? Certainly not in India.
With a hostile coach waiting gleefully for one failure so he can send him back to the history books, with a majority of Indians wishing he would just go away and not hang around like an embarrassing cousin, with a team unsure of whether to welcome or shun him, this man has sealed his place again in both the test and one-day teams. Can anyone imagine a World Cup team now without Ganguly? If any comeback deserves that lofty adjective, this one does: this comeback is Sisyphean. The gods are on the backfoot.
But the inescapable question that one has to confront — inescapable because Ganguly’s Bengaliness is as much part of his persona as the lofted six over the bowler’s head — is: Is this man really a Bengali?
Lord Macaulay was being the archetypal suspicious and supercilious imperialist when he described the Bengali as “effete, effeminate, vaporous, swooning†and “of feeble constitutionâ€. But what is undeniable is that the Bengalis are not a warlike race. They seem more comfortable in a bookish environment, behind desks, or in the cultural arena. The British Raj was run on a day-to-day basis by thousands of Bengali clerks and petty officials. In fact, Bengalis were officially declared a non-martial race in mid-nineteenth century.
So where did this man spring from? Ever ready for a fight, obstinate and headstrong, glaring down rival captains, shouting the choicest Hindi expletives when a teammate misfields. Never has an Asian captain given it back to the white man as much since that serene streetfighter Arjuna Ranatunga. Never has any Indian cricketer been booed as much and taken the public disapproval with such disdain since the much-underrated Ravi Shastri. As cricket historian Ramachandra Guha pointed out, never since Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi has an Indian skipper been so non-parochial. And this is even more remarkable since historically, cricketers from Bengal — from Shute Banerjee to Ambar Roy, Prakash Poddar to Gopal Bose, Shyam Sundar Ghosh to Subrata Guha — have got a raw deal from Indian selectors. No other state has produced more cricketers who should have played for India and did not, or were discarded unfairly after a few matches.
Ganguly’s hallmark as player and captain has been his near-manic desire to win. Hardly a very noticeable trait in the average Bengali, who is willing to avoid an important business meeting for a leisurely adda. Born into great wealth, brought up by doting parents (what other sort would name their child Maharaj?), cocooned from the inequities of the type of childhood that a Sehwag or a Harbhajan or an Irfan would have had — this man has more hunger for achievement, victory, vindication and vengeance than the entire cast of a prime time soap opera. When hit on the helmet by a rising ball, he has to retaliate with an attacking shot the very next ball, even if it means risking dismissal. And he takes cruel pleasure in the defeat of his opponents. If born in Mahabharatic times, he would have been Bheema, drinking the blood of Duhshashan, not any of the other Pandavas. Yes, in spite of his Bengali physique. No, this man does not have the mind of a Bengali.
Yes, he has the passion that characterises the Bengali. No Indian captain has hugged any player as hard as Ganguly did when he felled Mohammad Kaif in a delirious rush after that great victory over England for the Natwest Trophy. No other skipper has shouted and sworn so much on the field. But Bengali passion has traditionally been unproductive. Thousands of young Bengalis went to the gallows or to the living nightmare called Cellular Jail for terrorist attacks on the British. But their fervour and their sacrifice hardly made a dent in the Raj. And most of the time, they could not even hit their targets. Sometimes, they ended up killing innocent men and women. Thousands again were butchered and thrown into secret mass graves by the police during the Naxalite movement. To what end? A Bengali was the only Indian leader who took on the British army with an army of his own, but it was an enterprise doomed from the very beginning. Bengali passion has been more like what the moth has for the flame, not the sort that builds empires.
This is what makes Ganguly so un-Bengali. He brims with passion, but never losing sight of the bigger picture. After all, the man built a young hungry talented team that could beat anyone on a good day, and almost anyone on any day. This man is the most successful Indian captain ever. And as this glorious comeback shows, one of the most cussed men on earth, irrespective of race. He simply doesn’t know when he is beaten, and thus forces the victorious to be increasingly unsure and finally turn tail.
Who is this man?
sandipan.deb@expressindia.com
@ Anonymous Coward: No it hasn’t. It’s still right there. Here – http://www.indianexpress.com/story/21470.html
thanks for shooting down such sanctimonious pap. hurts to be a bong and read such utter rubbish.
Taking contrarian positions is nothing new for Sandipan Deb. Wasn’t he the same dude who penned an edit in Outlook smugly defending Kapil Dev’s alleged matchfixing activities on the basis that he had won enough matches for India to warrant letting an occasional one go for a little on the side?
BTW he’s an IIMC grad, 1988 I think- check if your Dad remembers him
Arnab,
The profile picture seems to have been changed. But, my comment was not on Express, but your blog: which indicated that he or someone else concerned must be reading your blog.
Vasabjit
I read and reread Sandipan Deb’s piece and am baffled at his approach. At best it looks like it is “gaachero khaabo tolaaro kurobo” (Sorry, no translation, but losely, “Hunt with the hounds and run with the hares”). His essay appears to pander to racist stereotypes, and yet basks in reflected glory when those stereotypes have been busted. At worst, it is a smug, oversmart and snide ” I am one of them but not LIKE them” approach. To be fair, I wish Mr. Deb, a la Dilip D’Souza, should get on to this thread and clarify his stand. He certainly deserves the right to do so.
@vasabjit: I read your earlier comment on Sandipan. Very good, i must say!
not a surprising one from Deb. What else can u expect from a communist?
Well, I agree. Deb didn’t have much success in his career as a writer. He left his IIT/IIM kind of career, and went on to writing thinking that he would be the sole Pulitzer winner from India. Alas! That didn’t happen. In fact a book that he wrote didn’t do much rounds apart from being limited to his acclaimed circle. And the reason behind his fall, being an exceedingly intelligent person (Academically and otherwise), can be attributed to this lack of principle and ideology. As he was a salesman from the very beginning, he couldn’t create much in the world of fiction and writing etc., as a creative person is innately principled and can fight for his life for the establishment of his principle.
Now Mr. Deb might again mistake these words as coming from an Indian sentimental fool. So let me give 2 references here, and guess what, both are non-Indians. One that of great literary theorist Mr. Edward Said (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Said) and the other that of the Field’s medal winner Grigori Perelman (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grigori_Perelman). And in the links given, Mr. deb can see how willful they were for their causes, how uncompromising they were for their rights and justice. But, who knows, Mr. Deb might as well go and try to find out the scar an Israeli had got from the stone thrown by Mr. Said.
But people, this is justified from a person like Deb and his sycophantic friends, who shamelessly sang the song that only Sonia Gandhi could save India from her wretchedness for the last 10 years. And believe me, this is his last minute attempt to pass the final exam, which is running at its 5 minutes extra time. Poor guy… he never realizes that what he couldn’t achieve in the first 3 hours, couldn’t achieve it in the last 5 mins either, apart from crating some more trash paper, which we might use to pack our shoes for our next trip eventually. So be grateful to Mr. Deb that because people like him write, you have plenty of trash paper in your house to do all paltry work. So happy using the trash!
Lastly, Dear Admin, please do us a favor and kindly send this thread to his mail id sandipandeb@yahoo.co.uk or sandipandeb@yahoo.co.in.
From 1857-1947, Bengal was the crucible of Hindu renaissance and the Freedom Struggle, thanks to the passion and valour of the Bengali men and women.
From 1948-2008, Bengali society became emasculated, inculcated self-hatred and became hopelessly addicted to a globally discredited ideology (“Communism”). No wonder, this rump Bengal, already truncated to one-third its size, is at the verge of losing it to all to a “Mughalistan”.
Starting 2008, my generation of young, hot-blooded, cool-headed Bengalis know how to set things right. The first thing we have set out to do is confront the lap-dogs of Arab Imperialism in West Bengal. Thats the first step to a “Sonar Bangla”.
well i went thru the long and passionately sarcastic response to deb’s article.. but i still am at a loss to understand what exactly you are objecting to? i dotn think one is discussing the valour , sacrifices etc of bengali terrorists and freedom fighters.. one is just trying to figure out their effectiveness.. what exactly did they achieve and at what cost?
1) netaji got alienated from the mainstream and went into exile. His INA failed to get beyond the borders and was decimated thru ill organisation and campaign planning. it simply failed in its stated objectives inspite of the valour of some of its men and officers.
2) all the terrorist outfits from anushilan samiti, jugantar to individuals like RB Bose etc raised a lot of dust and slogans .. but what was the collective outcome? a big ZERO! a lot of young men died.. got imprisoned and were tortured.. to what avail? british rule just went on and on till the time the british public lost its appetite for empire after getting a bloody nose from the germans and the japanese in WW2.. their troops were tired of dying and killing and staying away from home for years.. and the british govt was bankrupt thru the war …
3) and after independence!! wow wow wow! we hv all seen what our brave and heroic bengali fighters of the naxalite outfits, of the ruling and opposition parties and our great buddhijibis have done to bengal! pushing it back to the stone ages!
THIS SANDIPAN GUY SEEMS TO HAVE DRAWN A NEW DEFINITION FOR A INSNANITY. FIRST OF ALL HE HAS CEMENTED HIS IDENTITY AS A FIRST CLASS BENGALI BAITER.HIS PAYMASTERS MUST BE VERY HAPPY.AFTER ALL BENGALI BAITING HAD FOR LONG BEEN A PASSIONATE PASS TIME FOR SUCH SELF STYLED MOUNTEBANKS.
NOT WORTHY OF READING OR EVEN THE TRASH CAN.
I left India for graduate studies in USA before Saurabh Ganguly was born. Saurabh, Rabindranath Tagore, Sir Jagadish Chandra Bose, and myself all attended St. Xavier’s School, Calcutta. I am now a retired NRI in USA. I hope the younger generation would not hurl their unsavory remarks at me.
There were many brave Bengalis who have inspired Indians in general. Col. Suresh Biswas of Brazilian Army was born in 1867 in Nathpur village, Nadia District; he went to UK and became an animal trainer in Kent; subsequently he went to Germany with the Circus company; the daughter of a German Count fell for the charm of this Ring Master; so he had to leave for Portugal and then made his way to Brazil; he joined the Brazilian Army and during the Revolution, captured a cannon with merely 35 soldiers. A GREAT INSPIRATION!
NarendraNath Chakravarti, right hand man of (Bagha) Jatindranath Mukherji, arrived in San Francisco in the early 1900s. Prof DhanGopal Mukherji of Stanford University was shocked to find out the newspapers announcing the arrival of Indian Freedom Fighter in USA; Prof. Mukherji told Chakravarti to change his name immediately — and he gave the new name ManabendraNath Roy– thus was born the new name M.N. Roy, who later went to USA at the invitation of Lenin, founded the Communist Party of India in Tashkent, befriended Einstein by his intelligence, founded Communist Party of Mexico.
I myself hitch-hiked across USA, from New York City to California via Chicago, and back to New York City via Dallas, Texas. Certainly, I didn’t feel any fear which some accuse Bengalis of having.
CORRECTIONS:
1) Col. Suresh Biswas was born in 1861 (not 1867)
2) M.N. Roy went to USSR (not USA) at the invitation of Lenin