A meeting place of Barak Valley with World outside
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
We testify
A river is called Barak. A date frozen in the calendar is 19th May. In 1961 when world woke up to celebrate the birth centenary of its poet-laureate, Rabindranath Tagore, the two banks of Barak rose to an wake up call to defend its legitimate right to sing in Tagore’s language, to dream in Tagore’s language, to live a Bengali life. In the railway track of the district town, Silchar of the then undivided district of Cachar of Assam, ten young men and a woman fell down to the bullets of the state police. In the aftermath of the valiant sacrifices of the martyrs, Bengali was made the official language of the three districts of present day Barak valley. The struggle that gave back Bengali its rightful place was never a struggle of the Bengalis’ alone. First to resign from Assam Legislative Assembly in protest of firing was Nanda kishore Singha, a Bishnupriya Manipuri. In a silent protest against the brutal police firing and consequent death of eleven martyrs, thousands of Khasi men and women were on the streets of Shillong. The pluralism exuding out of these events was the essence of the language struggle of 1961. Struggle for a pluralistic polity and life in a multilingual, multiethnic state like Assam is the uniqueness of the Bengalis’ language struggle of the state. Struggle for pluralism against the chauvinistic policies of the ruling classes took its thread from 1961 and went through the tumultuous events of 1972, 1986 and 1995. Bachchu Chakraborty in 1972, Jaganmoy Deb (Jagan) and Dibyendu Das (Jishu) in 1986, in Karimganj and valiant Sudeshna Sinha, a fighter for the cause of her mother tongue, Bishnupriya Manipuri in 1995 in Kalkalighat- followed the footsteps of the eleven martyrs of 1961 and joined the long column of glorious martyrs of history. History and Geography of this land, for long have been engaged in a duel which left an indelible imprint on the archaic memory of the populace. Our literature, our music and our folklore murmur the never-ending agony, the refrain of eternal tragedy of this land. The saga of our journey through the lonesome roads of history remains unheard till date. On the fiftieth day of the supreme sacrifice of the martyrs, we launch this website to make our presence felt in the fraternity of web-world to plead our own case, with a hope to share our tears and laughter, our trials and tribulations, our triumphs and fall in the annals of history with the likeminded struggling masses across the globe.
The website and now this blog are really great ideas, I think. Thanks, Shubhokaku, for all this that you have done for us, the people of Barak Valley. And I am also grateful that you have made me a part of the entire plan. unishemay.org is an important occurrence in the history of publication in Barak Valley.
this website is really a marvelous job done with grt thinking & ideas by subho kaku.......i feel proud 2 write in this blog. salutes to all martyrs of bhasha shahid andolan.......its a great pleasure for me to b in this part of world,,,the barak valley. thank u shubha kaku
Coinciding with the commemoration of fifty years of the historic 19 May the first ever website on the language movement of Barak Valley, unishemay.org was mouse clicked by the noted poetess Anurupa Biswas before a huge gathering in the District Library Auditorium here in Silchar.
The septuagenarian Biswas was visibly moved by emotion as she was recollecting her long cherished dream of the saga of the language martyrs reaching far and wide. ‘This attempt of launching an exclusive website dedicated to the language movement of the Valley’, she said, ‘would be the first step in the right direction of globalizing the protracted fight of our people against all kinds of linguistic aggression’.
In the presence of the editorial team members of the web portal Subhaprasad Nandi Mazumder spoke of the objectives of this venture. The platform of the Sammilito Sangskritik Mancha, an umbrella organization of thirty three cultural groups of Silchar, was used as the launching pad for the website in the evening of 19 May where around four hundred odd strong audiences enjoyed every page of the site projected on the giant screen of the auditorium.
As Amitabha Deb Choudhury, presenter on the occasion, was narrating the subtle nuances of the struggle of the Valley people on various fronts from identity to literature to culture and publishing expressions, the youngest member of the editorial team Arjun Choudhury handed over the memento to Anurupa Biswas as a mark of love and reverence from the website team. Arjun has contributed profusely to the content development of the website with his translating prowess.
Biswajit Das, the Secretary of the Sammilito Sangskritik Mancha, spoke on the occasion when Kabir Hussain, a key member in the techno-team of the site, was navigating through the pages scrolling the annals of geography, history, culture, politics, literature and language movement of Barak Valley. Partha Seal whose camera has done wonders on the site was also present in the programme.
The website and now this blog are really great ideas, I think. Thanks, Shubhokaku, for all this that you have done for us, the people of Barak Valley. And I am also grateful that you have made me a part of the entire plan. unishemay.org is an important occurrence in the history of publication in Barak Valley.
ReplyDeletethis website is really a marvelous job done with grt thinking & ideas by subho kaku.......i feel proud 2 write in this blog. salutes to all martyrs of bhasha shahid andolan.......its a great pleasure for me to b in this part of world,,,the barak valley. thank u shubha kaku
ReplyDeleteunishemay.org launched in Silchar
ReplyDeleteJoydeep Biswas
Coinciding with the commemoration of fifty years of the historic 19 May the first ever website on the language movement of Barak Valley, unishemay.org was mouse clicked by the noted poetess Anurupa Biswas before a huge gathering in the District Library Auditorium here in Silchar.
The septuagenarian Biswas was visibly moved by emotion as she was recollecting her long cherished dream of the saga of the language martyrs reaching far and wide. ‘This attempt of launching an exclusive website dedicated to the language movement of the Valley’, she said, ‘would be the first step in the right direction of globalizing the protracted fight of our people against all kinds of linguistic aggression’.
In the presence of the editorial team members of the web portal Subhaprasad Nandi Mazumder spoke of the objectives of this venture. The platform of the Sammilito Sangskritik Mancha, an umbrella organization of thirty three cultural groups of Silchar, was used as the launching pad for the website in the evening of 19 May where around four hundred odd strong audiences enjoyed every page of the site projected on the giant screen of the auditorium.
As Amitabha Deb Choudhury, presenter on the occasion, was narrating the subtle nuances of the struggle of the Valley people on various fronts from identity to literature to culture and publishing expressions, the youngest member of the editorial team Arjun Choudhury handed over the memento to Anurupa Biswas as a mark of love and reverence from the website team. Arjun has contributed profusely to the content development of the website with his translating prowess.
Biswajit Das, the Secretary of the Sammilito Sangskritik Mancha, spoke on the occasion when Kabir Hussain, a key member in the techno-team of the site, was navigating through the pages scrolling the annals of geography, history, culture, politics, literature and language movement of Barak Valley. Partha Seal whose camera has done wonders on the site was also present in the programme.