As I woke up this other day and grabbed the morning news paper the first thing that I saw really pissed me off, I read The Times of India, an its been more than 7 to 8 years I've been doing so. Over the years the paper has fought on several issues and formed campaigns over various issues, I supported almost all of them but that morning what I saw made me hate the paper. A full front page campaing just to change the name of our beloved West Bengal. Their slogan,Only Bengal.
I mean what were these guys thinking? Are they just goin the Rupert Murdoch's way? Creating news just to sell the paper. Are they simply looking for oppurtunities to expand their reader base by doing these idiotic stunts. Next thing I know they were doing add's in the T.V. relating the same.
Is'nt there much important things to do right now other than changing the name of the state. The state is in seviour debt, there is problem with infrastucture, education, health care, and is facing a flood threat while these guys are busy disscussing why they should change the name of the state.
Before talking about removing the name West Bengal, we should first understand where it originated.The state of Bengal under colonial India comprised of the present day Bangladesh, West Bengal, Parts of Assam, Bihar, Jharkhand, and Orissa. The British thought that it was too large to handle and hence they decided to partion the province in two in 1905, West bengal, comprising present day Bihar, jharkhand, Orissa, West Bengal, Darjeeling and East Bengal comprising Dhaka, Chittagong, Assam, parts of Tripura etc. The partition of Bengal was one of the most important factors for the rise of nationalism and swadeshi movement in India. There were protests everywhere, students, politicians, poets freedom fighters all protested against it and the British were forced to annul the partition in 1911. Later in 1947 the partition of India followed and the rest is history.
The whole Idea of partition was to come together once broken into peices, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad said it was "Divorce before Marriage".Now even if East Bengal is now a different nation, Bengal is never complete unless we take into account both the bengal, now that East Bengal has changed their name to Bangladesh the paper feels there is a need to change the name of West Bengal also.Here are the reasons,
i.West Bengal is to the east of India;-well no one cares which part of India West Bengal lies, Its West Bengal and not west India, so as suggested by the name it is the western part of bengal.
ii.There is nothing as such West Bengali or Royal West Bengal tiger;-well when we talk about bengalis we have to consider all the bengali speaking people living here in West Bengal and in Bangladesh and although there is nothing as such West Bengali, there is a vast difference in the way the language is spoken in the two parts. Further the population of royal bengal tigers comprise the cats living in both the divisions.
iii.The west left us more than 60 yrs ago;-well this has got nothing to do with the british and them being in the west, its our name and our identity.
iv.No bay of west bengal, west bengal dish etc;-well the bay of bengal covers the coast line of both the bengal and we are fotunate its called bay of bengal giving us a unifying feel, although there is no different between the dishes but there certainly is a padma'r ilish and hoogly'r ilish, ilish, one of the defining characteristics of bengali.
v.Go up the alphabatical order;-While this may seem to be a reasonable reason at the same time we must remember in a democracy everyone has the same say even if you speak the last. And if this continues like this then say after 50 yrs all the states in india will have a silent A infront of their name.
Thus the only thing we can conclude is that either you unite both the bengals, if not politically, atleast in the hearts of the people living in them, and the concept of apar bangla and opar bangla is here to stay, By changing the name all the efforts that has been made over the years to bring them closer will go in vain and people of west bengal would forget that there exists an east bengal and there are bengalis apart from them who is as much passionate about our culture, traditions, history, pride. Or the other thing that you can do is remember that there are people having the same bengali heart just opar of the boundary. If great souls like Rabindranath Tagore, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, Swami Vivekananda had no problem calling this land West Bengal and fighting for uniting them, who are you? By this so called campaign of your's not only have you hurt the feelings of epar bengalis but also tried to neglect the opar bengalis birthright to call themselves Bengali but also have damaged the image of this great state of the nation of India, you guys need to be sued for tampering with the name of the state and stamping the word "only" over the word "west". Maybe tomorrow you guys will try to change the name of East Bengal Football Club. It is for the people of bengal to decide whether or not to change the name of the state. Have you lately seen any procession or rally by the people regarding this matter, remember the people of west bengal is not afraid to come out on the streets if the issue is worth fighting for. Your paper should immediately appologize and stop this drama.
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