Can The Reversal Of The Urdu Versus Bangla Dichotomy In West Bengal Complicate Hindi Nationalism At The Service Of The Marwari-Right-Wing Nexus?

By Ather Farouqui, New Age Islam 17 January 2023 --------------------------------------------------------------------- Those Who Claimed—Indeed A Fake Claim—Urdu As Their Mother Tongue And Insisted On Urdu-Medium Schools In West Bengal Only Chose The Path To Support The Divisive Urdu Politics Either In Confusion Or For Self-Serving Interests. It Was A Confrontationist Position Vis-À-Vis Local Language And Culture. --------------------------------------------------------------------- On 20 November 2022, the West Bengal branch of the Anjuman Taraqqi Urdu (Hind) in Calcutta organized an Education Conference. Its purpose was to press for mainly one demand: to provide facilities for teaching the Bangla language in Urdu-medium government schools on a par with state-run and private Bengali-medium schools. With this demand, Anjuman Taraqqi Urdu (Hind) 's West Bengal branch has championed the cause of strengthening the communal bond in a genuinely unique manner for a language organisation—by showing respect and value for the regional language. Language and literature are the best tools to become integral to the regional culture and identity. To send children to Urdu-medium schools as a compulsion is different from doing it as an option, and the two should not be conflated. This new understanding in the Anjuman's West Bengal branch is like seeing the light at the tunnel's beginning, unlike in the past when the light was either very dim or not visible even at the end. Those who claimed—indeed a fake claim—Urdu as their mother tongue and insisted on Urdu-medium schools in West Bengal only chose the path to support the divisive Urdu politics either in confusion or for self-serving interests. It was a confrontationist position vis-à-vis local language and culture. Urdu was not the mother tongue of most of the people in West Bengal who made this claim. Still, when their families migrated to West Bengal, mainly from eastern Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, they claimed Urdu, not their actual language, as their mother tongue. It was a false linguistic identity claim made on erroneous political premises. The same is true in the case of Hindi. Those who claim Hindi as their mother tongue participate in a political act of Hindu nationalism. Their mother tongues are regional languages and not Hindi. The same thing was done in Punjab in the first and second censuses. People who did not utter a single word in Hindi insisted on registering not Punjabi but Hindi in census returns. The repercussions were disastrous. Hindi speakers are more isolated than the so-called Urdu speakers in West Bengal. Here Hindi is not the subject of discussion wrapped in the multi-layered linguistic and identity politics, especially Hindi as equivalent to Hindu nationalism as understood all over India. In West Bengal, like in south India, Hindi is hated as a majoritarian imposition that has no place in Bengal's cultural identity. Here problems of Hindi are not part of the main discussion. I am happy that the Urdu-knowing community, a multilingual community whose practical and functional language is Bangla in West Bengal, is on the right path for the first time. This conference, organized without pressure, offers a suitable counter to language and cultural ghettoization. Muslims' electoral pattern in the last Assembly elections in West Bengal has not been analysed from the perspective of Bangla and Urdu speakers juxtaposed with Hindi-speaking Indians, obviously Hindus. Neither has the voting pattern of both linguistic minorities been examined. BJP-polarised north Indian Hindus who assert their culture, read political identity through Hindi are always financed by Marwaris. These Hindus voted for the BJP in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. They also voted for the BJP in West Bengal in the last Assembly elections, giving the wrong impression to lazy journalists and drawing room intellectuals and analysts that the BJP is strengthening its roots in West Bengal. Most Hindi speakers have consistently been voting for the Right Wing political parties right from the time when the CPI (M) was in power, despite knowing that it had no political impact. Still, it was their ideological commitment because of their affiliation with Hindi. It was and is a mirage. No non-Bengali political party can survive in West Bengal, especially those of hegemonic nature in Urdu and Hindi. One should remember that despite political boundaries, Bangladesh and West Bengal are the same. Thousands of Bengalis from East Bengal visit Calcutta daily. Because of this, Urdu-speaking Muslims realised that they should not aggressively assert their cultural and political identity. The shamefully low turnout for Asaduddin Owaisi's rallies is the best evidence of this. The result is that this time, Urdu-speaking Muslims did not choose an Urdu-speaking candidate over a Bangla-speaking one, even in Muslim-majority Assembly segments. This factor decisively worked in favour of the TMC. I did my fieldwork in West Bengal in 1989, 18 years after the close of the linguistic disaster that was East Pakistan. The situation was different then. Claiming itself as an Urdu-speaking community—that it was not—the religious minority of Muslims was then aggressively batting for Urdu-medium schools. It was the first year of my MPhil at JNU. I have some understanding of the political disaster in East Bengal and the very bitter divorce from a subcontinental pan-Islamic identity as the result of the imposition of Urdu on the Bengali population in East Pakistan. In 1989, I was sure that the Muslims settled in West Bengal, who claimed Urdu as their mother tongue and demanded Urdu-medium schools, were hurtling down a suicidal path. Now good sense has prevailed, as is apparent from this conference. This conference surprised me no end. It spells a U-turn in the political position of those who now feel an affinity with Bangla, with in most cases not they but their parents or forefathers had migrated to West Bengal. Busloads from the suburbs carrying banners of the Anjuman Taraqqi Urdu (Hind) 's West Bengal branch in Bangla came with only one demand: to include the compulsory teaching of Bangla in Urdu-medium government schools and recruit additional teachers in private schools to teach Bangla as a mandatory subject. It Is A Very Comforting Development One of the biggest auditoria in Kolkata, with a capacity of 2,500, was the venue for the conference. Since the participation far exceeded capacity, a penalty was imposed on the organizers, who paid the fine happily. And at least 10,000 people were sitting outside in stationery buses! This was not only unusual; it was also fascinating and unbelievable! People who have been living in West Bengal for at least three generations now realize fully that teaching Bangla to their kids is a must. Bangla is an integral part of their identity and a necessity of daily life. In any case, if the facilities are available, one should not shy away from learning as many languages, including Urdu, as possible. The organizers invited a Bengali minister, among other eminent Urdu-speaking Muslim politicians. The Bengali minister was outspoken and blamed, rightly so, those who claimed to be Urduwallahs for demanding Urdu-medium schools in the past. He equated it to the issue of the imposition of Urdu on Bangladesh without mincing words. But he felt happy that they are now demanding facilities for teaching Bangla and promised every help with the changed attitude. When I spoke after the Bengali minister, I unconditionally apologized on behalf of the Urdu-speaking community for this wrong political act of the Muslim League, adding that the community had lost its way and it was time to look ahead, not back. I have raised this issue in my writings since as early as 1988. The minister agreed to give us an audience. Again, without mincing words, when responding to my submissions, he bitterly said that Anjuman's West Bengal branch never took up the issue of Bangla seriously in the past, not even with him. They were very casual and never clear on what they wanted from any government. He promised that if Anjuman's West Bengal branch is serious, he would help in every way possible. We went to him the next day. In the meantime, quite remarkably, the minister tried to understand the problem through government channels but failed. In our presence, he spoke to the Secretary of Education, asking to keep him updated on the status of the teaching of Bangla in Urdu-medium government schools. Since he is a votary of Bangla nationalism, he was quite surprised that teachers of Bangla were not teaching in Urdu schools in West Bengal!!! I am not privy to what the Secretary of Education said on the phone to the minister. Still, the minister asked the office bearers of the West Bengal branch of the Anjuman to meet him after a week for a satisfactory answer. It was no mean achievement. The Anjuman has a long relationship with Calcutta, as its first Assistant Secretary was Maulana Abul Kalam Azad in 1903. Apart from other things, he did a lot for the Anjuman after becoming India's first education minister. Most importantly, he inculcated nationalist feelings in the organization. The Anjuman's West Bengal branch was revived a few years ago, and its officer bearers infused new life into 49 dead branches and opened 11 new ones. A commendable feat, to say the least. In the last five years, the Anjuman arranged a plot of land and built Urdu Ghar, which has only slowly become functional due to a resource crunch as the funds came from the Urdu-speaking community, which is poor. For any organization's growth, its policies and philosophy are critical. One can agree that the Anjuman is on the right path now in West Bengal. Let me reiterate that it is no mean achievement in the present circumstances of extraordinary political pressures on identity. ------ Ather Farouqui, a PhD from JNU, is the General Secretary of Anjuman Taraqqi Urdu (Hind)1882 organisation URL: https://newageislam.com/interfaith-dialogue/urdu-bangla-hindi-nationalism-right-wing/d/128890 New Age Islam, Islam Online, Islamic Website, African Muslim News, Arab World News, South Asia News, Indian Muslim News, World Muslim News, Women in Islam, Islamic Feminism, Arab Women, Women In Arab, Islamophobia in America, Muslim Women in West, Islam Women and Feminism