Unisher Kobita

Name of the book: Unisher Kobita

Edited by: Atin Das

Published by: Vicky Publishers

Price: Rs 60

Mention "ekushe February" to any Bengali proud of his cultural and linguistic roots and he will regale you with tales of a glorious heritage and valiant struggle of his counterparts in erstwhile East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) against Pakistani oppression. Mention "unishe May" to the same person and there is every chance of evoking an uneasy silence.

Indeed, very few Bengalis are familiar with the firing at Silchar police station on May 19 exactly half a century ago in which 11 persons laid down their lives. They were protesting against the diktat of the then Assam government, under the chief ministership of B.P. Chaliha, in imposing Assamese on the Bengalis of the Barak Valley. It was on this day in 1961 that the crackdown on these unarmed protesters resulted in their death, following which the Assam government withdrew the circular and Bengali was ultimately given official status in the three Barak Valley districts.

It is as though selective amnesia has set in through years of studied silence about the language martyrs from the Northeast. To highlight this aspect and to commemorate 50 years of the martyrdom, Silchar’s Atin Das has edited an anthology of poems aptly titled Unisher Kobita. One of the poems, Abasthan , by Dilip Kanti Laskar, captures the cultivated ignorance and disdain of the Bengali cultural elite of Calcutta towards the people of the Northeast. Loosely translated, it goes:

From where have you come, he asked me.

I said Karimganj, Assam.

He was beside himself with joy and said,

But you speak nice and fluent Bengali!

When an educated person suffers

From such atrophied concepts,

What more can I say in defining my identity?

Another poem, Jabane Tatka Rakto by Karuna Ranjan Bhattacharyya, is infused with the sentiments of the language movement. It reads (translation mine):

Why? Why do you break down the geography of language?

One language, one land

Why? Will you split here? Or join there?

One language, fragmented boundaries

Why? Will I forsake my mother tongue smilingly?

You expect me to learn the language imposed on us

Am I a mynah that I will learn a language

Pushed down my throat to showcase your cage?

The other poems have been written by a cross-section of Silchar’s social fabric in particular and the Barak Valley in general. Each is replete with angst and emotion, as well as a pervasive resentment over the failure of the language movement in crystallising into a mass protest all over Assam to achieve its end.

Even after an interregnum of half a century, the basic demands of the language movement of the Bengalis of Barak Valley are yet to be fulfilled. Most of the poems in the collection harp on this. The poets themselves have given a clarion call for a reawakening; they foresee a new dawn when the martyrs will infuse life into the Bengali language for generations to come.

Poems like Unish by Bhakta Singh Thakuri, Sakal by Sitangshu Chakraborty, Unisher Journal by Atin Das, Unishe May by Lutfa Ara Chowdhury, Unish Ele by Ashishranjan Nath and Ekta Agun by Ashutosh Das highlight the disenchantment and echo the pent-up emotions of those who keep the fire of the mother tongue burning in their hearts.

The cover carries a picture of the marble memorial with the names of the 11 who died, while the book is dedicated to the memory of the language martyrs. Atin Das deserves unstinted praise for editing this collection of inspiring poems that should go a long way in bridging the divide between linguistic groups of Assam and Bengal.

SUDIPTA BHATTACHARJEE

Published on September 9, 2011