Painter, photographer and blogger Ujwala Prabhu published a photo book titled East or West, Bengal is the best! based on photographs taken over a 3 week period in India and Bangladesh.
Written byRezwan
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73 comments
Hi Rumi,sorry geting back late was overseas on a project.I tried to contact Barka but her schedule is booked for a month or 2 .Did u by chance got to contact any bangaldeshi journalists?
I WANT TO TELL TO MY INDIAN FRIENDS THAT NOW THERE IS NO WAY WE CAN REUNITE INDIA.I AM A BENGALI BOY FROM KOLKATA AND I WOULD LIKE TO BORN AGAIN IN INDIA AND NOT IN BANGLADESH.BENGAL WAS ALWAWYS PART OF INDIA.ITS A MISFORTUNE THAT DUE TO NEHRU’S AND JINNAH’S GREED WE HAVE TO SEE INDIA DIVIDED.
AND TO MY BANGLADESHI FRIEND BIHAR,ASSAM IS A PART OF INDIA AND WILL NEVER BE A PART OF BANGLADESH.I AM VERY PROUD THAT I AM IN A PLACE WHERE OUR GREAT LEADER NETAJI SUBHAS CHANDRA WAS BORN AND WANTED TO SEE INDIA AS IT WAS.I KNOW VERY WELL THAT YOU WILL NEVER WANT BANGLADESH TO BE PART OF INDIA AS YOU HAVE GROWN UP HEARING YOUR MOTHERLANDS NAME BANGLADESH.
IF ONLY JINNAH,NEHRU AND PATEL WAS NOT THERE,INDIA WOULD HAVE BEEN WHAT EVERY ONE OF US IN INDIA DREAMS OF.YOU STAY IN BANGLADESH AND PLEASE DONT BOTHER US.WE ARE VERY MUCH HAPPY TO BE PART OF INDIA AND I THANK GOD THAT KOLKATA DID NOT BECAME A PART OF BANGLADESH OR EAST PAKISTAN BEFORE.
‘ GUJRAT SA BENGAL TAK,KASHMIR SE KANYAKUMARI TAK KEHTA SABHI HUM AK HAI, AWAZ DO HUM AK HAI JAGGOO
BHARAT HUMSA JAAN SA PYARA HAI,SABSA PYARA GULISTHA HAMARA HAI.JANMA BHUMI HAI HAMARI SHAAN SA KAHANGA HUM, BHARAT MATA KI LIYA JAAN BHI KHURBAN HAI’
SAMJHA?
What humbug!@
Ok let us have a separate Sindh nation. Let us have a separate Balochistan nation. How about a separate Tibet nation as well?
Go and take a break!
There is no nation in the world as good as India. It has a very pure mind and also non-intrusive in its thoughts. Thats why syncophants like you argue about any kind of nonsense imparted at Islamic madrassas or else where in the red nation.
@Another Tiger
We people of west bengal will never merge with Bangladesh.We dont want so called “United bengal”. Its nothing but intention to ilsamaization. We are happy and proud to be with india.I am wondering how a bangladeshi ask an indian to learn history & math???? do they hav a single IIT or IIM? do they hav organization like ISRO? do they ever tried MOON Mission? Do they hav a single IT city like BANGALORE? Do they hav single organization like DRDO? See all bangladeshi here…. INDIA has a history of thousand years…u guys ??? ur history starts from just few years back 1971 huh!… dont preach.
Yes russia helped india.But now india is self dependent. You know we dont hav to depend on garment industry like u guys.
breaking up india is a concept of fools paradise. First manage you “SAKTI GARH” area & activist of “BIR BONGO” or bangladesh will be sliced with into two pieces & north western part of bangladesh will join with india.
—-cheers—
How many more days we Indians ,Bangladeshis and Pakistanis will hide our cowardice and inabilities by blaming each other.Britishers had done enough damage to India by tearing apart Pakistan ,and Bangladesh.It seems there policy of Divide and rule is still working so well.Why and when on earth will u guys stop fighting with each other and stop shedding your own brothers blood.Have a look at europe how united they are that they launched the euro to compete with dollar.Why cant people of Indian Sub coordinate be at the top.
First of all, West bengal is part of bengal which is bangladesh. We bangalis are our own people with diffrent culture than indians. You must be joking to ever think that west bengal is part of india. We bangalis are part of bengali not india. India has so many states and so many ethnical people. And another thing, either from India or bangladesh.we are bangalis first!! In my opinion, who ever doesnt repect their motherland doesnt have the right to call themselves bangalis. In my experience, I met many people from west bengal, and they identify themselves as indians. whoever is ashamed of their mother(bengal) doesn’t deserve to be part of her. Rabindranath togore himself said amar shonar bangla ami tumai bhalobashi…not amar shonar barath!!Just because West bengali has majority of hindu doesnt mean that they are indians. Bangali is our race and we should be proud to identify ourselves as bangali. And another thing, well educated west bengali hindus were from bangladesh a.k.a east bengal. They migrated to west around the partition of bengali. As, I said whoever leaves their motherland , well…………!! I have great respect for bangladeshi hindus. They despite the hardship(partition), they did not leave their motherland behind.Anyway, i guess it’s better in a way that west bengali is not with bangladesh……..if they want to consider themselves indians, leave them to it!
Bengali isn’t a race. It is a creed. You say Rabindra Nath Tagore said “Amar Sonar Bangla”, yes he did and so did he compose India’s national anthem “Jana Gana Mana” where he talks about all aspects of Bharat/India and not just Bengal. Here is the translated version for short-sighted people like you Dina.
Thou are the ruler of the minds of all people, dispenser of India’s destiny.
The name rouses the hearts of Punjab, Sind, Gujurat and Maratha. Of the Dravid and Orissa and Bengal.
It Echoes in the hills of Vindhyas and Himalayas, mingles in the music of Yamuna and Ganga and is chanted by the waves of the Indian Sea.
They pray for your blessing and sing thy praise. The salvation of all peaople is thy hand, thou dispenser of India’s destiny. Victory, Victory, Victory to thee.
WHEN PEOPLE ARE KANGAL THERE NO BANGAL .
WHEN PEOPLE ARE KUSHAL THERE IS BANGAL .
WISH YOU ALL GOOD LUCK .
I support this issue of freedom of West Bengal from India.. We Bengalis in India are always given a second hand. These Hindi speakers hate us. Till now 50 years of Independence not one PM has been chosen from Bengal.. We saw our Hero Sourav Ganguly to be humiliated by these Marathis, Biharis… Being an Indian also I feel proud for my mother tongue.. The achievements of Bengalis rather than Indians.. I salute All the past heros and present Bengal Heros.. Feel proud to be a Bengali.. People from Bangladesh this is a plea to you all.. Lets unite and show this world what Bengali brains can do.. We will have much bigger IT Hubs, and win much more Nobels and Oscars.. Joy Bangla…like the East and West Germany united, can’t we unite?..I know what will happen to India if WB walks out it will be a sinking ship… with max of software officials and researchers are from Bengal.. India Sucks
@Sourish
I support your view on freedom of bengal but at the same time I oppose reunification with Bangladesh. I dont know whether your forefathers were from bangladesh or not, for your kind information these bangladeshis kicked millions of hindu bengalis from their home land & we’ll not forget that ever. Honestly, without support of native bengali brothers of this side those migrants couldnt survive. Thousands of hindu bengalis struggled in stations, footpath, dockyards of kolkata.They lived there like stray dogs, many of them died in hunger. WE WILL NOT FORGET THOSE DAYS. Thousands of bengalis were placed in “Dandakaryannya” in maharashtra, “Indore” in Madhya Pradesh, “Andaman Nicobar Islands”. They are still there & struggling. indian govt divided again bengali creed into thousand pieces. Couldnt they try to settle these bengalis in west bengal? it was possible…if india tried to cleanup Marwadis, biharis, UPs, gujratis from bengal that would have been possible.But india dint do that. They knew united bengali means stronger “bengali nationalism” & irritation for india. What is the result? Hindu bengalis from east bengal were like tennis ball. They were thrown away from their root by so called “Bengalis” & here in india they were treated like stray dogs.Still bengalis in india dont considered as indians & abused everywhere.We have contributed every sector of this country, we cried when kargil war took place, we cheered when india won world cup. Most of us felt proud as an Indian, but who cares? we are bengali,we have different culture, different language,different foods from hindi people…thats why we are not indian. I know couple of corporates in “indore” town in Madhya Pradesh who dont appoint bengalis as an employee. They are marwadi concerns.But thousands of marwadis live in west bengal & earn their bread & none of bengalis ever opposed them in bengal. This hindi/gujrati/marwadi hegemony again raised the issue of bengali nationalism. But we STRONGLY oppose re unification with bangladesh.Because WE’LL NOT GOING TO FORGET THOSE DAYS. Probably a new country or territories for bengali people needed. Probably we want to sleep in the warm lap of our mother after a gloomy journey. Yes our mother “REPUBLIC OF BENGAL”
Truly spoken dear. It touched my heart. No, I am not from Bangladesh so didn’t realize the pain. But do you feel that those Muslims who are existing there are still not better than these hindi people? I don’t have any idea about them so asking everyone in Bangladesh can we not reunite? With the intellectuality and power we have we can certainly make a prosperous country as Singapore atleast. And one earnest request to all the Bengali people from India here, from today after reading this comment please try to start the jihaad for Bengali from today itself. No Cooperation with these Hindi guys. Try to think “I am a Bengali first, then a Human and then nothing else, I am not an Indian”. If we are able to start from this point we would surely make it a voice of Bengal, within a span of 10 years. I am serious about my dream and I know you would also visualise. Lets start our struggle now, and we may see our dreams come true within next 20-30 years.. “Jai Bangla”
@Sourish
I replied your last comment…but unfortunately admin has deleted that :)
How a gentle article on few Bengalis turned into a ground of hatred towards Bengali community as well as Bengali language. And shockingly Rediff keep those posts live till date.
http://tinyurl.com/36gd2wx
I don’t understand what’s wrong with you people. Quite often I’ve come across the term ‘nationalist’ but do you people know that there is also a term known as ‘internationalist’. Exactly! That’s what my point is. Try to think about people on a wide scale and not about Bengal, Hindu, India, Muslim, Pakistan, Bangladesh, etc. Whatever has happened, has happened. We cannot afford to commit the same mistakes of our forefathers because two wrongs do not make a right. Japan did not nuke the US of A in retaliation, instead she maintains a cordial relationship with the latter. Instead of thinking about reuniting, standing for a united, Bengal, kicking out some dissidents, etc, why don’t we concentrate on the ‘have s’ instead of the ‘have not s’. The Indian sub-continent is fertile to the last letter. We have great manpower, talent, raw materials, agriculture, etc and we can forget our past differences and use those in an optimum manner. Instead of arguing on what happened in the past why don’t we plan as to how to make use of those resources in an optimum manner. It is possible that people with means and resources might read it here and implement it.
One more thing. A lot of people in this post have talked about dis-similarities between one another with regards to culture, religion, location, etc. Dudes I have little similarities with my dad and even lesser with my grand dad. Does that make us so different that we go and live separately and create a bad example to others? We don’t, right? Instead we live together in harmony and accept each other the way we are. You see most issues can be solved if thought in micro levels like this. India is diversified but at the same time we have, like in all other countries, some mischief mongers who demand separation and what not. That’s diversion from the core issues which I talked above.
Maturity does not come from size of one’s body, it comes from actions triggered by the brain. Remember the saying, “civilisation consists in broadening the mind.”
Long live flora and fauna. Long live Mother Earth. Think International.