Scratching my head vigorously 4 long,I could find a bit of cosmopolitan internationalism in 2 popular Bangla works: 1) Sukanta’s Thikana amar cheyecho bandhu ঠিকানা আমার চেয়েছো বন্ধু 2) Sunil’s Purbo Paschim পূর্ব পশ্চিম Just 2,but even that’s only a bit! telegraphindia.com/opinion/bengal…
The third will be Bhupen Hazarika’s আমি এক যাযাবর song. Hazarika is however Assamese, and though the song became a hit in Bengal where Hazarika lived for some time, it was probably originally Assamese. So, we get a grand total of 3, even that nowhere near what Swapanji posits.
I could not recall a single popular or avant garde Bangla movie showing Bengalis discussing Lenin, Stalin, Mayokovsky, Russian classics, Pablo Neruda etc.
Sukanta’ Thikana Amar Cheyecho Bandhu song, sung by Hemanta Topic is internationalism,but appears to conclude at a contradictory note -says, finally we meet at our own country, Swadesh. Explicit cosmopolitanism is limited 2 1 mention of 4 foreign countries
Bhupen Hazarika’s Ami Ek Jajabor Most internationalist in the Bangla popular genre. He is Assamese, but the song is Bangla.
Finally, Shibdas Bandopadhyay’s Ganga Amar Ma, Padma Amar Ma, sung by Bhupen Hazarika, celebration of both Bengals together Internationalist if you will, like Purbo Paschim, but no Russia, Lenin, Stalin, Neruda
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Other than the cultural history of Bengal, this article gets the political history of India wrong too. Claim: C. R. Das, Subhas Chandra Bose, Bengal revolutionaries charted a path different from the rest of India. A short rebuttal in the thread below: telegraphindia.com/opinion/bengal…
C R. Das had become Congress President and subsequently founded the Swaraj Party along with Motilal Nehru. In opposition to Gandhi. The Swaraj Party established a foothold in all of India & forced Gandhi to a political retirement for a few years.
Swaraj Party was the strongest in Bengal but had strong presence elsewhere too,looking at the luminaries who joined it, eg, Vittalbhai Patel, Vallabhbhai’s older bro. How can any 1 in right mind say C R Das charted a path different from rest of India unless Gandhi is their India?
This article reveals the enormous problem the BJP-RSS faces in Bengal. It has no one who knows the history of Bengal, nor has any lived experience there, nor has any affection for Bengal. So, the messaging will be off. Thread follows: telegraphindia.com/opinion/bengal…
First, let us discuss the deeply flawed knowledge of recent history of Bengal revealed through this article, ironically authored by a Bengali-born, who has a doctorate in history and from a reputed institution.
Claim: Until the advent of Swami Vivekananda, the Bengal Renaissance movement entirely discarded the Hindu heritage of Bengal, except for Bidyasagar, Bhudeb, Bankim. This claim shows an acute ignorance of the history of the Hindu reform movement of Bengal.
Big corporate oligarchies have enormous power on election outcomes everywhere. BJP-RSS has found an innovative way around - do everything that big corporates want them to. Hence you would not see them usually taking sides in India. They are happy with Modi, mostly.
Another reason for big corporates’ settling with Modi is that India has a very large rural and working class. There big corporates direct messaging, read big tech’s curation of newsfeed, search results, etc unlikely to have strong impact easily.
Anyway, Modi is not upsetting any one’s Apple cart. All he is asking for is some mega gatherings worldwide. He is promoting the “cool” social messaging, not changing age old laws that discriminate against some segments, or not implementing the changes.
Big tech (Google,FB+Utube,Twitter) know a lot about each of us,our politics,entertainment preferences, travels, health, daily schedule (calendars). Scary. Can it use this knowledge to manipulate our opinions, thoughts? Conceptually not hard, by curating search results, newsfeeds+
Does big tech manipulate opinions on a large scale to determine outcomes of geopolitical significance? Example, elections in major democracies? And without breaking any existing law? This issue is being covered by @TuckerCarlson tonight in some depth frequently.
One of the frequent visitors to Tucker Carlson has is Dr. Robert Epstein, an empirical psychologist, studying if & how Google influences elections. He did empirical studies in a small scale for 2016 US elections, did on a large scale in 2020. Summarized findings:
Interesting news in US TV. Fox News ratings on a free fall. For the uninitiated, Fox used to routinely beat MSNBC & CNN big time. What happened ? In one line, its base (mostly supporters of Pres Trump) feel betrayed. A thread below
Fox News hired several partisan Democrat journalists which the base hated. Foremost - Donna Brazil from DNC, who leaked town hall questions to Hillary Clinton politico.com/story/2017/03/…
Reading Lakshmi Sehgal’s memoirs. Many talk of the Muslim soldiers of INA opting for Pakistan and fighting India on behalf of Pakistan. She gives the why. The exact quote follows in the next tweet:
a group of Muslim officers visited Pandit Nehru and asked him for his advice. They said they were quite prepared to come away with their families as they did not believe in the two nation theory. The only guarantee they wanted was of suitable employment and homes.
Pandit Nehru’s advice to them was to stay where they belonged and serve their state loyally. They all took his advice, with the exception of General Shah Nawaz Khan who joined Gandhiji’s Peace Mission; he was too committed a nationalist to opt for Pakistan p. 121.