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Abhijit Majumder

Feb 1 • 7 tweets • 4 min read

I marvel at the dishonesty of those who say Lord Ram is a north Indian god alien to #Bengal culture. I will place some facts. You judge.
* Bengal’s biggest spiritual guru Gadadhar Chattopadhyay takes the name Ramkrishna Paramhansa.
* Iconic reformer: Ram Mohan Roy.
[Contd]

* Bengal’s most famous sculptor: Ramkinkar Baij.
* Ramrajatala is in Howrah. Has a 300-year-old Ram temple built by zamindar Ayodhya Ram Choudhury where local worship the deity for 3 months every year.
* Serampore or Srirampur is one of the oldest cities. #Ram #Bengal
[Contd]

* Sita Kund near Ayodhya hill is in Purulia district in #Bengal. It’s believed #Ram and #Sita came there during exile. Sita felt thirsty. Ram pierced earth with an arrow. A spring gushed out. Tribals named it Sita Kund.
* Bengal’s Patachitra paintings have Ramayan scenes.
[Contd]

* Poet Krittibas Ojha wrote Ramayan in Bengali nearly 200 years before Tulsidas’s Ramcharitmanas. 51 other ancient and medieval Ramayans in Bengali exist.
* Poetic genius Michael Madhusudan Dutta wrote iconic Meghnad Badh Kavya in 1861.
* Bankim, Tagore wrote on Ramayan.
[Contd]

* 19th century #Bengal saint Bama Khepa worshipped Kali and #Ram. Took part in Ram Navami.
* Swami Vivekananda visited Sita Kund in Chittagong, now in Bangladesh.
* Chaitanya Mahaprabhu held Ram as Maryada Purushottam.
* Bishnupur terracotta mandirs depict Ram as avatar.
[Contd]

* Bengal’s tribal Chhau dance and local plays or Jatras are centred around Ramayan and Mahabharat.
* In #Bengal folklore, one must utter ‘Ram Ram’ to ward off a ghost. From there the ironical phrase, ‘Bhooter mukhe #Ram naam’.
* Finally, one of Bengal’s super sweets, Sita bhog👇🏼

* Bengal’s celebrated Durga Puja is associated with the story of the untimely invocation or Akaal Bodhon of the Goddess by Ram to win against Ravan. It is mentioned in Krittibasi Ramayan.

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More from @abhijitmajumder

Abhijit Majumder

@abhijitmajumder

Jan 11

January 12, 1934. Exactly 88 years ago.
British hanged Mastar-da Surya Sen, then 39, for raiding the Chittagong armoury.
Before the hanging, they plucked out his nails. They also hammered off all his teeth to stop him from singing Vande Mataram.
Always sing that song with pride.

Mastar-da Surya Sen gave up teaching to form ‘Indian Republican Army’ in 1929 with young revolutionaries. He taught them swimming, rowing, climbing, stick fight, throwing knives, boxing, making arms and ammo. Netaji Subhash Bose made him gen secy of Chittagong district Congress.

On April 18, 1930, Surya Sen raided armouries of Chittagong police and auxiliary forces with 65-70 revolutionaries, mostly teenagers. Master-da, in dhoti and a long coat, took a military salute, hoisted the National Flag amid shouts of ‘Vande Mataram’ and ‘Inquilab Zindabad’.

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Abhijit Majumder

@abhijitmajumder

May 3, 2021

North Dumdum. Will the central leaders do anything? #Bengal

Burrabazar yesterday, I’m told.

Even this woman’s shop was not spared by the victory-lappers.
facebook.com/1453010751/pos…

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Abhijit Majumder

@abhijitmajumder

Aug 8, 2020

While CAA, 370, NEC, Ram Mandir have been huge wins, Hindus should now address #caste. We have never been scared of introspection, reform.
If identity/occupation based on birth was unjust then, it is downright ludicrous now.
Let’s not leave room for others to divide us.
[thread]

There’s an intellectual argument that caste pride stopped Hindus from being mass-converted, but then we lost half of Bharat, namely AfPak, B’desh, NE and Kashmir nearly. It doesn’t wash.
Also, jati-varna being a theoretical matrix of work long descended into birth-bound tyranny.

If there is ever a case of throwing the baby out with bathwater, it is caste. If we try to hold on to it, it will always be exploited by upper castes and colonisers and Hindu society will forever be weak.
Caste has got so ingrained in our DNA that it will need a conscious purge.

Read 6 tweets

Abhijit Majumder

@abhijitmajumder

Aug 5, 2020

Almost all of Bollywood cosy club posted wishes on Eid. Absolutely fine.
But none of them posted wishes on Ram Mandir bhoomi pujan, biggest event of Hindu faith in centuries.
None of our cricket stars posted a single greeting either.
These are the men and women we worship.

https://twitter.com/sdhawan25/status/1290889576752353281?s=21

One honorable exception.

https://twitter.com/sdhawan25/status/1290889576752353281?s=21

https://twitter.com/sdhawan25/status/1290889576752353281

https://twitter.com/imraina/status/1290871017104121857?s=21

Another exception. Respect.

https://twitter.com/imraina/status/1290871017104121857?s=21

https://twitter.com/ImRaina/status/1290871017104121857

Read 13 tweets

Abhijit Majumder

@abhijitmajumder

Mar 31, 2020

Chronology samajhiye.
From the time #COVID19 broke out, one wondered how would the world's sickest, most violent and regressive minds not use a highly contagious pandemic to wage #CoronaJihad on kafirs.
* Soon, videos like this one started emerging.
[Contd]

* Then came a spate of TikTok videos urging co-religionists to throw away #coronavirus masks, rely on skullcaps.
* The vids seemed smoothly coordinated, came by dozens. We laughed them off as #COVIDIOTS.
* There were also videos urging to defy Modi's call for social distancing.

* Bihar police find Uighur Muslims and other foreigners hiding there. Arrests made.
* Delhi govt bans mass assembly, India on alert at airports etc, but Tablighi Jamaat, a conversion org, holds #Nizammudin with 100s of foreigners.
* Infy guy urges open spitting to spread #COVID.

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Abhijit Majumder

@abhijitmajumder

Oct 20, 2019

Of all the Islamist murders, the murder of childhood is perhaps the most brutal and tragic. A short thread of child #jihad videos, starting with the most recent one.
#MuhammadForAll