The very idea of ICCR setting up an Urdu chair at the University of Dhaka sounds atrocious for a nation that protested against Urdu hegemony. India should not be seen doing Pakistan’s work!

Amongst a number of Memorandums of Understanding signed between India and Bangladesh during Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale’s visit to Dhaka on April 8-10, 2018, there is a curious one that grabs attention instantaneously.

The Indian Council of Cultural Relations (ICCR), under the Ministry of External Affairs, has committed itself to fund an Urdu Chair named after Rabindranath Tagore at the University of Dhaka. It is to be called ‘ICCR Robindro Chair for Urdu’.

Associating Tagore with Urdu sounds rather bizarre unless we are speaking of translating him. But this does not seem to be the case here. Tagore was essentially a Bengali poet, author, and songwriter. There is not an aleph in Urdu in his writings. People of Bangladesh can and do pursue Tagore in the original. But Tagore, to them, signifies something more. He posthumously was their symbol of protest against the imposition of Urdu by the Pakistan Government in 1950s and 60s.

It all began when Jinnah, who, while addressing the Dacca University (now University of Dhaka) convocation on March 24, 1948, in immaculate English stated that while East Bengal (now Bangladesh) could have a language of its choice, the lingua franca and state language of Pakistan must be Urdu alone.

In an act of defiance, Mohammed Habibullah Bahar (1906-66), the dynamic and literary minded Health Minister of the Province, soon organised Rabindra Jayanti (Tagore’s birth anniversary) in Dhaka on a grand scale.

It was reportedly organised in April, well ahead of the actual birthday on May 8. The highly successful event was criticised by leading newspapers of Pakistan viz, Dawn and Morning News, who editorially called for punitive measures against the organisers. But their views fell flat even on hardcore Muslim league leaders in East Bengal.

The Pakistani Government always entertained a suspicion of the Bengali language. It is written in a non-Persian script and the makers of its literature were almost wholly Hindus. Even Kazi Nazrul Islam (1899-1976), who was a Muslim by birth, incorporated an abundance of Hindu themes in his poems. Thus, Bengali was perceived as threat not merely to the spiritual and cultural unity of Pakistan but to its security as well.

On February 21, 1952, Dhaka witnessed a huge demonstration against the imposition of Urdu. Seven persons died in police firing, all Muslims, earning them the nickname ‘Bhasha Shaheed’ (language martyr). The blood of these martyrs became the seed of an independent nation. Bangladesh manifested on the world map two decades later in 1971.

In independent Bangladesh, February 21, called ‘Amar Ekush’ (Immortal 21st), overshadows the Independence Day (March 26). By the turn of the millennium, due to the efforts of Bangladesh, the UNESCO adopted February 21 as the ‘International Mother language Day’. How imprudent it would be on part of India to promote Urdu in a nation that fought for dignity of the mother tongue.

In 1956, Pakistan was forced to concede Bengali as a state language alongside Urdu. The Government had to countenance the reality that Bengalis formed the largest ethnic group in Pakistan. Article 214 (1) of the Pakistan’s first Constitution, promulgated in 1956, states: “The state languages of Pakistan shall be Urdu and Bengali”.

But Tagore’s works continued to be under attack during General Ayub Khan’s regime. The great fanfare with which Tagore’s birth centenary was celebrated in East Pakistan was left red-faced. During the 1965 Indo-Pakistan War, broadcast of Tagore’s songs on Radio Pakistan was suspended.

Tagore was again banished from radio in June 1967. A Rabindra Swadhikar Pratishta Parishad was formed by writers and artistes of East Pakistan to fight this ban. The death anniversary of Tagore on August 7, 1967, was commemorated majestically. A three-day event was held in the auditorium of Engineers’ Institute in Dhaka with included songs, poetry and dance dramas of Tagore. The auditorium was overflowing; and majority of the performers were Muslims.

Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, shortly after being acquitted from the Agartala Conspiracy case, thundered at a rally in Dhaka on February, 23, 1969, rejecting this ban. He affirmed the Bengalis would read Tagore, sing his songs, and Rabindra Sangeet would be played in this land.

Rehman, while speaking at a felicitation organised by intellectuals of East Pakistan on January 3, 1971, suddenly broke out in English. He uttered those unforgettable lines: “Go to anywhere in the world and tell them you have come from the country of Tagore, they will respect you”. Elsewhere, Rehman acknowledged that apart from the Koran, Tagore’s Gitabitan was his constant companion during long years of imprisonment.

Rahman spent almost the entire period of Bangladesh liberation in solitary confinement.

Following his release, coinciding with the liberation of Bangladesh, he appeared before a massive crowd in Race Course ground, Dhaka. He invoked a famous line from Tagore “these seven million human beings, O loving mother, you have made Bengalis, not made man of out of them”. With tears in his eyes, Rahman said, Tagore had been proved wrong. “look what the Bengalis have done, they have carved out a sovereign nation”.

Rezwana Choudhury Bannya, the famous Rabindra Sangeet artiste from Bangladesh, said something touching about Tagore cult at an event in New Delhi. She said the inheritance of Tagore came naturally to India. But Bangladesh had to earn it the hard way. Indeed, we are careless about the things that come free.

The nomenclature of the Urdu Chair is not a primary issue. It could have been simply named after the ICCR’s founder viz, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad.

Azad is considered amongst the best Urdu literary figures of the 20th century. But the very idea sounds atrocious enough for a nation that had fought Urdu hegemony. India should not be seen doing Pakistan’s work.

During the recent convocation at Visva Bharati University, where Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in his capacity as the Chancellor was present, one was impressed to see the preponderance of Sanskrit.

Tagore’s worldview was inspired by heritage of Sanskrit. Incidentally, the Sanskrit Department at University of Dhaka is larger than its Urdu Department. It is even larger than Calcutta University’s Sanskrit Department. It would have been better if the ICCR had entered into collaboration with them on Tagore.

(The writer is an independent researcher based in New Delhi. The views expressed herein are his personal)