History

The new game of appropriating national leaders who are long dead and gone as ‘Hindu nationalists’ is rather interesting. It competes with the pastime, popularised in the early decades after Independence, to absorb all divergent streams of the national movement under one banner of the ‘Indian National Congress’. This leads to eulogisation and ‘canonisation’ and here, one must examine the recent attempt to foist Vinayak Damodar Savarkar as the most noteworthy icon of Andaman’s infamous Cellular Jail.

ভাইবোনের পরস্পর প্রীতি জানানোর জন্য ভ্রাতৃদ্বিতীয়া বা রক্ষাবন্ধনের মতো অনুষ্ঠান ভারতের বাইরে বিশেষ কোথাও নেই। ভ্রাতৃদ্বিতীয়া উত্তর ভারতে ভাই দুজ নামে পরিচিত, বাংলায় ভাই ফোঁটা, মহারাষ্ট্র, গুজরাত ও কোঙ্কণ এলাকায় ভাই বীজ বা ভাউ বীজ। নেপালে ভাই টীকা তো প্রায় দশমী বা দশেরার মতো বড় ব্যাপার। দক্ষিণ নেপালে একে যম দ্বিতীয়াও বলা হয়। বা

ভারতের অসামান্য বৈচিত্রের উৎকৃষ্টতম প্রমাণ হল এত রকমের ক্যালেন্ডার এবং ‘নববর্ষ’। বহু ভাষা এবং সংস্কৃতি শতাব্দীর পর শতাব্দী ধরে ধীরে ধীরে একে অন্যের সঙ্গে মিলেছে, তাদের উপর কোনও একমাত্রিক তকমা চাপিয়ে দেওয়া যায়নি। কিন্তু আমরা দেখব, এই বহু ‘নববর্ষ’-এর বৈচিত্রের মধ্যে ক্রমশ একটা ঐক্যের ধারণা তৈরি হয়েছে।

কূটনীতিতে ‘সফ্‌ট পাওয়ার’ কথাটা খুব প্রচলিত। একটি দেশ অন্যান্য দেশের উপর নিজের সাংস্কৃতিক প্রভাব বিস্তার করতে পারলে যে কূটনৈতিক শক্তি অর্জন করে, সেটাই সফ্‌ট পাওয়ার। অনেকের মতেই, ভারতের এই ক্ষমতা অর্জনের চেষ্টা করা উচিত। কী ভাবে? মনে রাখা দরকার, সভ্যতার ইতিহাসে ভারতের সবচেয়ে শক্তিমান সাংস্কৃতিক রফতানিটি হল বৌদ্ধ দর্শন, যে দর্শন শান্তি ও অহিংসার আদর্শকে তুলে ধরে।

Swami Vivekananda was one of the greatest patriots, thinkers, philosophers and spiritual leaders, India has ever produced. He lived only for thirty nine and a half years, of which he devoted the last nine and half years totally to the service of humanity. Though he left the world well over a century ago, Swamiji’s teachings remains very relevant to us in the twenty-first 21st Century. This is more so because mankind is struggling more now to adjust to more frequent socioeconomic changes. The very rapid pace at which developments are overtaking us is surely leading to a transitory segment of social confusion, unrest, and apprehension. This produces a very demanding and stressful life style.

Of all the quaint and colourful foreign communities that have contributed their distinctive hue to the kaleidoscopic variety of Calcutta's life during the preceding centuries, the Chinese stand out prominent, bright and with a rare degree of permanence. For, while the Jews and Armenians have almost entirely left the second city of the Empire, and the European nationalities have dwindled to miniscule numbers, the Chinese have swelled their ranks to carve out for themselves a special niche in the hearts and minds of Calcuttans.

The story of how Job Charnock landed at a place near Nimtala Ghat on August 24, 1690, is so much a part of recorded history that is seldom questioned. The Diary and consultation book of the Rt. Hon'ble East India Company chronicles the event quite authoritatively. But as the city prepares for its tercentenary celebrations, a challenge to that theory is worth recalling. Charnock's credit was contested, almost by accident, 204 years after Calcutta was founded. It was in the early part of 1894 that the Government of India directed the Government of Bengal to compile a list of Bengal's old Christian tombstones and monuments of historical and archaeological interest. An Armennian scholar and businessman, Mesrovb Jacob Seth, was invited to translate into English a number of the Inscriptions in classical Armanian on the tombstones in the Armenian churchyards of Calcutta, Chinsurah and Saidbabad.

The history of Calcutta in the first half of the 18 th Century remains a never- ending source of interests and speculation. Yes, speculation — for the official records of Calcutta were all destroyed during Shiraj-ud-Dowla’s attack and occupation of the city in 1756. Hence, the supreme importance of non-official reports and letters, including those of travellers.

‘Akaal Bodhan’, or the untimely invocation of Goddess Durga in the month of Ashwin (mid-September to mid- October), has been an intergal part of Bengal's social and religious culture, for centuries. When the first British merchants entered Bengal in the seventeenth century and came in contact with Hindu religious festivals, their initial reaction ranged from curious appreciation to outright horror. The strange deities, the colourful costumes and the cacophony of weird flutes, pipes, cymbals and drums of all types, conjured an impression that evoked either admiration or disgust.

The Sunday Statesman’, Literary Supplement, 4th March, 1984 Which is the oldest surviving newspaper in India? Which Indian newspaper started publication at least three years before ‘The Times’, London, and is still continuing? The answer to both queries would surprise many. ‘The Calcutta Gazette’, which completes 200 year of publication today.

As Calcutta approaches its tricentury (1990), and urbanologists and forecasters quarrel over its future, nostalgia rules the day for a dedicated band of historians, researchers and simple Calcutta-lovers. Anthologies, histories, sketches and hitherto unknown facets of the city's chequered past are churned out with persistent regularity. The latest book on old Calcutta is mainly a reproduction of the writings of two famous 19th century British commentators who lived and worked in this city, and is profusely annotated and edited by an Indian expert.

It rained incessantly on Sunday, the 24th of August, 1690. The English ketch fought the monsoon swell in the unruly Hooghly and dropped anchor at an obscure village on the east bank of the river. Little did the band of muttering Englishmen realise the significance of the event when the Lancashireman, Job Charnock, Agent of the London East India Company, waded through the squishy silt and clambered onto higher ground. The place of landing is supposed to be Muhonto's Ghat near Nimtollah.

December, 1921. The Calcutta race course. Backers and bookmakers were screaming themselves hoarse as the thundering phalanx of horses drew closer to the post. The steward discreetly observed the Prince of Wales mopping his regal brow, as frenzied punters broke into hysterics. “Galway Gate’ streaked past the winning post — nose, neck, hood, head and all length.

Fifteen miles downstream from Calcutta on the left bank of the Hooghly, at a village called Achipur, stands a sparkling red tomb, with an uncommon shape and a little known tale. Its brightness can not fail to attract all and sundry who choose to glide along this lazy stretch of the river a few miles before it flows out to the sea. Its horse-shoe architecture with the two ends inclining downwards is supposedly characteristic of Chinese cemeteries. The waves of the river lap dangerously close to the tomb, and had it not been for the embankment built recently by some thoughtful Chinese gentleman, the tomb of the first Chinaman to set foot on the shores of Bengal, (or for that matter, India) would have been lost to the muddy Hooghly. The first Chinaman, in modern times, that is.