The evenings during Winter in Bengal

Chhatims don’t come alone. They invite the Shyama Pokas (green leaf hoppers) as well. So the army of Shyama Poka swarms each evening following various illuminating lamps, causing hindrances like itching or disturbing our tiny moments of peace during tea or Adda. But this used to add charm during our evening study time, and the same charm reflects today in the kids as we, now the parents, struggle to make them focus on their books. And why won’t it? After all, the primary combating technique involves switching off the lights for an hour or so!

However, the enticing charm of winter gets sided by the exam pressure, which has been scheduled during these precious months for ages.

Winter Vegetables

Winter in Bengal is the time when we comfort our eyes by visualizing the fresh green seasonal vegetables like Cabbages, Cauliflowers, French Beans, Peas, Spinach, Radish and Radish greens and so on. Although the long, red carrots are the late entrants. Ahh! Goodbye Bhindis and Potols, till the summer comes! It’s the best season for the gourmets when they can savour various cuisines.

While the vegetables get ready to fill our platters, fruits also do not take a seat back. Winter noon and oranges are unbeatable partners. The very smell of oranges in the fruit shops reminds us of the warm winter noons spent with syllabus books before exams & with story books after exams.

Comes out the Warm Clothes

The warm clothes are taken out from their coffins, smelling heavily of naphthalene balls and spread under the sun for a few hours. It’s still some time for the cold to set in, but Bengalis are always prepared with their sweaters, mufflers and monkey caps. But, alas! The monkey caps have yielded their place to balaclavas these days. The ‘image conscious’ Bengalis find them cooler than their predecessors.

The Best Time for Picnics & Sports

The other thing that winter in Bengal is very famous for is Picnics, which are now commonly known as day outings. Be it a school picnic, or parar picninc, the enthusiasm starts from the onset of winter and continues until the D-day arrived. The planning includes gathering friends, collecting money, deciding the venue, and what not! Nowadays, while picnics are not so common, one thing that continues is Sports Day & various other tournaments in different nooks and corners of Kolkata.

Along with these things, another sight had also stayed the same in the case of Bengali winter. That’s the sights of young boys and girls playing badminton inside the parks, corners of the roads, narrow bylanes – almost all over where it’s possible to squeeze in two players, two racquets, a badminton net and a shuttle cork.

And the Dryness of Winter in Bengal

Winter comes with the banes of chapped lips, dried skins, cracked heels and chilblains. Whatever may the skin problem be during the winter, the Bengalis always have one solution – the dark green, humble-looking tube of the Borolin ointment. We guess, almost all the Bongs will swear by Borolin as their one-stop winter skin problem solution and the unforgettable nostalgic aroma of the Lanolin, the principle ingredient used in making Borolin.

Come what may, it seems, these familiar harbingers of Bengali winter will always remain the same. The chhatims, the amateur badminton players, the ritual of sun warming the winter clothes, blankets and quilts, the Borolin, oranges – every single thing, for, the Bengalis, thrive over the nostalgia painted by these Winter Harbingers.

The post Harbingers of Winter for the Bengalis (Winter in Bengal) appeared first on KolkataFusion.

Continued From Part 1

The oppression by the Zamindars and the British compelled the poor peasants to retaliate. As a result, well before the revolt of 1857, revolutionary movements were witnessed in Bengal. Let’s have a look at them:

The Sanyasi Revolution

The company rule brought with it a general callousness on the part of the Company’s stooges. There were restrictions imposed on pilgrimages and visits to holy places. This outraged the Sanyasis of Bengal, who retaliated by conducting raids on British factories and treasuries. Finally, Warren Hastings contained the movement with the help of military interventions. Perhaps the best depiction of this movement is in Bankim Chandra’s “Anandamath“.

Faraizi movement

In 1820 “Haji Shariyatullah of Faridpur (present-day Bangladesh) started the Faraizi Movement in Bengal against the zamindars and the British rule.

Wahabi Movement

Similarly, “Titu Mir” started the Wahabi Movement in the 24 Parganas of Bengal.

Pagal Panthis

Founded by Karam Shah, the Pagal Panthis was a semi-religious sect originating from the northern districts of Bengal. They took up the cause of the tenants against the Zamindar’s oppression.

Santhal Rebellion

The tribals of Bankura, Birbhum, Medinipur and parts of the Chotanagpur plateau, better known as Santhals, were the original residents of these regions. With the introduction of the Permanent Settlement Policy, the Zamindars started collecting revenues from them.

As a result of the Zamindars’ oppressive acts, they shifted to the jungles of Rajmahal (present Sahebganj, Pakur and Godda districts in our neighbour state, Jharkhand), cleared forests and started agriculture. They named it Damin-i-Koh.

The Zamindars followed suit in search of more revenues, Company officials took away their cattle, outraged the modesty of the ladies and the missionary forced them to Christianity.

In retaliation, the Santhals under the leadership of Sidhu, Kanu, Chand Bhairav, Kalo Pramanick and Domon Majhi waged war against the oppressors in 1855. Commonly known as the “Battle of Bhagnadihi,” They had practically gained freedom in the region until Dalhousie’s soldiers marched with guns and cannons to oust them.

Birth of Patriotism and Social Reforms in Bengal: A step towards the Indian Independence

Listen to Bharat Amar Bharat Barsha by Dr. Ayan Samanta

The impact and influence of British rule in India was way too different from its precursor intruders. Over the years, India had witnessed intrusion from a diverse pool of crusaders starting from the Greeks, Bactrians, Persian, Turks and Arabs. Most of them had settled within India and were absorbed by India’s rich culture and heritage. There also existed an exchange. However, the British conquest came when India depicted a slow and stagnant civilization entangled by superstitions and corrupt religious strongholds. There was nothing that religious ideology could not persuade or convince people to do!

Gradually with the impact of western education, there brewed a general awareness that a vast country like India was colonized by a handful of Europeans merely because of the weakness within the Indian social and cultural structure!

Some anglicized Bengali youths opposed the general thought by evaluating social relevance by rationalism. Akshay Kumar Dutta evaluated the contemporary socio-religious beliefs and practices from a social utility standpoint and replaced faith with rationalism. 

Ram Mohan Roy

Born in Radhanagar of Hooghly district, Ram Mohan Roy was the “Erasmus of Modern India”. A master of many languages including Arabic, Persian, Hebrew and Greek, he dreamt of a new India that would emerge from the synthesis of East and West. He opposed evil practices like Kulinism, Caste System and child sacrifice in Gangasagar. He raised his voice for equal rights of inheritance for the females. Eventually, the Regulating Act of 1829 abolished Sati, which was initially applicable in Bengal only!

Young Bengal Movement

The movement took birth at the present day “Presidency college” with Henry Louis Vivian Derozio as the leader and Stalwarts like Peary Chand Mitra and Radhanath Sikdar (calculated the height of Mt. Everest) were the members of the movement.

Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar

As the Principal of Sanskrit College in Calcutta, he opened the doors for all castes, which was previously reserved only for the Brahmins and Vaidyas. He alone started as many as 35 Girls’ Schools in Bengal.  Vidyasagar cited texts from the Vedas to prove that the Hindu religion approved widow remarriage. He also compelled the Brits to pass the Widow Remarriage Act in 1856.

Swami Vivekananda

Vivekananda argued that the same investigation methodology should form the basis of any religion or practice to justify itself as it’s for Science. With a burning sense of patriotism, he wanted to infuse courage and confidence through education and spirituality.  He never gave any political speeches, but he infused a sense of pride in India’s past and a golden sense of confidence in India’s future. Militant Nationalism in India largely owed to his spirited speeches and writings.

Trivia: The founder of GD Pharmaceuticals (one of the Swadeshi establishments), Gourmohan Dutta, announced free distribution of Boroline antiseptic ointment tubes to all on 15th August 1947 to celebrate Indian Independence. Read about the journey of Boroline here.

Featured Image: Souptima Basu

Video Courtesy: Tannistha Mukherjee

Audio Courtesy: Ayan Samanta

About Annoy Sarkar

Annoy Sarkar, a pure Bangali from his heart and with a dire fascination for good food is genuinely in love with Bengal and its culture.
He works with CG and is a caring father of an active toddler. During his free time, he enjoys reading, binge-watching, and helping society in his small ways.

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this post are the personal views of the author. They do not necessarily reflect the views of KolkataFusion. Any omissions or errors are the author’s and KolkataFusion does not assume any liability or responsibility for them.

To be Continued in Part 3

The post Role played by Bengal in the Indian Independence Movement (Part 2) – The Struggle Begins appeared first on KolkataFusion.

This piece of writing is an attempt to look at the fringe beyond the focus of core Bengal and Bangaliana…

Since eternity, Bongs have been tagged to rice, fish, robindrosongeet, sweets, politics et al. Every bit of it is true to its very core! No questions asked, but off late I sense a distorted definition and stylization of Bongs amongst the contemporaries. While we boast about the food and songs that comprise the core Bangaliana, we miss the fringe.

Bangaliana is also about the power to look beyond materialism. We value food for thoughts too, rather than just food!

It is about a rickshaw puller sneaking time out from his tedious schedule to browse through the dailies while sitting under a shade of a tree in the quiet afternoons.

Bangaliana is also about the joys of sharing a small bowl of unimpressive chochhori (a veg curry primarily comprising of the leftover raw vegetables by the end of the week) with the neighbour simply because the kid next door loves it!

RELATED: A brief dig into the infamous form of intellectual discussion – Adda

The bong way of life is also about gender equality even before the term feminism was coined may be! We let the ladies take the front seats while commuting unless she categorically asks for the rear seat.

Bangaliana is also about appreciating art and crafts at every nook and corner of Bengal around the year and not just confined in “Hostoshilpo melas” & art galleries.

When Dutto babu’s daughter gets married almost half the para (neighbourhood) gets converted to homestays and guest houses for a week. Now that’s also Bangaliana!

Bangaliana is also about the ability to smile at caricatures scribbled on some random walls by the road.

Bengal and Bangaliana is also about letting your child know Sidhu, Kanu, Chand and Bhairav while she/he goes to a Christian Missionary school.

Lets quickly cling onto the fringe before the fringe moves further and fades out.

About Annoy Sarkar

Annoy Sarkar, a pure Bangali from his heart and with a dire fascination for good food is genuinely in love with Bengal and its culture.
He works with CG and is a caring father of an active toddler. During his free time, he enjoys reading, binge-watching, and helping society in his small ways.

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this post are the personal views of the author. They do not necessarily reflect the views of KolkataFusion. Any omissions or errors are the author’s and KolkataFusion does not assume any liability or responsibility for them.

The post Bengal and Bangaliana is also about… appeared first on KolkataFusion.