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Nineteenth
century Bengali novelist Bankim Chandra Chatterjee of Vande Mataram fame,
who propagated Bengal-centric nationalism, lamented that his state was
"oblivious" of its history. There are some, though not many,
who heeded his pained counsel. Like Nihar Ranjan Ray, whose seminal work,
Bangalir Itihas, is a masterful tapestry of Bengali life till Bakhtiar
Khilji, the Turk general, overpowered the Sena king in 1201. Nitish Sengupta,
a civil servant-turned-politician, now presents the "full story"
in a handy volume of 552 pages. It begins with Bengal's emergence as a
power in India in the twilight years of the Gupta Age, stretching up to
the communal holocaust of 1946 and the subsequent Partition.
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HISTORY OF THE BENGALI-SPEAKING PEOPLE
By Nitish Sengupta
UBS Publishers
Price: Rs 595
Pages: 552 |
The book will interest everyone curious about the currents and eddies
in the life of people who were in the Aryan backwaters in the first millennium.
From there, Bengal came to the centrestage with the rise of the Bhakti
cult in the medieval period, the reform movement of the 19th century and
rapid industrialisation in the past 150 years. Sengupta's account, though
sketchy at some crucial points, never lacks in pace and has patches of
superior narrative skill. Like the story of Bakhtiar Khilji's onward march
from Bengal to Tibet, followed by his ugly defeat. The author seems in
a hurry in the latter chapters, which go on and on over familiar episodes.
His priorities too are skewed-Swami Vivekananda gets five pages but Rabindranath
Tagore only one paragraph.
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| PAST PRESENT: Sengupta provides the 'full story'
of the Bengalis |
Titled the History of the Bengali-Speaking People, the book perhaps addresses
Bangladeshis too. The Partition came about because Hindu and Muslim Bengalis
refused to live together. Subsequently, the two Bengals have developed
different perceptions of history. Sengupta often trips while walking the
tightrope. The first part of his account of the Great Calcutta Killings
of 1946 paints the then chief minister H.M. Suhrawardy as its architect,
and the next part shows him to be a mere victim of circumstances.
 
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CURRENT
ISSUE APRIL 15, 2002
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