As Bangla New Year is scheduled to start in a couple of day’s time, this week’s Hello Washington focused on the relationship between Bangla New Year and Bengali culture.
Our guests were Dr Ghulam Murshid , a writer and research scholar on Bengali culture and Professor Tarun Sanyal, a poet and litterateur .
Our listeners asked questions on the evolution of Bangla New Year celebration beginning from merely a calendar for business community to abroad-based cultural events encompassing all Bengalis irrespective of political or religious boundaries. The program also focused on the challenges on Bengali culture, particularly by the Islamic fundamentalists in Bangladesh who have taken the indigenous culture of the country as the “infidels” culture. However, our guests expressed optimism about the future of Bengali culture both in Bangladesh and West Bengal. In Bangladesh particularly people have faced these challenges and stood against fundamentalists views in some difficult days of her history.
