Feature

Khalilur Rahman

There are so many departments and programs in the private universities of Bangladesh, but the million-dollar question is: why don't our private universities have a department of Bengali? Is not Bangla a rich language with literary, rhetorical and metaphoric compilation? Some will contend that Bangla has no demand in the job market, and what would our students do after graduation except teaching? On the other hand, some say, “the standard rule of composing prose was introduced only 200 years ago, it may take much longer to improvise on it. These absurd arguments put me at my wit's end. I am not in agreement with the conclusion reached by these people.

We, like other nations all over the world, have a mother language -- Bangla. Around the world, every nation respects its mother language. For Third world countries like us, using our mother tongue in fields like literature, medical science, technology and information sector and the judiciary is the easiest way to present our ideas and talent. For instance, if we make Bengali versions of operating systems like Windows or Linux, our identity and heritage would spread beyond our borders. The Bengali version of the world's most popular Internet search engine Google is an instance of this. 95% of Bangla speaking immigrants like to use this version of Google. In addition, people from other countries acquire knowledge about us through using the Bengali version of Google. We do not have sufficient capital and therefore cannot afford to allocate a huge budget on scientific and medical research, things that are going on regularly in rich countries.

Even though we have a number of renowned doctors and scientists, their many attempts have been in vain for lack of patronization from quarters such as social, political and so on. All these obstacles stem from financial problems. Thus composing artistic, meaningful literature should be the easy avenue for us to present ourselves to the first world. Here, we can mention that European nations like the English, the French and the German got to know about our tradition through the works of the likes of Rabinranath and Nazrul. In the past, most European nations knew that the Indians had nothing except suffering and religious mysticism. When Rabindranath won the Nobel Prize, many European nations gradually came into touch with our culture through his memorable literary creations.

Now to the point that students of Bengali cannot get jobs, except for teaching. This is a totally wrong idea. Our students are now spread over various fields of job. Most of them do respectful jobs and show their efficiency and talent in their respective jobs. We should remember that no one neglects your talent if you make it 100% concrete. I want to remind the faculties of private universities that we love Bangla and did not hesitate to sacrifice our lives for establishing Bengali as the state language. No other nation has such heroic achievements. Thus, as students of the Bengali Department of Dhaka University we urge the private universities that Bangla is not poor, she produced rich and extraordinary talents like Bankimchandra Chatterjee, Rabindranath Tagore, Michael Modhusudon Dutta, Kazi Nazrul Islam, Jibananando Das and many more. Therefore, your duty is to introduce Bengali in your universities. I never ask you to take a leap in the dark but take it sincerely. It would not be a bad investment. Some day the Bengali department might be your most profitable department. Some day the department might create another Rabindranath. It would be a worthwhile step. Otherwise, they will have to be accountable to their conscience as well as the nation.

Department of Bengali, Dhaka University