05/25/07 - 65% population of Jharkhand is Bengali speaking. Yet Bengali is not even taught in the schools. No Bengali textbook is available. The state of Jharkhand gives no recognition to the Bengali language. For this reason, Amra Bangali took out a rally on 28 th March 2007, at Ranchi and submitted a memorandum to the Governor of Jharkhand with the following demands:
- Bengali should be the medium of all state correspondence - official as well as unofficial.
- Bengali speaking teachers must be posted to teach Bengali in schools and colleges.
- Bengali should become the medium of education.
- Textbooks should be made immediately available in Bengali language.
- Local people (Nagpuria speaking people) - including Bengali speaking - all sons of the soil should be given 100% employment in Government and non-Government jobs.
- All sign boards, all announcements and circulars should be in Bengali language.
- Bengali regiments should be created in the Armed forces of India.
The rally began at Chutia (near Railway station) and more than 4,000 people marched through the main thoroughfares, crossing Karbala chowk, Bow Bazar Chowk, Mission Chowk and Plaza chowk. The march converted to an open public meeting at Jaipalsingh Stadium. More than 4000 people from Jharkhand took part in this first ever demonstration at Ranchi, the capital of Jharkhand.
Banners and placards were carrying quotations from different Bengali-speaking intellectuals. The placards carried the different demands of Amra Bangali.. The tabloids expressed their love for Bengali ? in songs selected from Prabhat Samgiita, the songs composed by the great seer Shrii Prabhat Ranjan Sarkar. The biggest attraction of the rally was the world famous Chow dance of Rarh.
The rally was presided by Shri Baidyanath Rai, Senior advocate of Ranchi High court. The speakers included Shri Angad Mahato, Tarun Shankar, Satyanarayan Gorain, Sudhanshu Mahato, Ruma Mahato, Sadhulal Munda (Nagpuria Samaj), Amitabha Sengupta, Shankar Ganguli and Subodh Ch. Mitra. Several of these speakers spoke from the AB platform but were there representing other organizations, including Sadhulal Munda from Nagpuri Samaj, Satyanarayan Gorain from Bangla Bhashi Samiti of Jamshedpur, Baidyanath Rai of Bengali Association, Ranchi and others.
One of the speakers vividly expressed the situation of Bengalis in Jharkhand. He said that he is Bengali, but does not know his own mother tongue ? he had to express himself in Hindi. This is the humiliating situation of Bengalis and their language today in Jharkhand.
Ruma Mahato from Bokaro said that "Although I am Bengali speaking ? my children speak with me in Hindi as they do not have any scope to learn Bengali language in their schools."
At 3.00 pm, five representatives of Amra Bangali went to submit the memorandum containiang more than 35,000 signatures to the State Governor. The Governor took serious note of the demands and promised to study the issue and give it due consideration.
The Governor has stated on the record that he was happy to receive the memorandum from Amra Bangali. It was the first time that he has received such a deputation. He has already asked the Jharkhand administration to submit to him the position and status of the Bengali language in Jharkhand. As soon as he receives their report, he will take positive steps to meet our demands.
The copy of the memorandum was also given to the Chief Minister and sent to all MLAs of the Jharkhand assembly. Several MLAs personally promised to raise the issue in the Assembly. (please click to view the newspaper clippings)
"Struggle must go on in every sphere of life ? social, economic, mental and spiritual. Wherever there is economic exploitation of the poor, a struggle will have to be waged against the exploiter. And wherever there is exploitation of humanity in general, struggle against the exploiter is a must.
Where there is linguistic exploitation, the struggle should be directed against the oppressive language. If you are exploited in the mental sphere, if anybody tries to demean you, you will have to struggle against the person. If in the mental sphere anybody designs to deprive you of your moral rights, against that person also you will have to struggle. And if in the spiritual sphere you want to reach your Supreme Father, but some special force in the world obstructs your spiritual progress, creates obstacles on the path of your spiritual progress and upliftment, in that case also you will have to struggle against that force." ~ Shrii P. R. Sarkar ("Struggle Must Go On", 22 June 1980, Mokama)
Amra Bangali is a prominent socio-economic, politico-cultural movement working to establish a PROUT economy on the ground in that region. They work for economic and political democracy. The party works in West Bengal, Tripura, all the Bengali speaking areas of Bihar, Orissa, Assam and Jharkhand. It works towards the following: (1) Restoration and development of Bengali language and culture; (2) Economic self-sufficiency; (3) Self-determination in the socio-political field; (4) Re-organization of the territory of Bengal with all like-minded people having respect for Bengali language and culture, and name this new geographical area as "Bangalistan." The Amra Bangali party is working for economic democracy based on spreading cooperatives. For this very reason, it faces direct opposition from the Communist Party in West Bengal. At present companies from outside Bengal come in and exploit the people economically. Furthermore, outsiders occupy 200,000 jobs in the jute mills, leaving thousands of local Bengalis without jobs or means of survival. Millions of rupees drained out of Bengal annually. Nearly 70 percent of the land and homes of Kolkata are owned by non-Bengalis. Bengal's precious minerals such as iron and coal are sold to other states and Bengal is forced to purchase such basic staples as oil and sugar from outside the state. These are only a few of the injustices which Amra Bangali highlights and aims to correct.
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