Monday, August 4, 2014

Shondeho Shobshomoy - Lack of unity in indentity



"When you have two Bangali, you have one political party. When you have three Bangali, you have two political parties."

Bangali cannot get along with each other - there's mutual suspicion, mistrust and lack of social skills as a race. To understand the roots of this problem, we have to visit the ancient history and bring it to the modern history of Banga (Bongo).

As indicated by my previous post, omitting "Va" from the written and spoken script of Bongo was the first nail in the coffin. Now, everything that was "Va" became "Ba" giving birth to the separative Vayu energy in the land.

For much of its history, Bongo was split up into several independent kingdoms, completely unifying only several times. In ancient times, Bongo consisted of the kingdoms of Pundra, Suhma, Anga, Vanga, Samatata and Harikela. Along with Bihar, parts of northwestern Bongo were also incorporated into the kingdom of Magadha. Under the Mauryas, much of Bongo was conquered save for the far eastern Bengali kingdoms which continued to exist as tributary states before succumbing to the Guptas. With the fall of the Gupta Empire, Bongo was united under a single local ruler, Shashanka, for the first time. With the collapse of his kingdom, Bangla split up into petty kingdoms once more. With the rise of Gopala, Bongo was united once more under the Pala Empire, Chandra dynasty, Sena dynasty and Deva dynasty. After them, Bengal was ruled by the Muslim dynasties followed by the British. In 1947, Bengal was partitioned, making West Bengal part of India and the East Bengal part of Pakistan. East Bengal then became an independent country, Bangladesh, following the Bangladesh Liberation War.

In the short written passage above what is missing is the underlying feelings of Bangali from ancient to modern times - feeling of mistrust, uncertainty and belonging. Bongo bhumi was not partitioned once but it was partitioned multiple times. It was neither an Arya rasthra nor a Dravidian rashtra. It never had a strong identity like North India or South India. It didn't even develop a strong rashtra feeling because to do that you need a boundary and the boundaries of Bongo desh was ever changing and broken up every time a new king laid claim on all or parts of its territories.

In the history of rulers of the Bongo land, only one ruler was successful in giving Bongobashi a strong sense of identity, a sense of ownership of land, its calender, script, culture - শশাঙ্ক Shôshangko. Shashanka is attributed with creating the first separate political entity in a unified Bongo desh called Gauda and as such is a major figure in Bongo history. He reigned in 7th century AD, and some historians place his rule approximately between 590 AD and 625 AD. He is the contemporary of Harshavardana and Bhaskar Varman of Kamarupa. His capital was called Karnasuvarna (কর্ণসুবর্ণ Kôrnoshubôrno or কানসোনা Kanshona) and is located in modern Murshidabad. The development of the Bengali calendar is also often attributed to Shashanka as the starting date falls squarely within his reign.

The legendary feud between Shoshangko and Harshavardhana is the most prominent feature in the rule of the kings. Following Shashanka's death, he was succeeded by his son, Manava, who ruled the kingdom for 8 months. However Gauda was soon divided among Harshavardhana and Bhaskarvarmana of Kamroop, the latter even managing to conquer Karnasuvarna.

After Shasanka, Bongo was ruled by Kahdga, Pala, Chandra, Sena and Deva dynasties. They maintained their boundaries but were insignificant in their contributions to the greater destiny of Bharata. Raja Dasarathadeva Danujmadhava (Raja Danuaja Rai) was the last known Hindu king of East Bengal. He was the Deva king of Chandradvipa (present-day Barisal).

After him, Bongo and Bharata was under the rule of the invading Persian rulers - the Khilji dynasty. No ruler or general of Bongo could defend the land from the influx of the Persian rulers. 

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