Is Bangladesh blocking all Indian media channels? Here's the truth
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Bilal9
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They made 20,000 X 15 - 300,000 crore Taka in fifteen years, and that is just the media ad-spend. Think about the amount of exploitation we are letting these bastards commit. I mean WTF !!
Why won't Bharat be Mahaan? We're subsidizing everything in Bharat....
Thanks Hasina....
Better the qualified scriptwriters, directors, and actors start the production of ads in BD before the housewives organize themselves and start picketing. Even let Kolkata people to come to Dhaka to do the job.
Be it cinema, drama/ theater, or anything cultural, BD people remain a group of peasants/ ক্ষ্যাত just like their forefathers. Like or not for saying, but the reality is we lack culture and we are not that willing to learn better things from others.
Our standard is the Books written by Humayun Ahmed. I bought one of his books probably গল্প সংগ্রহ from a bookstore owned by Mukul the famous Muktijoddha radio narrator. I was unable to find a single story in it. All are the amalgamation of many words and sentences.
It is the only book in my life that I threw into the dustbin in disgust.
I read only a few short stories written by Emdadul Haq Milon. His style is good and his level of language is much higher than that of Humayun. At least he knows the definition of short stories.
Bilal9
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Well not all writers will meet your taste.
Imdadul Huq Milon and Akhterazzuman Elias were good writers, they are acknowledged in Kolkata too, as are many others in Bangladesh. You have to do some more digging maybe, next time you are in Dhaka, literature in Bangladesh is a largely unappreciated medium, but the new generation is fusing Lalon Fakir songs into newer western forms, so we are in no danger of losing touch with our Loko-songskriti i.e. folk culture.
I would not term the non-matching of our literary culture with Kolkata Nadia-based babu-culture and see our folk-culture termed as "Khat" (uncultured). Alaol was not "khat", nor was Lalon Fakir. These are examples of our popular culture which are honest, unpretentious and marked by their true philosophical genius, though expressed in disarmingly simple words.
Our culture and literature dates back way older than the claimants of this Nadia babu culture. Shah Muhammad Saghir was an early (maybe the first) Muslim Bengali poet in the Sultani Bangla period, at the court of the Sultan of Bengal Ghiyasuddin Azam Shah, He wrote during the 14th century. Of course there were Hindu poets even prior to him, but Kolkata and Nadia was not a center of culture back then, but Sonargaon (Panam Nagar) was, which was the capital of Bengal at that time under Sultan Ghiyasuddin Azam Shah. The poet Krittibas Ojha also worked at the behest of the Sultan and translated the Bhalmiki Ramayana to Bengali at that time.
Shah Muhammad Saghir:
Shah Muhammad Saghir - Wikipedia
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I know the names of many of those who contributed to, "Purba Banga Gitika"/ Mymensingh Gitika, or Chuti Khan and Poragol Khan. Everyone appreciates Kaji Nazrul Islam, Mir Musharraf Hussain (Bishad Shindhu), or Syed Mujtaba Ali (Chacha Kahini, Deshe-Bideshe).Well not all writers will meet your taste.
Imdadul Huq Milon and Akhterazzuman Elias were good writers, they are acknowledged in Kolkata too, as are many others in Bangladesh. You have to do some more digging maybe, next time you are in Dhaka, literature in Bangladesh is a largely unappreciated medium, but the new generation is fusing Lalon Fakir songs into newer western forms, so we are in no danger of losing touch with our Loko-songskriti i.e. folk culture.
I would not term the non-matching of our literary culture with Kolkata Nadia-based babu-culture and see our folk-culture termed as "Khat" (uncultured). Alaol was not "khat", nor was Lalon Fakir. These are examples of our popular culture which are honest, unpretentious and marked by their true philosophical genius, though expressed in disarmingly simple words.
Our culture and literature dates back way older than the claimants of this Nadia babu culture. Shah Muhammad Saghir was an early (maybe the first) Muslim Bengali poet in the Sultani Bangla period, at the court of the Sultan of Bengal Ghiyasuddin Azam Shah, He wrote during the 14th century. Of course there were Hindu poets even prior to him, but Kolkata and Nadia was not a center of culture back then, but Sonargaon (Panam Nagar) was, which was the capital of Bengal at that time under Sultan Ghiyasuddin Azam Shah.
Shah Muhammad Saghir:
Shah Muhammad Saghir - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
But I was talking about contemporary writers in Bangladesh.
Ghoti Babu or Muslim has no distinction to me when it is arts and literary creations. Does it matter if writers like Bankim, Sharat Chandra, Tarashanker, Shanker, Obodhut, Jajabar, Bimol Mitra, Manik Bandhopddhay, Niharranjan Gupta are/ were Hindu? Important is their literary contributions.
Trade and businesses are linked with our economic welfare, we can distinguish between this Bengal and the other Bengal. But literary works should not be divided between this line or the religious line.
The reality is Muslims of both Bengal have failed to contribute much towards arts and literature after 1947, and the writers of Purba Banga Gitika were not Muslims only. There were many Hindu contributors, as well.
By the way, if you read all those Gitika poems, you will not see any coma, full stop (DarI), colon, the semi-colon ---------. All were added after 5 Hindu Pundits led by Dean Tarkalanker compiled the first comprehensive Bengali grammar sometime after 1805 AD.
No one has found a single script written in prose form before this time. Note that the first Bengali novel Alaler Ghore Dulal was published in 1858 and Anowara was published in 1914.
I have read Anwara but did not notice it was written in 1914. But not many good writers were/ are born in BD. I don't remember many names but there are also good books like, Lalshalu, Uttam Purush, Sareng Bou, Food Conference, Ayena etc.
The worst writer is Humayun Ahmed. But our womenfolk like his light writing style.
fallstuff
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They just believe India is a bigger country with the bigger economy , they should always get the better end of any deal. And the way they look down on Bangladesh is also a major contributing factor in the way they behave.
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Yes and this is why India gets this unpolished bamboo. At least I am happy to see no Chetona crying on the issue.
Country loses investment worth Tk 20b annually: Info minister
Information minister Hasan Mahmud on Saturday said the government did not shut any foreign TV channel.
en.prothomalo.com
SIPRA
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Unlike West, prose, novels and short stories, came much later, rather centuries after the poetry, even in Urdu, Punjabi, Sindhi, Seraiki and Pashto languages.
Urdu was well-developed a few centuries before Bengali was developed. Arabic and Persian languages are well-built and are much older.
Think of Arabian Nights in Arabic and Muqaddame-ye Shahname-ye Abu Mansuri written in Persian. Bengali prose started its journey only in the mid-19th century.
Wood
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Thanks for taking the time to post this. I expected the Bangladeshi production quality to be better than the Indian Bengali production. Bangladesh seems to have a higher GDP than West Bengal after all.
Bilal9
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There are clear reasons for this East Bengal poor showing in literature/academia and I'd have to respectfully disagree that we're "Khat" (i.e. uncultured) in East Bengal.
Rate of secular or literary education in Muslim communities were historically low, even for rich folks as in pre-British times East Bengal was always a prosperous land. People did not need education to go have a job to make money - they could live off the land, selling their produce very easily. This was not the case in WB where life was not as easy as in East Bengal.
Muslims traditionally considered themselves educated if they simply received Arabic Madrassa education, knew a bit of Farsi and had a Quran-e-Hafez certificate from Maqtabs unlike Hindus who went to "tolls" (traditional Hindu schools in Bengal) to get educated in Bengali literature which was an offshoot of Sanskrit and a requirement of understanding Hindu scriptures and religious literature. Old Bengali (Pali) and Sanskrit were and are very close languages.
East Bengali Muslims were rarely interested in studying Sanskrit or Pali literature, it was not expected as an educational qualification in their own communities.
When Mughals faded from the scene, Hindus enthusiastically accepted English education (they wanted to gain advantages over Muslims working under the British. While Muslim Khandan Bengalis in East Bengal 100% resisted working with the British and be part of their administration - as it was a huge change from Mughal administration and the official court language which was Farsi. This was the reason Muslim Bengalis (even upper and upper middle class) fell back in English-based education and Hindu Bengalis dominated in jobs, administration, IPS, science, literature, academia and many other fields, this made their ranks extremely strong during British Raj times, giving rise to Baboo Culture. But that era is over now.
WB today is largely without a significant industrial base, much poorer than Bangladesh and WB's regional also-ran loser status in India will not change anytime soon. Kolkata Baboos have to go to other cities in India to seek jobs. Many other states (like Maharashtra and Gujarat for example) are formulating policy to prevent non-locals being preferred in jobs. So Bengali Baboos outside Kolkata and WB have a "Hatey Hariken" situation...
Although this writing on the wall about being second class Indian citizen, is plain to see, the babu-culture folks and litterateurs in Kolkata have a hard time accepting their lot in life. Their entire WB economy is being controlled by Marathas, Marwaris, Gujju folks and above all Cow Belter Bihar hardliner Sanghis. WB people are just happy to call themselves and be accepted by the less-than-honorable moniker of "Bong" - and they have no interest in preventing the rest of India to exploit WB. They only find solace in calling Bangladeshis uncultured and lower class. But Kolkata Baboo-Culture is not inherently superior from our East Bengali folk-culture. Whatever Kolkata Baboos gained is solely due to patronization of their culture by being the center of the British Raj.
So - my point of saying all this is that the Raj era of wealth (and literary excellence and superiority, which is a by-product of it) is over in West Bengal. It has little to do with us being "Khat" in Bangladesh, or not.
Looking down on Bangladesh down their noses is a salve on the wound by Dadas to avoid the realization that their ball-sacs are in some other cow-belt Banya's control. Paradhin (subjugated) is their lot in life, let them call us what they want.
WB dadas don't have the wherewithal to demand and gain self-determination and of being a sovereign country, neither by smarts, nor by guts.
I met a really honest Dada who put it very nicely. He said bamboo can be inserted into the backside either overtly or covertly. In WB case it is the latter, but the realization that it has happened and WB is being f*cked over has not dawned yet. We in Bangladesh can show India the middle finger as a sovereign country, which WB cannot. Indian center by constitution can put in a state governor in Kolkata, who now happens to be a hardliner Sanghi.
Thanks for taking the time to post this. I expected the Bangladeshi production quality to be better than the Indian Bengali production. Bangladesh seems to have a higher GDP than West Bengal after all.
@Riyad is one of your own Kolkata Dadas.
Bangladeshi production quality will be better than the Indian Bengali production. We have more money and our GDP per capita in real terms is way higher than that of WB. Which means, since we have now banned Indian channels and will keep the ad revenues within Bangladesh, we can subsidize the production of cultural programmes, news and variety shows much more.
Indian channels were siphoning Tk. 20,000 crores of ad-spend per year from Bangladesh, per our information minister. That is now stopped. Good riddance.
Entire Kolkata economy runs on Bangladeshi money and tourism. There are 26 lakh Illegal Indians working in Bangladesh, most of them from WB and seven sisters.
Don't joke about the hand that feeds you.
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Reasons aside, the reality is that the Bengali Muslims remain weak in education, arts and culture. It is more true for the people of Bangladesh. This is what the West Bengal people term as Khyat.There are clear reasons for this East Bengal poor showing in literature/academia and I'd have to respectfully disagree that we're "Khat" (i.e. uncultured) in East Bengal.
Rate of secular or literary education in Muslim communities were historically low, even for rich folks as in pre-British times East Bengal was always a prosperous land. People did not need education to go have a job to make money - they could live off the land, selling their produce very easily. This was not the case in WB where life was not as easy as in East Bengal.
Muslims traditionally considered themselves educated if they simply received Arabic Madrassa education, knew a bit of Farsi and had a Quran-e-Hafez certificate from Maqtabs unlike Hindus who went to "tolls" (traditional Hindu schools in Bengal) to get educated in Bengali literature which was an offshoot of Sanskrit and a requirement of understanding Hindu scriptures and religious literature. Old Bengali (Pali) and Sanskrit were and are very close languages.
East Bengali Muslims were rarely interested in studying Sanskrit or Pali literature, it was not expected as an educational qualification in their own communities.
When Mughals faded from the scene, Hindus enthusiastically accepted English education (they wanted to gain advantages over Muslims working under the British. While Muslim Khandan Bengalis in East Bengal 100% resisted working with the British and be part of their administration - as it was a huge change from Mughal administration and the official court language which was Farsi. This was the reason Muslim Bengalis (even upper and upper middle class) fell back in English-based education and Hindu Bengalis dominated in jobs, administration, IPS, science, literature, academia and many other fields, this made their ranks extremely strong during British Raj times, giving rise to Baboo Culture. But that era is over now.
WB today is largely without a significant industrial base, much poorer than Bangladesh and WB's regional also-ran loser status in India will not change anytime soon. Kolkata Baboos have to go to other cities in India to seek jobs. Many other states (like Maharashtra and Gujarat for example) are formulating policy to prevent non-locals being preferred in jobs. So Bengali Baboos outside Kolkata and WB have a "Hatey Hariken" situation...
Although this writing on the wall about being second class Indian citizen, is plain to see, the babu-culture folks and litterateurs in Kolkata have a hard time accepting their lot in life. Their entire WB economy is being controlled by Marathas, Marwaris, Gujju folks and above all Cow Belter Bihar hardliner Sanghis. WB people are just happy to call themselves and be accepted by the less-than-honorable moniker of "Bong" - and they have no interest in preventing the rest of India to exploit WB. They only find solace in calling Bangladeshis uncultured and lower class. But Kolkata Baboo-Culture is not inherently superior from our East Bengali folk-culture. Whatever Kolkata Baboos gained is solely due to patronization of their culture by being the center of the British Raj.
So - my point of saying all this is that the Raj era of wealth (and literary excellence and superiority, which is a by-product of it) is over in West Bengal. It has little to do with us being "Khat" in Bangladesh, or not.
By the way, there were no geographical entities called East Bengal and West Bengal historically. But, you give too much emphasis on this political division that was created only in 1947.
Shall it not be about the Muslims and Hindus of Bengal and not east Bengali and west Bengali? The terms are fuzzy without real meaning. About 26% of people in west Bengal are Muslims and about 10% of people in Bangladesh are Hindus.
So, both the groups live across the line. And, also note that of the east Pakistan population in 1947, only 70% were Muslims. And this big figure was due to two long wars in the past.
One is the 30-year long war between two forces: Mughal Delhi vs Pathans of Bengal (1576 to 1605). Delhi first conquered Bihar and the western part of Bengal that caused the Muslims from these two areas to flee to the eastern part. Note that Munger in Bihar became the then Mughal Bengal Capital.
The 2nd is the Bengal -Maratha war of 10 years (1741 to 1751) that killed at least 300,000 people in Birbhum, Bankura, Medinipur, and adjacent areas. People, mostly Muslims, migrated to the eastern part of Bengal east of Bhagirathi to save their lives and honor.
So, why do you draw a political line based on the political division of east and west that did not exist before 1947? Things must be said in their proper perspectives. It is Muslims and Hindus of Bengal.
We can divide the line into Hindus of Bengal and Muslims of Bengal. Even eastern Bengal and western Bengal can be accepted, but not East Bengal and West Bengal when talking history.
Bilal9
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You have a point @bluesky bhai. religious division is more succinct and explains a lot more of the events and outcomes. I was not pushing the idea that these two regions were bonafide legal entities in themselves with borders at that time, they had their own religious signatures as you mention though. Hindus also dominated the upper class status in East Bengal (some were very large zaminders) during the British Raj due to improved education and wealth and Muslims were mainly peasants because of lower education rates.
Some Hindu folks therefore exploited a very disproportionate number of poorer Muslim folks until 1947, this is well documented. Cycle of wealth disparity continued until then.
It is clear that my knowledge about this social strata in our society at that time is limited, so maybe it is better I don't opine any further.
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The Ronin
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Cable operators in Bangladesh have resumed airing 24 ad-free foreign channels following the government’s instructions over a clean feed.
Viewers can once again watch channels like BBC, CNN, Al Jazeera, Star Sports, Ten Sports, National Geographic and Deutsche Welle that have clean feeds, according to media reports.
Distributors and cable operators had stopped broadcasting foreign channels with clean feeds alongside those with commercials on Friday in line with the orders from the ministry of information and broadcast.
Cable operators have been told to resume airing the 24 channels after the ministry cleared them on Monday, media reports quoted Nizam Uddin Masud, a former secretary general of the Cable Operators Association of Bangladesh.
However, some cable subscribers in Savar complained that they are still unable to watch any of the 24 channels.
Masud said that some operators have yet to receive the government instruction, resulting in the hold-up.
The 24 channels will resume airing by the end of Tuesday, he assured.
Information and Broadcasting Minister Hasan Mahmud on Monday said there is no bar to operate the 24 foreign channels that have clean feed.
Earlier on October 1, mobile courts, under the direction of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, started operations to implement ad-free or clean-feed broadcasting of foreign TV channels.
Section 19 of the Cable Television Network Management Act, 2006 prohibits the broadcasting of advertisements through any foreign TV channels for the viewers of Bangladesh.
www.dhakatribune.com
Viewers can once again watch channels like BBC, CNN, Al Jazeera, Star Sports, Ten Sports, National Geographic and Deutsche Welle that have clean feeds, according to media reports.
Distributors and cable operators had stopped broadcasting foreign channels with clean feeds alongside those with commercials on Friday in line with the orders from the ministry of information and broadcast.
Cable operators have been told to resume airing the 24 channels after the ministry cleared them on Monday, media reports quoted Nizam Uddin Masud, a former secretary general of the Cable Operators Association of Bangladesh.
However, some cable subscribers in Savar complained that they are still unable to watch any of the 24 channels.
Masud said that some operators have yet to receive the government instruction, resulting in the hold-up.
The 24 channels will resume airing by the end of Tuesday, he assured.
Information and Broadcasting Minister Hasan Mahmud on Monday said there is no bar to operate the 24 foreign channels that have clean feed.
Earlier on October 1, mobile courts, under the direction of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, started operations to implement ad-free or clean-feed broadcasting of foreign TV channels.
Section 19 of the Cable Television Network Management Act, 2006 prohibits the broadcasting of advertisements through any foreign TV channels for the viewers of Bangladesh.
Cable operators resume airing foreign TV channels with clean feed
The channels include BBC, CNN, Al Jazeera, Star Sports, Ten Sports, National Geographic and Deutsche Welle
Bilal9
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Now that the Indian channels' (Zee Bangla, Star Jolsha) revenue stream is cut off, it will be interesting to see what their next moves will be.
Some of them might set up shop inside Bangladesh and try to legitimize their revenue stream.
Govt. should be ready with antidotes.
For example, they will make ads using Indian models/directors and producers inside Bangladesh, I don't think the Govt. has any rules against that. Or they will come produce content like dramas or variety shows locally.
Govt. should make rules against these anticipated moves immediately, against whatever dhokeybaaji Indians will try to sneak through. Tk. 20,000 crore every year is not exactly spare change. All shows/contents/ads produced in Bangladesh should have 100% local actors/producers/directors.
Our media folks (Chetona idiots as some of them are) still need to eat (not Indians), as do the other non-Chetona or poorer Bangladeshi workers who work in the Television and media industry. We have to sustain and improve our media.
Indians have huge impetus to poke their nose here again. Even from a "cultural invasion" standpoint which is a propaganda tool.
I saw some Mobile Court and RAB folks raid the offices of Indian IPTV provider Jadoo in Dhaka, this should be expanded to all foreign IPTV/DTH providers so they cannot operate using revenue streams from Bangladesh.
On a positive note, all of these cable channels are slowly moving to IPTV, DTH or Internet anyway (half of it already is), In twenty years' time, people who cannot do a Google search will be mostly extinct, except in poorer countries.
Cable is history, even in Bangladesh.
Ads (going forward) will be placed via apps like Google (YT) or other pay/non-pay channels (Netflix, HBO, Showtime, Apple TV etc.).
I hope I see some Bangladeshi apps (like YT) come up to support our media industry at some point.
Some of them might set up shop inside Bangladesh and try to legitimize their revenue stream.
Govt. should be ready with antidotes.
For example, they will make ads using Indian models/directors and producers inside Bangladesh, I don't think the Govt. has any rules against that. Or they will come produce content like dramas or variety shows locally.
Govt. should make rules against these anticipated moves immediately, against whatever dhokeybaaji Indians will try to sneak through. Tk. 20,000 crore every year is not exactly spare change. All shows/contents/ads produced in Bangladesh should have 100% local actors/producers/directors.
Our media folks (Chetona idiots as some of them are) still need to eat (not Indians), as do the other non-Chetona or poorer Bangladeshi workers who work in the Television and media industry. We have to sustain and improve our media.
Indians have huge impetus to poke their nose here again. Even from a "cultural invasion" standpoint which is a propaganda tool.
I saw some Mobile Court and RAB folks raid the offices of Indian IPTV provider Jadoo in Dhaka, this should be expanded to all foreign IPTV/DTH providers so they cannot operate using revenue streams from Bangladesh.
On a positive note, all of these cable channels are slowly moving to IPTV, DTH or Internet anyway (half of it already is), In twenty years' time, people who cannot do a Google search will be mostly extinct, except in poorer countries.
Cable is history, even in Bangladesh.
Ads (going forward) will be placed via apps like Google (YT) or other pay/non-pay channels (Netflix, HBO, Showtime, Apple TV etc.).
I hope I see some Bangladeshi apps (like YT) come up to support our media industry at some point.
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