The political victimisation of Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy

[Anubis]

Urdu speaking voters likely to play decisive role | The Daily Star

December 25, 2015 / LAST MODIFIED: 12:00 AM, December 25, 2015
Saidpur Municipality
Urdu speaking voters likely to play decisive role


EAM Asaduzzaman
A crowded railway town by tradition, Saidpur has long been home to a significant Urdu-speaking community. The forefathers of many arrived in the British period from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and other parts of India to pursue careers in the railway workshops. Still others fled communal violence to arrive after Partition.

In the upcoming municipal elections, the support of Saidpur's Urdu speakers will likely be decisive.

“The votes of the Urdu-speaking community always play a crucial role,” says Abdul Hafiz, the principal of Saidpur College and a well-known local historian.

While Urdu-speakers account for 25 of the 74 candidates who will contest the 15 councillor seats, there is no Urdu-speaking candidate running for the post of mayor.

Nonetheless, for a minority community anywhere in the country it is rare to wield such electoral clout, and for Urdu speakers in Bangladesh, Saidpur is undoubtedly unique.

According to the upazila election office, of the 81,500 registered voters in the first class municipality, 60% speak Urdu as a first language.

In light of such statistics, mayoral and councillor candidates of all persuasions have been making efforts to appeal to Urdu speakers in preparation for the upcoming polls.

A rare sound in Bangladesh, loudspeaker campaign announcements in Urdu are likely to suprise any visitor. But in Saidpur, any serious election campaign must be conducted bilingually.

Although the community lost some of its dominance after the Liberation War, during which many Urdu-speakers supported Pakistan and subsequently migrated there, Urdu-speakers remain influential in the area's cultural, political and economic life.

Yet which way they will vote is becoming harder to predict. Traditionally it has been assumed that Urdu speakers favour BNP-backed mayoral candidates, with a succession of them having been elected. But in more recent times circumstances have changed.

“The issue of the war criminal trials may have given Urdu speakers reason to reconsider their vote,” says railway workers' leader Aminur Rahman, “It could be reflected in the upcoming poll.”

President of the Urdu Welfare Society, Ashraful Islam Babu, has also observed a break with the past. “We made an historical mistake in 1971,” he says, “Many supported the Pakistani Army due to political ignorance. Nowadays we want to intermingle with all people in this country and take pragmatic decisions when casting votes.”

The city has historically been an Urdu-speaking community with close ties to Bihar, from which many residents originate, particularly the town of Munger. Since Bangladeshi independence, Urdu has declined as the Bihari community either integrated into Bangladeshi society, adopting Bengali, or fled to India or Pakistan.

Its the wiki entry for Saidpur...I don't see any reason not to believe it...My point still stands...people who are Bengali by ethnicity(NOT Biharis) cannot have any other language as a MOTHER TONGUE...they can speak Urdu or Swahili....but their mother tongue is and shall remain Bangla.

That is a great idea in principle.
However, there is "a rub"...... Many members of those categories that you mention have no qualifications to even be anointed with such "labels". Their writings (or fulminations) here are clear evidence of that already.
Reminds me of the days when Dynasties ruled in many parts of the world; and Sycophants, Charlatans, Concubines, Clowns and Eunuchs got elevated to Royal Courts. Even to rub shoulders with some of the "professionals" here would leave a stain on my erstwhile uniform........
But love your ideation, nonetheless.

I know the labeling is nowhere near perfect...but the section should filter a lot of the trolls out.

 

[Capt.Popeye]

I know the labeling is nowhere near perfect...but the section should filter a lot of the trolls out.

That underlined part is as euphemistic and charitable as can be; my friend !!
The real truth (and tragedy) is the fact that the ranks of these "labels" are occupied (or infested) by some examples of the very sort that you seek to filter out.
PDF seriously needs to "reboot its system" on this score at least; then greatly constructive ideas like yours, will work effectively.
I still admire your ideation, please no make no mistake about that.

 

[bongbang]

The city has historically been an Urdu-speaking community with close ties to Bihar, from which many residents originate, particularly the town of Munger. Since Bangladeshi independence, Urdu has declined as the Bihari community either integrated into Bangladeshi society, adopting Bengali, or fled to India or Pakistan.

Its the wiki entry for Saidpur...I don't see any reason not to believe it...My point still stands...people who are Bengali by ethnicity(NOT Biharis) cannot have any other language as a MOTHER TONGUE...they can speak Urdu or Swahili....but their mother tongue is and shall remain Bangla.

They are not native to the land. Saidpur railway and workshop created lots of jobs, when Assam and Bengal joined together, British and Pakistan time lots of Bihari workers migrated there.

 

[asad71]

1.We Bengali Muslims have been tolerant and never practiced exclusivity. The word Mohajir was never ever used by us. I doubt there is a Bengali word for refugees. However, as this Bihari leader has correctly said, they were used. Politically this "using" started in 1950's with labor unrest in Adamji, Khalishpur, Chandraghona and other places. The ML govt at center was directly involved in this. But Biharis lost life, and worse got alienated from the Bengalis.
2. Pre 1971 crackdown, arms were distributed to Bihari community leaders at various locations by ISI. They were used to create disturbance to create the High Moral Ground for the army action. Again, as a result it was the Biharis who suffered most. As a group, Biharis were the largest in the list of the killed. And they had to leave for India or Pakistan - where again they do not seem too happy.
3. From last year Chakmas have been allowed to write their answer script for SSC / school leaving exam in Chakma language. Surely we will see Urdu also used similarly - although in madrassas they do teach this language.

 

[Joe Shearer]

1.We Bengali Muslims have been tolerant and never practiced exclusivity. The word Mohajir was never ever used by us. I doubt there is a Bengali word for refugees. However, as this Bihari leader has correctly said, they were used. Politically this "using" started in 1950's with labor unrest in Adamji, Khalishpur, Chandraghona and other places. The ML govt at center was directly involved in this. But Biharis lost life, and worse got alienated from the Bengalis.
2. Pre 1971 crackdown, arms were distributed to Bihari community leaders at various locations by ISI. They were used to create disturbance to create the High Moral Ground for the army action. Again, as a result it was the Biharis who suffered most. As a group, Biharis were the largest in the list of the killed. And they had to leave for India or Pakistan - where again they do not seem too happy.
3. From last year Chakmas have been allowed to write their answer script for SSC / school leaving exam in Chakma language. Surely we will see Urdu also used similarly - although in madrassas they do teach this language.

Quite right. All those scum in west Bengal pretending to be udbastus are faking it.

 

[khair_ctg]

Using Urdu was very common among the educated class of this area...as is the use of English today...I doubt you understand what a mother language is....language and culture are extremely important identifiers of ethnicity...Urdu or any language other than Bangla has no place in our ethnic identity..you can speak Urdu or whatever you want and be a Bengali...but you cannot be sane and educated(hopefully) and claim that Urdu can be the mother tongue of a person Bengali by ethnicity....the key word here is mother tongue...Bengali kids growing up in the west can and do speak English at home but their mother tongue remains Bengali....oh and a huge portion of Urdu is directly taken from Vedic Sanskrit...It is closer to the smelly "Hindu" than Bangla.

i think you missed it. i'm not talking about Hindus. i'm talking about Muslims and things about them even educated moderate Hindus know. Bengali Muslims are historical settlers themselves in Bengal to a large extent. they are still called "Bengali" or "of Bengal". that is how Muslim society in Bengal and other provinces of subcontinent is defined. compared to that, the definition of Bengali Hindu is more purist and insular, and more associated with the Bengali language, especially the Brahmin variant of the language.

1. Urdu evolved as a language among the soldiers of the Muslim rulers who recruited from C & W Asia and among locals. Thus this was commonly understood by all. Even the Portuguese, the French and the British found this easy to learn. During the Raj, officers posted in from England had to take a course in Urdu/Hindustani during the voyage. PA and IA even after partition continued to use training books and manuals written in Roman Urdu. Illiterate soldiers used to learn their trade in RU which was taught to them to make them literate. Ayub Khan had mulled using the Roman script for all Pakistanis. But by that time he had become unpopular so that the idea could not be mooted.

Urdu/Hindi is a latter version of Khariboli and other related languages which were languages of castes lower than Brahmins (like Rajputs). Khariboli's main domain was northmost Hindustan (excluding Bengal or Punjab), but were also present to a lesser extent in Bengal and Punjab for time immemorial before Muslims.

however, the interaction between Northmost Hindustan and more distant provinces like Bengal and Punjab reached unprecedented levels after Turkic Muslim sultanate was formed with its capital being Northmost India. that is when Central Asian/Persian peoples and peoples like Rajputs merged together. the resulting language(s) became known as Urdu. over time Urdu developed into the 'Sudh Vhasa' from Bengal to Punjab. a Bengali or Punjabi speaking Muslim person, for example, would know Urdu if they were educated and/or had some interprovincial interaction. Urdu developed to what we know it as, classically and in other forms, after a long period of being shaped by more distant provincial languages like Bengali, Punjabi, Marathi, etc. this happened in two ways

Northmost India, being the capital of both Turkic (Pathan) and Mughal empires, hosted migrants from other parts of Hindustan. people from Northmost India also went to and settled in other parts. Northmost India acted as the 'Dhaka'. the synthesis of cultures this way allowed Khariboli-rooted language(s) both influence other provinces and itself get influenced by those provinces.

Urdu/Hindi developed into prestige dialects - the premier language of poets, writers, painters, academicians, barristers and politicians. it also developed into crude dialects that had more regional leanings, like the Old Delhi 'bazaari' variant, the Punjabi-influenced Lahori variant or the Bengali-influenced Jahangir nagar (Old Dhaka) variant.

back to present, Urdu is the mother tongue of many ethnic Bengalis. it used to be that of more Bengalis before the suppression after 1952 and what came into full force after 1971. Urdu is more native to Bangladeshis, than Shudh Bengali is.

2. All over SA Muslims use Urdu as the link language. Whether in SL or S India or in Bengal, Muslims have been using Urdu to communicate with each other. In BD, as elsewhere in SA, the elite Muslims used Urdu as the mother tongue - yes, the mother tongue. As a casualty of '71, Urdu has been exiled from BD, but it is a state language in W Bengal. Muslims of Assam / NE also use this.

by the end of British Raj, the Urdu of Calcutta was known as one of the prestige variants of Urdu in the subcontinent. many Bengali Muslim families of BD can associate with that. the Urdu (besides the Bengali) of Old Dhaka is our pride. Urdu is very native to Bangladeshi Bengalis. there are or have traditionally been both Bengalis whose mother tongue is Urdu or whose second language is Urdu. Anubis is either an aggressive Calcutta Hindutva who is eager to establish non-existence of Bengal's Muslim culture, or he is a Bangladeshi Muslim who is completely unfamiliar with the society his display flag is supposed to represent. or maybe he understands his flag a little too much that it represents the communist-Brahmans' victory over Muslims in this land.

Musalmani Bangla and its transformation | Page 10

3. Sadly in India deliberate efforts are made to extinguish Urdu which holds much of our Muslim heritage and history. And sadly again, too much Persianization has set into the language in Pakistan. You find a vast difference in what people use in day to life and what is used as the formal language. The national anthem, for instance. What a fine tune, but how many Pakistanis understand what they are singing?

i agree with what's happening in India. but in Pakistan, what is happening is opposite of Persianization. of course in the formal contexts, the classical Urdu is there. but i can notice Brahminzation and Sanskritization in India is spilling over into Pakistan through entertainment mediums. Pakistanis should also pay attention to their regional languages like Punjabi and Sindhi, otherwise they will become domains of Hindus who might Brahminize or Sanskritize them.