From: mece1e3@Jane.UH.EDU
Newsgroups: soc.culture.indian
Subject: Re: Alt.culture.bengal
Date: 24 Dec 1992 23:31:00 GMT
Organization: University of Houston
Reply-To: mece1e3@Jane.UH.EDU
NNTP-Posting-Host: jane.uh.edu

In article <Dec.24.15.42.44.1992.28928@paul.rutgers.edu>, varma@paul.rutgers.edu (not yet) writes:
>> >In article <199212240126.AA05216@mp.cs.niu.edu>, t60bss9@mp.cs.niu.edu (Bijoy Sagar) writes:
>
>> So.culture.bangladesh is a news group created for discussing social and
>> cultural issues of BANGLADESH. Though Bangla is the common language
>> the culture in Bangladesh and West Bengal developed quite differently.
>> Admittedly there is a lot of overlap. But nobody will mistake the British
>> culture to be identical with the American culture. 
>
>Ahaa. So in 40 years you claim that the new culture in West Bengal has
>developed and has become different from the common roots you share
>with the Bengalis in Bangladesh.

This shows the nature of your knowledge about Bengali Culture. The Bengali
Culture as we know today started in the late nineteenth century: which is
known as the Bengal Rennesiance. That it achieved so much in a span of 100
years is amazing but true. Just like there is very little in common between
the European culture before and after Rennesiance: so is true in Bengal.
Bangla as a modern language was shaped primarily by Bankimchandra, Vivekananda,
Rabindranath and Saratchandra: in chronological order. Among which the first
two are shunned by Bangladesh due to their jingoistic Hindu roots. I am not
making a negative comment here; I am a great fan of both. So it is really 
40 years of togetherness and 40 years of separation. This separation was 
unfortunate but a political calamity. Free exchange of information was
suppressed by "nationalists" like you on both sides of the border who will
consider any association with the other country as unpatriotic.



>
>>Just consider how ludicrous
>> your statement will look if I rephrase it like this:
>> English is the national language of Great Britain. Thus all articles related
>> to the American literature can be discussed in soc.culture.british
>
>American literature has developed in parallel with the British
>(Great?) for the last four hundred years. In the last two hundred
>years America has produced literary figures of significance, such as
>Poe, Whitman, Clemens, TSE, Pound, Williams...
>If you claim that Bengali culture in WB grew so fast in last 40 years
>that you give an analogy of America and Britain, then please don't
>develop so fast: very soon you will look like people from Star Trek.
>
>Therefore, my statement is NOT ludicrous.
>

I guess the above paragraph will show you what my background of the statement
was. If you want to discuss the issue further please be prepared with the
background material. Only Bengali writings worthy of note before the
Renessiance period is the composers of the Bengali Ramayana and Mahabharata.
Though I was fortunate to read both at an early childhood, most Bengalis never
read them in their life.



>> I detected no trace of egoism in Vijay's post. 
>
>Then he has no business of saying that Bengalis will use it for poetry
>and culture as opposed to Tamils, who use it for 'people bashing'.
>(I am not a Tamil.)
>
A crooked mind imagines crookedness. The world is a mirror of your own mind.
He did not imply that the Tamils are uncivilized. He just made a factual
statement. If you want to create something new you express the hope that it
will be better. Whether that hope becomes reality is a different ball game.



>> He only proposed a solution
>> for a need which SCI is not suitable. I remember how I stopped posting my
>> Bengali poems here. I have to agree that posting a Bengali poem every day
>> without translation in SCI is not justified. But it is ridiculous to ask
>> me to translate everything before I post.
>
>In fact I am of the view that SCI is suitable for such discussions. I
>am not Bengali but do follow Bangla (ek-to ek-to) and enjoy reading
>whatever little I understand. I look forward to seeing other aspects
>of Indian culture on the net. If a.c.b is created, I will be deprived.
>

Since you do not know Bangla ; how can you appreciate Bangla poems. Personally
I do not like it when I see pages and pages of Tamil text without translation
; so I will expect others to feel the same. If you are interested in that
particular aspect you can always look up the appropriate group. SCI is alrady
a very high volume group. We can spare it pages of analysis between
Sudhindranath and Vishnu De's poetic style for example. Knowin Babgla "ektu
 ektu" is not going to help much.



>I know I will never read a.c.b. I will only read s.c.i. I may be the
>only dogmatic soul on the net, but I do believe that we should accept
>the fact that we are culturally a diverse country and we must learn to
>live together.
>
Learning to live together means appreciating other person's needs.


>In short, I am opposed to creation of a news-group because:
>1. it creates division,
>(2. wastes bandwidth, 'cause people cross-post).
>
>If you feel very strongly about a closed discussion then why do you
>not start a mailing list (put my name please, in case...)?
>
>> Love
>> Arindam
>> 
Why is SCI not a mailing list? There are obvious advantages of newsgroups
over a mailing list which compu-gurus will be able to explain. The discussion
is taken to a separate group not to "keep people out" as you tend to imagine;
but for a respect to other person's sensitivities. Just like the proposal for
talk.religion.indian is up on the air. Cross posting is a result of
irresponsible or unknowledgable persons (Among which I exist also: as I do
not care to edit the headers each time I reply) and does not validate your
argument one way or the other. It creates division only if you want it to;
by implying that everybody in alt.culture.* groups are not "truly" patriotic.
Love
Arindam

>-- 
>Regards,
>Harsh Varma
>Department of Computer Science
>Rutgers University
>
>Disclaimer: None. Please, everyone adopt my opinion, I am right!
>
>Postscript: Please dont flame me, and I get very scared by death
>            threats.
Newsgroups: soc.culture.indian