A few days ago, I got into mini-dispute with one of my students in Kolkata regarding the famous Bengali-hood! It all started with ‘me-being-a-Bengali-yet-supporting-Delhi Daredevils’ in the ongoing DLF IPL. While I was busy convincing him that supporting any team is a purely personal choice and has nothing to do with one’s ethnic background, he kept on harping that I don’t qualify as a perfect Bengali if I don’t support their KewlKKR.
But eventually, the dispute took a slightly different turn and we ended up having a debate on THE GREAT BEGALI EGO.
Well, I’m not a culture expert. So kindly excuse my views as an arrant attempt, if they stand in contradiction to yours. But that doesn’t deter me from expressing my unfathomable surprise that the great Bengali ego successfully generates in me, every time I think about it. I’ve been born, brought up and down surrounded by the so-called khnati Bengalis. So banking on that experience, I can safely say that at any discussion table of cross-culture issues, most of the Bengalis will come up with ‘Bengalis-rock-and-others-suck’ attitude, almost always. It has always baffled me. I mean, what are we, the new-age Bengalis so proud of? Never, even for a second, think that I’m trying to demean the self pride of my community. Every community has the right to be proud of it and call itself ‘the best’. But there has to be a proper justification to it!
Let us all be honest for a while and ask ourselves – “What are we (the new-age Bengalis) the best at?” What enables us to think so highly of ourselves and so low at others? Is it our composite arrogance? Is it our non-committed approach to society? Is it our endless reasoning power? Is it our worst time-management? Is it our complete ‘I-hate-every-other-successful-Bengali’ approach? Is it our worst entrepreneurial qualities? Is it our united vandalism expertise? Is it our bhandh-fobia? Is it our undemocratic blind faith on few mistaken ideologies? Is it our deep-rooted political propagandas? Or is it our eternal anti-imperialism? Or is it our deep-rooted service-mentality? Is it our rhetorical revolutionary romantics? Or is it just pure high-headedness that makes us so proud? Any one of those….? Naah….none of those I guess! I can guess what we are so proud of! We are proud of our poetry! Our paintings! Our music! Our filmmakers! Our patriotism! Our modern outlook! Our perfectionism! Our revolution!But wait a second… aren’t these the gifts of those ‘old-age’ Bengalis? What about the new-age ones? And who were those oldies? Tagore? Swami Vivekanda? Vidyasagar? Netaji? Satyajit Ray? Has any one of us ever heard/read any one of them saying, “Bengalis rock and others suck”?! NEVER!
They were the pioneers of excelling on one’s own qualities and mixing it with the great qualities which they’d learnt from other communities. Not only that, all of them had thanked all the other communities for the greatness they had! My point is very simple. I don’t get to see that open acceptance anymore from most of the new-age Bengalis. These days, once we sense that we’re losing our ground, we fall back on our ancestral legacy and abruptly end the debate by self-claiming that the ‘Bengalis are the Best’. Sure they are, but every generation has to earn it for itself! We can’t endlessly fall back on the legacy created by the Bengali legends (who themselves were all so open in acceptance of others’ greatness) and self-certify ourselves as THE BEST! If I really have to think hard and find out a few rare real achievements of Bengali community members of the Independent India, then there will be one Satyajit, one Utpal Dutt, one Uttam Kumar, one Land Reform and a few Bangla Bands… and one Ganguly (Oops)! Most of it is individual excellence! What about the ‘community’? What about our united achievement? Let’s face it, like all other communities, we also have limitations.
Our forefathers knew it, understood it and that knowledge had helped them to
1) back their own strengths and
2) appreciate others’ strength!
One must understand that, in this globalised world, ‘individualistic creativity’ (that we’re so proud of) doesn’t hold much ground. We’ve to open up. We, the new-age Bengalis have to start believing that there can be better people than us. That acceptance will help us to know where we rock and where we lack, rather than just dreaming about ‘only-we-rock-and-others-just-lack’!
So next time, I start losing my ground in a fight, I vouch not to take shelter of the great Bengali ego. I will fight back, on my strength and even before my enemy realizes, I’ll strengthen myself, but appreciating his strengths! That ‘me’ will be a better fighter… a better Bengali… a better Indian! I’ll be waiting for that ‘US’!
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