Copyright news18
At a Congress event in Assam’s Barak Valley, the singing of Amar Sonar Bangla (appropriated from Rabindranath Tagore by Bangladesh for its national anthem) has sparked outrage in some quarters of Assam and Bharat. Why? Because context matters. Assam’s politics is steeped in a febrile mix of identity, migration, and linguistic assertion. For a section of Assamese, the hymn feels like a breach of sensitivity. The hymn was written by Tagore to instill a sense of oneness among Bengalis who were being pulled in different directions during the first partition of Bengal in 1905. So, while for Bengalis the hymn evokes a sense of shared culture in a “greater” Bengal, in Assamese-speaking people, already a linguistic minority, its rendition exacerbates their ongoing cultural and demographic marginalisation in Assam. Unfortunately, the upcoming population census findings will, in fact, only underline this sense of diminution further. Is it a wonder then that the reaction among Assamese is one of anger with the Congress for a presumed betrayal? The Assam CM, for instance, has labelled the Congress’s decision to defend and justify the rendition of Amar Sonar Bangla in a pocket of the Bengali-dominated Barak Valley as an act of performative chauvinism. An act that he and other Assamese speakers insist should be prosecuted in law as an egregious breach of sovereignty. While that’s debatable, for the Congress, as pointed out, at a time when identity is hotly contested, striking such a jarring political note suggests the party is tone-deaf to the sentiment of Assamese speakers in Assam. For all its talk of tolerance, the Congress in Assam has taken the side of Bengali speakers. That it has picked a team is ironic to say the least. Remember, the Congress has not done so in other states where it shares power. For example, it has not stood up for the rights of Hindi-speaking north Indians in Tamil Nadu. There, its southern ally, the DMK, targets Hindi at every available opportunity. Complaints about “Hindi cultural imposition” routinely rent the air—there’s no talk of “shared” anything then. What’s an even greater contradiction is that apologists for the Congress’s silence over the rejection of Hindi by its allies in states like Tamil Nadu often remind Hindi speakers that celebrating cultural pride demands political prudence. This is especially true of regions that still measure belonging in emotional terms, as quite clearly a section of Assamese speakers in Assam does. But is anyone in the Congress ecosystem that is championing the rendition of “Amar Sonar Bangla” by Bengali speakers in Assam deferring to the sentiments of Assamese speakers in the spirit of accommodation? No. Instead, those Assamese speakers who are upset are being labelled Sanghis. What selectivity! What hypocrisy!
