Window
Seat | Mrinal Chatterjee | 4.4.21
Odisha@86, Bihar@110 and Rajasthan@73
In
March and early April, three states observed their statehood day and look at
the providence I have close relationship with all three.
Odisha celebrated its statehood day on 1
April. It was on this day in 1936 that a separate state for Odia speaking
population was formed taking areas from Bihar with addition of Koraput and
Ganjam from the Madras Presidency. It was the first state in India to be formed
on linguistic basis. I have been living in Odisha for over five decades now.
Bihar Day was observed on 22 March,
marking the formation of the state of Bihar. It was on this day when the
British carved out the state from Bengal in 1912. I spent some years of my
early childhood days in Bihar at my maternal grandfather’s home in Jamalpur in
Munger district.
Rajasthan
celebrated its statehood day on 30 March as the state was formed on that day in
1949 when Rajputana was merged into the Dominion of India. Jaipur being the
largest city was declared as the capital of the state. I have been to Rajasthan
so many times and have so many friends there, people think I have settled
there. Not a bad idea though!
West Bengal, where
I was born became a separate state on 1 Nov. 1956, as the states were
reorganized, as per Recommendations of the States
Reorganization Act, 1956. I hardly lived there. But nobody can really
disassociate from one’s birth place. I was born at Katwa, a small historical
sub-divisional head quarter town on the bank of the river Ganges in the
district of Burdawan. Whenever I visit Katwa I make sure to go to the hospital
where I was born some sixty years ago to soak in that queer feeling of oneness.
Did you notice..
Did you notice that
this year 29 March had special significance for many major religions and people
of different regions?
Hindus observed
Holi, the festival of colour. In Manipur the Meitei people observed Yaosang- a five day spring
festival starting on the full moon day of the month of Lamda. Tamil
Hindus observed Panguni Uthirum Kavady.
Muslims observed
Shab e Barat, the night of forgiveness or atonement. It commemorated the day
Prophet Muhammad entered the city of Makkah.
Christians observed
Palm Sunday that commemorated Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem.
Jews observed
Passover, commemorating the Hebrews’ liberation
from slavery in Egypt.
We all
prayed differently, followed different rituals but we prayed to one divine
power.
Padayatra as a form of protest
Somebody asked me a very interesting question about Gandhi’s
Dandi March also known
as the Salt Satyagraha. It was an act of nonviolent civil disobedience in
colonial India led by Mahatma Gandhi. The 24 days march spanned 240 miles
(390 km), from Sabarmati Ashram to Dandi began on 12 March 1930 and ended on 5 April 1930. Gandhi
started this march with 78 of his trusted volunteers. Growing numbers of
Indians joined them along the way. When Gandhi broke the British Raj salt
laws at 6:30 am on 6 April
1930, it sparked large scale acts of civil disobedience against the salt laws
by millions of Indians
The question was: did Gandhi consciously use padayatra (walking
accompanied by others) as a form of protest? Was it a calculated move?
I really do not know. So I requested my friends to reflect on
this question. PK Jagdev, a very well read sociologist wrote back: “Padayatra
as we know as a political instrument was perhaps pioneered by Gandhi. Padabraja
(walking at a leisurely pace) was indeed used as a means of pilgrimage and
proselytization by wandering monks. For Gandhi it was perhaps the best way to influence
maximum folks (including women, the old and very young) in reasonable time-
considering his popularity, option to camp along the way and lack of memorable
roads.”
My friend and senior journalist Tapan Mishra wrote that
Gandhiji was fond of walking. He had written about the health benefits of it in
his autobiography ‘My experiments with truth’.
Harihara Satpathy wrote, It could have been for two reasons:
one- to motivate maximum number of people to join him; and two- to know people
more intimately.
It is indeed an interesting area for further research by Gandhi scholars.
AnandaBazar Patrika@100
What
is Malayala Manorama to a Malayali, Samaja to an Odia, Anandabazar Patrika is
to a Bengali: not just a newspaper, but a part of his linguistic identity. Like
the other two newspaper, Anandabazar Patrika too started with a nationalistic
mission and with time has become an institution.
Anandabazar
Patrika began its momentous journey on the day of Dolyatra (Holi), the festival
of colour (on 13 March 1922). And probably to go with the festive fervour, the
first issue was printed in red letter. But the British administration took the
red colour as a mark of danger, which to a large extent proved true in future.
Priced at two paise it had a first-day circulation of a thousand copies.
 |
| First issue of Ananda Bazar Patrika |
Founded
by Suresh Chandra Majumdar (the proprietor) and Prafulla Chandra Sarkar (the
first editor), Anandabazar Patrika started as a four page evening daily. But
soon it increases its pages to six.
Next
year, it became a morning daily.
From the beginning
Anandabazar Patrika tried to be professional so far news dissemination was
concerned. It soon tied up with Reuters, Associated Press and the Free Press of
India.
Photo: The first issue
of Ananda Bazar Patrika
Globalisation is not
dead yet!
On 23 March 2021 a
vessel, Ever Given, which
weighed 200,000 metric tons and stretched 1,300 feet long got stuck in and
blocked the Suez Canal, located in Egypt.
Ever Given conveyed
goods from Asia to Europe (Specifically Dutch Port).
Registered in Panama,
Ever Given was owned by a Japanese company, operated by a Taiwanese container
shipping firm and managed by a German company.
Ever Given had 25
Indian crew members.
After six days stuck in
the Suez Canal, which disrupted almost 10 per cent of the global trade, Ever
Given was rescued by a multinational coalition including Japanese and Dutch
salvage teams and local Egyptian tugboat operators.
***
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