Strong messages: Puja pandals echo resistance against ‘linguistic terrorism’

Kolkata: Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s call for a “language movement” against what she described as “linguistic terrorism” has found vivid expression in this year’s Durga Puja, with pandals across Kolkata turning into stages of linguistic pride, cultural assertion and protest.

Organisers have placed the Bengali language at the heart of their themes. Some celebrate icons and literature, others highlight migrant struggles, while a few strike sharper notes of resistance against alleged attempts to undermine the identity of Bengali speakers.

Among the most striking is Chaltabagan Sarbojanin, themed “Ami Banglai Bolchi” (I am speaking in Bengali). Besides the ancestral home of poet Dwijendralal Roy, the pandal unfolds in four parts. Visitors pass through a gate of Bengali letters before reaching a “tree of languages” tracing the growth of Bangla. Displays then move to the 1952 Language Movement, which led to February 21 being recognised as International Mother Language Day. Next come tributes to Vidyasagar’s Barnaparichay, Tagore’s Sahaj Path, Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay’s Vande Mataram and Nazrul Islam’s Karar Oi Louho Kopat.

The finale shows Ma Durga as a teacher. “Bengali is the fifth most spoken language in the world, with over 8 per cent of Indians using it. Even ballot papers in the last US presidential election carried Bengali as one of only five languages. We wanted to showcase the dignity and reach of our mother tongue,” said committee secretary Mausam Mukherjee.

Baguihati’s Aswininagar Bandhumahal themed its 45th year “Bangla O Bangali’r Samriddhir Adyopanto,” tracing Bengal’s history back 42,000 years and celebrating great personalities. In Tollygunge, South Kolkata Palli Sangha’s “Bangla, Amar Maa ar Bhasha” depicts Durga’s children with symbols of learning alongside portraits of Tagore, Nazrul and Vivekananda. At Dum Dum, Japur Jayshree Club’s “Bangla Mar Sontan; Prochur Lagbe” uses barbed wire and cages to symbolise the plight of Bengali-speaking migrant workers. At Picnic Garden’s 39 Pally, youths with Down syndrome guided by artist Snehasis Das addressed “language terrorism.”

Even pandals without formal themes joined in. Metropolitan Durga Bari in Beleghata displayed a giant banner declaring a “language war” against Bengalis, urging people to “stop the insult of Bengalis and the Bengali language.”