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Bangla Academy is an organization financed with the people's money. It was established to promote the Bengali language and literature (of Bangladesh). However, due to dominance of pro-Indian elements BangIa Academy is in effect working for revival of Indian culture. It has. been promoting books written by Hindu and secular minded 'Muslim' writers. BangIa Academy is allergic to anything Islamic. Its doors are shut for all Muslim nationalist writers while works of even third grade pro-Indian writers who claim to be secular are published. In other words, one needs the blessings of RAW to earn attention of Bangla Academy.

The Daily Inqilab commenting about the activities of Bangla Academy wrote, "One could easily realize who are preferred by BangIa Academy after casting a look at the list of writers whose books were displayed in the Bangla Academy stall of the International Book Fair 95, held in Calcutta. There were only 8 or 9 kinds of books in the Bangla Academy Stall. Books written by Jatin Sarkar,Sharsiz Sarkar, Devpreya Boruya, Topankar Chatterjee, Sukumar Biswas, Korunanda Vikku, Mamen Chandra,Kaliprosonna etc occupied most of the space in the Bangla Academy stall.

By projecting Hindu writers Bangla Academy desired to convey the impression that only Hindus dominate the field of Bengali literature and that although the Muslims of Bangladesh have advanced in education during the last fifty odd years, their contribution to the literature of their country is insignificant and hence not worth showing.Bangla Academy has been playing down the sacrifices of Muslim Bangalees who .laid down their lives to win for Bengali language its rightful place. The irony is that BangIa Academy which is the direct product of historical language movement patronizes such intellectuals and scholars who were not in any way connected with the said movement.

It in fact, ignores and neglects those who took part in the movement and who seek to uphold the separate indentity and culture of Bangladesh. The late Abul Kashem, the architect of Bangla Academy itself, was not seen in the BangIa Academy premises during later years of his life. BangIa Academy did not show proper respect to him even after his death. Another pioneer of language movement was late Justice Abdur Rahman Chowdhury. He died as the sitting Chairman of Bangla Academy. But the Academy did not feel any moral obligation to hold even a condolence meeting at his death. Other pioneers of the language movement like Dr. Nural Islam (First Convenor of the Language Movement Action Committee), Advocate Kazi Golam Mahbub (Convenor of the All Parties Language Movement Action Committee), Professor Abdul Ghafur (Editor of the Sainik, the revolutionary mouth-piece of the language movement) Mr. Oli Ahad, Professor Shahed Ali, etc, are all persona-non-grata to Bangla Academy because of their opposition to the expansionist designs of India.

If such is the fate of the organizers and pioneers of the language movement, it can easily be imagined what the position of those writers and intellectuals would be who did not

participate in it and at the same time do not belong to the pro-Indian lobby. On the other hand Bangla Academy never feels any compunction in publishing writings by such atheists and controversial persons as Ahmed Sharif. The irony is that printing of secular work is undertaken with Government money which is collected in form of taxes from the people, 90 per cent of whom are Muslims.

Bangla Academy has also honoured many secular and anti-Islamic, pro-Indian writers by conferring its awards. However, it seldom recognises the servi'ces of pro-Islamic writers, scholars and intellectuals. Thus it is no surprise that BangIa Academy has not published a single book by the renowned writer, philosopher and Muslim nationalist, Dewan Mohammad Azraf.The yearly calendar of the pioneers and litterateurs that BangIa Academy published in the past, explicity proves its pro-India affinity. Among the writers mentioned in that list about 65% are Hindus of India. Among the Bangladeshi writers who are lucky enougb to find a place in this list, 70% are known for their pro-India bias.

The names of many prominent Muslim poets and writers of medieval and modern times are not included in the list. The one-sided list was prepared intentionally to give the impression that Bengali language and literature have been developed and enriched almost wholly by Hindus, though histroy tells us a different story. BangIa Academy ignored the names of many Muslim poets, litterateursand scholars who not onlydid much to enrich Bengali literature but also played a vital role in its sruggle for survival.

In fact, the Muslims freed the Bengali language from the clutches, of Sanskrit and established it as a modern language., But out of tens of thousands of Muslim poets and writers of the middle ages,the list of Bangla Acadeiny contains names of a few of them only and that too merely to camouflage its real colour. Commenting about the said calendar a weekly of Dhaka'wrote, 'This calendar publsihed by BangIa Academy'better be called 'The pocket-calendar of The Ananda Bazar Publications, 'Calcutta"(The Weekly Jhanda :' May 13, 1992).

Bangla Academy has published a number of books on Bengalee nationalism but one does not find even a single book on Bangladeshi nationalism-one of the fundamental principles enshrined in the constitution of Bangladesh. The people of the USA and Australia use English as their nationallariguage but they call themselves Americans and Australians.

Same is the case with different Arab countries who speak the same language, follow the same religion and culture and even have similar heritage and history, but are identified as Saudi, Omani, Iraqi, Syrian, Libyan, Egyptian etc. in reference to their respective countries. Similarly we who belqng to Bangladesh are Bangladeshis. Bengalee nationalism, if there was one, was given a final burial by the Hindu legislators of West Bengal when they rejected the Bose Suhrawardy formula and opted for India. Then for twenty three odd years were Pakistanis and since the emergence of Bangladesh as a sovereign, independentstate we have become Bangladeshis.

The argument put forward by the then Director General of Bangla Academy, Mr. Harun-ur-Rasheed for not publishing any book on Bangladeshi nationalism was indeed offensive.

He argued, "No book had been published on Bangladeshi Nationalism as, it was a controversial theory"(The Daily Dinkal and The daily Meillat :January 10, 1994). Bangla

Academy had been pursuing a pro-India policy not only by publishing writings of RAW agents and hirelings but also by promoting Hindu culture in its functions. Bangla Academy succeeded in making Sheikh Hasina-the leader of the opposition in the then Bangladesh Parliament, ring a metal bell to inaugurate a function in connection with the Bengali New Year of 1398.

Sounding a metal bell (an integral part of Puja or Hidnu form of worship) was unprecedented not only In any function of BangIa Academy but also in the history of indepen4ent Bangladesh. Now link it with kindling of the Mongal Pradeep-first of its kind in the Shilpakala Academy premises by Sufia Kamal and you will easily discoverwhere the reigns of these two organisations actually lay. The sponsors of such practices claim that these practices are only ceremonial. But let me ask them will a Hindu start his work with recitation of 'Bismillah'?The latest evidence of Bangla Academy's honeymoon with India is its Bangla-English Dictionary. It serves to show how some of the intellectuals as well as some officials of our national institutions work for their foreign masters.The fact is that each and every branch of BangIa Academy (more or less) is controlled by -RAW hirelings and henchmen.

Therefore, there is no possibility in sight of the writings of those who are still out of RAW's orbit being published by BangIa Academy. In conclusion one can quote Weekly Jhanda which had summed up the BangIa Academy's affairs in the following words: "The BangIa Academy has been suffering from Brahministic and atheistic diseases for the last two decades. It has pre-dominant left-leanings and pro-Indian symptoms"(The Weekly Jhanda : May 13, 1992).

CHAPTER-11