Bengali culture is more closely related to agnosticism than anything other specific religion, anybody who disagrees is trying to one up other Bengalis.
While other cultures are having identity crises of all sorts ranging from 'are we arabs' ? 'what are Indian Muslims, I'm Indian first', 'F america; BLM', 'are we Slavs or pure bred Europeans?'....
Our people are busy nitpicking amongst themselves, we are truly a bunch of delusional ingrates.
We are blessed with a beautiful language that has a rich history laced in tales of conflict, strife and suffering from which tales of the bravery of our fore fathers shine through. A language inseparable from our culture, a culture revolving around our language.
We are blessed with a colourful culture, that is one of the most, if not the most renowned in South Asia, ask anybody who knows a thing or two about history and they will all know what Bengal is and how Bengalis are supposed to be.
Our kingdoms stood tall even after the repeated attempts by foreigner mongrels of all skin shades under the sun but they couldn't bring us down.
What it took for them to subdue us, was for one of us to defect to them. For one of us to put personal gains over their loyalty to our Bangla Ma.
Our culture is so deeply and irrevocably ingrained in us, that we laid down own lives to preserve our simple Bengali way of life.
Our people have a history of leading the struggle from the front, be it the mughal periods, be it 1905, be it 1947, be it 1952, be 1965, be it 1971...
Our faith in our culture is so strong, some foreigners mistake it for a 'superiority complex'.
Even with all these blessings that bind us together, a few of us from both sides of the Bengali spectrum are not happy with the way things are.
Why are we this way ? Why do we have to be like the others ?
Why can't we be Bengali before all else and Bengali all the way through, is being Bengali not enough ?
Is speaking Bangla, eating like Bengali, living like Bengali, being born in the blessed arms of a Bengali mother not enough affirmation of our Bengali-ness ?
Why are we trying to pick bones, when none exist ?
Indeed, those who seek to demarcate a fine like between the two Bengals and claim ownership over the Bengali culture all for themselves are misguided.
Such people must be shown the ill in their ways, but it must be shown in a loving and caring manner. Foul language, rarely serves little purpose other than to send people even farther away.
But what I see on the ground isn't promising, we are doing ourselves no favours, both sides are to blame.
Just open any YouTube comments section or Facebook comments and one can see the two flavours of Bengalis at each others throats, one says 'rendian', the other reminds us of 71 and says something along the lines of 'Jihadi'.
We will remain the laughing stock of the region until we fix this, West Bengal is already not matching up to its potential nor does New Delhi care much for West Bengal. Biharis beat up west Bengal government transport drives, stole their buses after they entered Bihari jurisdiction and WB state government couldn't do a thing.
We Bangladeshis aren't doing much better either, we are comparing ourselves with our two neighbours, one of which is poor like us and the other is.... The less said about that other genocidal lot the better. We should compare ourselves to something we seek to become, if we are comparing ourselves with other South Asian countries then we are a dumb, dumb people.
Grow up Bengalis, embrace thy brethren and give up on this us Vs them mentality, ignore those who speak ill or sow discord between our people.
Anyway enough rambling for today, I'm too lazy to proofread this, forgive any typos and as always this is my own individual opinion based on my observations.
You are all free to critique or disagree.
