Old Bangla Photos

[Zabaniyah]

Dear Asad ,

Please speak for yourself or for your nation Bangladesh
Don't try to be a spokesperson for Bengalis..

We are proud of our culture, our literates, our poets, our freedom fighters, our festivals, our food..

Bangladesh was created for religion. you are a Mulsim state and please be happy with that..

i feel that Al-Zakir is one of the most honest persons in this forum. He resists Bangali culture on his country.. He wants to learn Arabic/Urdu wants it to be a part of Bangladesh, He hates Bengali New Year..
Rest of you do not know where your identitiy lies.. You are confused between Bengali culutre and your religious identity..
Worst of all you sound hypocrites
Well, for whatever it is, please keep it inside Bangaldesh. Thank you

Today's Bangladeshi society at large mostly identifies itself with the Mughal era heritage.

Although, the Mughals were invaders as well. Mainland India has generally been a magnet for invaders ranging from Aryans to Mughals.

It is true that Bengal has a rich Buddhist heritage, but that is long gone. Their works were destroyed during the Aryan and Mughal invasions.

 

[Loyus]

Today's Bangladeshi society at large mostly identifies itself with the Mughal era heritage.

Although, the Mughals were invaders as well. Mainland India has generally been a magnet for invaders ranging from Aryans to Mughals.

It is true that Bengal has a rich Buddhist heritage, but that is long gone. Their works were destroyed during the Aryan and Mughal invasions.

Dear Zabanya,

I have found you a sane poster.
when you talk of India you see it basically means it is an assimilation of culutres.. be it indigeneous, hybird or external. A culture changes from time to time .. The food that i am eating, the dance, theatre, music, literature, statues, mandirs, masjids etc etc were all influenced by culure..
So for me not Hindu, not christian, not Buddhist but the pride in the culure that developed over a period of time is a matter of pride..
Do you know that the Mandirs in ancient Bengalis were influenced by the dome shape of Masjids.. Goto Kalna, Bhardhaman.. etc..
Do you know we take as much pride in Gour , Murshidabad and Siraj-Ud-Daulah as Durga Puja, Shayama Puja etc..
And what about Bengali calender
It has Islamic influence..
So when you talk about Bengali you are essentially takking pride all such aspects.. Not to mention the awesome Bengali renaissance and the poets, laureates that followed after..
But when I see the Bengalis who fought for their liberation in 1971 identifying Bengali culture with one religion it essentially coagulates into the thought that you are either confused etc etc

East Pakistan was founded on religion.. If your fellow posters take pride in that then let it be and for people like you who take pride in Bengali cutlture and are secular I would say :
Welcome to Bengal..

 

[Avisheik]

Today's Bangladeshi society at large mostly identifies itself with the Mughal era heritage.

Although, the Mughals were invaders as well. Mainland India has generally been a magnet for invaders ranging from Aryans to Mughals.

It is true that Bengal has a rich Buddhist heritage, but that is long gone. Their works were destroyed during the Aryan and Mughal invasions.

They arent destroyed, they are still in bd. But negiligence and destruction by local people are removing these structures from the face of the planet. Now, even the mughal structures are being destroyed in bd.

P.S. there was no such thing as aryan invasion.

 

[eastwatch]

Today's Bangladeshi society at large mostly identifies itself with the Mughal era heritage.

Although, the Mughals were invaders as well. Mainland India has generally been a magnet for invaders ranging from Aryans to Mughals.

It is true that Bengal has a rich Buddhist heritage, but that is long gone. Their works were destroyed during the Aryan and MUGHAL invasions.

Where did you get this idea that Budhist heritage was destroyed in Bengal by a Mughal invasion? Mughal invasion of Bengal continued for a long 30 years from 1576 to 1605 AD. It was between two groups of Muslims, and not between Muslim Mughals and Bengali Budhists. One contending Muslim group was the local Muslims led by the north Indian Pathans who were expelled from their stronghold by Babar in 1526 AD. Delhi Mughal power was the other contending group for the supremacy of political power of Bengal.


Mughals won this long fight. In these fights Raja Man Singh, who was fighting for Badshah Akber, lost two of his sons, Arjun Singh and Durjoy Singh.

 

[Zabaniyah]

They arent destroyed, they are still in bd. But negiligence and destruction by local people are removing these structures from the face of the planet. Now, even the mughal structures are being destroyed in bd.

P.S. there was no such thing as aryan invasion.

Actually, the Aryans did invade many eons ago.

 

[Avisheik]

Nope they didn't. There is a lot of differences between north indians and central Asian. Aryans by historical accounts were herdsmen. You do know after the fall of Indus valley civilization, the civilizations near the Ganges sprang up, literature flourished, etc. Herdsmen couldnt have possibly done that.

 

[Zabaniyah]

Dear Zabanya,

I have found you a sane poster.
when you talk of India you see it basically means it is an assimilation of culutres.. be it indigeneous, hybird or external. A culture changes from time to time .. The food that i am eating, the dance, theatre, music, literature, statues, mandirs, masjids etc etc were all influenced by culure..

That can happen anywhere. Those Syhleti curry houses are literally changing the eating habits of the Brits

So for me not Hindu, not christian, not Buddhist but the pride in the culure that developed over a period of time is a matter of pride..
Do you know that the Mandirs in ancient Bengalis were influenced by the dome shape of Masjids.. Goto Kalna, Bhardhaman.. etc..
Do you know we take as much pride in Gour , Murshidabad and Siraj-Ud-Daulah as Durga Puja, Shayama Puja etc..
And what about Bengali calender
It has Islamic influence..

I support cultural diversity.

So when you talk about Bengali you are essentially takking pride all such aspects.. Not to mention the awesome Bengali renaissance and the poets, laureates that followed after..

When the British came, the Hindus did assimilate into Western culture and knowledge to a higher degree compared to the Muslims. However, not many Muslims in the Bengal region didn't. This is one of the reasons why Muslims generally had few aristocrats compared to the Hindus. I really do wish they hadn't done that. At least gather the modern knowledge.

But when I see the Bengalis who fought for their liberation in 1971 identifying Bengali culture with one religion it essentially coagulates into the thought that you are either confused etc etc

East Pakistan was founded on religion.. If your fellow posters take pride in that then let it be and for people like you who take pride in Bengali cutlture and are secular I would say :
Welcome to Bengal..

Islam does not discriminate between cultures. Language is only part of a culture. They can have any form of government they want, be it an Empire or a Democracy.

The very ideology that founded East Pakistan was short-lived, very, very short-lived. Ironic that the All India Muslim League was founded in Dhaka, and not Islamabad.

I agree that today's Bangladeshis to some extent still aren't exactly seeing the light of their identity. At times, I question if the state is even viable.

 

[kobiraaz]

Bangladeshis are quite confident about their identity.... You are making yourself a fool if you measure them according to your scale.... Bangladeshis are muslim first... It is applicable for each and every muslim all over the world, they may be Bengali, uzbek, pathan, arab, sudanese whatever... They are muslim first.... Ask any indian practising muslim , he will answer the same...We are seperated from west bengal because we are muslims, we are seperated from pakistan cause we are bangalis.... .. We are bengali muslim, this is our identity.....

 

[kobiraaz]

Interesting. From the dress up, it seems they are the muslim migrant from west. Any thought?

they are muslim sure, mayb low class hindus ( according to them ) converted to Islam.... But west boleto?? West bengal? Not sure....

 

[LaBong]

Nope they didn't. There is a lot of differences between north indians and central Asian. Aryans by historical accounts were herdsmen. You do know after the fall of Indus valley civilization, the civilizations near the Ganges sprang up, literature flourished, etc. Herdsmen couldnt have possibly done that.

Right! There was no invasion but there were migrations.

The initial settlement took place 65,000 years ago in the Andamans and in ancient south India around the same time, which led to population growth in this part. At a later stage, 40,000 years ago, the ancient north Indians emerged which in turn led to rise in numbers here. But at some point of time, the ancient north and the ancient south mixed, giving birth to a different set of population. And that is the population which exists now and there is a genetic relationship between the population within India.

The adivasis are thought to be indigenous people.

 

[Maira La]

Dear Asad ,

Please speak for yourself or for your nation Bangladesh
Don't try to be a spokesperson for Bengalis..

We are proud of our culture, our literates, our poets, our freedom fighters, our festivals, our food..

Bangladesh was created for religion. you are a Mulsim state and please be happy with that..

i feel that Al-Zakir is one of the most honest persons in this forum. He resists Bangali culture on his country.. He wants to learn Arabic/Urdu wants it to be a part of Bangladesh, He hates Bengali New Year..
Rest of you do not know where your identitiy lies.. You are confused between Bengali culutre and your religious identity..
Worst of all you sound hypocrites
Well, for whatever it is, please keep it inside Bangaldesh. Thank you

Dear Loyus,

Please do not generalize us Bangladeshis. Different Bangladeshis have different opinions on how we should identify ourselves. Regardless of personal views, WB people are very close to us genetically and culturally - we can definitely get along in the future as long as we respect each other's differences.

 

[StandForInsaf]

Interesting Pics and bitter past ... Long live Pakistan

 

[eastwatch]

they are muslim sure, mayb low class hindus ( according to them ) converted to Islam.... But west boleto?? West bengal? Not sure....

I think, Iajdani was telling about Muslims in the picture were from west of Bengal (could be Uttar Pradesh or even Delhi) and not from west Bengal that you are saying. Note that there was no entity called west Bengal before 1947.

 

[Zabaniyah]

Bangladeshis are quite confident about their identity.... You are making yourself a fool if you measure them according to your scale.... Bangladeshis are muslim first... It is applicable for each and every muslim all over the world, they may be Bengali, uzbek, pathan, arab, sudanese whatever... They are muslim first.... Ask any indian practising muslim , he will answer the same...We are seperated from west bengal because we are muslims, we are seperated from pakistan cause we are bangalis.... .. We are bengali muslim, this is our identity.....

I am going to elaborate on the bold parts.

Yes, Bangladeshis are mostly Bengali Muslims, and that's just a general description.

But the question is: How does a Bengali Muslim identify himself as a Bengali Muslim?

Identity comes with culture, and with culture comes with many things.

Whatever we struggled for during the Liberation War, we tended to see culture from visible aspects such as language being the major one. Then there was the issue of human rights and the rights of ALL Bengalis regardless of religion, and that is a slightly different matter.

There are invisible aspects of a culture such as values, norms, attitude, perception, and discipline. Indeed our culture is a high context one, where the environment determines how we should express ourselves to a high degree. It is these invisible aspects that are very important in any culture. Do Bangladeshis for the most part understand these aspects? How he understands himself determines character.

The Americans adopted Roman culture, the Persians have their own culture, the Japanese have their own culture, the Chinese have their own culture, and they all have come a very long way. The question is: how far have we as Bengali Muslims come? If that identity is only 40 years old, we have a long way to go to be......complete.

And as far as politics go, parties like Jamaat do not make it a secret that breaking away from Pakistan was a mistake, and yet still fly the Bangladeshi flag while they did openly lobbied against the creation of Bangladesh. According to unofficial sources, there were even some Bangladesh Army officers who discussed with the Pakistanis about reunification! Of-course, the Pakistanis rejected the offer. Why these people are still around?

How can we say Bengali Muslims are confident about their identity? They (Jamaat) are still following an outdated ideology (not Islam itself), that was obliterated forty years ago. And even if 10% of Bangladeshis support the likes of Jamaat, that's still a lot of people if we take into account the country's population.

The Awami League has no identity, they are merely a mafia party. And gangsters will always be gangsters.

So, given that this young Bengali Muslim identity is just 40 years old, then I must say have a long way to go to realize the point of our existence in this world and beyond. And that'll take time. Cultural change for the better takes at least three generations if we look at it from a broad consensus.

And as far as Muslims in India go, how are they different from us? Was there really any point in the partition? Maybe we all just could have lived as the United States of India. Please, remember that the All India Muslim League was founded in Dhaka! And not in Islamabad!

Anyways, the past is the past, and we should look forward to the future. However, given our political environment, I wouldn't say that the key political parties are helping. And we are the idiots voting for them.

Interesting Pics and bitter past ... Long live Pakistan

Long live everybody

 

[Loyus]

I am going to elaborate on the bold parts.

Yes, Bangladeshis are mostly Bengali Muslims, and that's just a general description.

But the question is: How does a Bengali Muslim identify himself as a Bengali Muslim?

Identity comes with culture, and with culture comes with many things.

Whatever we struggled for during the Liberation War, we tended to see culture from visible aspects such as language being the major one. Then there was the issue of human rights and the rights of ALL Bengalis regardless of religion, and that is a slightly different matter.

There are invisible aspects of a culture such as values, norms, attitude, perception, and discipline. Indeed our culture is a high context one, where the environment determines how we should express ourselves to a high degree. It is these invisible aspects that are very important in any culture. Do Bangladeshis for the most part understand these aspects? How he understands himself determines character.

The Americans adopted Roman culture, the Persians have their own culture, the Japanese have their own culture, the Chinese have their own culture, and they all have come a very long way. The question is: how far have we as Bengali Muslims come? If that identity is only 40 years old, we have a long way to go to be......complete.

And as far as politics go, parties like Jamaat do not make it a secret that breaking away from Pakistan was a mistake, and yet still fly the Bangladeshi flag while they did openly lobbied against the creation of Bangladesh. According to unofficial sources, there were even some Bangladesh Army officers who discussed with the Pakistanis about reunification! Of-course, the Pakistanis rejected the offer. Why these people are still around?

How can we say Bengali Muslims are confident about their identity? They (Jamaat) are still following an outdated ideology (not Islam itself), that was obliterated forty years ago. And even if 10% of Bangladeshis support the likes of Jamaat, that's still a lot of people if we take into account the country's population.

The Awami League has no identity, they are merely a mafia party. And gangsters will always be gangsters.

So, given that this young Bengali Muslim identity is just 40 years old, then I must say have a long way to go to realize the point of our existence in this world and beyond. And that'll take time. Cultural change for the better takes at least three generations if we look at it from a broad consensus.

And as far as Muslims in India go, how are they different from us? Was there really any point in the partition? Maybe we all just could have lived as the United States of India. Please, remember that the All India Muslim League was founded in Dhaka! And not in Islamabad!

Anyways, the past is the past, and we should look forward to the future. However, given our political environment, I wouldn't say that the key political parties are helping. And we are the idiots voting for them.



Long live everybody

Thanks Zabanya..This would probably me my last post in this thread..
As far as culture is concerned then one cannot be selective about it..
If you are a Bengali then you cannot negate, eliminate or forget the influence of various religions in that culture..
So I would never classify myself as a Hindu, Christian or Muslim Bengali..
I am just a Bengali culturally.. and my religion is Hindu/Christian/Muslim..
As far as Muslims are concerned..In India Muslims are integrated culturally in the region they live..
So a Malayali Muslim is very different from a Gujarati Mulsim or a Kashimiri Muslim
It is true that they follow the same teachings and principles but they have imbibed themselves into the culture of region
That is why difference in dressing habits, food , songs, language etc etc
It is the same with Hindus, Christians etc etc

So culturally I would associate with you .. but religiously you might associate with a Kannada Muslim

My reply was to a flaming reply by asad
From your and Apocalypse's reply I understand that there is bigget chasm in Bangladeshi society than I imagined.. The chasm is on identity..
I don't think that same chasm is there in West Bengal
Though In India we have religious nutjobs of all colours but our Constitution is thorougly secular and that is the holy book of our country.. Nothing else

And do read my membership introduction..
You might like it..