Diversity of art, a feature of the nation's cultural mosaic

A.U.M. Fakhruddin

The synthesis of various elements has shaped the culture of Bangladesh. The cultural mosaic of the country is characterized by a fascinating assortment of diverse ingredients.

Contact with diverse peoples from near and far - Aryan, Turkish, Arabic, Persian, Central Asian and European - have contributed to the enrichment of our culture.

The fascinating diversity of Bangladeshi culture is perceptible in the language, literature, music, painting, performing arts, ideas, codes, institutions, folklore, customs, festivals, pastimes, beliefs, rituals, ceremonies, taboos, food, dress and so on.

Some of the cultural features of the country - namely religious festivals like Idul Fitri, the Islamic Day of Sacrifice, Shab-e-Barat and Ashura - are distinctly different from the adjoining Indian state of West Bengal as the great majority (86 percent) of the people of Bangladesh are Muslims. In this country, Hindus celebrate Durga Puja, Luxmi Puja, Kali Puja, Saraswati Puja and Janmastami or the birthday of Sri Krishna; while Baradin or Christmas is the main Christian religious festival, and Boishakhi Purnima is the main Buddhist festival. Though Bangla is also spoken in West Bengal, peculiarities of dialect have marked broad differences in the eastern parts of Bangladesh. The great Bengali poets Rabindranath Tagore and Kazi Nazrul Islam are the two national poets of Bangladesh.

The arrival of Caucasians from the Mediterranean and Indo- Europeans from the Middle East began the process of Aryanization about 3,000 years ago. Muslims came in the 8th century AD and people of Arab, Persian, and Turkish origin moved in large numbers to the subcontinent and gradually entered what is now Bangladesh. So the notion that Bengali Muslims are all descended from lower caste Hindus who were converted to Islam is incorrect; a substantial proportion of them are of Muslim descent.

Like in other developing countries, Bangladesh has two faces, urban and rural. Though it is true that most Bangladeshis live in villages where the majority of the people live and earn a modest income from farming, fishing, weaving and other agricultural and agro-based activities, the rural culture of folk music, the Yatra or folk theater and other folk elements of culture do not have a strong presence. This is because of the overwhelming and ubiquitous presence of radio, television, cinema that arrived from the capital city and has reached even the remotest villages where electricity has yet to arrive. It is true that only well- off villagers can afford these means of entertainment; but inexpensive portable radio sets have become affordable these days even for the common villager.

No other people love their language quite as much as the people of Bangladesh. This is because the Bangladeshis sacrificed their lives for the legitimate recognition of their mother tongue Bangla, or Bengali, as a state language in 1952.

Bengali is the mother tongue of almost 99 percent of the people. Tribal people have their own district dialects, some of which are related to the Tibeto-Burman group of languages.

Immigrants who came to Bangladesh, which was then called East Pakistan, from Bihar State in northeastern India in the wake of the partition in 1947, generally speak Urdu. However, English is an important means of communication with the outside world.

Literary Bengali is the same all over Bangladesh, while there are slight dialectal differences from region to region. The dialects of the districts of Sylhet, Noakhali and Chittagong are the most markedly different. Bengali contains a large number of borrowed words from Portuguese, English, Arabic, Persian and Hindi.

Words derived either directly or indirectly from Sanskrit, however, predominate in the literary idiom.

Bangladesh can boast a treasury of music, which has a wide variety of folk songs, namely, the general Lokasangeet or folk songs, Bhatiyali, Bhawaiya, Gambhira, Baul, Kabiyal, Jarigan, Patua, Jhumur, Bhadu, Ghatu, wedding songs, songs sung in groups by oarsmen during a boat-race, songs of farm workers, construction workers and so on sung to the accompaniment of musical instruments, such as the one-stringed ektara, two- stringed dotara, the sharinda, which is the prototype of the violin, mondira, which are cymbals, tabla, mridanga, khol to provide rhythm and drum beats. Infatuation, love, anguish after romantic separation form the themes of traditional songs. Folk dances are performed by tribal people, such as the Santals, the Garos, the Chakmas, the Manipuris and so on.

In terms of sculpture, 1201 can be regarded as the golden age of pre-Islamic art, and that was 500 years before the Muslim conquest of Bengal. It involved terra-cotta art, woodcarving, metal casting, sculpture on fine-grained black basalt stone.

The artistic excellence of some of these specimens may very well be compared with many of the world's classic masterpieces.

Sung during the last three days and the first month of the Bangladeshi calendar in different parts of northwestern Bangladesh, the Gambhira is unique in that it offers social criticism with sarcastic humor. Performed to the accompaniment of traditional musical instruments, like the dotara, bamboo flute and tabla, it has a peculiar refrain, namely, Nana hey, meaning, "Oh grandpa". The main two singers dance wearing Nupur or Ghungur (ankle bells) while they perform.

In no other song is the universality of man and his soul in relation to the Almighty so profound and explicit as it is in the songs of the Baul cult who can be both Muslims and Hindus, but they do not go by religious rites and rituals. The mystic songs of Fakir Lalan Shah had a perceptible influence on poet Rabindranath Tagore. The Kabiyals are singers who can compose songs based on Hindu mythology with dhol (large drum) accompaniment and kanshi (cymbals). These songs, which begin at 10 p.m. and last for between 12 hours and 14 hours, are poetical fights between two parties of two poets.

The Jarigan is sung in the month of Muharram of the Islamic calendar to commemorate the tragic events of Karbala on the banks of the Euphrates, where Hazrat Imam Hussain was killed by his treacherous opponents. Mention must be made of a large body of Muslim devotional songs including Qawwali that invoke the blessing of Almighty Allah, Prophet Muhammad, the great Caliphs, Hazrat Imam Hussain who was martyred at Karbala in Iraq, great saints like Bara Pir Sahib, Khwaza Baba and other major saints of Bangladesh, namely, Hazrat Shah Jalal, Hazrat Maijbhandari and so on. Similarly, Bhajan, Sri Krishna Kirtan, Shyama Sangeet are examples of Hindu devotional songs. Mention must also be made of Bangladeshi rock bands that now number over a dozen.

There are four main types of music; classical, devotional, popular. Classical music has many forms, of which dhrupad -- Hindustani, devotional songs, and kheyal -- a blending of the Perso-Arab and Indian musical systems -- are the best known. The thumri and tappa forms belong to the light classical variety. These forms are part of the musical heritage of the subcontinent. Music in Bengal made great advances during the period of the independent Muslim rulers.

Sultan Ghiyas-ud Din Azam Shah, who ruled in the late 14th and early 15th century, was a great patron of music, as was Alaud-Din Husayn Shah, who ruled from 1493 to 1518. In the Mughal period, constant cultural contact was maintained between northern India, the seat of classical music, and Bengal, and eminent musicians accompanied the Mughal viceroys to Bengal, and classical music flourished in the region through the centuries.

Between the rigid and formal classical music and free modern songs are found the rabindrasangeet songs. The other significant form of modern Bengali music is the nazrulgeeti, most of which is based on the Ragas of classical music.

Bangladesh has evolved highly original indigenous dances. The best known forms are the dhali, baul, manipuri, and snake dances, each of which expresses a particular aspect of tribal or communal life and is danced on particular occasions.

Painting in Bangladesh is a recently introduced art form. The main figure behind the art movement was Zainul Abedin, who first attracted attention with his sketches of the Bengal famine of 1943. He was able, after 1947, to gather around him a school of artists who experimented with various forms, both orthodox and original.

As for Bangladeshi literature, over centuries and ages the country has gone through phases and absorbed many different influences, while the language and literature has taken in and incorporated remnants of these strikingly different stages. Hindu myths and legends, the religious values of Islam, the ethical teachings of Gautama Buddha and Western thought have all exerted an influence on the growth of Bangladeshi literature, which took a noticeable turn in 1947 when the subcontinent was partitioned and Bangladesh became a part of Pakistan.

The writers of Bangladesh have inherited a cultural heritage and secular Bengali tradition was shared among the two major communities living here, the Hindus and the Muslims. Contemporary literature is characterized by refreshing vigor and verve.

The mass movements of the 1960s and the 1970s, the 1971 Liberation War have inspired our poets, novelists, short story writers, playwrights and essayists to treat societal and national issues.

It goes without saying that the artistic heritage of Bangladesh is very old, with its rich tradition of painting and terra-cotta art. The Bengal Patua painting and the old mythological scrolls constitute a part of the painting heritage of Bangladesh; and the discovery of the figurines in Mahasthangarh and the terra-cotta plaques and stone sculptures at Paharpur and Mainamati testify to the artistic temperament and skill of the early people, centuries ago. Modern art in Bangladesh had its beginning in 1948 when the Government College of Art was set up in Dhaka.

The political upheavals and social developments of the 1940s painters led the way to realism. When Shilpacharya Zainul Abedin created his famous famine sketches in 1944, many heralded the advent of realism, which clearly indicated that an artist's commitment to society and life could enable him to explore the realm of great art of social relevance.

However, western influence is evident in the early works of our first generation of painters and artists of the later decades.

Yatra, the folk theater or opera -- with its simple stories of yearning for the beloved, romantic agony, pangs of separation from love ones, didactic themes like respect for the elders, filial affection etc. -- amuse villagers. In contrast, influenced, nurtured and nourished by Western concepts, the urban, mostly Dhaka-based, modern theater offers dramas with complex social themes of conflicts and struggles for existence, staged by dozens of theater groups, among which a few troupes have earned acclaim at home and abroad.

The cinema in Bangladesh is not too young an industry, which began its journey in 1956 with the film Mookh O Mookhosh. Today mainstream commercial moviedom is big business producing over a dozen motion pictures a year. Among the serious genre of films Surja Dighal Bari was the first to win an award at the Mannheim Film Festival in 1980. Over the years, some more films have received recognition abroad.

The spirit of the universal brotherhood of man has been succinctly emphasized in the following folksong of Bangladesh: Nanan boron gaabhiray tor ekoi boron doodh, /Jagat Bharamiya, dekhlam ekoi maayer poot (The cow's skin may take many hues but its milk is white everywhere, / All men and women are offspring of the same Mother Eve).

The writer is a lyricist, columnist, author of books and Assistant Editor of The Independent, an English daily published from Dhaka.