AN INSIGHT INTO THE VERY FIRST BENGALI LANGUAGE TEXT BOOKS: A VISUAL AND HISTORIOGRAPHICAL UNDERSTANDING
Journal Title: Social Affairs - Year 2017, Vol 1, Issue 6
Abstract
Bengali children’s literature has experienced considerable evolution in its journey from oral traditions of the past to the modern age of technology. From various fables, riddles and poems found in the rich oral tradition of Bengal, to the latest publications in the format of DVD’s and CD’s, the medium of this body of literature has also transformed the content down the ages. Bengali text books that introduce the alphabet to young readers have also been richly informed by this knowledge corpus. The authors of these text books were amongst the most important social cognoscenti, contributing signifcantly to further the cause of education in contemporary Bengal. However, several of their efforts (mostly print publications) have been often criticized by historians and sociologists in recent times to have been only limited to the Presidency town of Kolkata during colonial times. Nevertheless, more than a hundred years after the printing of the frst textbook in Bengali by Pundit Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar, the modern market including the internet, is flooded with various Bengali text books, which are all based on these initial efforts. It is also important to note that despite, or perhaps due to, the above criticisms, these textbooks have reached out to a much wider audience over the years in rural as well as urban India. Online availability of such works has further expanded this reach. In the process, text books have also acted as repositories of fables, chharas or poems, and stories from the oral traditions of Bengal. Even the new Bengali text books by various authors often tend to borrow themes, characters, poems, and stories from the old ones, rendering an aspect of continuity amidst changing environments. This paper is an attempt to understand the signifcant efforts of literate pundits of Sanskrit and Bengali in West Bengal towards the spread of the Bengali language through these text books, and the use of oral traditions in these efforts. The present paper has been aided by extensive feldwork across one and a half decades in various districts of the state of West Bengal, conducted to understand the reach and use of these textbooks across urban as well as rural spaces.
Authors and Affiliations
Lopamudra Maitra Bajpai
Keywords
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