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The Hindu
23-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Hindu
Hindi speakers' society of West Bengal to celebrate 100 years of Premchand's masterpiece Rangbhoomi in Kolkata
While it is common to celebrate the centenary of a personality or an event, it is not often that 100 years of the publication of a book is remembered through an event, something that a group of Hindi-speaking people in West Bengal is doing for Premchand's masterpiece Rangbhoomi. At a time when it has become almost routine for language fanatics to make news, the Paschim Banga Hindi Bhashi Samaj (West Bengal Hindi Speakers' Society) is holding a seminar on July 31, 2025 to revisit the Hindi novel that was published a century ago. The event will be held at Premchand Library in north Kolkata. Editorial | Premchand, who? 'The milestone is a memorable moment in Hindi literature, more so because the story is more relevant than ever. It is the story of a poor man being displaced from his land, something that is the reality of today's India. The problems depicted by Premchand in his literature have all acquired monstrous forms,' Ashok Singh, general secretary of the Society and former head of Hindi department at Surendranath Evening College, told The Hindu. 'In the words of critic Ram Vilas Sharma, Rangbhoomi represents the period that saw the beginning of the farmers' movement against landowners in the Hindi belt in the 1920s. They were fighting a lone battle without the help of any political party or leader. They lost because at the time farmers and labourers didn't have a union; that's what the protagonist, a blind beggar called Surdas, advises them while dying — he asked them to unite,' Mr. Singh said. Also Read | Premchand, trashed? 'Imagine, this was the 1920s, as if Premchand was looking at the future. He makes Surdas say, 'We may have lost, but we have not deserted the game, let us catch our breath and we will come back, we will learn from you with each defeat and will eventually defeat you someday.' Today, on one hand, the government is working in the interest of the corporates by displacing farmers from their lands, but on the other, an organised peasant movement has forced the government to withdraw three anti-farmer laws,' Mr. Singh said. According to him, ever since the Paschim Banga Hindi Bhashi Samaj was set up, in 1999, its objective has been to hold literary and cultural events, and among the icons it has celebrated so far include Rahi Masoom Raza, Mrinal Sen and Ritwik Ghatak. Awakening the aesthete within the reader 'The main objective of the language communalism you see in the country these days is to distract people from burning problems such as unemployment, inflation, poor education and privatisation of the health sector. In West Bengal, this sort of communalism was initiated by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee during the 2019 elections when she said that the Hindi-speaking people in the State, who formed 15% of the population, were its guests,' Mr. Singh said.
The Hindu
06-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The Hindu
Hindi speakers' society takes the lead to celebrate centenary of Ritwik Ghatak
This is the centenary year of acclaimed filmmaker Ritwik Ghatak, and among the first to celebrate it in West Bengal happens to be a society of Hindi speakers in the State, which claims that, unlike other Bengali filmmakers who mostly depicted Hindi-speaking people as 'doormen or drivers,' Ghatak portrayed them as proper characters. On June 8, Paschim Banga Hindi Bhashi Samaj (West Bengal Hindi Speakers' Society), will hold a screening of Ghatak's film Subarnarekha and also a commemorative discussion on the director who was born in November 1925 and died at the age of 50, much of his iconic status being built posthumously. 'If you see Satyajit Ray's films or Mrinal Sen's films, you will usually find Hindi-speaking people shown as either drivers or doormen. In Ray's film Sonar Kella, for example, you find Bengalis travelling in a train to Rajasthan not having much conversation with a Marwari co-passenger, but the same Bengalis are shown to be so comfortable in Rajasthan,' Ashok Singh, general secretary of the Society and former head of Hindi department at Surendranath Evening College, told The Hindu. 'Whereas if you watch Ghatak's Bari Theke Paliye, you will see a boy running away from his village to the big city of Calcutta being shown kindness by a Hindi-speaking man selling sattu on the road. Such a humane portrayal of the meeting of two migrants!' Mr. Singh said, explaining why Ghatak meant a lot to the society of the Hindi-speaking. Extended tribute The June 8 event will be held at Rammohan Library and attendees will include academics and filmmakers from Kolkata, Delhi, and Mumbai. Some of the names mentioned are Kamaleshwar Mukherjee, Sanjoy Mukherjee, Sanchita Sanyal, Mohammed Salim (former MP), and Sonamani Tudu (Santhali lyricist and singer). Why only Subarnarekha? 'That's only to begin with. Our tribute to him will go on for months and we will show all his films. We are starting with Subarnarekha because it is very relevant today. It is an explosive experiment with mythology. The political questions raised in Ghatak's films are more important today than ever,' Mr. Singh said. The Paschim Banga Hindi Bhashi Samaj was established in March 1999 with the aim, according to Mr. Singh, of promoting the educational and cultural development of Hindi-speaking people in West Bengal and protection of their democratic rights. The body has over 1,000 members and has district committees in Kolkata, Howrah, Hooghly, West Bardhaman, South 24 Parganas, and North 24 Parganas. He said that even though the Hindi-speaking community makes up 15% of the population in West Bengal, it has had no representation in the government for decades. 'When the Congress was in power, there was a Hindi-speaking minister, but after the Left Front took over and ever since then until today, there has been no Hindi-speaking minister in West Bengal. Even in Nandan, which is such an important cultural centre in Kolkata, they have completely stopped showing Hindi films,' Mr. Singh said.
