উনিশে মে

iver is called Barak. A date frozen in the calendar is 19th May. In 1961 when world woke up to celebrate the birth centenary of its poet-laureate, Rabindranath Tagore, the two banks of Barak rose to an wake up call to defend its legitimate right to sing in Tagore’s language, to dream in Tagore’s language, to live a Bengali life. In the railway track of the district town, Silchar of the then undivided district of Cachar of Assam, ten young men and a woman fell down to the bullets of the state police. In the aftermath of the valiant sacrifices of the martyrs, Bengali was made the official language of the three districts of present day Barak valley. The struggle that gave back Bengali its rightful place was never a struggle of the Bengalis’ alone. First to resign from Assam Legislative Assembly in protest of firing was Nanda kishore Singha, a Bishnupriya Manipuri. In a silent protest against the brutal police firing and consequent death of eleven martyrs, thousands of Khasi men and women were on the streets of Shillong. The pluralism exuded out of these events was the essence of the language struggle of 1961. Struggle for a pluralistic polity and life in a multilingual, multiethnic state like Assam is the uniqueness of the Bengalis’ language struggle of the state. Struggle for pluralism against the chauvinistic policies of the ruling classes took its thread from 1961 and went through the tumultuous events of 1972, 1986 and 1995. Bachchu Chakraborty in 1972, Jaganmoy Deb (Jagan) and Dibyendu Das (Jishu) in 1986, in Karimganj and valiant Sudeshna Sinha, a fighter for the cause of her mother tongue, Bishnupriya Manipuri in 1995 in Kalkalighat- followed the footsteps of the eleven martyrs of 1961 and joined the long column of glorious martyrs of history. History and Geography of this land, for long have been engaged in a duel which left an indelible imprint on the archaic memory of the populace. Our literature, our music and our folklore murmur the never-ending agony, the refrain of eternal tragedy of this land. The saga of our journey through the lonesome roads of history remains unheard till date. On the fiftieth anniversary of the supreme sacrifice of the martyrs, we launch this website to make our presence felt in the fraternity of web-world to plead our own case, with a hope to share our tears and laughter, our trials and tribulations, our triumphs and fall in the annals of history with the likeminded struggling masses across the globe.
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Let’s be friends!