The first day of the Bengali New Year, Pahela Baishakh, drew a sea of people on to the streets of Dhaka. It was people, men and women of all age groups -- youths, parents with children, middle-aged men and women -- walking all around wearing traditional dresses. Women were clad in white sarees with red border, while men wore punjabi, pyjamas and chappal (sandals) or nagra shoes. But they were loitering as if aimlessly under a mostly gloomy sky. The sky overcast with cloud was a blessing in disguise, because on previous other Pahela Baishakhs the scorching sun would beat down mercilessly on the celebrants.
The traditional Pahela Baishakh of the past has been reinvented by the urban middle class and transformed into a carnival these days. But in the past it was mostly the rural people who would observe the day after the closure of the old year and with the daybreak of the new year, when the peasants would have filled their barns with fresh harvests. It was the time of the year when the zemindars would collect taxes from the subjects and the business people would open a new halkhata (book of accounts) after closing the older one.
Customers who had arrears to pay back to the mahajans (money lenders or merchants, who sold their goods on credit to customers) would clear their dues on the day. To mark the day, mahajans would treat their debtors with sweets, while an 'aarong', a kind of rural fair would sit usually on the bank of a river. Handloom-woven colourful cloths, garments made from such cloths for young, old and children alike would be sold in the aarong.
Earthenware for household use, including animal-shaped earthen toys, some with orifice at one end through which children would blow air with their mouth to produce shrill sound, would flood the fair. Bamboo-made toys as well as useful household articles, for example winnowing fans, hand-held fans made from palm leaves and their stems, sweetmeats of different varieties having shapes of different animals to attract children would also be sold in an aarong mela (aarong fair).
There would also be spots where children and the elders alike could entertain themselves by riding a merry-go-round, while at others there would be pala gaan (where rural lyricists and singers would sing folk songs narrating a story in groups led by their team leaders), kobi gaan (debate competition between groups of rural versifiers or poets on a theme).
The villagers would organise boat races in the local river, arrange wrestling competitions, bullfights, cockfights and so on. After the harvest was over, the villagers had the free time to indulge themselves in such pastimes as they would have the surplus agricultural products and money in their hand.
Though this kind of new year's celebration dates back to the Vedic period in the Indian subcontinent, the Bangla Nabobarsho (Bengali New Year) in its present form was introduced during the reign of the greatest of the Mughal emperors, Akbar. Older system of collecting taxes from the subjects was done according to the Islamic Hijri calendar. Since that date did not coincide with the harvesting time of the year, the subjects would be hard-pressed to pay their annual tax.
To overcome this difficulty, Akbar introduced the fasli san (agricultural year), which would begin from March 10/11 according to Gregorian calendar. Later it was calculated from the date of this ascension to throne.
However, the observance of Pahela Baishakh that started in protest against the then Pakistani government's attempt to suppress Bengali culture through banning songs and poems of Rabindranath Tagore, was through singing of Tagore songs by the Chhayanaut cultural group welcoming the month of Boishakh at the foot of the banyan (in actuality, peepul) tree in the Ramna Garden of the city. Since then the number of the Bangla Naboborsho celebrants has literally exploded over the years.
But the carnival form it has taken in Dhaka and other cities has little resemblance with that of the rural festivities of old. In the present time, the villages have lost their own integrity and characteristics. The all-engulfing pull of consumerism has also swept rural life. Their traditions are vanishing as the lives of the rural people are being irreversibly transformed in the model of urban consumerism. But questions remain to be answered by us, the urbanites, all the same.
We often talk big about preserving our Bengali culture and traditions. Celebration of the Pahela Baishakh is such an instance of our love for the age-old cultural traditions that the majority of our population would like to proudly claim. But who make this majority? Are the participants of the Pahela Baishakh in the capital city or at other urban centres representing that majority? Does their style of celebration really reflect the cultural life of our vast millions of peasants, boatmen, carpenters, clay potters, blacksmiths, weavers, fisher folks and so on? Are they not excluded from this kind of carnival in the city?
Take the example of eating panta bhat (boiled rice soaked in water) and hilsha fish at the makeshift hotels at the Ramna garden. The price at which a plate of panta bhat sells would have the head of a peasant turned. On the contrary, the poor farmers' cheapest way of preserving last night's leftover rice is to soak it in water and then consume the same with salt, pepper and, if affordable, a pod of onion. So, does not the way we take panta makes a mockery of the panta the poor, hardworking villagers have to eat, as they cannot afford to have anything better?
The reality should make us go for a soul-searching and rediscover the essence of Bengali New Year's Day in a fresh light and celebrate it by showing respect to the traditions of the majority who built their culture over the eons colouring it with their joys , sorrows and struggles.
Watch Video : Pohela BoisakhBangla New Year.
