Bengal CM pitches for special recognition for Bangla language & Ganga Sagar Mela
In the last 24 hours, Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has written two letters to Prime Minister Narendra Modi regarding recognising ‘Bangla’ or Bengali as a classical language and Ganga Sagar Mela as a national fair.
Regarding the former demand, she attached “a scholarly work undertaken by us in 4 volumes which dates the origin of ‘Bangla’/Bengali language to the 3rd-4th BCE” as proof.
The letter states that the four-volume research document (also sent to the Home Ministry) was prepared following the four criteria enumerated by the Ministry of Home Affairs in its 2004 notification for recognising any language as a classical language.
She stated that the Union government had already given classical language status to six languages—Tamil (2004), Sanskrit (2005), Telugu and Kannada (2008), Malayalam (2013) and Odia (2014)—and that it was time the status was extended to ‘Bangla’.
The second letter relates to recognising Ganga Sagar Mela, held annually to mark Makar Sankranti in January on Sagar Island, as a national fair.
“[C]onsidering the uniqueness, significance, magnitude and spiritual depth associated with the Ganga Sagar Mela, I would earnestly appeal to you to kindly consider to declare Ganga Sagar Mela a National Fair,” she wrote, adding in the same sentence an invitation to the prime minister to visit the event.
Regarding its religious significance, the letter said that the fair has “deep mythological and astrological significances” and that Kapil Muni (whose ashram is located on Sagar Island) and Sagar Island have been mentioned in the Ramayana, Mahabharata and Kalidasa’s Raghuvamsham.
Further harping on its significance, she wrote that it is “the only mela of its kind in the entire world which is organised on an island” which is visited by people from across the country, “almost 1 crore” every year.
She said recently at a press conference that she had written several letters to the Union government (had demanded a similar status for Ganga Sagar Mela in 2021) in this regard and also wrote to UNESCO seeking a heritage tag.
