সম্পাদকীয়

We had to postpone the publication of the Bangla Journal last year due to the on-going pandemic of Covid-19. This year the Journal is returning to its regular publication. Believing in our confidence we're trying to return to our normal life, albeit with an anguish over the loss of countless lives caused by the merciless pandemic. We at our Journal's family have lost Manabendra Bandyopadhyay, the eldest member of our Editorial Board. His death is an irreparable loss to our periodical. Meanwhile, to make our Journal more accessible to a wider public and have a platform to facilitate the communication between the readers and the contributors, in addition to our traditional printed format, we have launched a website of the Bangla Journal via this address: www.banglajournal.org where people can buy an individual piece of writing or the entire Journal with a very nominal cost.

Since people around the world are still in the dark about the severity of the impact the on-going pandemic may cause, it's too early to draw a conclusion about it or narrate the experiences at this moment. With this in mind, instead of making the pandemic our topic of discussion, rather we have decided to focus on our pre-selected main theme, i.e., Bangalis' vision of society and state. In light of the golden jubilee of the independence of Bangladesh, we present three articles. Sohul Ahmed raises some valid questions on how the genocide of 1971 is being remembered and used differently by various groups and political parties according to their ideologies. Aminur Rahim explores the contours of Sheikh Mujib's political journey that led him to become Bangabandhu. Afsan Chowdhury sheds light on the roles the local and foreign media played during Bangladesh's liberation war of 1971. In addition, we present an article by Farooque Chowdhury where he unmasks the exploitative system the urban poor must face to survive in Dhaka.

The year of 2020 was the centenary of the founding of the Communist Party of India on a foreign land. In this issue of the Journal we present articles on M.N. Roy and Muzaffar Ahmad, both of whom were very much involved in the movement. Suchetana Chattopadhyay in her article shows how Muzaffar, hailing from a relatively backward village of Sandwip in East Bengal and a relative newcomer to metropolitan Kolkata to make a living, gained life experiences from his working class surroundings and gradually embraced Communism, Anu Muhammed reviews Suchetana Chattopadhyay's book (An Early Communist: Muzaffar Ahmad in Calcutta 1913-1929) born out of her PhD thesis on the subject. In addition, Tyson Riel Strandlund in his article explores the relevance of M.N. Roy's ideas of Marxism and anti-colonial struggle.

Of the three works of translation presented in this issue the first is that of a few poems of Afro-Cuban poet Georgina Herrera translated by Kaushalya Bannerji. The heartbreaking part of this translation is that not long after poet Herrara gave Kaushalya formal permission to translate her poems she has succumed to Covid-19 on December 13. The other two translations are interviews. One of the interviews is of Cameroon philosopher, intellectual Achille MBembe, and the other is of anthropologist Talal Asad, Achille's interview is translated by Sarwar Tushar and the other by Shishir Bhatttacharya. In addition, we present Hamim Kamrul Haque's article on late Manabendra Bandyopadhyay's poems. Manab's prominence as a translator in Bangla somehow overshadowed his brilliance as a poet, less explored by the critics of Bangla literature. Hamim's attempt is refreshing.

Bangla Journal tries to include non-Bangali contributors if they have anything to say on Bangla and Bangali. Last time we did publish an interesting article written in Bangla by the young Polish writer Kamil Siedczy?ski. This time we present Chinese scholar and translator Bai Kai Yuan's article on Rabindranath Tagore. The other two articles on Rabindranath in this issue are Mihir Bhattacharya's elaborate discussion on him as a public intellectual and Arnab Saha's discussion on two of his stories. Sandipan on the other hand in his article emphasizes the importance of appreciating Bankim without communal trap.

The current issue presents a few poems and two short stories as well