সম্পাদকীয়

The plan to publish a special issue of the Bangla Journal to commemorate the centenary of the Russian Socialist Revolution has been in the making for last two years. Anticipating a worldwide flurry of discussions, analyses, reflections and publications in various languages on the topic, we decided early on to keep our focus on its impact on Bangla (Bengal). When we were about to finalize our invitation for contributions to this issue, we received the news of Fidel Castro’s death. This made us realize the significance and relevance of the Russian revolution in locating the anti-imperial struggle of a Third-World country in the prevailing global reality.

The impact of the Russian revolution on Bangalis turned out to be long lasting and far reaching. It influenced their concepts about society, statecraft and all aspects of cultural activities, including art and literature. The revolution and the ideal of socialism not only attracted Rabindranath and Nazrul, our two helmsmen, but it also to a large degree shaped the outlook of noteworthies such as M.N. Roy, Muzaffar Ahmed, Subhas Bose and anti-British armed rebels during that period. The impact of the Russian revolution is also evident in Bangla (Bengal) with the rise of class-conscious left politics. It has included consolidation of trade organisations comprised offarmers, workers, students and other professional and labourer unions and socially commited literature and performing arts groups. On the one hand Pashchimbanga has experienced Left rule for more than three decades; Bangladesh, on the other hand, right after its birth adopted socialism as one of its four founding principles of statehood. Thousands of Bangalis, along with the students of other recently de-colonized Third-World sovereign countries, have received scholarships for free higher education in the Soviet Union. Indeed, it was a counter measure to stop the braindrain from the Third-World countries since the developed Capitalist centres had long been appropriating their talents in the form of offering graduate scholarships.

In the present issue of the Journal, Suchetana Chattopadhyay writes on the formative years of Narendranath Bhattacharya, the real person whose other identity as revolutionary figurehead M.N. Roy, became well known during British ruleof the subcontinent for inspiring communist movements and organizations. Daniel Kent-Carrasco discusses the backgound and other currents of Mexico City that transformed M.N. Roy, eventually leading him towards the Communist movement. In addition, Biswarup Sanyal, Anu Muhammad, Sandipan Sen, Chandidas Bhattacharya, Arun Som, Manabendra Bandyopadhyay, Amar Mitra, Shobhanlal Datta Gupta, Tushar Gayen and Mashiul Alam in their respective articles analyse, discuss and reflect on the impact of the Russian revolution. We are also reprinting an article by Kajal Bandyopadhyay that paints an elaborate picture in detail to chronicle the influence of the Russian revolution in Purbabangla (present Bangladesh). Inspired by the Russian revolution, many members of the Anusilan Samiti, a group that believed in armed struggle against British rule, moved towards left politics in their later lives. Pravat Chakraborty from Comilla, a district in present day Bangladesh, is one of them. We are presenting his incomplete autobiographical notes with an introduction by Suchetana Chattopadhyay.

Mihir Bhattacharya discusses in his article how Cuba deals with the issue of religion in its statecraft and reflects on the challenges a Third-World postcolonial country faces in its mission to build socialism. Similarly, Manas Ghosh presents a parallel analysis of socially-committed film makers Tomas Gutierrez Alea and Mrinal Sen’s attempts to project a new kind of film language on screen. This year also marks the fiftieth anniversary of the assasination of the revolutionary Ernesto Che Guevara. Razu Alauddin has translated Cuban Poet Nicolás Guillén’s homage to Che from Spanish to Bangla for our readers. In addition, we include Amiya Kumar Bagchi’s review of Utsa and Prabhat Patnaik’s Theory of Imperialism, Tushar Chakraborty’s article on highly acclaimed Bangali scientist Meghnad Saha, who blended a pursuit of science and progressive politics quite successfully, as well as short stories by Mamun Hussain, Rongili Biswas and Alok Goswami.

Regarding Journal’s cover
Since the year 2000, we have made a decision to adorn our covers with artworks of Bangali artists. We not only print their artworks, but also include a few words by the respective artists about their works. In this venture, poet Namita Chowdhury has been a great help in indentifying artists from Pashchimbanga to ensure we project artists from both Bangla on an equal footing. Her cooperation is essential, and we are grateful to her for her support.

In memory
Reba Basu (1926-2017)
Reba Basu, the last of the patron-couple of the Bangla Journal passed away on 17th May of this year around 5am at a hospital in Victoria, B.C. Four years ago in 2013, she lost her husband and co-patron, Prasanta Kumar Basu. As we have mentioned in the past, the Bangla Journalhas all along received wholehearted support and encouragement since its inception from Prasanta-da and Reba-boudi. I am personally in debt to Reba-boudi for her motherly affection and support. She has inspired others to emulate the qualities of transperancy, appreciation of literature and musicand love for fellow beings thatwere so important to her. I’ll always treasure the memories of listening to her rendering of Rabindra songs in an informal, homesetting. She was also very sincere in appreciating other singers and performers and didn’t shy away from conveying her feelings personally. Her free spirit enabled Ms. Basu to pick up all the positive aspects of foreign culture and blend them in her daily living without sacrificing the good things she inherited from her tradition. She managed to create her own space for creativity and took on a task to publish books about her father-in law and grandson. None in the Bangali community could be unaware of her accomplishments. Even in death, Reba Basu, like her late husband Prasanta Basu, donated her body for medical research to a B.C. institution instead of following the usual funeral tradition.