Bengali language not getting respect & recognition in West

Popular Bengali writer Shirshendu Mukhopadhyay has called for introspection as to why Bengali language is "not getting" the respect and recognition in West Bengal as it does on the other side of the border.

Speaking at the 'Dui Desh Ek Bangla: Stories From Across The Borders' session at the Kolkata Literature Festival here on Saturday, Mukhopadhyay compared the love and passion for the language among people in West Bengal and Bangladesh.

"The respect and passion for their mother tongue Bengali remains more intense among the people of Bangladesh," Mukhopadhyay said at the discussion on the third and concluding day of the Kolkata Literature Festival.

Mukhopadhyay said Bengali is the sixth largest spoken language in the world and one of the largest spoken language in India.

The 83-year old Sahitya Akademi winner for 'Manabjomin' said, "There is nothing to feel embarrassed and awkward to proclaim your identity as a Bengali."
Describing the readers in Bangladesh as 'more literary-minded' than in West Bengal, Mukhopadhyay said, "If 50 copies of a particular title of mine is sold in West Bengal, in Bangladesh the number will be 500."
Endorsing Mukhopadhyay's views, Srijato said, "In Kolkata when I have to write my name in the visitor's book at any building, the guard is taken aback when I write in Bengali and even ask me the reason and say everyone else writes in English. That is not the situation in Dhaka where writing in Bengali is the norm."