In search of one\\\'s roots

In his seminal novel "Roots" Alex Haley discovers, through painstaking research, his genealogical link to African heartland Gambia. The book unfolds an inhuman and tragic tale of slavery and establishes in bold strokes the Afro-American history. Haley's search for his roots takes him to the African continent where his protagonist Kunta Kinte lived a free adolescent's life in Gambia. The search ends in the tribe Kunta Kinte belonged to.
Then where will a modern man's search for his roots in today's Bangladesh take him? Family lineage is considered a bond of blood and this is highly prized by some tribes, particularly among the Hindus. Castes notwithstanding, the Hindus claim their genealogy to great saints called munis like Kashyap, Vardwaj et al of the time of the Upanishadas. Who precede them? If that question is often drowned in silence, the later fractions of family trees held together by a tribe pose no less a daunting challenge before one looking for one's roots dipped in the twilight of history.
It is important for the Hindus to know the broad tribal lineage because they abhor marriage in the same gotra (tribe). So families of large tribes try to maintain communication with each other no matter how distant a place members of the fraternity may have gone to live in. For reasons understandable they also maintain workable contact with their fraternity across the border. So there is one established practice of holding a grand assembly of the fraternity (gyati sammelon) annually or biennially.
The get-together does not bring all and sundry from the tribe spread over a large swathe of Bangladesh but at least a number of representatives from a particular village attend the conference. Here they have the opportunity to get familiar with members of the fraternity they have never seen before. Old faces also rejoice in renewing their filial bonds. Through interaction and exchange of contact numbers (earlier addresses), they express their mutual relations and the togetherness they inherit through a common ancestry.
For the two to three days the grand conference is held, people of the same lineage have ample opportunity to know each other. More importantly, they make it a point to know how a tribe is faring -socially, economically and in terms of educating its young generation. The elders and the successful among members of a tribe in particular take interest in matters that may prove beneficial to raise not just the rate of literacy but also the standard of education. The well-placed among them are cited as the standard-bearers for the young ones to follow.
Quite reasonably, such a gathering needs a sizeable fund for its successful arrangement. Subscription is definitely the main source of this fund. Unsurprisingly, if a tribe is large and boasts a good number of high-placed men and women in government or private services as also businesspeople, the fund pooled far surpasses the expenditure. And over the years, the fund grows bigger and bigger. It is quite logical therefore to spend a portion of this fund for welfare purposes. So a tribe introduces scholarship for poor but meritorious students and then if there is need for money for medical treatment of a patient within its fraternity, who cannot afford the costly medicare, the needy is helped out.
Charitable organisations in the Western countries have usually had church-based welfare programmes. Later on, life-time savings of a widow or a wealthy person without descendant mostly provided for the original fund of today's highly reputed welfare organisations. In this part of the world, the zamindars or wealthy people usually donated money for setting up educational institutions. Today, a select few have set up such educational institutions but one cannot be sure how much money they have spent from their coffers. If the very rich in this country liberally spent on education, its quality would have been enviable by now. Instead, students now look for opportunities to go abroad for degrees that would help build them a cherished career.
Against this backdrop, if a tribe builds up a fund through monthly or annual subscription from its well-placed members, it can grow to an enormous size over time. It can then become a strong tool for looking after the ills and problems facing its members. There is no harm in extending the welfare activity beyond its tribal boundary, once it is financially capable of doing so.
In Africa tribal bond is very strong but its downside is that each tribe defends its causes irrespective of their merits. Things turn at times worse when they are too parochial and bloody confrontation breaks up between tribes. In the context of Bangladesh the unity of a tribe poses no such treat to any other. So if they so desire, they can carry on a number of welfare programmes within a tribe. And tribe here does not at all mean to be anything aggressive or parochial as it is in the African context. The whole exercise can be a sophisticated and humane affair, after all.
It is not just difficult but impossible to unravel the layers of darkness that conceal the identity of a person from whom a tribe has descended. But one option can be to contribute to the best of ability to the welfare of his descendants. This is just a small step if considered against the great act of charity by the most famed ones. But because charity begins at home, let it have a humble beginning.                       
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