Intellectuals, civil society and the guardians of our culture
Saturday, 7 November 2009
Shamsher Chowdhury
I have always wondered as to what our intellectuals, the members of the civil society and guardians of our culture truly represent? What contributions have they made towards the development of the country? As I see it, very little, except for some stray incidences. Of the three categories, I find the intellectual community to be lagging far behind the other two. It will be an understatement if I say that they are highly politicized, in fact most of them are more of politicians than intellectuals as such. Day after day these erudite gentlemen and women are not only misleading the nation and the people but also engaged in creating a legacy for our future generation that is not only undesirable but also but also extremely narrow in vision.
Writers, poets, painters, historians and their kind; what, contributions have they made towards development of the people at large? True though, over the years there has been a steady growth of writers in nearly in all branches of literature, poetry, social sciences, so on and so forth. But my question is as to what contributions they have made in building up social awareness amongst the people against corruption in general and the continuous downward swing of our moral and ethical values? What contributions have our intellectual community made over the years in bringing about transparency and accountability on the part of our political leaders and the successive governments?
Today this nation stands fragmented by multiple divisions. For this it must be said that a large section of our intellectual community is as much to be blamed alongside our politicians. We are often very critical about some sections of our student community for vandalizing and destroying the academic environment of our educational institution particularly at college and university levels, but my question is: have our intellectuals and recognized thinkers been any better? They happen to be more interested in advancing the interests of one political party or the other rather than imparting education and promoting "free thinking ". I know of my own knowledge that many of these so intellectuals are ready to sell their soul and honour in exchange of marginal pecuniary gains, a car, a plot of land or some high profiled and paying consultancy assignments. They often behave like members of an exclusive club.
Most of our intellectuals have a hard time relating themselves to the common man. I am yet to find an intellectual truly committed to the cause of such unfortunate and devastatingly poor of the country like the Aila victims and the people who have been driven to abject poverty due to river erosion or the people living the Char areas. They, like our rulers, raise storms over the issues in the comforts of their homes or in some fancy conference halls holding seminars and round table discussions including talk shows. in the electronic media.
Our civil society members are somewhat better though. Once every now and then they do come out with programme and activities that are supportive of emerging issues concerning the welfare and interests of the common man and the disadvantaged.
Come to the world of champions of our culture. They too resemble the intellectuals to the greatest extent. To my estimation, in some ways, they are even worse than the intellectuals. One may understand the situation with the intellectuals since they have been traditionally playing the role of thinkers for ages working away from the confines of their homes. Whereas, the custodians or the champions of our culture should have been more proactive and taken into its fold the concerns of the people at large. This has not been forthcoming. Culture anywhere cannot flourish without minds and hearts being free and full of compassion. They, the Gurus of our culture should always stand in readiness in responding to all forms of social injustices alongside the human rights activists and their kind. They must view them as one of the key movers of the society. But in realty what is happening is this that they too established them as a part and parcel of the likes of the intellectual community, totally detached from the mainstream population. To be fair, however, it must be said that the scenario is some what different in the case of theater on the stage. This is perhaps the only field of our culture that has not only been pro-people in the truest sense of the term but also has earned global recognition.
Incidentally all the people belonging to the three specific categories I have talked about in the foregoing had these typical shortcomings over decades, one thus might ask as to what prompted me to write about them now? Yes indeed I have my reasons.
I am shocked by the silence of all these "gifted" pioneers of our society keeping silent over certain issues that I find to be rather absurd and highly unbecoming of them. Are these people devoid of any conscience? I am shocked to see that hardly any one of them have raised their voices of condemnation over the recent issues of raping and molesting women in the most bizarre way including land grabbing and that too under tacit support of ruling party favourites and its cadres.
May God help them to see the light of the day since they have been blinded by narrow partisan considerations and God knows what else?
The writer can be reached at e-mail: chowdhury.shamsher@yahoo.com
I have always wondered as to what our intellectuals, the members of the civil society and guardians of our culture truly represent? What contributions have they made towards the development of the country? As I see it, very little, except for some stray incidences. Of the three categories, I find the intellectual community to be lagging far behind the other two. It will be an understatement if I say that they are highly politicized, in fact most of them are more of politicians than intellectuals as such. Day after day these erudite gentlemen and women are not only misleading the nation and the people but also engaged in creating a legacy for our future generation that is not only undesirable but also but also extremely narrow in vision.
Writers, poets, painters, historians and their kind; what, contributions have they made towards development of the people at large? True though, over the years there has been a steady growth of writers in nearly in all branches of literature, poetry, social sciences, so on and so forth. But my question is as to what contributions they have made in building up social awareness amongst the people against corruption in general and the continuous downward swing of our moral and ethical values? What contributions have our intellectual community made over the years in bringing about transparency and accountability on the part of our political leaders and the successive governments?
Today this nation stands fragmented by multiple divisions. For this it must be said that a large section of our intellectual community is as much to be blamed alongside our politicians. We are often very critical about some sections of our student community for vandalizing and destroying the academic environment of our educational institution particularly at college and university levels, but my question is: have our intellectuals and recognized thinkers been any better? They happen to be more interested in advancing the interests of one political party or the other rather than imparting education and promoting "free thinking ". I know of my own knowledge that many of these so intellectuals are ready to sell their soul and honour in exchange of marginal pecuniary gains, a car, a plot of land or some high profiled and paying consultancy assignments. They often behave like members of an exclusive club.
Most of our intellectuals have a hard time relating themselves to the common man. I am yet to find an intellectual truly committed to the cause of such unfortunate and devastatingly poor of the country like the Aila victims and the people who have been driven to abject poverty due to river erosion or the people living the Char areas. They, like our rulers, raise storms over the issues in the comforts of their homes or in some fancy conference halls holding seminars and round table discussions including talk shows. in the electronic media.
Our civil society members are somewhat better though. Once every now and then they do come out with programme and activities that are supportive of emerging issues concerning the welfare and interests of the common man and the disadvantaged.
Come to the world of champions of our culture. They too resemble the intellectuals to the greatest extent. To my estimation, in some ways, they are even worse than the intellectuals. One may understand the situation with the intellectuals since they have been traditionally playing the role of thinkers for ages working away from the confines of their homes. Whereas, the custodians or the champions of our culture should have been more proactive and taken into its fold the concerns of the people at large. This has not been forthcoming. Culture anywhere cannot flourish without minds and hearts being free and full of compassion. They, the Gurus of our culture should always stand in readiness in responding to all forms of social injustices alongside the human rights activists and their kind. They must view them as one of the key movers of the society. But in realty what is happening is this that they too established them as a part and parcel of the likes of the intellectual community, totally detached from the mainstream population. To be fair, however, it must be said that the scenario is some what different in the case of theater on the stage. This is perhaps the only field of our culture that has not only been pro-people in the truest sense of the term but also has earned global recognition.
Incidentally all the people belonging to the three specific categories I have talked about in the foregoing had these typical shortcomings over decades, one thus might ask as to what prompted me to write about them now? Yes indeed I have my reasons.
I am shocked by the silence of all these "gifted" pioneers of our society keeping silent over certain issues that I find to be rather absurd and highly unbecoming of them. Are these people devoid of any conscience? I am shocked to see that hardly any one of them have raised their voices of condemnation over the recent issues of raping and molesting women in the most bizarre way including land grabbing and that too under tacit support of ruling party favourites and its cadres.
May God help them to see the light of the day since they have been blinded by narrow partisan considerations and God knows what else?
The writer can be reached at e-mail: chowdhury.shamsher@yahoo.com