Does a degree in Bangla have no value?

Is a degree in Bangla useless? What are the factors that contribute to the marginalisation of the academic degree of a language in its own country? Is English a killer language that uses its colonial supremacy to deny Bangla its rightful throne in academia? That, at least, is a common perception. There are many jokes about the stereotypical attributes of a Bangla graduate to confirm the prejudice. Employers tend to associate proficiency in English as an additional skill that gives a job-seeker a certain edge in a job market that is fast becoming privatised and corporatised.

A few months back, this paper ran an op-ed highlighting the strange fetish over useless degrees in Bangladesh that are simply wasting away the time and efforts of our students as well as our national resources. The author, a research student in an Anglophone country, argued that there was no real connection between the knowledge pursued by these degrees and the jobs that are available for them. His argument is based on the need for technologically-skilled personnel for the job market. A degree in Bangla language and literature probably falls short of these requirements in a professional world driven by the much-hyped Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR).

To prepare graduates for the real world, the University Grants Commission (UGC) has asked universities to adopt an outcome-based education system that requires a multidisciplinary approach. About 30 percent of the courses need to be from disciplines not pursued for the degree by a student. This means even a Bangla graduate must have some knowledge of other humanities, science, and social science subjects. The approach involves an attempt to bring all degrees under a common frame of assessment and evaluation.

However, one wonders whether these prescriptions, given in English, will be lost in translation or not. All departments of both public and private universities are required to write their programme missions, visions, and objectives in English. I was surprised to learn that even the course objectives for the Bangla course that we offer at the English department need to be in English. The reason is simple: it is for the sake of the donor, not for its intended audience. In the workshop designed to help us with the new curriculum development, we were given a list of keywords and action phrases. I could sense that these documents are going to be lip service as many of us do not have the symbolic and cultural capital to internalise what is at stake. The copy-and-paste method will make us look good on paper, but whether these ideas will be applied need to be seen and tested.

We often forget that with approximately 300 million native speakers and another 37 million second-language speakers, Bangla is the fifth most-spoken native language. The onus is on us to prove that Bangla is a strong language.

The dilemma was pointed out by Prof Anu Muhammad in a recent article published in this daily. The economist, who is known for his political activism, regretted that many of our national policies are in English and do not have Bangla versions. This goes on to prove some state-level negligence shown to our mother language, notwithstanding the constitutional obligation of using Bangla everywhere. Our policymakers still prefer to relish the colonial hangover and uphold the supremacy of English as it is touted as the lingua franca of the world.

I think the answer to the question of Bangla in higher education lies in the problem. Unesco's adoption of February 21 as International Mother Language Day serves as a guideline. While it celebrates the tangible and intangible heritage of Ekushey, it also tells us to preserve and disseminate to "encourage linguistic diversity and multicultural education" for "fuller awareness of linguistic and cultural traditions throughout the world and to inspire solidarity based on understanding, tolerance and dialogue." This is where Bangla can play a crucial role.

We often forget that with approximately 300 million native speakers and another 37 million second-language speakers, Bangla is the fifth most-spoken native language. The onus is on us to prove that Bangla is a strong language.

Speaking at the launching ceremony of the Bangla Department at the University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh (ULAB), the iconic educator and cultural activist Abdullah Abu Sayeed shared an anecdote involving Rabindranath Tagore and Balraj Sahni, a Punjabi author who used to write in Hindi. Sahni was hesitant to write in his native tongue, saying that not too many people read Punjabi. Tagore told Sahni that Bangla, too, was once considered a pedestrian language. We kept on contributing to it with our writings to enrich it and get more readers for it.

I think we need to invest more in Bangla to make it an integral part of our life. True, the climate of neoliberalism has pushed Bangla into the abyss. But, as the discussants at the launching ceremony pointed out, the potential of Bangla is immense. The filmmaker, musician and public intellectual Chandril Bhattacharya and publisher of Shuvonkar Dey from Kolkata reflected on the shared victimhood of Bangla on the other side of the border. They told the audience about the political economy and cultural hegemony that were impacting the use of Bangla in all spheres.

But the solution came from the president of Bangla Academy, novelist Selina Hossain, and educator Abdullah Abu Sayeed. They told the audience to celebrate the language for the joy of reading its rich literature as well as for liberating one's consciousness before engaging with the world.

Research on Bangla can enrich our culture, while translations of our literature can introduce our heritage to the world. Bangla departments must redefine their objectives to make themselves effective. For that, it does not necessarily need to go to foreign prescriptions. A little soul-searching can do wonders.

Dr Shamsad Mortuza is a professor of English at Dhaka University.