PAHELA BAISHAKH

Pahela Baishakh   first day of the Bangla year. Pahela Baishakh is celebrated in a festive manner in both Bangladesh and West Bengal . In Bangladesh Pahela Baishakh is a national holiday. Pahela Baisakh falls on April 14.

Under the Mughals, agricultural taxes were collected according to the Hijri calendar. However, as the Hijri calendar is a lunar calendar, the agricultural year does not coincide with the fiscal. As a result, farmers were hard-pressed to pay taxes out of season. In order to streamline tax collection, the Mughal Emperor Akbar ordered a reform of the calendar. Accordingly, Fatehullah Shirazi, a renowned scholar and astronomer, formulated the Bangla Calendar on the basis of the lunar Hijri and Bangla solar calendars. The new Fasli San (agricultural year) was introduced on 10/11 March 1584, but was dated from Akbar's ascension to the throne in 1556. The New Year subsequently became known as Bangabda or Bengali year.

Celebrations of Pahela Baishakh started from Akbar's reign. It was customary to clear up all dues on the last day of Chaitra. On the next day, or the first day of the New Year, landlords would entertain their tenants with sweets. On this occasion there used to be fairs and other festivities. In due course the occasion became part of domestic and social life, and turned into a day of merriment.

The main event of the day was to open a halkhata or new book of accounts. This was wholly a financial affair. In villages, towns and cities, traders and businessmen closed their old account books and opened new ones. They used to invite their customers to share sweets and renew their business relationship with them. This tradition is still practised, especially by jewellers.

New year's festivities are closely linked with rural life in Bengal. Usually on the day everything is scrubbed and cleaned. People bathe early in the morning and dress in fine clothes and then go to visit relatives, friends and neighbours. Special foods are prepared to entertain guests. Baishakhi fairs are arranged in many parts of the country. Various agricultural products, traditional handicrafts, toys, cosmetics as well as various kinds of food and sweets are sold at these fairs. The fairs also provide entertainment, with singers and dancers staging Jatra, Pala Gan, Kavi Gan, Jari Gan, Gambhira Gan, Gazir Gan and Alkap Gan. They present folk songs as well as baul, marfati, murshidi and bhatiali songs. Narrative plays like laily- Majnu, Yusuf- Zukekha and Radha-Krishna are staged. Among other attractions of these fairs are puppet shows and merry-go-rounds.

Many old festivals connected with New Year's Day have disappeared, while new festivals have been added. With the abolition of the zamindari system, the punya connected with the closing of land revenue accounts has disappeared. Kite flying in Dhaka and bull racing in Munshiganj used to be very colourful events. Other popular village games and sports were horse races, bullfights, cockfights, flying pigeons, boat racing. Some festivals, however, continue to be observed, for example, bali or wrestling in Chittagong and gambhira in Rajshahi.

Observance of Pahela Baishakh has become popular in the cities. Early in the morning people gather under a big tree or on the bank of a lake to witness the sunrise. Artistes present songs to welcome the New Year. People from all walks of life wear traditional Bengali dresses: young women wear white sarees with red borders and adorn themselves with bangles, flowers, and tips . Men wear white pyjamas or dhoti and kurta . Many townspeople start the day with the traditional breakfast of panta bhat (cooked rice soaked with water), green chillies, onion, and fried hilsha fish.

The most colourful New Year's Day festival takes place in Dhaka. Large numbers of people gather early in the morning under the Banyan Tree at Ramna Park where Chhayanat artistes open the day with Tagore's famous song, Eso he Baishakh eso eso (Come O Baishakh, come), welcoming Baishakh. A similar ceremony welcoming the New Year is also held at the Institute of Fine Arts, University of Dhaka Students and teachers of the institute take out a colourful procession and parade round the campus. Social and cultural organisations celebrate the day with cultural programmes. Newspapers bring out special supplements. There are also special programmes on radio and television.

Chhayanat made the historical importance of Pahela Baishakh in the Bangladesh context from the observance of the day in 1965. In an attempt to suppress Bengali culture, the Pakistan Government had banned Tagore Songs. Protesting this move, Chhayanat opened their Pahela Baishakh celebrations at Ramna Park with Tagore's song welcoming the month. The day continued to be celebrated in East Pakistan as a symbol of Bengali culture. After 1972 it became a national festival, a symbol of the Bangladesh nationalist movement and an integral part of the people's cultural heritage.

Pahela Baishakh , Bengali New Year's Day, is now celebrated at the national level. On the last day of Chaitra, the last month of the Bengali calendar, farmers' wives prepare amani by soaking green mango and rice in a large earthen vessel. A leafy mango twig is also placed in the vessel. At dawn everybody eats the soaked rice while the water in the vessel is sprinkled on his or her bodies with the help of the mango twig. They believe this keeps the body cool in the hot summer. Every family prepares special delicious dishes in the belief that a good meal at the start of the year will set the trend for the whole year. Fairs are held on the occasion in cities, towns and villages. Halkhata is also a New Year festival. On this day traders close old accounts and open new ones. On the occasion they invite their clients and give them sweets. Their clients are supposed to clear all old debts. This is a practice common in both urban and rural areas.

Pahela Pride & Joy

It would be quite interesting to calculate how many megawatts of human energy is required and spent in Pahela Boishakh festivities, and find out where from this energy comes?

Tens of thousands of people gather on festivals despite the deterrent effect of bomb scares, the often-unruly crowd, the dust and heat and the apparent superficiality of many rituals like the eating of Paanta Bhaat etc. Maybe the underlying motivation comes from the deep desire to "be oneself".

Although the fact remains that "being oneself" is a very delicate and ambiguous job, the phenomenon of a "sensible human being" starts with this "being oneself". Or, in our time, this phenomenon starts with the polite refusal to become a part of a homogenised sterile global culture. Pahela Boishakh is in a sense, one starting point not only of becoming a Bangali; but of the endeavour towards becoming a complete person.

The psyche of the contemporary urban Bangali is heavily loaded with the influence of the west. Whatever is approved and endorsed by the western camera is considered to be worthwhile. Everything else is not worth mentioning. To many persons, being a Bangali is not a very great idea. This problem is now been seen in a new light.

The contemporary man is also disillusioned by the west. People have started to grow bored by the concept of unconditional and unlimited flood of western influence. The same western culture in every major city of the world is no longer fashionable.

More and more people are finding it inspiring and refreshing to find a link to their roots. People have had enough of fifty channels of rubbish on TV. Now is the time start anew.

There is also a component of defiance in all these. There is a hunger for resistance -- resistance against all kinds of dominance. There is a newfound intensity in this new mission.

Then again, there is this problem of becoming too much of a Bangali. Artificiality and camera-consciousness should be avoided by all means. We cannot relive history, people cannot live collectively in archaeology. We must also be aware of this fact.

The emphasis should be on the Bangali temperament. What make us unique is, not only the rice and fish, but also our language and temperament, our overall collective disposition.

Pahela Boishakh should not only be a mere set of festivity. Its essence should be carried all through in our urban culture, our literature, our art and architecture and in our overall psyche. In a comprehensive movement of resistance, it should really be the Pahela step.