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Perhaps it was Tagore who quite aptly defined the cultural possibilities of the Bengalis in their fervour for the assimilation of cultures, races and linguistic nuances in a very brief statement in his Japan Jatri:

"In such a huge nation such as India, the Bengalis were the first to accept the new ideas and even now they have this absorbing quality to accept and re-invent … There has been a rigorous mixing of blood in Bengalis; it is doubtful whether there has been such mixing elsewhere in India".

"The task of inaugurating the gateway for an exchange between East and West has been on the Bengalis".

(Rabindra Rachonaboli 1961: 526-527)

He continues his debate on culture in the same essay, where he suggests,

"The mind of a profusely mixed race cannot be cast into a definite mould. In the process of confrontation between various ideas it has to have a progressive outlook … if we are hell-bent looking for purity in blood, we can find it only in the race of barbarians".

(Rabindra Rachonaboli 1961: 526-527)

Here he comes quite close to Edward Said's opinion of 'culture' as a theatre of sorts engaged in an interplay of ideology and political strategies together … of being not monolithic … not the exclusive property of East and West, nor of small groups of men and women (Said 1994: xxvii). Tagore's debate on the Bengalis and his definition of 'culture' paralleling Said's definition of culture, calls to mind an interesting anecdote about the beginnings of bi-lingualism in Kolkata. Nakul Chattopadhyay in his book, Tin Shataker Kolkata (Chattopadhyay 1965:2) humorously narrates how the first Britishers of the ship Falcon in 1679 at Garden-Reach had created a do-bhashiya or the bi-lingual to solve their problems of communication with the inhabitants of the land. When the Britishers spelled out their need for a do-bhashiya to the dominant community of Basaks in the place, there was confusion about ascertaining the meaning of the word. The Basaks had mistaken the meaning of do-bhashiya for dhopa or the 'washer-man' as they thought that the sahibs desperately needed someone to wash their clothes in the ship. So they sent a washer-man (not before a lot of coaxing and bribing for the man scared him out of his wits), all garbed in new clothes along with few molasses, nuts and gifts via a boat to Falcon. The washer-man was to his surprise received with a lot of celebration and gifts that made him change his mind about the British and prompted him to be a regular visitor to the ship. The interaction proved fruitful for he gradually picked up enough English to act as a mediator between the British and the local inhabitants. So with the help of their mediator, the British had a palkee or palanquin sent for them by the Basaks, which finally gave them the access to the inland area and set up their trade in that region. With the gradual infiltration of the British there is the resultant syncretism of cultures in this phase of the history of Kolkata as evident from the paintings, travelers' documents and Calcutta Gazette of the period. Cotton gives a vivid description of the re-invention of the palanquin, which the Britishers once used as their mode of transport. He also gives details of how hookah smoking became a fashion among the Europeans in those days (Cotton 1980: 77). Thus taking into account that from its very beginnings Kolkata has always been receptive to all kinds of influences, we can attempt to detect these changes in Bengali literature and consider their translatability.

Prior to Lebedoff's theatre in 1795 and the beginnings of Bengali literature in print we have had a long tradition of Kabi-sangeet, which were vibrant with the strains of the popular culture. According to Sri Bhudeb Choudhury (Choudhury 1964), this tradition gradually died out after Ram Basu's kabiyal in the nineteenth century and was absorbed into toppas, which were becoming popular. However the last strains of this long tradition of kabi-geeti beautifully capture the cultural milieu of those times. Take for example the following lines which depict a dialogue between Ram Basu and Anthony Henceman or Anthony Firingee as he was popularly known, who had a Portuguese father and an Indian mother and was a devotee of Kali:

"Oh come on Anthony, tell me the story
What became of your hat and coat in this country?"

(Balo hey Antuni ami ekta katha jante chai
Eshe edeshe ebeshe tomar gaye keno kurti nai)

And Anthony replies:

"In this Bengal, the Bengali garb suits me fine.
Have changed my attire as Thakur Sinha's father's jamai".

(Ei Banglai Bangalir beshe anande acchi
Hoye Thakre Simher baper jamai kurti-tupi ccherechi)

(Choudhury 1964: 9)

If we compare the original version of the limerick with the possible translation, there are cultural slippages that cannot be helped. In the Bangla version, thakur is pronounced as thakre. Such instances of colloquial strain in kobir lorai sessions are typical and one misses much of the fun in English translation. The same light-hearted spirit is evoked through the slang baper in baper jamai, which is flattened out in English; kurti and tupi, the Bengalisised versions of the sahebi attire, which in Hindi version would be kurta and topi have a touch of harmless sarcasm which ring out probably only to the Indian ears and those who are familiar with the milieu. More complex are the lines that follow:

"For nothing Saheb, you shaved your head and laid it down on those black feet
If that padri Saheb, your father knows, he will smear your face with lime and grit"

(Saheb mithhe tui krishna paode-e matha murrali
O tor padri saheb shunte pele gale debe chun-kali)

And Anthony answers firmly:

There's hardly any difference between Krishna and Christ, brother
Never heard that the sound of names could make things matter
No different is my god from the Hindu Hari whom you claim as yours…

(Christe aar Krishte kicchu bhinno nai-re bhai
Shudhu nam-er fere manush fere e-o katha shuni nai
Amar khoda Hindu hari she…)

(Choudhury 1964)

While padri colloquially refers to clergymen, firinghee would mean a half-caste and later, Eurasian and then Anglo-Indian. There's a play of ideas in Krishna paod. Ram Basu was definitely referring to Kali for Anthony was known to be a Kali devotee. But when Anthony replies he changes it to Krishna, both Kali and Krishna being dark-complexioned. Again the word murrali beautifully puns at shaving of head as a part of Anthony's initiation into the worship of Kali along with self-dedication at the altar of the goddess. The suggestion that Anthony has made a fool of himself cannot be missed in the line, for the act of shaving has another cultural overtone, that of declaring oneself a fool. Probably there is much more to these tongue-in-cheek verses as they provide a moving cultural picture of the times. While these limericks reflect the Bengali reception of Anthony into their religion and culture, it also calls to mind the worship of Kali popularized by Ramakrishna at Dakshineshwar and his ideas on religion based on jato mat tato path (As many religions as many ways to the same God) in the nineteenth century and provide links to the socio-cultural-religious history of the period. The idea of many cultures enriching the Bengali culture continues to be accepted by the Kolkatans from various angles.

As toppas take over and Ramnidhi Gupta creates a style of his own which is adopted by his followers to form a school of Nidhubabur toppa, he too sings:

Various regions speaking various tongues
Without which the mother-tongue
Can its dreams flutter?

(Nanan desher nanan bhasa
bine swadeshi bhasha
poore kee aasha?)

(Choudhury 1964: 47)

Dasu Roy's pachali-gaan or jatra-sangeet too captures the changing socio-cultural matrix in its praise of Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar advocating widow remarriage:

The talk about widow-remarriage
Has painted the supreme of all kolis (flower-buds)

Kolikata red …
Salutations to him
One Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar by name
He is the leader of Bengalis
And a professor too of the company's Hindu College.

(Bidhoba-bibaho pratha
Koli-r prodhan kolikata
Nagar-e uthecche oti rob …
Dhanya dhanya goonodham
Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar naam
Tini karta bangalir
Tate abar companyr
Hindu colleger odhyapok)

(Choudhury 1964:50)

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