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Tangail: A day to remember

May 4, 2009

By Julian

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On April 13, 2009, I visited the UBINIG Ecological Agricultural Centre at Pathrail, Delduar, Tangail where Songkranti was being celebrated. Bengali or Bangla New Year is a relatively new celebration, but Songkranti, goes back into the millennia. It comes from the Sanskrit, Sankranta and means ‘a move or change’. It is related to the Zodiac cycle and any point in the circle is both a beginning and an end. In northern India April is the beginning of spring when the trees bud and bloom and the hibernating animals come out to find food. As with the ancient Indian people, April was a sign of new life and marked the beginning of a new year. That is why they observed (some still do) their New Year’s Day on April 13.
 
In Bengal Songkranti has cut across all religions and indeed was celebrated before any religion movement came to this part of the world. Traditionally, the villages still follow certain customs. Early in the morning of Songkranti day, the spiritual leaders drink a very nutritious drink to give them energy for a day that may include fasting. The drink is called chatu and is prepared from millet and sorghum. On arrival I drank a glass of this and also a glass of ‘bel’ juice, known to have properties that protect one from sunstroke. We were also given two types of puffed red rice, combined with tok doi (yoghurt) and liquid gur (unrefined sugar).

A mela (gathering) had been going on for 3 days at UBINIG’s Local Variety Rice Preservation Week, 2009. Naya Krishi Andolan farmers from all over the country came to attend a seminar and to participate in the cultural celebrations of Songkranti. A number of local Tangail weavers set up stalls to market their beautiful hand-loomed cloth.
About 500 weaving families survive by selling their products through UBINIG’s sister organization, Prabartana in Mohammadpur. Sadly, hundreds of other weavers remain, much like bonded labourers, in the clutches of the Mahajans or business class.

I also met a village midwife surrounded by more than 50 varieties of medicinal plants in pots that she uses for pre-natal, natal and post-natal health concerns and problems. It is good to see that this Indigenous knowledge is still actively used.
She emphasized that the plants should be grown in their natural habitat, not in pots.

The Naya Krishi Andolan farmers house their Indigenous rice seeds at the Community Seed Wealth Centre at UBINIG where they are preserved and multiplied. 1,200 local varieties have been identified as thriving in different parts of the country, but some 500 are endangered varieties.

We keep hearing that new genetically modified hybrid rice varieties must be developed for drier places, hotter places, more flooded places, etc., due to climate change. At the UBINIG centre, local varieties have already been classified and have characteristics to withstand climate change problems.
 
I first came to this area nearly 25 years ago, visiting the villages, studying the agricultural practices and looking at peoples’ livelihoods. Talking to the local people the other day especially farmers was both interesting and depressing. There are no more birds of prey such as kites hovering up in the sky and it is clear that the food chain has broken and that some sort of catastrophe is inevitable. In the old days the fish and frogs in the paddy fields would eat the insects and the kites would eat them, mice and rats. There are no fish in the paddy fields now and there are far fewer frogs. It is believed that this is all to do with poisoning the land with fertilizers and insecticides.

I then went to the training centre at UBINIG that is rented out to organizations for meetings and gatherings. I met Tangail farmers with a strong connection to UBINIG who were having a picnic of their own with lots of music and singing.

On my way back to UBINIG’s main centre for lunch, I was met by groups of Hindus dressed up as different mythological entities dancing and singing to send the old year away and welcome the new.
No meat, fish or eggs are eaten on this day at the Songkranti lunch. To celebrate the links between man and nature, 14 species of uncultivated shak (spinach) was served along with red rice, 5 types of dal and kichhri-a special dish of legumes and rice cooked together.
So this was my Songkranti 2009, a very special day!


Julian Francis worked at CUSO, Bangladesh in the early eighties and supported the UBINIG weaving project at that time.  He recently visited the UBINIG  festival on  Songkranti and wrote this piece. UBINIG, Policy Research for Development Alternatives, Bangladesh, has been a PWRDF partner for 10 years. Farida Akhter is the executive director of UBINIG and a member of PWRDF’s board of directors.

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