Goods of daily use to promote Indian languages

By Arnab Mitra & Arka Mondal

Kolkata: T-shirts, jeans and other apparels with catchy English taglines and words have flooded the market and are endangering our Indian languages and our culture. At such a juncture, using Indian dress forms and other commodities as a tool to uphold Indian languages is highly appreciated. The endeavor is aimed at reviving Indian languages that are getting corroded owing to a certain generation of people who are readily aping western cultures.

If a person finds Bengali writings on commodities that are used frequently then there is a great scope that the person gets reminded of his roots. Harping on the idea, Kolkata-based artist Saumi Nandi made good use of cups, mugs, saris, shirts and painted them with Bengali scripts.

An exhibition of the goods made by Saumi Nandi is being held at Academy of Fine Arts, Kolkata.

Recalling that Indians are getting detached from their roots, Saumi Nandi said, "a race cannot move forward forgetting its roots. Despite achieving Independence in 1947, a section of an elite Anglo-Indian faction kept propagating the western culture." She further said, "this group made a system where the Indians will get alienated from their own culture and be subservient to the Western culture."

Saumi Nandi further said that if the commodities with writings in Indian language are popularized in the country then it will provide a huge boost to the initiative of spreading the importance and richness of our culture.

Nandi mentioned that though NRIs are trying relentlessly to revive Indian culture and there is a dearth in funding for such initiatives. However, it is a particular section of the Indian population that is forgetting its roots and favoring westernized culture.

Notably, people from all walks of life visited the exhibition. The overwhelming response also included students and it is indeed a good sight that such initiatives are catching the fancies of the youths.

The week-long exhibition by Saumi Nandy at Academy of Fine Arts will end on 27th of November.