Poet Jibanananda Das has not only written poems of extraordinary beauty and in-depth appeal, also thought about many social and educational issues. His vast number of writings are of varied kinds and mostly have come out after his death. It is amazing to find that he wrote on so many dissimilar issues with so much clarity of thought though it is true that his essays are hard to understand usually in a single reading.

Such an article written by Jibanananda Das is Bangla Bhasha O Shahityer Bhobisshyat, which is written after the people of East Pakistan led by students took to streets in protest against the West Pakistani plan of suppressing Bengali, the mother tongue of most of the people of this land, by Urdu. The movement of 1952 in this part of Bengal touched the heart of the Poet Jibanananda, too, living in Calcutta, India, during that period. Against this political background, he felt compelled to write a long essay on the question of state language for Bangalis of both parts in India and Pakistan. Besides this, he also wrote an article on the same topic in English entitled "The Future of Bengali Language and Literature."

This Bengali essay on the question of language and literature in Bangladesh (then East Pakistan) has come up as a centre of discussion in a seminar organised by Ebong Boi, a magazine on books, and Shikkhalok, an education bulletin published by CDIP, an NGO. The programme entitled Bhasahr Loraie Jibananander Bhasha Chinta (Jibanananda's thought on language in the context of the fight for mother tongue) was organised on 7 March at the CDIP auditorium in Dhaka. Amin Al Rasheed, a journalist and Jibanananda researcher, presented the keynote paper, which showed the deep concern of the leading poet of the modern Bengali literature surrounding the question of the state language in Pakistan and the fate awaiting the Bangla language. The seminar was chaired by Fahmida Karim, a member of CDIP Governing Body, and moderated by Foysal Ahmed, Editor of Ebong Boi.

Khan Md. Rabiul Alam, a communication expert and teacher at a university, said poetry is the ultimate expression of arts that embodies the sublime beauty of the world. Jibanananda Das was able to capture that universal music in his language whose structure and style overflows the traditional constraints of grammar.

Kazal Rashid Shahin, a prominent journalist and researcher, said Jibanananda Das had to survive through struggle against a destructive force of the society bent on turning a creative being into nothing. Standing against and ultimately overcoming that obstacle Jibanananda has created a language that connects readers to the heavenly truth and beauty.

Poet Saikat Habib said that there has been scarce work on this side of the poet Jibanananda. His poetic language is based on a philosophy of mystical truth that can be called certainty in the uncertain and also uncertainty in the certain. He often threw questions at readers instead of giving answers.

I as a discussant pointed to the role of the state in the question of progress and development of language and literature of a nation. Jibanananda Das was worried that Hindi in West Bengal and Urdu in East Bengal as the state languages of India and Pakistan were going to put a destructive effect on the Bengali language and literature. This great poet laid emphasis on the role of the state and responsibility of its poets and writers for development of a nation through building and creating new knowledge resources.

Akhil Podder, a renowned journalist, Nasrin Akter, a teacher of Bengali literature, Shishir Mallick, an artist and cultural activist, and others from various intellectual fields talked in the programme and shed new light on the poet Jibanananda and his thought on language.

The author is Editor, NEE