Press "Enter" to skip to content

West Bengal follows Bangladesh, replaces the word 'Ram' with 'Rang' for rainbow in Bengali

West Bengal’s textbooks have replaced ‘Ram’ with ‘Rang’ to describe a rainbow in Bengali. From now on students who are learning in Bengali will call the rainbow rangdhenu and instead of ramdhenu.

The pictures of this text have created a stir on the social media Since, ‘Ramdhenu’ means Ram’s bow, many are linking this omission to BJP’s rapid rise in Bengal. The traditional name for rainbow in Bengali is ‘Ramdhenu’ or Lord Ram’s bow.

However, leaders of right-winged organisations in the state see this move by the West Bengal Council for Higher Education as an attempt to tame the rising saffronisation in the state. When DNA tried to contact officials in the West Bengal Council for Higher Education, they termed this as a ‘routine update’ and not an attempt to hurt anyone’s political sentiments. “This should not be seen as anything but as a routine update,” said an official, who refused to be named.

Right-wing organisation leaders also claim, not just one word has been tweaked, a chapter in Class VII’s Environment and Science book mentions one of the colours of rainbow as ‘Aasmani’ instead of the Bengali word ‘Akaashi’. While Bangladesh had replaced the word, ‘Ramdhenu’ with ‘Rangdhenu’, now the West Bengal education department has joined the bandwagon.

Source: dnaindia.com