III
A preliminary assessment of the achievements of intellectual
creativity reveals a varied picture. The Bengal area seems
to have been singularly well endowed with a "liberal
imagination", resulting in syncretic tradition characterized
by heterodoxy, populism, and demystification rather than outright
radicalism. The forte of the Bengali intellectual tradition
lay in literature and music. mysticism and metaphysics, with
a smaller contribution to spheres such as architecture, sculpture
and painting.
In contrast there has been much less contribution
to the scientific and mathematical tradition. There was no
development of the experimental method nor an intellectual
tradition which would "articulate itself into crisis",
thus invoking the creative imagination. Only in one sphere
of applied sciences - medicine - endogenous schools developed,
and that growth was also limited.
The case of technology was somewhat different.
Ancient arts and crafts demonstrate a level of simple but
skilled technology. However, this has been refined through
the centuries without any major breakthrough resulting in
a discontinuous rise in productivity. Since technology is
also directly related to the level of productive forces in
the economy, the question arises as to whether the corresponding
production relations generated appropriate preconditions which
might have led to technological innovation.
By and large, none of the endogenous intellectual
traditions brought forth any contribution which transformed
the essential structure of the social and economic order.
Such change, when it came, was brought through an exogenous
impact with unique characteristics.
Bangladesh has almost always had rulers with
external origins. Even so, particularly in those cases where
she was not reduced to a part of a centralized empire but
constituted an independent kingdom on her own, the rulers
and their intellectual traditions were gradually assimilated
into the local tradition. In this, manner, the boundaries
of the endogenous expanded over time, which indicates extraordinary
powers of absorption and assimilation of exogenous elements,
a capacity for syncretism as well as the resilience of the
pre-existing traditions.
An overview of the historical experience
indicates that, in spite of the repeated impact of external
conquest, the structure of society remained essentially unchanged
until the imposition of colonialism based on a worldwide capitalistic
system. What was common to pre-British Bengal was an agrarian
civilization in which a transfer of surplus was imposed by
the ruling orders, resident in urban capitals. Sometimes,
in the case of centralized empire, surplus transfer was done
through a bureaucracy which deprived the labouring class –
the cultivators and the artisans who were always made to surrender
most of their surplus products - of the means and motives
to invest in higher productivity, hence the absence of a breakthrough
in the technological tradition. This particular aspect of
production relations corresponds broadly with the relationship
of intellectual traditions to the social and political order
over the period. The caste system functioned to order not
only class relationships (by occupational groups) but also
creativity; thus practitioners of the literary tradition,
coming mostly from high caste groups, retained a monopoly
of such abilities among the ruling order. Correspondingly,
other practitioners of the arts, such as dancers, musicians,
and actors, were kept at a low caste level. Recruitment into
the domain of the arts was by birth, imbuing such professions
with the ideal of following laid-down patterns rather than
individualized innovation.
In short, the domain of endogenous intellectual
creativity was retained firmly under the control of the ruling
order. Artists produced according to the wishes of their patrons,
and thus the class structure operated as a filter of consciousness
and creativity in the interest of the ruling class.
Endogenous intellectual creativity could
never successfully challenge the basic exploitative relationship
on which the foundation of the society was based, but time
and again, it revolted against the system, though mostly at
the level of ideology. The dissenting cults of the Tantric
schools. for instance. instead of challenging the basic production
relations underlying the social formation, only emphasized
a different metaphysics, which the ruling classes could well
afford to tolerate.
The endeavor of this school was significantly
to reach and communicate with the masses through the medium
of the Bengali language. Language, appropriately, provided
a medium of intellectual creativity which was extremely difficult
for any ruling order to control. This experience has been
echoed from the earliest times to the most contemporary period.
With annexation to the British Empire, the
country became articulated into a world capitalistic system
under the control of imperialism. The impact was qualitatively
different in so far as it led to the disintegration of pre-existing
social structures and creative tradition. It brought new productive
forces (the technology of the steam engine) and new relations
of production (capitalism and imperialism). While these generated
new brands of creativity, much of the best in the endogenous
creative tradition, including the arts and crafts, was stunted
or destroyed by market forces and discriminatory practices
of the colonial regime.
The most significant social consequence of
colonial rule was the emergence of a middle class. This urban
comprador elite began by emulating colonial culture and eventually
led the movement for the apparent demise of colonial rule,
in the process ensuring the smooth transfer of power to themselves.
While the middle class initiated, and to some extent implemented,
worthy social reforms, they invariably identified themselves
with state power against popular expectations. Hand in hand
with this has gone a disinterested attitude towards endogenous
creativity in rural areas, leading to impotency in the spheres
of social transformation and national development. Folk tradition
was revived and glorified only to the extent that it fulfilled
the needs of an emergent bourgeoisie in search of a distinctive
identity vis-a-vis its colonial predicament.
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