May 2020 Lockdown: 850 Hours and Counting
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Contents From the Desk of the General Secretary 3 Articles Hay Market Martyrs: An Eloquent Silence 5 Subhas Ranjan Chakraborty , Vice President, The Asiatic Society May Day: The Spectre and its History 9 Urvi Mukhopadhyay, Professor, Department of History, West Bengal State University Reading History with Satyajit Ray: A Centenary Tribute 13 Samik Bandyopadhyay, Eminent Litterateur and Critic Agantuk : Satyajit Ray’s Last Shot on Pristine Humane Values 14 Satyabrata Chakrabarti, General Secretary, The Asiatic Society Revisiting Satyajit Ray’s Ashani Sanket in 2020 16 Arun Bandopadhyay, Historical and Archaeological Secretary, The Asiatic Society 50 years of Pratidwandi 19 Arupratan Bagchi, Administrative Officer, The Asiatic Society Prevention of COVID-19 21 Dr Sankar Kumar Nath, Consultant Oncologist & Member of Academic Committee of The Asiatic Society Urgent Humanitarian Community Level Intervention for the Urban Slums has to be the Mainstay of India’s COVID-19 Response 24 Eejrenab Natnayas, MBBS, MD, DNB, DM (Infectious Diseases) (AIIMS) Epidemics in Ancient India: A Medical Perspective 28 Nayana Sharma Mukherjee, Associate Professor, Department of History, South Calcutta Girls’ College Epidemics in Late Antiquity and the Medieval World 31 Rila Mukherjee, Professor of History, University of Hyderabad The Plague in Calcutta, 1898-1900 36 Nikhiles Guha. Professor (Retd.), Department of History, Kalyani University and Life Member of The Asiatic Society Pandemics in Indian History: An Online Colloquium 38 Mrunmayee Satam, Urban Historian and Visiting Faculty, Amity University, Mumbai Babasaheb Kambale, Assistant Professor, Satish Pradhan Dnyanasadhana College, Thane, Maharashtra Corona's Colossal Casualties: Human Trafficking of Migrant Workers 42 Satyajit Das Gupta, Director, Post-Graduate Diploma Course in Counselling Legal Aid Services, WB Staying Home, Staying Alive? 45 Chandrima Biswas, Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology, Govt General Degree College Singur Monthly Bulletin 1 May 2020 Lockdown: 850 Hours and Counting... 48 Sunandan Chakraborty, Assistant Professor, Data Sciences, School of Informatics and Computing , Indiana University-Purdue University, Indianapolis Creating a Digital and Virtual Workspace for The Asiatic Society, Kolkata 49 Dhiman Chakraborty, Controller of Finance, The Asiatic Society সামাজিক 駂রত্ব ভজিষ㖯তে মানুতষর সামাজিক সম্পতক嗇 আঘাে হানতি না তো ? 55 িগৎপজে সরকার, সংগ্রহালয় বিভাগ, বি এবিয়াবিক সসাসাইবি Selections from Newspapers on COVID-19 and its Socio-economic Dimensions 58 Nibedita Ganguly, Life Member and Research Guide, The Asiatic Society কজিো öô ö’þ 12 !lôÅöì¡r˜% ö‰y£ìy¡– !˜ ~!¢ëûy!Øþ†þ ö¤y¤y¥z!Øþ আমার পজরচয় আি পজরযায়ী শ্রজমক 54 xöì¢y†þ†þy!hsýû ¤ylÄy¡– !˜ ~!¢ëûy!Øþ†þ ö¤y¤y¥z!Ø কতরানা এত�া জিতর চত�া 56 ¤%öì‡r˜%!î†þy¢ þ›y¡– !˜ ~!¢ëûy!Øþ†þ ö¤y¤y¥z!Øþ িির嗇 জচত্র প্রকৃ জের প্রজেত�াধ, সাগবিকা িূি, বি এবিয়াবিক সসাসাইবি 4 তম তে, উি্뇀 মুখ�াপাধ্ায়, পব榿মিঙ্গ িাষ্ট뇀য় বিশ্ববিি্ালয় 12 আেঙ্ক, ইিা মহম্মি, বি এবিয়াবিক সসাসাইবি 53 আনন্দধারা, অনুিাধা িসাক, বি এবিয়াবিক সসাসাইবি 57 ঐক㖯িদ্ধ ভারে, তপন ঘিক, বি এবিয়াবিক সসাসাইবি 57 এতসা তহ বি�াখ, খককা অবধকাি뇀 িখ㖦্াপাধ্ায়, বি এবিয়াবিক সসাসাইবি 57 î£ìÅîîû” �জ醿 মুতখাপাধ㖯ায়, বি এবিয়াবিক সসাসাইবি 56 Monthly Bulletin 2 May 2020 From the Desk of the General Secretary Dear Members and Well-wishers, We are at the end of the second Incidentally the month of May drives spell and entering into the third spell of us emotionally for a number of reasons. LOCKDOWN owing to the alarming attack Among them Rabindranath Tagore and and impact of a stranger COVID-19 by Kazi Nazrul Islam’s birth anniversaries name, destroying in a big way the proud are supposed to be observed through bio-cultural heritage of the humankind all a number of cultural programmes over the globe. The toll that this monstrous organized by many leading organizations/ virus has taken is simply enormous. It may institutions. It is somewhat redundant perhaps take us long than anticipated to mention that both of them impacted getting back to the familiar tune of our the nation in very many ways trying to normal life and living. However, we have focus on the communication of universal certainly been able by now to somewhat brotherhood with humanism. This month get ourselves adjusted or adapted to of May, 2020 brings us to an important the newly emerged lifestyle at a greater occasion when the birth centenary of cost- social, cultural , economic and Satyajit Ray will set in. Ray, one of the great psychological. humanists that the world has produced, In spite of all odds hanging on our necks does not require any introduction or we have been, of course, able to continue elaboration to our erudite members or with some of our academic programmes readers. Our Society will arrange to make and administrative networking based a fitting tribute to this noble soul and primarily on the increasing use of the versatile genius par excellence at an communication technology. We need to appropriate time. expand these activities more and more in Let me close the desk note with an the months to come. Our monthly Bulletin ardent appeal to all our Council members, and some publications have already been life and annual members, well-wishers lined up for that. Now we are working on to contribute generously to the PM a plan to hold essential meetings or even CARES account through our Society for small conferences through this process. enabling the government to fight out Gradually library and museum activities this pandemic. Our staff members have will also be brought under this programme already responded positively to the appeal in a selective way. issued by the Ministry of Culture, Govt. of Before the lockdown we had organized India for donating one day salary during a number of academic programmes the month of April, May and June, 2020. which could not be reported in the earlier Please stay home, stay safe by observing Monthly Bulletin. Some of those events all the necessary guidance issued by the will be included in the next issue of the Central as well as State governments from Bulletin. time to time. Monthly Bulletin 3 May 2020 Tribute to Rabindranath Tagore প্রকৃ বতি প্রবতখিাধ সাগবিকা িূি, বি এবিয়াবিক সসাসাইবি "এই কাখিায়াখি 'প্রকৃ বতি প্রবতখিাধ' নামক নাি্কাি্বি বলব�য়াবিলাম। এই কাখি্ি নায়ক সꇍ্াস뇀 সমস্ত সꇇহিন্ধন মায়ািন্ধন বিꇍ কবিয়া, প্রকৃ বতি উপখি জয়뇀 হইয়া, একান্ত বি�দ্ধভাখি অনন্তখক উপলব鶿 কবিখত চাবহয়াবিল। অনন্তস েন সি-বকিুি িাবহখি। অিখিখে একবি িাবলকা তাহাখক সꇇহপাখি িদ্ধ কবিয়া অনখন্তি ধ্ান হইখত সংসাখিি মখধ্ বিিাইয়া আখন। ে�ন বিবিয়া আবসল ত�ন সꇍ্াস뇀 ইহাই সিব�ল - 嗍ু দ্রখক লইয়াই িৃহৎ, স뇀মাখক লইয়াই অস뇀ম, খপ্রমখক লইয়াই মুব醿। সপ্রখমি আখলা ে�নই পাই ত�নই সে�াখন সচা� সমবল সস�াখনই সিব�, স뇀মাি মখধ্ও স뇀মা নাই।" [ঠাকু ি, িি뇀ন্দ্রনাথ, 'জ뇀িনমৃত', িি뇀ন্দ্র-িচনািল뇀 নিম ��, বিশ্বভািত뇀, �ািণ ১৩৯৬ (িঙ্গাব্দ),ৃ প�া ৫০০] Monthly Bulletin 4 May 2020 May Day Hay Market Martyrs: An Eloquent Silence Subhas Ranjan Chakraborty , Vice President, The Asiatic Society I sat with a dynamiter at supper in a German saloon eating steak and onions And he laughed and old stories of his wife and children… His name was in many newspapers as an enemy of the nation And few keepers of churches and schools would open their door To him…. Only I always remember him as a lover of life, a lover of children A lover of all free, reckless laughter…lover of red hearts and red blood the world over. Carl Sandburg, The Dynamiter E. P. Thompson wrote in the preface of his the American working class was also astir. In classic, The Making of the English Working Class, 1884, the Federation of Organised Trades and ‘the working class did not rise like the sun at Labour Unions (later the American Federation an appointed time. It was of Labour) met in a convention present at its own making’. If in Chicago and adopted a the becoming of the industrial proclamation that the eight- working class was a long hour day would constitute process, the Hay Market the ‘legal day’s labour massacre on 4 May, 1886 from and after May1,1886’. must be seen as a moment Following this, in 1886, a in the long journey when wave of demonstrations by their agency in their own the workers swept USA from making was so emphatically New York to San Fancisco, underlined. the principal demand being Engels wrote in 1878 that the eight-hour working day. ‘the working class movement Chicago, it would appear, has forced itself more and emerged as the centre of the more into the foreground struggle. of every day politics.’ The There were preparations second half of the 19th c. saw to organize the workers in the beginning of organized Chicago and slogans like ‘eight trade union movements, hours for work, eight hours demanding better working for rest, eight hours for what and living conditions, higher we will’ were being heard for wages and fixed working some time. The city witnessed hours. The demand for an eight-hour working on May 1 a large crowd of about 80,000 day became the battle cry of the working people marching along the Michigan Avenue class in Europe and there was increasing carrying banners and shouting slogans.