In use and abuse of Bengali, a slice of South Asian politics in London

[and/or www.mantra.com/jai]

In use and abuse of Bengali, a slice of South Asian
politics in London

By Vijay Rana
The Indian Express
Saturday, May 25, 2013

London - Losing your way in London and asking for
directions in Bengali � or Punjabi, Gujarati or Hindi �
is probably okay. Losing your temper and letting fly in
Bengali probably isn't.

A councillor of Bangladeshi origin triggered outrage in
the council of the borough of Tower Hamlets by making a
rude reference to pigs while addressing another
councillor � also of Bangladeshi origin � in the course
of a heated argument recently.

Among the points made in the council subsequently was
this: councillors were speaking too much of languages
other than English, and it needed to stop.

As non-Bengali speaking councillors watched bewildered, a
furious Cllr Abdal Ullah demanded an apology after Cllr
Ghulam Robbani called him a "shuor-er bachcha" � or son
of a pig � and made an official complaint about the
increasing use of Bengali in the council chamber.

In a letter to the council Standards Committee, Abdal
Ullah said, "Whilst we may have our differences,
councillors should afford one another courtesy in our
exchanges rather than resorting to unnecessary and
abusive insults."

Continues at:

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/in-use-and-abuse-of-bengali-a-slice-of-south-asian-politics-in-london/1120416/

Jai Maharaj, Jyotishi
Om Shanti

http://groups.google.com/group/alt.fan.jai-maharaj

o o o

o Not for commercial use. Solely to be fairly used
for the educational purposes of research and open
discussion. The contents of this post may not have been
authored by, and do not necessarily represent the opinion
of the poster. The contents are protected by copyright
law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

o If you send private e-mail to me, it will likely
not be read, considered or answered if it does not
contain your full legal name, current e-mail and postal
addresses, and live-voice telephone number.

o Posted for information and discussion. Views
expressed by others are not necessarily those of the
poster who may or may not have read the article.
FAIR USE NOTICE: This article may contain copyrighted
material the use of which may or may not have been
specifically authorized by the copyright owner. This
material is being made available in efforts to advance
the understanding of environmental, political, human
rights, economic, democratic, scientific, social, and
cultural, etc., issues. It is believed that this
constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material
as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law.
In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the
material on this site is distributed without profit to
those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving
the included information for research, comment,
discussion and educational purposes by subscribing to
USENET newsgroups or visiting web sites. For more
information go to:
http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml

If you wish to use copyrighted material from this article
for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you
must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

Since newsgroup posts are being removed by forgery by one
or more net terrorists, this post may be reposted several
times.