A glimpse of the Reception of Tagore in the Arabic Literature

Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) was a polymath and one of the most versatile and accomplished writers of his age. His fame transcended the national boundaries, especially after he had been conferred the prestigious ‘Nobel Prize’ in 1913 for his masterpiece “Gitanjali”. So, the Arabic-Speaking World was not supposed to be isolated in this regard. Subsequently, when Tagore received the Nobel Prize on 13th November 1913, the Arab World came forward to welcome and celebrate the news wholeheartedly because Tagore was not only the first Indian but the first Asian to receive the prestigious award. So, daily newspapers of several Arab countries expressed their excitement and enthusiasm soon after the Nobel Committee announced that Tagore had won the Nobel Prize and Egypt was at the forefront as we find that several reputed dailies and journals published the news such as the daily al-Ahram and the journals Saut al-Sharq, al-Hilal, al-Jinan and al-Muqtataf etc. Later, many Arabic writers and translators paid their special attention to his literary works. And many books, research papers and articles were written discussing his life, literature, philosophy and spirituality. As he was a renowned personality all over the world, much has been written and being written about him. His diversified works of literature are studied and researched. Journal articles and conference papers are written and presented nationally and internationally. Hence, I don’t intend to take up any of these aspects to discuss in this concise paper. As it’s clear from the title of the article, I would try to discuss and highlight how he has been received, read and revered in the Arab World through Arabic writings and translations of Tagoreana

Role of Multilingualism in developing spirit of tolerance and harmony

In the interconnected and globalized world, multilingualism has a great role to play in creating a peaceful global society based on mutual understanding, solidarity, tolerance, affection and compassion. We know that the world has witnessed two World Wars, and continues to witness international conflicts, regional disputes, local unrests and sectarian clashes. Have we contemplated why all these happen, here and there, now and then? If we ponder upon, we will find that most of these conflicts and disputes occur due to linguistic, ethnic, religious, ideological or economic differences. And the reason behind it is that everyone refuses to recognize the other, his language, race, religion, and ideology. On the other hand everyone – individual or community or state - wants to achieve his own goals and objectives at the expense of the other. This is where clashes and disputes emanate from. This is what called "unilateral theory" where one party does not recognize or respect the other leading to the marginalization of the weaker by the stronger, which further leads to sowing the seeds of hatred and hostility, clash and conflict. So, to my belief, the recognition of pluralism - linguistic, cultural, religious, ethnic and ideological - can prove to be the only solution to many conflicts and disputes. Hence, this paper will focus on why we should encourage and promote multilingualism and how it develops the spirit of tolerance and understanding in the multilingual personalities

Role of Multilingualism in developing spirit of tolerance and harmony

In the interconnected and globalized world, multilingualism has a great role to play in creating a peaceful global society based on mutual understanding, solidarity, tolerance, affection and compassion. We know that the world has witnessed two World Wars, and continues to witness international conflicts, regional disputes, local unrests and sectarian clashes. Have we contemplated why all these happen, here and there, now and then? If we ponder upon, we will find that most of these conflicts and disputes occur due to linguistic, ethnic, religious, ideological or economic differences. And the reason behind it is that everyone refuses to recognize the other, his language, race, religion, and ideology. On the other hand everyone – individual or community or state - wants to achieve his own goals and objectives at the expense of the other. This is where clashes and disputes emanate from. This is what called "unilateral theory" where one party does not recognize or respect the other leading to the marginalization of the weaker by the stronger, which further leads to sowing the seeds of hatred and hostility, clash and conflict. So, to my belief, the recognition of pluralism - linguistic, cultural, religious, ethnic and ideological - can prove to be the only solution to many conflicts and disputes. Hence, this paper will focus on why we should encourage and promote multilingualism and how it develops the spirit of tolerance and understanding in the multilingual personalities

A glimpse of the Reception of Tagore in the Arabic Literature

Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) was a polymath and one of the most versatile and accomplished writers of his age. His fame transcended the national boundaries, especially after he had been conferred the prestigious ‘Nobel Prize’ in 1913 for his masterpiece “Gitanjali”. So, the Arabic-Speaking World was not supposed to be isolated in this regard. Subsequently, when Tagore received the Nobel Prize on 13th November 1913, the Arab World came forward to welcome and celebrate the news wholeheartedly because Tagore was not only the first Indian but the first Asian to receive the prestigious award. So, daily newspapers of several Arab countries expressed their excitement and enthusiasm soon after the Nobel Committee announced that Tagore had won the Nobel Prize and Egypt was at the forefront as we find that several reputed dailies and journals published the news such as the daily al-Ahram and the journals Saut al-Sharq, al-Hilal, al-Jinan and al-Muqtataf etc. Later, many Arabic writers and translators paid their special attention to his literary works. And many books, research papers and articles were written discussing his life, literature, philosophy and spirituality. As he was a renowned personality all over the world, much has been written and being written about him. His diversified works of literature are studied and researched. Journal articles and conference papers are written and presented nationally and internationally. Hence, I don’t intend to take up any of these aspects to discuss in this concise paper. As it’s clear from the title of the article, I would try to discuss and highlight how he has been received, read and revered in the Arab World through Arabic writings and translations of Tagoreana

The early history of the Cult of the Mother Goddess in Northern Indian Hinduism with special reference to iconography.

The present essay aims at a critical study of the cult of the Mother Goddess in North India from prehistoric times to the end of the 12th century A.D. It consists of a preface, five main chapters, a concluding chapter and two appendices. Chapter I discusses the position of goddess worship in the Vedic period and analyses the attributes of some of the Vedic goddesses to determine the extent to which they have anticipated the Mother Goddess in Hinduism, Chapter II is devoted to some of the non-Aryan village deities and the Matkas. It analyses their functions and attributes and points out their place in Hinduism vis-a-vis that of the Mother Goddess. Chapter III traces the development of the concept of the Mother Goddess in Hinduism from the Vedic period and analyses the evidence of her worship from early Indian literature, Puranic mythology, folklore and epigraphy. Chapter IV examines the archaeological evidence concerning the rise and development of the cult of the Mother Goddess in the prehistoric and historic times in North India. Chapter V makes a critical study of the icons of the Mother Goddess and analyses the various forms in which she appears in the iconoplastic art of early and medieval India. Chapter VI in conclusion gives a brief resume of the salient features of her cult and reviews the place the Mother Goddess now occupies in Hinduism

The danger of diglossia in Arabic language: A study from historical and empirical perspective

توجد في العالم أكثر من ستة آلاف لغة، وتكاد تخلو لغة من الازدواجية اللغوية. فالازدواجية اللغوية (Diglossia) ظاهرة متلازمة لأي لغة من اللغات الحية في العالم؛ إذ يوجد صراع قائم بين لغة أدبية مكتوبة ولغة عامية محكية منذ بداية اللغات. فهذه الازدواجية العامة لا تشكل خطرا كبيرا على اللغة الفصحى. ولكن الازدواجية التي تشكل خطرا كبيرا على أي لغة هو الانتقال بالكتابة من الفصحى إلى العامية. يرى الباحث أن اللغة العربية تختلف في الازدواجية اختلافا بارزا في الواقع المعاصر لبروز دعوات هدامة من المغتربين والمستشرقين إلى الانتقال بالكتابة من الفصحى إلى العامية. فيتحدث الباحث في هذه الورقة البحثية عن الازدواجية اللغوية الموجودة في اللغة العربية ومدى خطورتها. وبالإضافة إلى ذلك، يتطرق إلى بيان أثر وسائل الإعلام المقروءة والمسموعة والمرئية على العربية الفصحى؛ إذ نرى في الوقت الراهن أن اللغة العامية أصبحت تطارد الفصحى في وسائل الإعلام والاتصال الحديثة بما لها من نفوذ معنوي وانتشار هائل في العالم الرقمي. والبحث يحتوي على أربعة مباحث مسبوقة بمقدمة ومتبوعة بخاتمة. وقد انتهج الباحث فيه منهجا تاريخية وتجريبيا في معالجة الموضوع، واستكشف من خلال الدراسة أن الازدواجية اللغوية تشكل تحديا كبيرا أمام اللغة العربية لوجود الصراع الشديد بين الفصحى واللهجات بعد بروز دعوات هدامة من المغتربين والمستشرقين إلى إحلال العامية محل الفصحى من ناحية، وبسبب الهجر والإهمال في موطنها ومن قبل أبنائها في وسائل الإعلام وأنظمة التعليم والمعاملات اليومية من ناحية أخرى. ويسعى الباحث بواسطة هذه الدراسة أن يخلق الوعي العام لدى الجيل الجديد من الدول العربية أو الدول المعنية بشأن خطورة إهمال الفصحى واستخدام اللهجات على حسابها، كما يرجو أن يحثّ الجهات المعنية العامة والخاصة على أن تهتم بتعزيز الفصحى  في الأصعدة الاجتماعية والسياسية والأكاديمية.There are more than six thousand languages ​​in the world, and diglossia exists almost in every language. Diglossia is a linguistic phenomenon found in any language of the world; because there always has been existed a kind of conflict between a written literary language and a spoken colloquial language since the inception of languages. This common diglossia does not pose any major threat to the standard language. But the diglossia which poses a great danger to any language is the shift from standard language to the colloquial one in written form. The researcher believes that the Arabic language differs from other languages in terms of diglossia, in the contemporary reality, due to emergence of subversive campaigns by orientalists and expatriates to shift from standard language to the colloquial one in written form. In this article, the researcher talks about diglossia in Arabic languge and the extent of danger it poses to the Arabic standard language. In addition, the researcher discusses the impact of the written, audio and visual media on standard Arabic, as we see, at present, that the colloquial language is chasing away standard Arabic in the present media and means of communication with their moral influence and wide circulation in the digital world. The paper contains four chapters preceded by an introduction and followed by a conclusion. The researcher has adopted a historical and empirical approach in dealing with the subject, and explored through the study that linguistic diglossia poses a major challenge to the Arabic language due to the intense conflict between the standard Arabic and the colloquial after the emergence of subversive campaigns from expatriates and orientalists to replace the standard Arabic with the colloquial on one hand, and because of abandonment and neglect in its homeland by its speakers in the media, education systems and daily conversation on the other hand. Through this study, the researcher seeks to create public awareness among the new generation of Arab countries or concerned countries regarding the danger of neglecting standard Arabic and using dialects at its expense. He also hopes to motivate the public and private stakeholders to pay attention to promoting standard Arabic at the social, political and academic levels

Channeling commercial fund to NGO-MFIs: a case study of Bank-NGO linkage programme of Sonali Bank

This dissertation is submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Development Studies, 2004.Cataloged from PDF version of dissertation.Includes bibliographical references (page 43-44).Bangladesh has the largest and most vibrant micro finance industry in the world, which is greatly appreciated for its contribution in the reduction of poverty in the country. This industry, however, is encountering funding problem, because low cost funds and donations from abroad are declining. In this situation, strong suggestions have been made to finance this operation on commercial basis through statutory banks. Sonali Bank has such a programme called SB-NGO Linkage programme for several years. This study analyzes the performance of this programme and concludes that by using comparative advantages, both the bank and the NGO-MFI can benefit through forging an effective linkage programme. Commercial banks can substantially increase their profitability through this kind of linkage, because the cost of lending is very low while the rate of recovery is very high. On the other hand, such programme significantly increases the sustainability and outreach of NGO¬MFIs. Therefore, the study strongly recommends to formulate a workable mechanism, which would facilitate mutual trust between commercial banks and NGO-MFIs, working towards an effective and sustainable linkage with necessary government and NGO collaboration. Under such a framework, both GO and NGO can work together on the basis of their comparative advantages through coordination and cooperation to effectively serve the cause of poverty reduction.Md. Mukhlesur RahmanM. Development Studie

Web-based Resource Management System for Promoting Teaching and Learning: Bangladesh Perspectives

The adoption of digital communication media, particularly the Internet, has allowed the intellectual community to access and share knowledge to enhance research competency throughout the world. Technological advancement in the field of digital information networks facilitated information professionals to manage and access knowledge resources for research and development purposes. Web-based resource management system helps scholars to preserve their research output enabling other scholars to find required information timely and accurately. The aim of this research was to explore the current practices of web-based digital resource management system in Bangladesh in the context of global access to information and knowledge management. The study reviewed related literature published in various national and international journals and also other sources. Moreover, the study also consulted with relevant bibliographic databases especially OpenDOAR, DOAJ and ROAR. Result showed that in Bangladesh some educational, science and technology, agricultural, medical and medicine, social science and general research centre are already using and managing their in-born digital resources through their respective Institutional Repository (IR). Besides, a good number of organizations are trying to implement IR for their respective organization. The outcome of the study will be helpful for IR and non-IR providing organizations in Bangladesh to manage their digital resources more effectively aiming to promoting web-based teaching and learning

The effect of Rainfall, Temperature and Humidity on Saline in the Southern area of Bangladesh

A study was taken to measure the effect of rainfall, temperature and humidity on salinity area as well as to project the future trend of increasing saline area in the southern area of Bangladesh. Patuakhali district was selected as study area for the study. Secondary data such as temperature, saline area, relative humidity, rainfall, etc. were used in the experiment. The results showed that minimum temperature and relative humidity has the positive effect whereas rainfall and maximum temperature has the negative effect on decreasing the soil salinity. The study projects that the saline area would be increasing trend in future. Therefore mitigation measures could be taken to prevent the salinity in the coastal area. Keywords: Forecasting, Southern area in Bangladesh, Saline water, Soil salinity

Genetic variation of Japanese loach inferred from restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis of mitochondrial DNA

Genetic analysis using restriction fragment length polymorphisms (RFLPs) of D-loop region in the mitochondrial DNA including the part of 12s RNA and cytochrome b genes was made to clarify genetic variations and relations and relationships among eleven populations of Japanese loach Misgurnus anguillicaudatus. Ten haplotypes were detected using seven restriction enzymes (Alu I, Hinc II, Msp I, EcoR I, Hinf I, Hae III and Taq I). The differences between each pair of the populations were significant (