‘Music bears the identity of a nation’

Festivities are still on as the nation celebrated the 50th Victory Day on Thursday. On the occasion of the golden jubilee of Bangladesh, prominent singer Kumar Bishwajit opened up about his thoughts on the journey of the country, its musical landscape and other related aspects.

Kumar Bishwajit feels that the spirit of victory or independence is the proudest part of a nation. In a recent conversation with The Business Post, he reminisced his days at a refugee camp in Feni during the war.

“I was in such an age that I could not take part in the war front, but I could realise everything. I was around eight years then. I can remember that during our stay at the refugee camp, young men were taken away from the camps for frontline training. One day, I boarded one of their trucks to go with them. Considering my age, I was sent back to the refugee camp,” he said.

“After the victory on December 16, we came out from the refugee camp to return home. After coming back home, there was nothing there - like the remaining of a burnt homestead. Everything was taken away by the local perpetrators, razakars and anti-liberation forces. Not a single piece of our belongings was left. But coming back home after the victory, we didn’t regret the material loss,” he added.

“I will never forget the day we came back home from the refugee camp in a rented truck. We stayed on Sutrabazar camp in Feni, very close to Bilonia of Tripura border of India,” the singer shared.

Talking about the achievements and expectations as a country in these fifty years, Bishwajit said, “Many things are yet to achieve as a nation. Because, still there are people with anti-liberation mindset; even after such immense sacrifice of the country; it makes me feel astound. It’s highly regretting.”

“As a country, we have done huge development. Our position in the world is now in the next level. Winning the maritime boundary, sending the satellite to the orbit, income of people, the evaluation of our country as a developing country —there has been plenty of achievement. But, the areas which need more work are – humanitarian values, honesty and more and more patriotism,” he added.

The veteran singer said that many of the new generation musicians are trying hard to uphold the glorious part of Bengali music that impacted many movements of the country.

“The new generation is trying. Music is a creative and powerful medium, which made a huge contribution from the Language Movement in 1952 to the Liberation War in 1971, and even during the autocratic rule,” Bishwajit said.

He added, “I am not sure, in large measure, whether the field of music is being treated from that point of view and liability. But, it seems to me that music is being treated from a business angle also. Music is not for business. Music bears the identity of a nation, it awakens the good instincts in human being, it speaks about the spirit, it speaks about the root, it speaks about the ideals. Music is not only to be treated from only a business perspective. It’s a creative media”.

“As a person, I am very pessimist. As a generation, we have tried to motivate another generation and tried to keep them engage with our music. And we became successful in this regard. The latter generation grew up hearing our songs. They have nurtured it and got the taste of life from it as well,” the singer further said.

“The new generation became largely dependent on foreign music. So, there might have been some lacks or their previous generation of musicians could not impress them with their music,” said Bishwajit.

“As it’s the age of satellite, it’s the age of internet, they will obviously listen to everything. But in a large measure, we could not engage the newest generation with our music.”

“They are being separated from their roots. Music has no barrier in this time of globalisation. I will extract from other culture, I will blend others’ culture with mine, but I must hold onto my culture first, in a proportion of 80-90 per cent at least. Because it’s a matter of my roots, my origin and my existence. Sacrificing own culture to nurture other cultures should not be the characteristic of a patriotic person,” concluded the celebrated singer.