The real conflict between science-mindedness in Bangladesh: Religion, or underdevelopment of state infrastructure?

I will write my personal views on science and religion - this is a long-standing wish. However, since thinking changes with age, every time I start writing about science and religion, I think, stay! I think a little more. If I understand a little more, I will write only then. But today I feel that if I don't write it now, this writing will not happen in my life! However, in view of some events in contemporary Bangladesh, these three complex issues: science, religion and culture are being hotly debated in the social and media. From learned writers-researchers to Facebook celebrities are not left out to express their opinions. Perhaps, from that point of view, I was a little bit tempted to write this as a very ordinary citizen.The first thing I want to say is that I have not thought to say much about the global scope of science and religion. That is, the early debates about science and religion, analyzing the philosophical aspects and explaining whether religion came from science, or science from religion, - I will not have such justification in this article. Rather, I will try to tell some minor aspects of science and religion practice among Bangladeshis from my point of view. It may be 100% wrong, or it may be right to a very small extent. The reader will take the responsibility of judging, but don't deprive me of the right to express my opinion, that's all I want.

The question that I want to start with is - 'What is the mind of the people of Bangladesh?' Or to put it more deeply, 'What is Bengali a mental race?' I have heard a few words since my childhood, such as: science minded, religious minded, cultured minded. It can be said like this - Bengali is a science-minded nation or a religious Bengali (especially Muslim), a culture-minded Bengali. As much as I have experienced through my personal studies, I can say that Bengalis are more religious and more cultured than they are scientific. In other words, judging from a hundred years ago, the thing that can be seen fairly clearly is that there was always a simple art-culture practice among Bengalis. Which we sometimes call the prevailing culture of village-Bangla. After the renaissance and the arrival of the British, the practice of science among the Bengalis began systematically. But for argument's sake it is better to say here that the world's first university, Nalanda, was in this region and the discovery of zero, etc., for now I would like to leave it implied, because at the end of the day, we may not be able to retain that tradition. However, if we think in this context, although the history of Bengali culture is very old, the history of scientific practice is probably not very old. Similarly, the history of Bengali religion runs more or less parallel with the culture. As a result, I think it would be inappropriate to suddenly expect science-mindedness from a nation that cherishes centuries-old beliefs. Not only is it inappropriate, but in certain cases it can become wrong and dangerous. So what is the way? Bengali will be superstitious all his life? Science will never enter his mind?

After the establishment of Dhaka University in this country in 1921, there was a continuous and processual beginning of the practice of knowledge. At that time, many distinguished professors from Europe and America visited this university, known as the Oxford of the East, and those who were their students, more or less, when they started their lives as teachers in various educational institutions, took teaching as a vow more than a job. And among those who were their students, there was a general understanding that what is the main purpose of education? Getting a certificate for a job, or pushing yourself towards a better and more humane way of life. Unfortunately, this trend still continues? Not to my knowledge. In this year 2022, if someone asks a student of most of the country's universities or even high school or secondary level, what is the purpose of your studies? I am sure most students would answer without any hesitation, good job. It may have personality, of course, but the answer will be more or less close to such an answer. Being a doctor, engineer also means but now more money-earning, not serving humanity. If we look into the reasons behind this answer of our young students of the 21st century in Bangladesh, many things may come up. But I think, in a society, 'good job' becomes everyone's mindset only when the socio-economic condition of that society is very bad. In other words, when the state fails to fulfill the basic needs of anyone except for a well-paid job, straight to Bengal - the burden of the stomach, then education-art-philosophy etc., immaterial matters become like eating biryani for those who cannot afford rice! As a result, what is the real utility of education and what can happen if it is not achieved - we probably don't have the patience to think normally like listening to these theories. If the picture of the socio-economic reality of a country is like this, then how can one expect a career minded and science minded nation!

I can say from my own point of view what science really means. Perhaps this isn't the perfect understanding, but at least that's how I like to think so far. If I can find or experience a better idea somewhere, I will definitely try to adopt it. Let's say I want to teach someone to ride a bicycle. So in what way can it be? I have heard this example from my childhood that one can never learn to ride a bicycle or swim by reading books. These are matters of practice. You have to learn by hand. I think so too. Which part of the bicycle is called the pedal, which is the chain, which is the bearing - after reading these books, if someone is lifted on the bicycle, he will surely fall down on the bicycle! So what to do? What to do is to assist him to pedal directly on the bike. Thus, when he learns to balance gravity, the bicycle will move forward. Now this is what I want to say in the context of teaching, that is, if my aim is to teach a student how to ride a bicycle, then teaching him to ride a bicycle only by riding on a bicycle will be half of the original education. Again, without bringing a bicycle and handing over a book, it's a pedal, it's a bearing - this education will be half of the original education. And learning only a few theoretical things about bicycles from comparative books is less useful in this poverty-stricken country than merely learning to ride a bicycle. Hence, to get a hundred percent education, like learning to ride a bicycle by hand, he also needs to learn and feel the science of how a bicycle works with gravity, balance of centripetal force, etc., so that he can understand the internal mechanisms of other such vehicles and learn new things. Can think of innovation. And to inculcate this 'thinking' in a student is the value of a teacher. But unfortunately for us, we learn only the 'process' throughout our life, never thinking why the 'process' is the way it is, whether it could have been done in another way or not. Because when we are taught addition-subtraction-multiplication-division from a very young age, this is how the 'process' is taught. A child learns mathematics through procedural speech such as 'keep 1 in hand', '1 up and down', 'drop a 0 from the top', 'move 1 house to the left' to do addition and subtraction. It's not that he won't learn that way. Of course, in the first stage of learning, he will not understand the coordinate value of the figure. Maybe learn to do theory through practice first. But later he must understand why he kept 1 in his hand. Otherwise, when he later solves more advanced mathematical problems, he will not be able to think about anything outside of the processes he has learned. And he will forget to think at all. And if this trend continues among all the others, the students who will be produced as a whole will actually become mindless geniuses. Those whose thinking is limited to a few taught processes, cannot think beyond that. The end of the disappointment is not only here, because in Bangladesh nowadays it is not surprising to get a job after passing honors from the first class. Rather, it has become a system. If one starts thinking about something out of outline,Which is now affectionately called 'think out of the box', that is, if he begins to understand, then overall his studies and results are likely to be bad! And 'why am I reading this' - it must be difficult enough for people who think like that to get BCS or other so called lucrative jobs! As a result, 'thinking' and 'being thoughtful', which is the first step of becoming 'scientifically minded', is not seen much at present. Hence the demand for such educated people who know the 'process' and can work with skills within the more or less known process. Government jobs in particular are said to be so secure probably because if a person fails to develop even basic soft skills with time, he/she will remain in the job, but many private sector organizations, especially IT professionals, always need to be updated with new technologies. , otherwise there are chances of leaving or not getting a job. But the socio-economic status of a middle grade government employee is much higher than that of a private sector IT professional in the society. As a result, our education system as a whole is now dynamic in such a way that there is no material utility in 'thinking'. To spend a few nights pondering over a complex mathematical subject or sitting on the bank of a river thinking intensively about a formula in physics is very primitive with the current education system. If a child starts thinking like this and therefore his overall results are bad, he doesn't get a respectable job, then he will be ostracized in the family and society, that even life may become meaningless to him! In such a situation, when a student in our country fails to understand the real reason for science education, and cannot think 'rationally' despite studying science throughout his education, then the responsibility cannot be placed on him, nor on his teachers. The root cause probably lies within the education system. But since the education system is not a material entity, it cannot be 'educated' by whipping it! As a result, the whole thing moves in such a chaotic manner. And the small appendages of that chaos seep into the events of our daily lives. All the people, the environment, the surroundings around us seem to be a disorganization created from a chaos.Otherwise there are chances of leaving or not getting the job. But the socio-economic status of a middle grade government employee is much higher than that of a private sector IT professional in the society. As a result, our education system as a whole is now dynamic in such a way that there is no material utility in 'thinking'. To spend a few nights pondering over a complex mathematical subject or sitting on the bank of a river thinking intensively about a formula in physics is very primitive with the current education system. If a child starts thinking like this and therefore his overall results are bad, he doesn't get a respectable job, then he will be ostracized in the family and society, that even life may become meaningless to him! In such a situation, when a student in our country fails to understand the real reason for science education, and cannot think 'rationally' despite studying science throughout his education, then the responsibility cannot be placed on him, nor on his teachers. The root cause probably lies within the education system. But since the educational system is not a material entity, it cannot be 'educated' by whipping it anymore! As a result, the whole thing moves in such a chaotic manner. And little bits of that chaos seep into the events of our daily lives. All the people, the environment, the surroundings around us seem to be a disorganization created from a chaos.Otherwise there are chances of leaving or not getting the job. But the socio-economic status of a middle grade government employee is much higher than that of a private sector IT professional in the society. As a result, our education system as a whole is now dynamic in such a way that there is no material utility in 'thinking'. To spend a few nights pondering over a complex mathematical subject or sitting on the bank of a river thinking intensively about a formula in physics is very primitive with the current education system. If a child starts thinking like this and therefore his overall results are bad, he doesn't get a respectable job, then he will be ostracized in the family and society, that even life may become meaningless to him! In such a situation, when a student in our country fails to understand the real reason for science education, and cannot think 'rationally' despite studying science throughout his education, then the responsibility cannot be placed on him, nor on his teachers. The root cause probably lies within the education system. But since the education system is not a material entity, it cannot be 'educated' by whipping it! As a result, the whole thing moves in such a chaotic manner. And the small appendages of that chaos seep into the events of our daily lives. All the people, the environment, the neighborhood around us feel like a disorganization created from a chaos.

"The cowardice of the intellect is the chief refuge of powerlessness" - Rabindranath's words. Essentially science-minded does not mean only what we mean by 'science' - i.e. learning the fundamentals of mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology etc. Rather, when a person becomes inquisitive in his thinking, becomes rational and learns to think logically in practical life, not accepting or rejecting anything on sight, then this rational mind can be called a scientific mind. But I think many people think that the term 'rationalist' is only used for 'atheism'. For example, many mistakenly and ignorantly use the word 'radical' whenever they see a beard. Basically, a person's ability to think logically or rationally is not only essential for studying science. Rather, in all other branches of knowledge, be it science, religion, or arts, humanities, business education or whatever, it is necessary to think deeply and think rationally. Perhaps one of the reasons why we have not become science-minded as a nation lies in the fact that we assume from the beginning that only students of science will understand, that only they can think rationally, and that those who study art-culture or religion are nothing but memorization. Don't do anything else. I don't think any good education system supports making people think in one way. A student of science will not have logical thinking about literature, sociology, politics, economics or religion, even music, painting, film, it is not supposed to be like that. Similarly, a student studying in a Madrasa will confine his thinking only to the religious sphere, completely indifferent to other various material matters of the world, that too will not be good for the society and his personal life. As a result, if the sense of thinking rationally is not created in the students in any branch of education, then this void of thinking can be filled by something else. And any other person, group, society, state gets the opportunity to fill that void according to its own interest, its own needs. Although this matter was not so clearly understood in the 20th century, it can be understood very easily in this 21st century based on information technology. Over the past decade, the availability of internet and computers, laptops especially smartphones in Bangladesh as well as the whole world has led us to progress to a great extent, but to a large extent its indiscriminate use has negatively influenced the thinking of the youth and teenagers. Most of the secondary and higher secondary level children now have the world-opening smartphone in their hands. Since our current education system is only focused on passing exams and getting a GPA-5 is not that difficult, students are filling their gap in reasoning by expressing their feelings online rather than through other means of education. The means of expressing this feeling are Facebook, YouTube, Twitter,TikTok etc can be anything. Unfortunately, this issue is not limited to teenagers. A large section of the country's adults now spend their mindless brain space posting a status or comment on Facebook. It doesn't require him to think rationally, and in fact that thinking has not been developed in him since childhood. In fact, it was not possible to see such thoughtless people together until now, because there was no open social media like it is now. But thanks to the goodness (or badness!) of Facebook, it is now very easy to read the comment box under the news link of a newspaper to get an impression of the thoughts of the average people of Bangladesh as a whole. So now that our thoughtlessness is out in the open, it would not be reasonable to think that we have all died of thoughtlessness overnight or in a day. After basically drowning in a sea of ​​thoughtlessness for the past few decades, the sudden availability of our online expression - the wave has brought these thoughtless corpses to its surface. A few decades ago, our university student teachers used to keep themselves busy with minimal but enlightening gatherings. But currently the universities of Bangladesh produce or evaluate the rest of the real knowledge? A handful of public and private universities in the country are playing a role in research, but if you look into it, it may be seen that the initiative and hard work of the students is more than that of the teachers. By arranging a small financial grant for research or participation in an international competition, the soles of their shoes and sandals wear out. As a result, the absence of real knowledge in science, religion and culture has been going on for a long time in our society from elementary to university level. is there And in view of this, is it not more important to look at the main problem instead of discussing the conflict between science and religion or religion and culture? If two-thirds of the educated people of this country could think logically and rationally, would it be possible for us to be so easily divided, factionalized, and rioted about any issue? There are a group of people in the world today, and their number is not very small, who claim that the world is not round like an orange, but flat like a loaf of flour! They are called 'Flat Earth Society', who have people in different countries of the world to do research. However, with the knowledge of geometric measurements and physics, it should not be difficult for a common student who has passed secondary school to understand that the earth is really round like an orange! Although this example is easy for us to understand, a slightly higher complexity of science is when something is wrongly explained to us, and when a group does it on purpose,Then our brain no longer wants to analyze. We simply accept them or are forced to accept them. I believe that there will be no damage to the environment even if there is a ramp next to the Sundarbans! This is our greatest loss and regret of not being scientifically minded. And this opportunity is used by the opportunity seekers according to their needs. In the rush of new economic and technological buzzwords, we think that the country has reached the peak of its development, but in reality it is possible to understand them by taking advantage of our ignorance. If we were truly science-minded, we would talk about our climate change without getting into a religion-science conflict; Even after fifty years of independence, Dhaka, known as one of the most uninhabitable cities in the world, is about why the state does not have any significant long-term solution or action regarding the problems of air pollution, water pollution, noise pollution, traffic congestion etc. Similarly, looking at religion, it is possible to incite a group of unthinking religious people to say that their beloved preacher has been unjustly imprisoned because his face is seen in the moon, and to protest by looting and burning the houses of other religious people. Personally, I think that a person who has not read any other Tafseer, Hadith, Fiqh, etc. in his life, has only read one of the simplest Bengali translations of the Qur'an Sharif, it will not be possible for him to be inflamed by such religious incitement. Basically seeing that we don't have religious knowledge, self-interested people take this opportunity, they fill the gap of knowledge with the knowledge or help of violence. But the biggest rift among Bengalis due to thoughtlessness is probably in our culture. What is Bengali culture?- This question is difficult to answer. Because actually we are people of mixed culture. As we have taken from the West, we have also taken from the West, and our own simple way of thinking has been from the earliest times, a culture flowing like a river has always been seen among the Bengalis. Our songs, paintings, food language, dress etc. have the impression of different ethnic groups of the world and this is probably our greatest strength. Because a nation that has more capacity to receive in its reservoir, has a greater scope to give. But unfortunately it is true that it is not understood whether the cultural sense of the people of present day Bangladesh is really derived from any geographical, economic or nationality or not. Hundreds of years ago, a broad saree without a blouse was the dress of most rural Bengali women, and the reason for this was probably economic. A single width saree without stitching is easy to make and its market price is low, so it was the logical choice for us to wear at that time. After that, Bengali's economic capacity gradually increased.As a result, the preferences of the people of the elite society have become the fashion accessories of the public. But the increasingly open global economy of the past few decades has filled that cultural gap in our sense of self with its own self-interested global culture. Another reason behind the development of the clothing of people in most countries of the world is the environment and the weather controller of that region. But if you look at the clothing accessories of the present people in Bangladesh, this issue cannot be noticed much. The same is true of our current musical accompaniment. In riverine Bangladesh, once the melodious melody like the coldness of the river captivated the listeners, now many people's songs like rock-metal-psychedelic etc. are being heard. It is true that the environment around us is not as calm and gentle as it used to be, where it would be nice to read Rabindranath's two-page poem or listen to a rain song on a rainy day. In a jam-packed and polluted city-port, there is no way but to draw the listener's attention by using drums-guitar to reach the listener's ears. But in truth, this trend of band music that has been coming to Bangladesh for a long time, is it growing in the same way in the past two decades? Or is there a lot of cultural hegemonic sappers in there? As a result of which we have forgotten that, at least on Bengali national days, playing Hindi songs at road junctions or performing energetic dances to the rhythm of Hindi songs at any school-college independence day function does not increase our culture sense, it goes to minus in one jump! Thanks to Facebook, these now come before us, become viral. Another aspect of culture can be observed among the youth today. This is purely my personal opinion, but my belief is that the reader will consider my point of view on this matter, even though it is few in number. Nowadays, many posts are seen on Facebook especially during book fairs, which can be called book-sari-coffee mug in one word! Recently someone's comment was seen in the newsfeed - when someone's profile has a book-sari-coffee mug in the same frame aesthetically, it can be assumed that in ninety percent of cases he has not read that book! I personally do not want to go to such strict justification! But it is true that we see many types of culture among the youth studying in our universities today. Among them, one stream is mainly Calcutta-oriented culture under the impression of the original Bengali culture and another is on the opposite side of it, some modern Islamic scholars or English celebrities can be called their culture. If it really plays a role in the exchange of art and culture between the two countries in the case of Calcutta visitors, then it is very surprising and admirable. But if the thing is, one feels that he has to read and listen to Jibanananda Das, Vinay Majumder, Sandeepan, Marquez, Kafka, Laca, Derrida, Pink Floyd, Van Gogh, etc. To be taken, whose medium is mostly limited to Facebook-Sari-Punjabi-Jewellery, but in reality he doesn't have enough wandering about it, then calling the thing 'pseudo-aesthetic' probably wouldn't be wrong. Because it doesn't really add any substance to our culture. Rather, the stories of many real practitioners are lost in the crowd of their viral posts.And 'pseudo-aesthetic'ness becomes a trend, profiting businesses selling matching-matching clothes on certain days. Similarly, without understanding the underlying liberal tenets of Islam, just a few issues like: Darwin right or wrong, Quran scientific or not, whether polygamy is permissible, how many hands to keep a beard, whether to fold hands in prayer or to have a belly button jump away from the core of Islam. It will not benefit anyone if they create a conflict among themselves about far-off issues and make a protest student society against other Islamic practitioners (other sects) or mere art-literature-science practitioners. To remain under the rule of tyranny for life and conflict will remain among those who were supposed to speak out against exploitation together. Because the paths of religion and art and literature are two different, but the goal is the same, to reach the truth, to reach the welfare. As a result, if our sense of judgment is not developed as a human being, what will happen if we do not have the strength to understand what to accept and what to keep aside? In the words of Rabindranath, it will be 'the den of impotence'. To whom does this impotence point? What is worth saying about the ability of the people to speak out against the mismanagement of the state?

If we look at the political history of post-47 Bangladesh, it becomes clear as water that the young student society of Bangladesh played a leading and leading role in all the post-independence freedom movements. Bangladeshi student society has always played the role of the main designer of freedom movement, freedom movement from dictatorship and common people have joined it. Even looking at the very contemporary Shahbagh Ganajagran Manch movement, quota movement, safe road movement, the same thing is observed. However, it is noticeable that the ability of students and common people to reach a consensus against any exploitation and oppression in Bangladesh as a whole is disappearing. This is probably because we prefer our irrational attitude even in many logical matters. On the other hand, there may be various political-economic calculations behind it, but on the whole, the public's lack of protest in a national landslide and keeping ourselves distracted from the main exploitation movement by crying for a few days about the most trivial issues of religion, culture or science - it is going to become a habit of ours. . Economic, political instability, insecurity and unlivable cities in the social life of each of us in the past few decades, in which now every one of us lives in the poisonous vapor, whenever the movement starts, just then a religious conflict or a cultural disaster comes in front of us. . I am not going to discuss whether the issue is part of a well-planned group interest or not, but it seems that no one will be able to go very far in the desire to establish the regime or maintain the regime by riding on the back of a strange donkey, dangling the inter-conflict of science-religion-culture like a radish. Many of these Hindu Muslims from the British colonial times tried to work on the divide and rule method, which, needless to say, caused immediate damage, but not that the Bengali tradition was destroyed forever. However, it would be foolish to hope for better times in the future because of this. Whatever else a Bengali does, self-criticism or introspection to find out one's own weaknesses is its original characteristic, it is only necessary to act accordingly and to practice self-realized knowledge in every branch of knowledge, so that a group can capitalize on the emptiness of logic to create a blueprint for its own interests. can't At least to understand this should hopefully be one of the main demands of this time.