Boisabi festival begins today amid Boisabi-Bizu controversy

chtnews.com
News No. 63/2008, April 12, 2008

The three-day Boisabi festival begins today in the three districts of Chittagong Hill Tracts under the shadow of a famine-like situation in Sajek, Farua and many other places.

An unwarranted controversy over the naming of the festival itself and continued military repression and land grabbing will also cast gloom over the atmosphere of the festival.

The controversy began in the first week of March, when the Regional Council issued an official circular ordering all concerned to use the term Bizu instead of Boisabi. Justifying its action the RC argued that the term "Boisabi" does not occur in any of the languages of the Jumma nationalities.

Naturally, the overbearing bureaucratic order met with hostile criticism from all quarters of CHT. Many socio-cultural organisations as well as District Councils simply ignored the order. Marma, Tripura and other nationalities who have their own words for the festival also resented the order.

The Democratic Youth Forum, which represents all the nationalities of CHT, in a leaflet issued on 8 April urged the Jummas to refuse to comply with the controversial order of the RC.

It said the order was the supreme manifestation of an autocratic, fascist and chauvinistic mindset. "It finds analogy only with the Pakistani attempt to impose Urdu on Bangali people and the Sheikh Mujib's attempt to thrust Bengali nationalism upon the hill people after the liberation of Bangladesh" the leaflet added.

Refuting the claim that the term "Boisabi" does not occur in any of the Jumma people's languages, the DYF said any dynamic language gets richer with the inclusion of new words.

It further said: "Bosabi is not merely a word or phrase; the emergence of this particular word has its roots in the earnest desire of all the Jumma nationalities to forge solidarity among themselves."

The DYF termed Boisabi as the symbol of unity and fraternity among the oppressed people of CHT.

Boisabi is the amalgamation of the Bengali acronyms of three words for the festival namely Boisuk of the Tripuras, Sangrai of the Marmas and Bizu of the Chakmas. This amalgamated word has been in use since early 1980s and it's been widely publicised and well accepted nationally and internationally.

The DYF said the Boisabi-Bizu controversy has been artificially created to help the government divert the attention of the people from the more acute problems of the CHT such as famine in Sajek, Ruam and Farua, widespread land grabbing and relentless military oppression.

It asked: "what is the underlying reason for RC's sudden outburst of vehement objection when it had observed Boisabi for so many years in the past?"

The DYF urged all to reject the RC order and strengthen unity, solidarity and fraternity among all the Jumma nationalities of CHT.
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