Darkness is not under the lamp but under the university

 

Japanese author Kenzaburo Oe won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1994. Kenyaburo's writing was able to melt the hearts of the Japanese like wax. This impossibly popular writer drew the reader like a magnet with his pen. Kenzaburo, however, had strong grief. His first child Hikari Oe could not speak. It was seen that after the birth of Hikari, a certain age has passed but he is not talking in any way! Kenzaburo couple was spending night after night with the sadness of not being able to talk to their child. Even then, the Kenzaburocouple stared at the boy's face day and night with hope. Doctor- Ayurvedic practitioner showed a lot but nothing was happening. In the end, everyone gave up hope and assumed that Kenzaburo's first child might be speech impaired!  

Once in the rainy morning, Hikari was playing on the porch of the house when the day was passing like this. Just then, a pair of the diver was playing in the rainwater in the yard. They started knocking on each other and suddenly started shouting loudly. Hikari got up from his seat and clapped his hands and said 'Diver'! This was the first human talk of Hikari! And from then on he started talking. 

So far I have seen three Bangladeshi writers who have written similar stories without any thematic changes based on this true story of Japanese Nobel laureate Kenzaburo's family life! Moreover, some people have partially changed the story of Kenzaburo and told a similar story with their own child! That means the main theme of this story is that they collect from Kenzaburo. But no one admitted it! Many of you may have already read such stories on social media or Facebook.  

Thievery is the oldest science in our subcontinent. In most cases, the big thiever here is gaining fame as writers, poets, literary figures, artists, academics. Although thiever are despised all over the world, this intellectual property thiever are valued as Gods in our society! Such allegations are against many of those who have enriched the subcontinent and brought fame. 

There are even allegations that the lyrics and melodies of Rabindranath Tagore, the best son of the Tagore family, were borrowed from ancient Hindu theology Upanishads and medieval Vaishnava verses and Baul songs. In terms of melody, his songs are influenced by Hindustani and Carnatic classical music, kirtan, Shyama music, Baul songs, and English, Irish and Scottish folk music. Some even accused him of imitating Irish music directly.

The allegation against the popular writer of the time Muhammad Zafar Iqbal is also very old. His book 'Triton is the Name of a Planet' published in 1988 is a close Bengali translation of Ridley Scott's 'Alien' movie released in 1979. The story of the movie was made by O'Bannon and Ronald Shusett. He also copied the 2000 Hollywood movie 'Pitch Black' directed by David Twohy. The story writer of that movie was the Ken and Jim brothers. Mr. Iqbal wrote the science fiction book 'Abanil' in 2004 in imitation of this Pitch Black movie. Reverend Sir published a book called 'Ami Tapu' in 2005 which is the Bengali version of the 1995 book 'A Child Called It' written by the American author David James Pelzer. He also wrote 'Nitu and his friends', imitating Danny Devito's 1996 Hollywood movie 'Matilda'! The movie was originally written by Nicholas Kazan and Robin Swicord. Based on Roald Dahl's 1988 novel of the same name. Many more such examples can be given. 

Another popular writer Humayun Ahmed made the name of the main character of his Himu series 'Himu' with 'Ha' from Humayun and 'M' from Ahmed but there are allegations that it is taken from the character 'Samu' of popular Bengali writer Samaresh Majumdar. Samaresh did this character with Samresh's 'S' and Majumdar's 'M'. Since Samresh's 'Samu' is the previous character, it can be said without hesitation that Humayun Ahmed has borrowed this idea of Samaresh. And in Bangladesh, he has become very popular with this Himu character.  

Again, Humayun Azad won the Bangla Academy Award in 1995 for his book 'Sab Kichu Bhene Pare'. The title of the book is borrowed from the title of the book "Things Fall Apart" by the popular African author Chinua Achebe. The book was written by Chinua Achebe in 1958.

We are also good at stealing book or magazine titles. The name of our most widely circulated daily 'Dainik Prothom Alo' is taken from popular writer Sunil Gangopadhyay's historical novel 'Prothom Alo'. On the other hand, the naming of our 'Daily Samakal' is in the same situation. This name of 'Samakal' is borrowed from the literary magazine 'Samakal' edited by the poet Sikandar Abu Jafar (1957- 1975).

And what else can we say about our Bangla songs and movies? The songs that we used to listen to in our school life by Hassan of Ark band are exactly the imitations of the western band 'Starship'. For example, the famous song 'Tumi Amar Sure Sure' by Ark Band or Hassan is an exact copy of the 'Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now' song of Starship. 

I don't want to raise examples anymore. Now let's come to the context of why I said so much.

Over the past few months, a number of Dhaka University teachers have made headlines for plagiarism. This, of course, is not new. Even before this, we have seen this allegation against several teachers of several major universities of the country including Dhaka University.

Similarly, a few months ago, Abu Naser Mohammad Saif, an assistant professor in the Department of Management Information Systems at Dhaka University (DU), was accused of forging a research article. He has published a research article written by Professor Mohammad Abul Kashem of the same department in his name!

Besides, Samia Rahman, an associate professor in the Department of Mass Communication and Journalism at Dhaka University, and Syed Mahfuzul Haque Marjan, a lecturer in the Department of Criminology, have been accused of plagiarism in several research articles. And the Dhaka University authorities formed a committee of inquiry as usual. According to the latest information, the investigation committee found evidence of plagiarism in several research articles against these teachers.

We are used to seeing this so far! We often see the formation of these inquiry committees at various universities against teachers accused of plagiarism. But no teacher has ever lost his job for this heinous crime. It is not the same thing to be influenced by Rabindranath's Irish music, to compose his songs, and to bring the story of Kenzaburo Oe's family, to write the story of a storyteller, and to stealing someone else writings from a university teacher. Meanwhile, anyone can ask what these teachers will teach their students in the classroom. What path will these teachers lead the society or the state?

However, in any other country in the world, including Europe and America, if a student, not only a university teacher, write an essay without proper reference, he or she is immediately expelled from the department. But the teachers of our country steal and it is not as if they are stealing but also stealing the intellectual property of others! They are stealing other people's property by abandoning morality! What will this nation expect from them?

At the beginning of this article, I mentioned some famous writers of this subcontinent. I mean with their reference that this legacy of stealing other people's ideas, thoughts, and intellectual property by these famous people of the subcontinent is very ancient. But the question is how a university teacher steals the writings of others? Thus, it can be said that the darkness in this country is not under the lamp but under the university.


The writer is Associate Professor & Chair Department of International Relations, Jahangirnagar University
Email: [email protected]