“To prevent militancy and communalism, there is no alternative to practicing healthy culture. In this case, we have to practice Bengali culture because it is our root,” he said.
He made the remarks while speaking as the chief guest at a music festival arranged as part of the 25th founding anniversary of Dhaka University (DU) Music Department at the Teacher-Student Center (TSC).
Alumni, current students and faculty members of the department joined the festival alongside many renowned singers.
Minister Karim noted that despite economic development, the social and moral values in the country have degraded rapidly.
“We’ve achieved economic prosperity through rapid development but we haven’t been able to achieve the desired morals and values. This is partially due to the degenerate culture practice,” said the minister.
He mentioned that practice of healthy culture, especially country’s music, can help improve the situation.
“Those who cherish, possess and practice music, cannot indulge in militancy and communalism. You can keep yourself away from the poison of communalism,” he said, urging everyone to work for revitalising country music.
“Music can add enormous potential to create a non-communal, culturally rich, modern digital Bangladesh. However, in order not to allow us to be consumed by degenerate cultures, we have to rekindle all forms of Bangla songs including Jari, Sari, Bhatiali and so on,” he said.
He lauded the DU music department for arranging a suitable programme as part of their anniversary celebration.
DU Pro-VC Prof Dr Muhammad Samad said the mesmerising power of Bangla music is an indispensable part of our culture.
Housing Minister, DU Pro-VC and DU music department Chairman Tumpa Samadder handed over the Nilufar Yasmin Memorial Scholarship to music department student Khandaker Anika Islam.
Celebrated Bangladeshi Nazrul Sangeet exponent and also the late faculty member of the department Nilufar Yasmin was honoured posthumously at the programme.
Singer Mita Haque, Tapan Mahmud, Tapan Chowdhury, Dinat Jahan Munni, Sharmin Islam, Bijon Mistri and artistes of the department performed at the programme while an impressive opening session took place earlier where 250 students sang in a chorus.
As part of the final charm of the first day, celebrated Indian singer Sreeradha Bandyopadhyay graced the stage and captivated the audience with her voice.
On the second day of the festival (Wednesday), Bangladeshi celebrated artistes Ferdous Ara, Khairul Anam Shakil, Syed Abdul Hadi, Rafiqul Alam and Hasina Mumtaj along with teachers of the department will perform while two Bangladeshi bands are scheduled to perform at the programme.
With the theme ‘Bangla Gaan’ (Bangla Songs), as part of the silver jubilee celebration programme, teachers and students of music department started the celebration Tuesday morning.
A colourful procession was brought out at 10am from the Arts Faculty building. The department’s teachers, current and former students and staff joined the march.
DU Vice-Chancellor Prof M Akhtaruzzaman inaugurated the festival at 11am at TSC while Professor Emeritus Dr Rafiqul Islam and Pro-VC Dr Nasreen Ahmad, among others, were present as special guests.
Experts will take part in the discussion and shed light on the situation of music in institutional education, its success, contemporary crisis and plans to overcome those issues Wednesday as part of the silver jubilee programme.
The festival is co-sponsored by Diamond World and ABMT. United News of Bangladesh (UNB) is the media partner of the event.
In 1993, a subsidiary course on music was introduced directly under the supervision of Dean, Faculty of Arts, Dhaka University. A similar course on theatre was introduced in 1989, also under the Dean, Faculty of Arts.
Both of these separate units were brought under a single departmental administration on August 1, 1994 and named as the Department of Theatre and Music.
In 1995, the department introduced two MA programmes – one on music and another on theatre. In 1998, the Department of Music introduced four-year honours and one-year Master’s degree course on classical, folk, Tagore, Nazrul songs and instrumentals. MPhil and PhD degrees were also included and started from 2000.
In 2009, the Music Department started its journey as an individual department.
Currently, over 250 students are studying for Honours and Master’s degrees on Tagore, Nazrul and folk songs, and classical music.