The Bangladesh Reader: History, Culture, Politics
568
The Bangladesh Reader: History, Culture, Politics
568eBook
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Overview
Intended for travelers, students, and scholars, the Reader encompasses first-person accounts, short stories, historical documents, speeches, treaties, essays, poems, songs, photographs, cartoons, paintings, posters, advertisements, maps, and a recipe. Classic selections familiar to many Bangladeshis—and essential reading for those who want to know the country—are juxtaposed with less-known pieces. The selections are translated from a dozen languages; many have not been available in English until now. Featuring eighty-three images, including seventeen in color, The Bangladesh Reader is an unprecedented, comprehensive introduction to the South Asian country's turbulent past and dynamic present.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780822395676 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Duke University Press |
| Publication date: | 04/30/2013 |
| Series: | The world readers |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 568 |
| File size: | 27 MB |
| Note: | This product may take a few minutes to download. |
About the Author
Meghna Guhathakurta is Executive Director of Research Initiatives Bangladesh, a nonprofit organization that supports and promotes research on poverty alleviation in Bangladesh.
Willem van Schendel is Professor of Modern Asian History at the University of Amsterdam and Head of the South Asia Department at the International Institute of Social History in Amsterdam.
Read an Excerpt
THE BANGLADESH READER
HISTORY, CULTURE, POLITICS
By Meghna Guhathakurta, Willem van Schendel
Duke University Press
Copyright © 2013 Duke University PressAll rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-8223-5318-8
Excerpt
CHAPTER 1
Voices from Bangladesh
We begin The Bangladesh Reader with a few contemporary voices—Bangladesh is speaking their minds about issues that are important to them today: their work, their hopes for the future, their dissatisfactions, and their spiritual aspirations. These voices stand for the tens of millions of articulate citizens of Bangladesh and give a taste of one of their great talents: self-expression.
Becoming a Village Photographer
Sabina Yasmin Sathi
The media image of Bangladesh tends toward the somber, if not tragic. Floods, cyclones, mass poverty, political instability, corruption, and underdevelopment figure prominently in most media coverage of the country. To challenge this unbalanced view, a group of young media activists started a quest to find positive stories about Bangladesh, stories that spoke to the remarkable achievements of ordinary people in rural Bangladesh. In their quest they came across physically handicapped people who started a green revolution by using natural fertilizers, women who took to repairing cycles to send their children to school, and singers who claimed that their mystical songs eased two kinds of hunger: physical and mental. Here is the story of a teenage girl who refused to believe that her destiny should be determined by anyone but herself.
My name is Sabina Yasmin Sathi and I am seventeen years old. I come from the village of Akua, located in the union of Shohodebpur, in Kalihati upazila [subdistrict], Tangail district. My father was a poor madrasha [Islamic school] teacher. He wanted me to study in the madrasha as well. My mother and I did not want that. So I got admitted to the local high school instead. In the year 2001, I took a course in photography under the science curriculum of the mass education program. Later I took a loan, bought my own camera, and started to take pictures.
At first my father objected because he feared social pressure. But later he relented. Besides, my mother supported me all the time and that was my strength. Many neighbors spread the word that I was engaging in un- Islamic behavior. Taking pictures is against Islam, they said. But others saw that I was spending the money I earned toward my own education. I no longer depended on my parents to pay for my schooling.
At a certain point in time I became the pride of my village. I am now called to photograph many events in my village and also villages around me. When young girls seek admission to a school or college, they need a passport-size photograph. They seek my help. UNICEF did a photo essay on me once.
Translated from Bengali by Meghna Guhathakurta.
Wait for a While, Death!
Abdul Gofur Hali
In this poem—written in 1997—Abdul Gofur Hali addresses death and evokes life as a chance to reach for the divine. He follows a poetic tradition in Bangladesh when he describes himself as "crazy." Gofur is a well-known representative of a popular mystical Islamic (Sufi) movement known as Maijbhandari. This movement venerates the Muslim saint of Maijbhandar, a small town in the southeastern district of Chittagong.
Wait for a while, death,
Let me behold my true self a little longer.
My soul has found its playmate
And is still busy playing,
Don't be so harsh as to destroy
The mating of soul and god.
When the soul comes home after playing,
Then go and show yourself.
Don't you remember your own words?
This bond abides through ages.
Crazy Gofur wonders:
What did I do in the name of playing?
Human life quivers
Like a drop of water on a taro leaf.
Translated from Bengali by Hans Harder.
Telephone Ladies and Social Business
Muhammad Yunus
The Grameen Bank (gram means village in Bengali) is an institution that provides small loans to poor people who do not qualify for traditional bank loans because they lack collateral. Its founder, Muhammad Yunus, has been exceptionally successful in promoting his ideas about microcredit (or microfinance) and social business worldwide. Today his method is widely eulogized and also criticized. The Grameen approach spawned one of Bangladesh's most powerful conglomerates of institutions, and Yunus became one of the country's best-known citizens. In 2006 the Grameen Bank and Yunus shared the Nobel Peace Prize. In this excerpt from the speech he gave to accept another prize, the World Information Society Award, he explains some of his ideas.
All you need to do is to find a business model where ICT [information and communication technology] can become an income-generating activity to the poor. I tried this through [putt]ing mobile phones in the hands of the poor women in Bangladesh. It worked beautifully. Almost everybody that I shared my thoughts [with] about getting poor women involved in mobile phone business thought: this is an idea which may fit into a science fiction, but not in a real situation of Bangladesh.
But poor women responded to my idea with enthusiasm. They learned quickly how to handle the phone, and the business. Today there are 200,000 telephone ladies in Bangladesh, earning a good income for their families and contributing USD 11 million worth of revenue per month to Grameen Phone, the mobile phone company.
Grameen Phone found the women in Grameen Bank network so reliable as business partners, that it has now launched another programme with them. This time ... poor women [not only will sell the airtime, they will also sell telephone connections for new subscribers, receive money on behalf of the company from the subscribers for replenishment of their accounts, and replace their prepaid card completely. This is a case of win-win-win situation from all three sides, the mobile phone company, the subscribers and the poor women.
Grameen Bank now serves over 6 million borrowers, 96 per cent of whom are women. The number of these borrowers will reach 8 million by the end of this year [2006], and 12 million by the end of 2010. The number of telephone ladies is expected to reach 400,000 by the end of this year, and exceed one million by 2010....
We have been emphasizing the importance of sending the children to school since we began our work in the mid seventies. Our social programme, known as "Sixteen Decisions," includes this. Not only 100 per cent of the children of Grameen families started going to school, now many of them are going to medical schools, engineering schools, universities, etc. Grameen Bank provides them with student loans. There are more than 10,000 students at high levels of education who are financed by Grameen Bank's education loans.
We are in the process of setting up a technology promotion fund in collaboration with Mr Mohammed Abdul Latif Jameel of Saudi Arabia, to provide financing to innovative adaptation of already designed technology, provide venture capital and loans to produce and market these technologies. I am expecting that ICT will be an area of technology, which the innovators will give high priority.
Two years back, Grameen Bank launched a special programme to give loans to beggars. We did not impose any of our existing rules on them. Their loans are interest-free. They can pay whatever amount they wish, whenever they want to pay. When the first loan is repaid they can take a second loan, usually a bigger loan, and so on. With this money they turn themselves into door-to-door sales persons. It is up to them to decide when they should give up begging. We now have over 70,000 beggars in this programme and it will reach 100,000 by the end of the year....
I strongly feel that we can create a poverty-free world. The basic ingredient of overcoming poverty is packed inside each of the individual human beings, including the poorest human being. All we need to do is to help the person to unleash this energy and creativity. Once this can be done, poverty will be history. It will disappear very fast. The only place in the world where poverty may exist will be the poverty museums, no longer in human society.
We need to reconceptualize the business world to make sure it contributes to the creation of a humane society, not aggravate the problems around us. We need to recognize two types of businesses, not one, and offer equal opportunities to both. These two types of businesses are: One which is already known, business to make money, that is conventional business, the principle of whom is to maximize profit. And the other new kind, business to do good to people, or social business.
Social business enterprises are a new kind of non-loss non-dividend enterprises, which aim at solving social, health and environmental problems, utilizing the market mechanism. We need to give opportunities to the social business entrepreneurs [that are] similar to the institutional and policy support system that the world has built over the years for the conventional businesses. One such new institution to help social business entrepreneurs will be the creation of "social stock market" to bring the social business entrepreneurs and social investors to come in contact with each other and solve the problem of finding investment money for this new type of business.
I Work in a Clothing Factory
Shana K.
Factories making ready-made clothes for export first appeared in Bangladesh's towns and cities in the 1980s. They spread rapidly and became the country's major export industry. Today these factories give employment to hundreds of thousands of workers, mostly women. One of them is Shana. Here she gives us a brief sketch of what life is like for workers in the ready-made textile industry.
June 15, 2010
My name is Shana K—. I am 18 years old and work as a sewing operator at the Meridian Garments factory. I started working three years ago at several different sewing factories. My duty at Meridian starts at 8:00 A.M. and regularly ends at 10:00 P.M. or 12:00 midnight. There are also 14 to 15 all-night shifts [per month] to 3:00 A.M. Management allows workers to leave at 8:00 P.M., to go home to eat supper and rest before starting the night shift at 10:00 P.M. I don't get any weekly day off. On Saturdays, management allows us to leave work at 8:00 P.M. On average, we can enjoy just one day off in two or three months. I studied up to the ninth grade, but unfortunately, could not continue my studies due to financial hardship.
My salary is 3,100 taka ($44.60) a month, but I can earn 5,000–6,000 taka ($71.94–$86.33) including overtime [OT] work. We work an average of five or six hours of overtime each day and the rate for OT duty is 22 taka (32 cents) per hour. I haven't married yet. We are only two in our family. My father died when I was nine years old. I have one brother, who lives in a village with my uncle. He is studying in the ninth grade. My mom has been living with me. My mother is also working in a garment factory at Savar, as a sewing operator. She is earning 4,000–5,000 taka ($57.55–$71.94) per month including overtime duty. Often we get paid late.
We have rented one small room in the Mirpur neighborhood, which costs 1,500 taka ($21.58). The house is very simple, made of corrugated iron sheets. Inside the house it is very hot. There is some garbage around the house which smells bad. We rented this house a few months ago since it was too difficult to pay the 2,600 taka ($37.41) rent for our old room. We have a single wooden bed, a mirror, a hanger for keeping clothes and a rack for keeping plates and glasses.
For the two of us, we spend 5,000 taka ($71.94) a month for the simplest food. We eat rice three times a day with mashed or fried potatoes, or other kinds of vegetables and lentils. We can eat fish just once a week and meat or cheap broiler chicken just one day a month. The prices of all commodities have increased more than 100 percent in the last two or three years, but our salary has not increased at all. We have to spend 2,500 taka ($25.97) a month for my brother for his education and other costs. My uncle takes care of him, but we have to provide the expenditures for his education, food, clothing, etc.
We have no opportunity for recreation or entertainment. There is a 17- inch black-and-white television, but we cannot manage the time to watch it. When we return home, it is around 11:00 P.M. or 12:00 midnight. When we return from the factory, we have to cook food and we eat supper at midnight. We have no energy to watch TV then. My mom has one day off per week on Fridays. When relatives from our village visit our room, they usually come on Fridays.
We have to spend 2,500 taka ($35.97) for medical treatment. My mom is 45 years old. She became very weak after she suffered an electric shock about three years ago. She needs medicines regularly that cost more than 1,500 ($21.58) per month. My mother is planning to arrange a marriage for me after two years from now. But we need to save 70,000 to 100,000 taka ($1,007–$1,439) for arranging this marriage, for ornaments and the feast for guests.
There is also no security in our life. We do not have any health insurance. A few months back when I was coming from the factory at 12:00 midnight with my pay, some thieves attacked me and grabbed all my wages. I cried out that we are very poor and will starve without this money, but the robbers did not pay heed to me.
I walk to the factory, but my mother takes the bus to the factory. For transportation, she needs to spend 1,000 taka ($14.39) a month.
Due to our poor income, our lives are gradually getting ruined. We are trapped living in a small room with no facilities. There are only two gas burners, one toilet and one water pump for five families. So we have to wait in a queue for cooking or using the toilet. The bed we use is very uncomfortable, but we cannot buy a better one due to the shortage of money.
My brother is living far from us with my uncle in our village back home. We cannot bring him to live with us as the expenditure for education is much higher in Dhaka and we would need to rent a larger room if he comes. We have a small piece of land in our village, but there is no house. We had to sell our house after the death of my father. The food we are consuming every day is very poor. If the minimum wage is raised to 6,200 taka ($89.21) my wage would be higher, including overtime, and as a result we could eat fish once or twice a week and meat once a week. A wage increase would help us take care of our health. Right now we are always anxious about whether we can manage money to buy food or for medical treatment. We have never been able to save money for the future. In fact, we sometimes have to borrow money just to eat or for medicine. In truth, we live just from hand to mouth.
Translated from Bengali; translator not identified.
Bengali New Year
Shamsuzzaman Khan and Kajalie Shehreen Islam
Since 1989, Bengali New Year (Pohela Boishakh) has been celebrated publicly as never before. The Bengali year begins on April 14, which is the first day of the month of Boishakh. One of the holiday's high points in Dhaka is a festive parade featuring floats with enormous, colorful animals—peacocks, owls, frogs, tigers, elephants—as well as music and theater performances and food. Although Bengali New Year has long been important because it marked the festive annual settling of debts, the parade is a new tradition. Today it is a celebration of Bengali culture as well as a symbolic statement against communal (religious sectarian) politics, as this interview explains.
Every year on April 14, thousands of people in white-red saris and colourful panjabis [shirts] brave the heat to join the parades, melas [fairs] or family-and-friends gatherings around panta-ilish [soaked rice and hilsa fish] and a variety of bharta [mashed dishes]. Their faces painted, terra-cotta crafts and bright masks in hand, they celebrate the advent of the Bengali New Year. But has the day always been celebrated in this manner and what social relevance do these rituals have in our lives today?
Professor Shamsuzzaman Khan, Director-General of Bangla Academy, has spent most of his life studying Bengali culture and folklore. He has served as Director-General of the National Museum and Shilpakala Academy; taught at National University, Jagannath College and Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh[;] and edited and continues to edit journals and magazines.
On the occasion of Pahela Boishakh, Professor Khan talks to Kajalie Shehreen Islam of The Daily Star about the traditions surrounding the festivities, how they came about and their social significance for Bengalis.
How did the Bengali new year, that is, the Bengali calendar, come about?
The history of the Bengali new year and calendar is somewhat unclear and it is difficult to say exactly when it came about, but some assumptions can be made based on circumstantial evidence. The fact that it is called Bangla san or saal, which are Arabic and Parsee words respectively, suggests that it was introduced by a Muslim king or sultan. Some historians suggest Moghul emperor Akbar, as he had reformed the Indian calendar—with the help of his royal astronomer Fatehullah Shirajee—in line with the Iranian nawroj or new day. Others suggest it was the seventh-century king Sasanka.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from THE BANGLADESH READER by Meghna Guhathakurta. Copyright © 2013 by Duke University Press. Excerpted by permission of Duke University Press.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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Table of Contents
List of Illustrations xiAckowledgments xv
Introduction 1
I. Voices from Bangladesh 7
II. Early Histories 31
III. Colonial Encounters 71
IV. Partition and Pakistan 157
V. War and Independence 221
VI. Dilemmas of Nationhood 291
VII. Contemporary Culture 367
VIII. The Development Gaze 411
IX. Bangladesh beyond Borders 469
Suggestions for Further Reading 521
Acknowledgment of Copyrights and Sources 527
Index 541
What People are Saying About This
"There is nothing else like The Bangladesh Reader. The range of materials included is stunning, and the volume conveys the feeling of Bangladesh speaking for itself, in many voices. The Reader will definitely be a useful introduction for people who know little or nothing about the country. It also has much to offer people who know a great deal about it. I have studied Bangladesh for years, and I learned a lot reading through this volume."
"Bangladesh is a new nation but an old land. It comprises the world's largest delta and one of the most densely populated areas. It has been home to diverse linguistic, religious, and cultural traditions. Yet its past strength and present achievements are often overshadowed by accounts of natural and man-made disasters. In this book, scholars from across the globe put together written and visual materials to provide facts about and perspectives on a vibrant Bangladesh."