Bengali and Bangladeshi Nationalism
One is the territorial identity of ALL the people of Bangladesh (Bangladeshi) while other (Bengali) is the linguistic (ethnic) identity
Tuesday August 03 2010 22:57:05 PM BDT
By Dr. Afsar Ali,USA
In light of the recent Supreme Court verdict, the issue of the Bengali and the Bangladeshi nationalism came to the fore front again. This was a confusing issue to me for quite long time. So I took sometime to study the matter in depth and found that there is no contradiction between the Bengali and Bangladeshi nationalism as oppose to the pundits and the politicians wanted us to believe in.
One is the territorial identity of ALL the people of Bangladesh (Bangladeshi) while other (Bengali) is the linguistic (ethnic) identity of 98% of the people of Bangladesh. The study further revealed that the confusion arises from the very word nation which unfortunately has more than one meaning. So I start my main body of this article with the dictionary definition of the word nation.
Encyclopedia AMERICANA defines Nation as: A large number of people who see themselves as a community or group and who generally place loyalty to the group above any conflicting loyalties. They often share one or more of the following: language, culture, religion, political and other institutions, a history with which they identify, and a belief in a common destiny. They usually occupy contiguous territory. Funk & Wagnalls standard desk dictionary says the following about Nation: A body of persons associated with a particular territory, usu. organized under a government, possessing a distinctive cultural and social way of life or a nation is primarily the people under one government.â€
From the above definitions it is clear that the word nation is a very broad term. Nationalism is the ism of a particular nation and followed by the nationals of that nation. In the present day world, people feel nationalism among themselves based on sovereign and independent territorial boundary (nation-sate), religion, ethnicity, and race or even on gender. These later kind of nationalisms do not have territorial boundary.
Muslims all over the world feel some sort of nationalism based on their religion; it does the Christian, Hindu or the believers of all other religions. The existence of religion based nationalism is manifested by many means. The word nation in Luis Farrakhan's nation of Islam is an example of such nation (no territorial boundary). Muslim brotherhood and Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) are some of the worst kind of manifestations of religion based nationalism.
People belonging to the same race also feel some kind of nationalism among themselves. Organizations such as NAACP, KKK are the positive and negative manifestations of such nationalism.
Peoples, who speak the same language, have identical cultural and social background feel another kind of nationalism among them, which is generally known as ethnic based nationalism. There are hundreds of ethnic based non-territorial nations in the world. Bengali nation (Bengali Jati and the ism is†Bengali nationalism†equivalent to “Bangali Jatiotabad†in Bangla), Chinese, Panjabi, Arab, Persian are some examples of this kind of nation. Nationals of these nations have also strong affinity among themselves. The basic unit of this type of nationalism is the common linguistic and cultural heritage; not necessarily all have to live in the same territorial boundary and unite under one government.
Modern civilization brings forth the concept of nation-state, which is commonly known, as nation. I mean here the political nation, the country or the political entity we belong to. Bangladesh is a political nation. In some cases, one ethnic nation has been divided to form more than one political nation; for instance, the ethnic Arab nation has been divided to form many political Arab nations. Ethnic Bengali nation has been divided to form Bangladesh, and part of India (The State of West Bengal).
The examples of forming a political nation with many ethnical nations are galore. India belongs to this kind of nation. She united many ethnic nationalities under the name of a political nation (nation-state) called India. Most recently immigrant counties like USA, Canada are vivid examples of this kind of political nations. There are also many political nations in the world, which comprise of mainly people with same ethnical nationality. In this case, all the people of an ethnic nation formed a political nation.
Nationalism under the purview of political nation is obligatory in nature. Every nationals of a political nation has to obey and show respect to the laws, rules & regulations of that nation. Every body must show their allegiance and abide by the laws set forth by the people's representatives of their political nation. Individual's passport bears the political identity (Bangladeshi) not ethnical identity (Bengali). The word nation in united nations refers to the political nation.
In the perspective of modern civilized world, political identity is far and foremost important than any other kind of identity, say ethnic or religious. Palestinians did never lose their ethnic identity which is Arab, but they lost their political identity more than six decade ago and the world have seen how ferocious and desperate people become to regain their political identity. To the nationals of the political nation of Kuwait, nationalism based on the political nation is far more important than the Arab nationalism based on their ethnic identity. The reason is obvious to every one as Kuwait was engulfed by their ethnic Arab brother from the political nation of Iraq. In our subcontinent Ethnic Panjabi of India fought four times with their ethnic Panjabi from Pakistan.
A most stable political nation may be formed with the people from the same race, same ethnic background and the same religion. Unfortunately, this did not happened for many of the political nations. Political nationalism is fundamentally different from all other kind of nationalisms. This is the first identity of a human being, and then may have others. There is always strong interaction between ethnic, religions and racial based nationalism.
In spite of conflict regarding religious issues and belonging to different countries, Bengalis from both East and West showed stronger brotherhood to the ethnical nationhood than to the religious nationhood. Bangladeshis are predominantly Muslim by religion and Bengali by ethnic background. But the ethnic Bangali nationalism seems to be stronger than the religious Islamic nationalism. The proof is the 1971 - East and West Pakistan could not stay together as a single political nation just based on Islamic nationalism.
The ethnic nationality Bengali and Political Nationality Bangladeshi are not the same thing. In the same way the words Bangla and Bangladesh do not bear the same meaning. One is the name of a language, name of a culture, name of an ethnic nation and the group of people who practices this culture in their day-to-day life and feel home communicating among themselves with this language is called the “Bengaliâ€. Other is the name of a sovereign nation, name of a political identity, which has been earned at the cost of hundreds of thousands of brave sons of the soil. So the name Bangladesh is very dear to us - all Bangladeshis, but not necessarily to all the Bengalis.
That's why late Nirad C. Chaudhuri, a prominent Bengali from England (in Shanand Bichitra; a Bengali weekly from Calcutta) sometimes in 1991 termed Bangladesh as Tothakothito Bangladesh (so called Bangladesh). Bangladesh Government banned that issue in Bangladesh. Mr. Chaudhuri does not like to give the sole proprietary of the word Bangladesh to the East Bengal people. He thinks Bangladesh, Bengal, Bongo, etc. all these words are synonymous and as such are the property of all Bangla speaking people. So, the word Bangladesh according to Mr. Chaudhuri can't be used to mean a section of bangalee only, it should be used to represent whole bangla speaking population.
After the independence of Indian subcontinent from British Raj in 1947, the single most important event took place for the people of Bangalee nation is the “Ekushey Februaryâ€. The bangla speaking mass of East Bengal protested vehemently against the imposition of Urdu as the sole state language of the then Pakistan. But in the subsequent years, it proved to be an event mainly for the East Bengal people.
In West Bengal, they started to celebrate the Ekushey very lately and with much less passionately compared to that in East Bengal. The main cause behind this difference in spirit in celebrating the very Bengali cause in both Bengal is that Bengali from East Bengal did not take long time after their so called independence from British that in real sense they did not achieve independence; just the name of their master has been changed.
So Ekush was the first milestone to the East Bengal people toward their goal of achieving real independence. This important item was absent to the minds of the bangalees from West Bengal. In West Bengal, it was never felt that they need to be separated from India and make a new nation comprising of whole bangla speaking population. It is historical truth that West Bengal people feel safer and much ease to live with Hindu majority India than with the was or would be Muslim majority Akhando Bengal.
Definitely, West Bengal is happy to see Bengalis from East Bengal are freed from Pakistani tyranny. This does not mean they are willing to form a Bengal where Muslims will be majority in number. So, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in no sense struggled for the emancipation of whole Bengali population. West Bengal Bengalis were not under any kind of tyrannical rule. Mujib was champion to the cause of the East Bengal people now Bangladeshis. He fought against the Pakistani tyranny to liberate the people of East Bengal.
Sheikh Mujib is considered to be the Father of the Nation. What this Nation refers to? Definitely, it refers to the political nation of Bangladesh not the ethnical nation of Bengali. So is it appropriate to term him the father of the ethnic Bengali nation? (Bangalee Jatir Pita). No ethnic nation can have a single father in any sense. Time for evolution of an ethnic nation (like Bengali jati, Tamil Jati et) measured in thousand years.
It is the legacy of our heritage. Credit goes to those people who enriched the bangla language and literatures by their thoughts, actions and writings. There will be numerous patrons in this cadre. We the Bengalis owe too much to great souls like Rabindranath, Nazrul and many hundred others who made the ethnic Bengali nation what we are today. So in no way Mujib is the father of the ethnic Bengali nation. He may be the founding father of the political nation “Bangladeshâ€. Political nationality changes with the change of political identity.
For the past several centuries, our political identity changed several times. Our political nationality was British Indian when British ruled Indian subcontinent, then it was Pakistani and now it is Bangladeshi. If in future, the name of our country changes, so does our political nationality but Ethnical nationality remains the same under any political change. Our (98%) ethnic nationality was Bengali under British rule, it was Bengali during Pakistan period, and it is again Bengali now and will be Bengali in future.
The ethnic nationality Bengali and political nationality Bengladeshi is complementary to each other rather than competitors. We are simultaneously Bangladeshi (100%) and Bengali (98%). But first we are Bengladeshi, then Bengali, Chakma, Muslims, Hindus, Asian etc. If our ultimate goal is to form an undivided Bengal and if in future Bengal become a political entity rather then ethic identity, then both our political and ethnic identity will be BENGALI. Before happening that, our political identity is Bangladeshi and Ethnical identity is Bengali.
No big force divided Bengal against the will of the Bengalis. Big forces were involved to divide German and Korea like countries. Bengal division is not comparable to the just mentioned divisions. Hundreds if not thousand years of stray but persistent conflicts between Hindu and Muslim Bengali worked as a catalyst to the permanent division of Bengal and the subsequent birth of a new political nation (nation-sate) called Bangladesh whose citizens are known as Bangladeshi and the ethnical identity of her 98% people is Bengali.
Dr. Afsar Ali writes from Minnesota, USA: Email: maaliy2k@yahoo.com
One is the territorial identity of ALL the people of Bangladesh (Bangladeshi) while other (Bengali) is the linguistic (ethnic) identity of 98% of the people of Bangladesh. The study further revealed that the confusion arises from the very word nation which unfortunately has more than one meaning. So I start my main body of this article with the dictionary definition of the word nation.
Encyclopedia AMERICANA defines Nation as: A large number of people who see themselves as a community or group and who generally place loyalty to the group above any conflicting loyalties. They often share one or more of the following: language, culture, religion, political and other institutions, a history with which they identify, and a belief in a common destiny. They usually occupy contiguous territory. Funk & Wagnalls standard desk dictionary says the following about Nation: A body of persons associated with a particular territory, usu. organized under a government, possessing a distinctive cultural and social way of life or a nation is primarily the people under one government.â€
From the above definitions it is clear that the word nation is a very broad term. Nationalism is the ism of a particular nation and followed by the nationals of that nation. In the present day world, people feel nationalism among themselves based on sovereign and independent territorial boundary (nation-sate), religion, ethnicity, and race or even on gender. These later kind of nationalisms do not have territorial boundary.
Muslims all over the world feel some sort of nationalism based on their religion; it does the Christian, Hindu or the believers of all other religions. The existence of religion based nationalism is manifested by many means. The word nation in Luis Farrakhan's nation of Islam is an example of such nation (no territorial boundary). Muslim brotherhood and Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) are some of the worst kind of manifestations of religion based nationalism.
People belonging to the same race also feel some kind of nationalism among themselves. Organizations such as NAACP, KKK are the positive and negative manifestations of such nationalism.
Peoples, who speak the same language, have identical cultural and social background feel another kind of nationalism among them, which is generally known as ethnic based nationalism. There are hundreds of ethnic based non-territorial nations in the world. Bengali nation (Bengali Jati and the ism is†Bengali nationalism†equivalent to “Bangali Jatiotabad†in Bangla), Chinese, Panjabi, Arab, Persian are some examples of this kind of nation. Nationals of these nations have also strong affinity among themselves. The basic unit of this type of nationalism is the common linguistic and cultural heritage; not necessarily all have to live in the same territorial boundary and unite under one government.
Modern civilization brings forth the concept of nation-state, which is commonly known, as nation. I mean here the political nation, the country or the political entity we belong to. Bangladesh is a political nation. In some cases, one ethnic nation has been divided to form more than one political nation; for instance, the ethnic Arab nation has been divided to form many political Arab nations. Ethnic Bengali nation has been divided to form Bangladesh, and part of India (The State of West Bengal).
The examples of forming a political nation with many ethnical nations are galore. India belongs to this kind of nation. She united many ethnic nationalities under the name of a political nation (nation-state) called India. Most recently immigrant counties like USA, Canada are vivid examples of this kind of political nations. There are also many political nations in the world, which comprise of mainly people with same ethnical nationality. In this case, all the people of an ethnic nation formed a political nation.
Nationalism under the purview of political nation is obligatory in nature. Every nationals of a political nation has to obey and show respect to the laws, rules & regulations of that nation. Every body must show their allegiance and abide by the laws set forth by the people's representatives of their political nation. Individual's passport bears the political identity (Bangladeshi) not ethnical identity (Bengali). The word nation in united nations refers to the political nation.
In the perspective of modern civilized world, political identity is far and foremost important than any other kind of identity, say ethnic or religious. Palestinians did never lose their ethnic identity which is Arab, but they lost their political identity more than six decade ago and the world have seen how ferocious and desperate people become to regain their political identity. To the nationals of the political nation of Kuwait, nationalism based on the political nation is far more important than the Arab nationalism based on their ethnic identity. The reason is obvious to every one as Kuwait was engulfed by their ethnic Arab brother from the political nation of Iraq. In our subcontinent Ethnic Panjabi of India fought four times with their ethnic Panjabi from Pakistan.
A most stable political nation may be formed with the people from the same race, same ethnic background and the same religion. Unfortunately, this did not happened for many of the political nations. Political nationalism is fundamentally different from all other kind of nationalisms. This is the first identity of a human being, and then may have others. There is always strong interaction between ethnic, religions and racial based nationalism.
In spite of conflict regarding religious issues and belonging to different countries, Bengalis from both East and West showed stronger brotherhood to the ethnical nationhood than to the religious nationhood. Bangladeshis are predominantly Muslim by religion and Bengali by ethnic background. But the ethnic Bangali nationalism seems to be stronger than the religious Islamic nationalism. The proof is the 1971 - East and West Pakistan could not stay together as a single political nation just based on Islamic nationalism.
The ethnic nationality Bengali and Political Nationality Bangladeshi are not the same thing. In the same way the words Bangla and Bangladesh do not bear the same meaning. One is the name of a language, name of a culture, name of an ethnic nation and the group of people who practices this culture in their day-to-day life and feel home communicating among themselves with this language is called the “Bengaliâ€. Other is the name of a sovereign nation, name of a political identity, which has been earned at the cost of hundreds of thousands of brave sons of the soil. So the name Bangladesh is very dear to us - all Bangladeshis, but not necessarily to all the Bengalis.
That's why late Nirad C. Chaudhuri, a prominent Bengali from England (in Shanand Bichitra; a Bengali weekly from Calcutta) sometimes in 1991 termed Bangladesh as Tothakothito Bangladesh (so called Bangladesh). Bangladesh Government banned that issue in Bangladesh. Mr. Chaudhuri does not like to give the sole proprietary of the word Bangladesh to the East Bengal people. He thinks Bangladesh, Bengal, Bongo, etc. all these words are synonymous and as such are the property of all Bangla speaking people. So, the word Bangladesh according to Mr. Chaudhuri can't be used to mean a section of bangalee only, it should be used to represent whole bangla speaking population.
After the independence of Indian subcontinent from British Raj in 1947, the single most important event took place for the people of Bangalee nation is the “Ekushey Februaryâ€. The bangla speaking mass of East Bengal protested vehemently against the imposition of Urdu as the sole state language of the then Pakistan. But in the subsequent years, it proved to be an event mainly for the East Bengal people.
In West Bengal, they started to celebrate the Ekushey very lately and with much less passionately compared to that in East Bengal. The main cause behind this difference in spirit in celebrating the very Bengali cause in both Bengal is that Bengali from East Bengal did not take long time after their so called independence from British that in real sense they did not achieve independence; just the name of their master has been changed.
So Ekush was the first milestone to the East Bengal people toward their goal of achieving real independence. This important item was absent to the minds of the bangalees from West Bengal. In West Bengal, it was never felt that they need to be separated from India and make a new nation comprising of whole bangla speaking population. It is historical truth that West Bengal people feel safer and much ease to live with Hindu majority India than with the was or would be Muslim majority Akhando Bengal.
Definitely, West Bengal is happy to see Bengalis from East Bengal are freed from Pakistani tyranny. This does not mean they are willing to form a Bengal where Muslims will be majority in number. So, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in no sense struggled for the emancipation of whole Bengali population. West Bengal Bengalis were not under any kind of tyrannical rule. Mujib was champion to the cause of the East Bengal people now Bangladeshis. He fought against the Pakistani tyranny to liberate the people of East Bengal.
Sheikh Mujib is considered to be the Father of the Nation. What this Nation refers to? Definitely, it refers to the political nation of Bangladesh not the ethnical nation of Bengali. So is it appropriate to term him the father of the ethnic Bengali nation? (Bangalee Jatir Pita). No ethnic nation can have a single father in any sense. Time for evolution of an ethnic nation (like Bengali jati, Tamil Jati et) measured in thousand years.
It is the legacy of our heritage. Credit goes to those people who enriched the bangla language and literatures by their thoughts, actions and writings. There will be numerous patrons in this cadre. We the Bengalis owe too much to great souls like Rabindranath, Nazrul and many hundred others who made the ethnic Bengali nation what we are today. So in no way Mujib is the father of the ethnic Bengali nation. He may be the founding father of the political nation “Bangladeshâ€. Political nationality changes with the change of political identity.
For the past several centuries, our political identity changed several times. Our political nationality was British Indian when British ruled Indian subcontinent, then it was Pakistani and now it is Bangladeshi. If in future, the name of our country changes, so does our political nationality but Ethnical nationality remains the same under any political change. Our (98%) ethnic nationality was Bengali under British rule, it was Bengali during Pakistan period, and it is again Bengali now and will be Bengali in future.
The ethnic nationality Bengali and political nationality Bengladeshi is complementary to each other rather than competitors. We are simultaneously Bangladeshi (100%) and Bengali (98%). But first we are Bengladeshi, then Bengali, Chakma, Muslims, Hindus, Asian etc. If our ultimate goal is to form an undivided Bengal and if in future Bengal become a political entity rather then ethic identity, then both our political and ethnic identity will be BENGALI. Before happening that, our political identity is Bangladeshi and Ethnical identity is Bengali.
No big force divided Bengal against the will of the Bengalis. Big forces were involved to divide German and Korea like countries. Bengal division is not comparable to the just mentioned divisions. Hundreds if not thousand years of stray but persistent conflicts between Hindu and Muslim Bengali worked as a catalyst to the permanent division of Bengal and the subsequent birth of a new political nation (nation-sate) called Bangladesh whose citizens are known as Bangladeshi and the ethnical identity of her 98% people is Bengali.
Dr. Afsar Ali writes from Minnesota, USA: Email: maaliy2k@yahoo.com
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