O Bangali: Crisis in identity
Taslim Hasan Sabu, University of Dhaka
This is in response to the article written by Ms. Shahana Siddiqui titled "O Bangali: Crisis in Identity" published in the Daily Star on February 21, 2006.Reading the article it seemed to me that people in Bangladesh are suffering from identity crisis including the writer. She criticised Hollywood and Bollywood culture and English medium schools etc, but she was not vocal in criticising those responsible for importing these culture and education. Administrative actions at the top level are being executed in English. Even the verdicts of higher courts are declared in English though the general people cannot understand it. Where is the spirit of the Language Movement when these culture and education, which produce thousands of children with apathy towards Bangla, are being allowed in? Somebody believes in Islamic ideology and wants to establish Islam in all aspect of our life. If they are Islamic fundamentalists, then those who are secular and want to lead their life according to their will and deny the divine rule are also secular fundamentalists. And so also are the socialists. The author's writing indicates her narrow view on ideology and creed from which one's identity emanates. However, she could not give any solution to this crisis, and that makes her writing stereotype. She compromised by writing, "the article was not written to persuade my generation to take upon a puritanical stand on the matter of globalisation and our prolonged identity crisis. But rather how do we absorb such massive changes that the world is undergoing while retaining certain important and vital lessons of the past."
|
|