My friend Zaman has a profound interest in the issue of militancy and the media in Bangladesh and he asked me to comment further on my point about language. How fundamentalists in the West become militants in Bangladesh. When you think about it its difficult but nevertheless here are some provisional thoughts.
In the west fundamentalism is a multivalent force. There are Christian, Jewish and Hindu fundamentalists as well as Muslim, although sometimes sight seems to have been lost of this fact and fundamentalism has been constructed along certain rigid visual and behavioral vectors. The fundamentalist dresses in a particular way, believes quite literally in the given text, wishes to impose its view on all and is prepared to kill to see this happen - or so it is claimed.
By contrast in Bangladesh there is only one source of fundamentalism and that is Islam and while some seem prepared to kill to have sharia imposed upon all a sufficient number of their co-religionists are opposed to this agenda. Indeed you can be a devout Muslim and wish to live according to sharia but it doesn't follow that you will kill to impose its introduction. Consequently another word has to be found to describe the behaviour of excess, and that is militancy.
The militants are those who desire to impose a rigid set of rules of behaviour upon all - something that is at odds with the Sufi traditions of Islam in Bangladesh and the inherent pluralism found in Bengali culture.
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Friday, September 18, 2009
Culture and Religion
I have often thought that Bangladeshi culture was retroactive in the way it fetishises Rabrindranath Tagore and Nazrul Islam. I have written somewhere else that when you watch state TV in Dhaka (Bangla TV) its as if the local culture is frozen around 1920, and I struggled to explain this.
I have recently acquired Jeremy Seabrook's Freedom Unfinished: Fundamentalism and popular resistance in Bangladesh today (London: Zed Books, 2001), which on one level is about his experiences with Proshika, a major local NGO in Bangladesh. At another level the book helps me understand what I have dubbed the 'fetishisation of culture past'.
Two quotes as illumination.
On the other side, the defenders of the Bengali tradition want to see religion subordinated to an inclusive Bengali identity. They invoke great literary figure - national poet Nazrul Islam, Rabindranath Tagore - social reformers such as Begum Rokeya, pioneers of women's education such as Sufia Kemal, as well as fighters in two liberation struggles ...(p.7)
and
The struggle against fundamentalism does not always appear overtly political. Invoking religion, fundamentalists make it a psuedo-spiritual and moral crusade. This creates obstacles for thise who resist the political imp[lications of what appears as a religious movement. But since fundamentalists object to Bengali culture, a main arens of resistance is cultural. (p. 17)
In short it is Bengali culture that is the defence of the secular, the moderate and the humanists in the face of Islamic fundamentalism. But this in turn can cause problems: in discussions, my students often expressed confusion about their identity; whether they were Bengalis first or Muslims first. They were also at great pains to explain that one can be a devout Muslim without being a militant. However, from my perspective, while this is a defence the bifurcation can be a point of vulnerability to the militant attacks. One unavoidable fact in Dhaka is that whenever the cry of 'Islam under attack' is raised the militants come out in force. They are well organised and focused and exert influence well beyond their numerical strength whereas the secularists always seem divided and ineffectual. Invoking Tagore doesn't save you from a prison sentence if you are accused of insulting the prophet!
Finally, you will notice a shift from the term 'fundamentalist' to 'militant' reflecting current usage in the Dhaka English language press. This also needs looking at.
I have recently acquired Jeremy Seabrook's Freedom Unfinished: Fundamentalism and popular resistance in Bangladesh today (London: Zed Books, 2001), which on one level is about his experiences with Proshika, a major local NGO in Bangladesh. At another level the book helps me understand what I have dubbed the 'fetishisation of culture past'.
Two quotes as illumination.
On the other side, the defenders of the Bengali tradition want to see religion subordinated to an inclusive Bengali identity. They invoke great literary figure - national poet Nazrul Islam, Rabindranath Tagore - social reformers such as Begum Rokeya, pioneers of women's education such as Sufia Kemal, as well as fighters in two liberation struggles ...(p.7)
and
The struggle against fundamentalism does not always appear overtly political. Invoking religion, fundamentalists make it a psuedo-spiritual and moral crusade. This creates obstacles for thise who resist the political imp[lications of what appears as a religious movement. But since fundamentalists object to Bengali culture, a main arens of resistance is cultural. (p. 17)
In short it is Bengali culture that is the defence of the secular, the moderate and the humanists in the face of Islamic fundamentalism. But this in turn can cause problems: in discussions, my students often expressed confusion about their identity; whether they were Bengalis first or Muslims first. They were also at great pains to explain that one can be a devout Muslim without being a militant. However, from my perspective, while this is a defence the bifurcation can be a point of vulnerability to the militant attacks. One unavoidable fact in Dhaka is that whenever the cry of 'Islam under attack' is raised the militants come out in force. They are well organised and focused and exert influence well beyond their numerical strength whereas the secularists always seem divided and ineffectual. Invoking Tagore doesn't save you from a prison sentence if you are accused of insulting the prophet!
Finally, you will notice a shift from the term 'fundamentalist' to 'militant' reflecting current usage in the Dhaka English language press. This also needs looking at.
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Private Universities 2
As I said in the last post, the private universities in Bangladesh are viewed with some suspicion. The reasons for this are many. It is rare to ever find anything positive reported about them in the press. Bangladesh is a conservative country and anything new is highly suspect. The established universities are revered and have a firm grip on educational discourse. Many of the private universities are not very good - and so it goes. Every now and then something approaching reason is uttered but generally the private universities are not held in high regard.
Every year Bangladesh has around 350 000 (3.5 lakhs) sitting for the HSC, the culmination of the high school system. 250 000 of these compete for 24 051 seats in the public universities, with GPAs over 3.00. The National University, a multi-campus school of last resort, seems to mop up the other 100 000 candidates. Not to put too finer a point on this - the present system is designed to fail although it was designed to ensure a high degree of selectivity with only the creme de le creme reaching university. This may have worked in the 1940s to 1960s but since then the social conditions of Bangladesh have changed and a whole new aspirational class has emerged, who like their counterparts elsewhere, expect to go on to university. The private universities came into place to meet this pent up demand.
Despite this expansion only 4% of Bangladeshis go to university. The present government is aware of the problems and has promised the implementation of a new education system across the board - from primary to tertiary education. One can only applaud this initiative but at the same time wonder where the money is going to come from. For example, university lecturers are paid appallingly low salaries leading to academics in the public universities working in one or two of the private universities in order to make ends meet. The improvement of salaries to a level equal to India would cost heaps of money. Again, to cut the story short, it make sense to develop a binary model of tertiary education in Bangladesh, where private and public universities co-exist. However, for this to happen there is also the need for oversight that is transparent and equitable - something I will take up in my next post.
Every year Bangladesh has around 350 000 (3.5 lakhs) sitting for the HSC, the culmination of the high school system. 250 000 of these compete for 24 051 seats in the public universities, with GPAs over 3.00. The National University, a multi-campus school of last resort, seems to mop up the other 100 000 candidates. Not to put too finer a point on this - the present system is designed to fail although it was designed to ensure a high degree of selectivity with only the creme de le creme reaching university. This may have worked in the 1940s to 1960s but since then the social conditions of Bangladesh have changed and a whole new aspirational class has emerged, who like their counterparts elsewhere, expect to go on to university. The private universities came into place to meet this pent up demand.
Despite this expansion only 4% of Bangladeshis go to university. The present government is aware of the problems and has promised the implementation of a new education system across the board - from primary to tertiary education. One can only applaud this initiative but at the same time wonder where the money is going to come from. For example, university lecturers are paid appallingly low salaries leading to academics in the public universities working in one or two of the private universities in order to make ends meet. The improvement of salaries to a level equal to India would cost heaps of money. Again, to cut the story short, it make sense to develop a binary model of tertiary education in Bangladesh, where private and public universities co-exist. However, for this to happen there is also the need for oversight that is transparent and equitable - something I will take up in my next post.
Saturday, September 12, 2009
Private Universities
The current Bangladeshi government has committed itself to revitalising education at all levels. This has prompted a flurry of articles in the press, particularly The Daily Star monthly Forum.
A recent piece in Forum by Abdus Sattar Moila (September, 2009) itemises a number of problems confronting education in Bangladesh that cut across all levels;
* divisiveness;
* high drop out rates;
* deteriorating teaching standards;
* lack of opportunity for higher education;
* low pay for teachers;
* dependence of coaching centres
* commercialisation of educational institutions;
* politicisation of students and faculty;
* and so on, In other words too numerous to mention without becoming a litany of defeatism.
I would add to this list the total lack of transparency and quality control on the part of the bodies charged with oversight of education. The criticisms levelled by Moila at education in general apply equally, or more so, to bodies like the Universities Grants Commission (UGC).
I must declare that my interest is in the university sector and disclose that for two years I taught at a private university in Dhaka; something I enjoyed immensely and which gave me some insight into the tertiary education scene.
There is a tendency to demonise the private universities and over value the private university sector. People love to tell you that the University of Dhaka is/or was the Oxford of the east. It may have been but not any longer. With honorable exceptions its faculty and student body have become politically polarised and in many instances programs and faculty have become moribund. My Bangla teacher confessed to me that while they had finished their course of study it would be a year before her results would be made available because the faculty were too busy to mark the papers. One hears many other such stories - and then there are the issues of class jam (where cancelled classes are made up because of earlier closure due to political activity or some such), faculty absence from class and abysmal salaries which lead faculty to over stretch and teach in several private universities at any one time in order to earn enough to live. Despite all of these issues Dhaka University still remains the beacon, the benchmark against which the private universities are measure - and always found wanting.
There is no doubt that some of the 54 private universities located in Bangladesh (mostly in Dhaka) are little more than degree mills, with insufficient resources, inadequate faculty and little infrastructure, who happily take desperate student's money in return for a highly dubious piece of paper. At the same time there are private universities that are honorable in their intent, seeking to give studnets a good education in return for the fees they pay. Thsi confused situation requires clarification -something I will attempt in my next post.
A recent piece in Forum by Abdus Sattar Moila (September, 2009) itemises a number of problems confronting education in Bangladesh that cut across all levels;
* divisiveness;
* high drop out rates;
* deteriorating teaching standards;
* lack of opportunity for higher education;
* low pay for teachers;
* dependence of coaching centres
* commercialisation of educational institutions;
* politicisation of students and faculty;
* and so on, In other words too numerous to mention without becoming a litany of defeatism.
I would add to this list the total lack of transparency and quality control on the part of the bodies charged with oversight of education. The criticisms levelled by Moila at education in general apply equally, or more so, to bodies like the Universities Grants Commission (UGC).
I must declare that my interest is in the university sector and disclose that for two years I taught at a private university in Dhaka; something I enjoyed immensely and which gave me some insight into the tertiary education scene.
There is a tendency to demonise the private universities and over value the private university sector. People love to tell you that the University of Dhaka is/or was the Oxford of the east. It may have been but not any longer. With honorable exceptions its faculty and student body have become politically polarised and in many instances programs and faculty have become moribund. My Bangla teacher confessed to me that while they had finished their course of study it would be a year before her results would be made available because the faculty were too busy to mark the papers. One hears many other such stories - and then there are the issues of class jam (where cancelled classes are made up because of earlier closure due to political activity or some such), faculty absence from class and abysmal salaries which lead faculty to over stretch and teach in several private universities at any one time in order to earn enough to live. Despite all of these issues Dhaka University still remains the beacon, the benchmark against which the private universities are measure - and always found wanting.
There is no doubt that some of the 54 private universities located in Bangladesh (mostly in Dhaka) are little more than degree mills, with insufficient resources, inadequate faculty and little infrastructure, who happily take desperate student's money in return for a highly dubious piece of paper. At the same time there are private universities that are honorable in their intent, seeking to give studnets a good education in return for the fees they pay. Thsi confused situation requires clarification -something I will attempt in my next post.
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Return
Another long break since I last posted. The gap is due to my lack of discipline and distractions; I have has a cold or flu that has lasted six weeks and has left me very deaf. Being cut off from the aural world is very disconcerting. All sound seem to be filtered through a great wad of cotton wool, blurred and indistinct, and my grandchildren can creep up behind me and yell and I don't hear them, to great merriment.
Shahjahan Siraj and i have completed the 80+1 project on Dhaka markets, which Siraj is turning into an e-book. More details soon.
I read The Daily Star, Dhaka's leading English paper,regularly although when I'm in Dhaka I tend to read New Age. It keeps me in touch with things. The Daily Star tries to be neutral although it clearly supported the Interim Government between 2007 and 2008 and probably leans more towards the AL than the BNP. Nevertheless its not a bad paper and it covers things in some detail. Its websyte also includes access to its weekly magazine and the monthly Forum.
Issues that have been prominent have been
*a campaign to rescue Bangladesh's rivers from the encroachments of the developers;
*education;
*swine flu.
Education is the issue that really interests me. There is an ongoing debate about the 54 private universities in the country. There is no doubt that some of them are awful, little more than degree mills where students pay a fee and receive a piece of paper. Others on the other hand are trying to offer a quality education in difficult system. The problem is not so much the universities themselves but the education system in general. But more of this in the next post.
The other issues also reveal something of the problems facing Bangladesh. Clearly the developers are used to a corrupt administration and find any impediment put in their way as unacceptable and they fill the rivers and canal without concern for the future.
The hospitals are not capable of handling a major flu epidemic - and so it goes.
Reading The Daily Star I also notice that Biman has at long last posted a profit and at the same time the UN have designated it as an airline to be avoided at all costs.
Finally, there is a rule of thumb which says that the Western media only carry a story about Bangladesh if it is about disaster or mayhem. Recently the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's Foreign Correspondent carried a story about acid attacks (a vile and despicable act) on women and children. While it tried to convey a message of hope and courage it nevertheless conformed the overall approach to Bangladesh - show the baser side of human nature.
Shahjahan Siraj and i have completed the 80+1 project on Dhaka markets, which Siraj is turning into an e-book. More details soon.
I read The Daily Star, Dhaka's leading English paper,regularly although when I'm in Dhaka I tend to read New Age. It keeps me in touch with things. The Daily Star tries to be neutral although it clearly supported the Interim Government between 2007 and 2008 and probably leans more towards the AL than the BNP. Nevertheless its not a bad paper and it covers things in some detail. Its websyte also includes access to its weekly magazine and the monthly Forum.
Issues that have been prominent have been
*a campaign to rescue Bangladesh's rivers from the encroachments of the developers;
*education;
*swine flu.
Education is the issue that really interests me. There is an ongoing debate about the 54 private universities in the country. There is no doubt that some of them are awful, little more than degree mills where students pay a fee and receive a piece of paper. Others on the other hand are trying to offer a quality education in difficult system. The problem is not so much the universities themselves but the education system in general. But more of this in the next post.
The other issues also reveal something of the problems facing Bangladesh. Clearly the developers are used to a corrupt administration and find any impediment put in their way as unacceptable and they fill the rivers and canal without concern for the future.
The hospitals are not capable of handling a major flu epidemic - and so it goes.
Reading The Daily Star I also notice that Biman has at long last posted a profit and at the same time the UN have designated it as an airline to be avoided at all costs.
Finally, there is a rule of thumb which says that the Western media only carry a story about Bangladesh if it is about disaster or mayhem. Recently the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's Foreign Correspondent carried a story about acid attacks (a vile and despicable act) on women and children. While it tried to convey a message of hope and courage it nevertheless conformed the overall approach to Bangladesh - show the baser side of human nature.
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