Blog

Did the British cut off the hands, thumbs and tongues of Bengal weavers?

Did the British, under the East India Company’s rule, cut off Bengal weavers’ hands or thumbs and tongues to destroy the famous Bengal textile industry, particularly the weaving of the muslin fabrics? Since I was young I heard people – family members, teachers, community leaders, friends, media and so on – talking about how the […]

My thoughts on Ekushey February

I love Bangla: my language, my mother tongue and the language of my motherland. But it’s not only the standardized Bangla that I love, which is erroneously called ‘Shuddo Bangla or correct Bangla’, but all the regional Bangla family language varieties. In fact, my heart and emotion respond more to my rural Bangla than the […]

Does the Awami League have more rights to govern Bangladesh and determine its future than any other group?

I have slightly edited something I posted on Facebook more than five years ago, which was also published in Dhaka Tribune with a slightly different title. Of the major causes behind the current problems of social polarisation and destructive political culture/conflicts in the country, in my view, the existence of the above belief amongst the […]

The Bangladeshi Lady and Trump

(I have reproduced this from a Facebook post I made in July2019) The Bangladeshi Lady and Trump 19 July 2019 I would encourage Bangladeshis not to take a nationalist line on the complaint that this lady made to Trump about the persecution faced by non-Muslims in Bangladesh. See what Hindu nationalism is doing to India […]

Muslin revival in Bangladesh

Recently, an announcement was made in Bangladesh, published in many newspapers, that the original Muslin, the famous textiles of Bengal, has been revived, by cultivating and producing threads from the original Muslin cotton plants. If this is true, even partially, this would indeed be good news and something to celebrate. Hopefully, many new innovative and […]

Nottinghill Carnival (2009&10)

The African-Caribbean culture at its best August Bank Holiday Weekend (2009&2010), London The Notting Hill Carnival has been an annual London event since 1959. However, due to the Covid-19 emergency, there is going to be no street carnival during this year’s August Bank Holiday, although the digital version planned will no doubt be very colourful, […]

Ibn Khaldun and Karl Marx

Ibn Khaldun (1332-1406) and Karl Marx (1818-1883) are separated by five centuries of history and two civilisations and yet they exhibit some very important similarities. I discovered this when I was undertaking my Master of Arts (MA) studies in Political Thought at the University of Kent, UK. I realised that they both believed that history […]

Feminism and the liberation of men

A reflection on the eve of Bangladesh Victory Day I have been thinking about feminism and the relentless efforts and struggles that it has been waging for women’s liberation and equality. I have started to reflect on the society into which I was born, the various places where I moved in and out from after […]