Negotiating Modernity and Identity in Bangladesh
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City University of New York (CUNY) CUNY Academic Works Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects CUNY Graduate Center 9-2020 Thoughts of Becoming: Negotiating Modernity and Identity in Bangladesh Humayun Kabir The Graduate Center, City University of New York How does access to this work benefit ou?y Let us know! More information about this work at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/4041 Discover additional works at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu This work is made publicly available by the City University of New York (CUNY). Contact: [email protected] THOUGHTS OF BECOMING: NEGOTIATING MODERNITY AND IDENTITY IN BANGLADESH by HUMAYUN KABIR A dissertation submitted to the Graduate Faculty in Political Science in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, The City University of New York 2020 © 2020 HUMAYUN KABIR All Rights Reserved ii Thoughts Of Becoming: Negotiating Modernity And Identity In Bangladesh By Humayun Kabir This manuscript has been read and accepted for the Graduate Faculty in Political Science in satisfaction of the dissertation requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. _______________________ ______________________________ Date Uday Mehta Chair of Examining Committee _______________________ ______________________________ Date Alyson Cole Executive Officer Supervisory Committee: Uday Mehta Susan Buck-Morss Manu Bhagavan THE CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK iii ABSTRACT Thoughts Of Becoming: Negotiating Modernity And Identity In Bangladesh By Humayun Kabir Advisor: Uday Mehta This dissertation constructs a history and conducts an analysis of Bangladeshi political thought with the aim to better understand the thought-world and political subjectivities in Bangladesh. The dissertation argues that political thought in Bangladesh has been profoundly structured by colonial and other encounters with modernity and by concerns about constructing a national identity. Negotiations between the incomplete and continuous projects of modernization and identity formation have produced certain anxieties about becoming that permeates political consciousness and ideas in the country. Though such anxieties of becoming are also shared by other postcolonial countries, the specific, though not necessarily exclusive, character of Bangladeshi thought emerges out of the country’s particular political history and the double birth of the nation – first as Pakistan, then as Bangladesh. The dissertation seeks to establish this specific character of Bangladeshi political thought and political subjectivity through investigations into the political and intellectual histories of erstwhile East Pakistan and present day Bangladesh, engaging closely with the political lives and thoughts of four select thinkers and political actors – Abul Mansur Ahmad, Abul Hashim, Maolana Abdul Hamid Khan Bhashani, and Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Over the course of writing this dissertation I have accrued many debts. First of all, I would like to thank my advisor, Uday Mehta, for his intellectual guidance, encouragement, and patience, without which this project would have never been completed. I would also like to thank committee members Susan Buck-Morss and Manu Bhagavan for their generosity. I am also indebted to Ross Petcheskey and Francis Fox-Piven, who provided invaluable guidance and support in the early stages of the dissertation. I am also grateful to Alyson Cole and Joe Rollins for continued support and encouragement. I want to thank Margaret Cook and Earl Fleary, the two Program Officers at the political science department who not only helped me navigate through the bureaucratic requirements of graduate school but also cheered for my success. Thanks are due to numerous other officials at the Graduate Center, who built and maintained an institution where a working class person can get a Ph.D. Special thanks to Anne Johnson from financial aid, who took a personal interest in my wellbeing. I am also immensely grateful to the librarians and staff of Bangla Academy, Dhaka University Library, Dhaka Public Library, Bangladesh National Archives, and Bangabondhu Memorial Museum, as well as of The Graduate Center Library, Manhattan Public Library, and Columbia University Library. I am indebted to American Institute for Bangladesh Studies and its President Golam Mathbor for its generous grant for fieldwork in Bangladesh, for providing me with an office space in Dhaka, and for connecting me with various resources and persons in Bangladesh. Thanks are also due to numerous intellectuals and political actors in Dhaka who invited me to their addas, houses, personal libraries, political programs, or academic seminars and conferences, which provided me with concrete experience of political and intellectual culture of v Bangladesh and exposed me to new ideas and materials. Dina Siddique and BRAC University, Sara Hossain and Bangladesh Legal Aid Society, Anu Muhammad, Badruddin Umar, Jonayed Saki, Taslima Akter, Firoz Ahmed, Faruk Wasif, and Arup Rahee deserve special mention. Bangladeshi-American scholars Ahmed Shamim, Nazmul Sultan, Nayma Qayum, Naeem Mohaiemen, Nazrul Islam, and Hasan Ferdous have supported this dissertation through their thoughts, feedbacks, and friendship. I am also thankful to my graduate school friends Martin, Patrizia, Mike, Dave, Erika, Young-Huan, Kris, Chris, George, John, Joana, Julie, Rachel and Emily for providing a community that was warm and intellectually stimulating. I must also thank the students from my classes, particularly from the Modern India class at Baruch College, who helped me work out many of the ideas and arguments of this dissertation. Patricia Rachal at Queens College deserves special thanks for providing me with not only a steady employment but also office spaces and other resources that were greatly helpful. Last but not least, I must thank my family who have stuck with me and provided unquestioned support and love throughout a process that was much too long. Thank you mom, Hosneara Kader, for not letting me fail. Thank you Shumu for being the greatest partner and friend. And, thank you Aalek and Ninad for being such bundles of joy and for giving up some of your playtime with me. vi NOTES ON TRANSLATIONS, TRANSLITERATIONS, AND NAMES ● This dissertation draws heavily upon Bangla language primary texts. All the translations from Bangla are mine unless otherwise stated. ● I use the spelling “Bangla” rather than Anglicized “Bengali” to name the language because Bangladeshi scholars increasingly prefer to use the former spelling. However, I retain the use of “Bengali” to refer to the ethno-linguistic group. ● What is Bangladesh today was legally called “East Pakistan” from 1956 to 1971 and was named “East Bengal” until then. I alternate between these three names depending on the historical period under discussion. ● Non-English terms are italicized and their meanings are explained either in context or in parenthetical notes. ● I use phonetic transliterations of Bangla and other non-English terms, phrases, names. However, certain non-English terms and names may appear in variant spellings in quotations or titles of primary sources. For example, while I use the spelling “maolana,” a word that means Muslim scholar, is variously spelled as “maulana” or “mawlana”. ● For the sake of continuity I have used “Calcutta” and “Dhaka” to spell the names of these cities despite other spellings used historically or preferred by contemporary authorities. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION 1 THEORETICAL CONCERNS AND LOCATION OF THE DISSERTATION IN VARIOUS FIELDS OF STUDIES 12 THE “POSTCOLONIAL” TENSION BETWEEN MODERNITY AND IDENTITY 20 THE NEGOTIATION OF MODERNITY AND IDENTITY IN BANGLADESH 27 READING BANGLADESHI POLITICAL THOUGHT: PRACTICAL AND METHODOLOGICAL CHALLENGES 34 Selection of Interlocutors 41 PREVIEW OF THE CHAPTERS 45 CHAPTER TWO CONTEXTUALIZING BANGLADESHI POLITICAL THOUGHT: AN OUTLINE OF SOCIAL, POLITICAL, AND INTELLECTUAL HISTORIES OF BANGLADESH 49 COLONIAL ENCOUNTERS IN SHAPING POLITICS, SOCIETY AND THOUGHT IN INDIA AND BENGAL 52 THE BENGALI-MUSLIMS AND THEIR MIDDLE-CLASS INTELLIGENTSIA: A SOCIAL HISTORY 65 AN OUTLINE OF A POLITICAL HISTORY OF PAKISTAN AND BANGLADESH 80 THE BENGALI-MUSLIM THOUGHT-WORLD: TRENDS, TENSIONS, AND NEGOTIATIONS 106 CONCLUSION 123 CHAPTER THREE THE FIRST BIRTH OF THE NATION BENGALI-MUSLIM IDENTITY AND IDEAS OF THE ISLAMIC STATE IN PRODUCING THE “PAKISTAN MOMENT” 124 “THE PAKISTAN MOMENT”: HISTORY MAKING AND POLITICAL THEORY 131 SELF, OTHER, AND THE WORLD: ABUL MANSUR AHMAD’S POLITICS OF BENGALI-MUSLIM CULTURAL NATIONALISM 139 POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY IN NATIONALIST TIME: ABUL HASHIM’S VISIONS FOR A MODERN ISLAMIC POLITY 163 CONCLUSION 187 CHAPTER FOUR THE SECOND BIRTH OF THE NATION: ASPIRATIONS OF DEMOCRACY, EQUALITY, FREEDOM, AND SOCIAL UPLIFT IN PRODUCING THE BANGLADESH MOMENT 194 BETWEEN RADICAL DEMOCRACY AND SOCIAL JUSTICE: MAOLANA BHASHANI’S ARGUMENTS FOR PASTORAL GOVERNANCE 200 BETWEEN LIBERAL DEMOCRACY AND SOCIAL UPLIFT: SHEIKH MUJIB’S STRUGGLE TO FOUND A NEW ORDER 238 CONCLUSION: BHASHANI, MUJIB AND THE BANGLADESH MOMENT 284 CHAPTER FIVE CONCLUSION 288 BIBLIOGRAPHY 311 viii Figure1. A map of South Asia, highlighting Bangladesh, which from 1947 until 1971 was a part of Pakistan. Map by Julius Paulo. Source: Reece Jones, “The False Premise of Partition,” Space & Polity 18, no. 3 (2014): 285–300. ix CHAPTER ONE Introduction For days in February 2013, tens of thousands of mostly young people chanting fanshi chai, “we want