Bangladeshi English literature
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Bangladeshi English literature (BEL) refers to the body of literary work written in the English language in Bangladesh and the Bangladeshi diaspora. In academia, it is also now referred to as Bangladeshi Writing in English (BWE).[1] Early prominent Bengali writers in English include Ram Muhan Roy, Bankim Chandra Chatterjee, Begum Rokeya, and Rabindranath Tagore. In 1905, Begum Rokeya (1880–1932) wrote Sultana's Dream, one of the earliest examples of feminist science fiction.[2] Modern writers of the Bangladeshi diaspora include Tahmima Anam, Neamat Imam, Monica Ali, and Zia Haider Rahman.
Writers and their contributions (1774–2023)
[edit]| Writer | Major Contributions |
|---|---|
| Thomas Babington Macaulay (25 October 1800 – 28 December 1859), British historian. Primarily responsible for the introduction of a Western-style education system in India. | Minute on Indian Education (1835) |
| Kashiprashad Ghose | The Shair and Other Poems (1830)[3] |
| Raja Ram Mohan Roy (1774–1833) | Critical essays during his lifetime |
| Michael Madhusudan Dutt (1824–1873) | The Captive Ladie and Visions of the Past, both published in 1849. |
| Toru Dutt (1855–1876) | Wrote and translated poetry into English. A Sheaf Glean'd in French Fields and Ancient Ballads and Legends of Hindustan were published in 1876 and 1882 respectively. |
| Bankim Chandra Chatterjee (1838–1894) | Debut English novel Rajmohan's Wife (1864) |
| Begum Rokeya (1880–1932) | Sultana's Dream (1905) |
| Rabindranath Tagore (1861–1941) | English translation of the poet's self-work, Gitanjali, to Song Offerings (1912) |
| Nirad C. Chaudhuri (1897–1999) | English writer of Bengal stories and autobiography |
| Razia Khan (1936–2011) | Poetry collections Argus Under Anaesthesia (1976) and Cruel April (1977) |
| Farida Majid | Anthology of English poems Thursday Evening Anthology (1977) |
| Kaiser Haq | Black Orchid (1996) and In the Streets of Dhaka: Collected poems (1966—2006). |
| Feroz Ahmed-ud-din | Handful of Dust (1975) |
| Nuzhat Amin Mannan[4] | Rhododendron Lane (2004) |
| Syed Najmuddin Hashim | Hopefully the Pomegranate (2007) |
| Rumana Siddique | Five Faces of Eve: Poems (2007) |
| Nadeem Rahman | Politically Incorrect Poems (2004) |
| Mir Mahfuz Ali | Midnight, Dhaka, collection of poems (2007) |
| Rafeed Elahi Chowdhury | "My Acid Romance"(2022), "Moho"(2023), "Fayez Just Became a Father"(2023), and "Rules of Eternity"(2023) |
| Adib Khan | Novels Seasonal Adjustments (1994), Solitude of Illusions (1996), The Storyteller (2000), Homecoming (2005) and Spiral Road (2007) |
| Monica Ali | Brick Lane (2003) |
| Tahmima Anam | A Golden Age (2007), The Good Muslim (2012), The Bones of Grace (2016) |
| Shazia Omar | First novel, Like a Diamond in the Sky (2009) |
| Mahmud Rahman | Short story collection: Killing the Water (2010) |
| Kazi Anis Ahmed | Collection: Good Night, Mr. Kissinger and Other Stories (2012) |
| Neamat Imam | The Black Coat (2013) |
| Farah Ghuznavi | Short story collection: Fragments of Riversong (2013) |
| Maria Chaudhuri | Beloved Strangers (2014)[5] |
| Fayeza Hasanat | Short story collection: The Bird Catcher and Other Stories (2018)[6] |
| Zia Haider Rahman | In the Light of What We Know (2014) |
| Razia Sultana Khan | The Good Wife and Other Tales of Seduction (2007) |
| Rashid Askari | Nineteen Seventy One and Other Stories[7] (2011) |
| Saad Z. Hossain | Djinn City (2017) |
| Arif Anwar | The Storm (2018) |
| Mehrab Masayeed Habib[8] | Slice of Paradise (2019) |
| Mahtab Bangalee[9] | Behold (2022) |
| Sanya Rushdi | Hospital (2023) |
| Saroar Imran Mahmood | Tears and Poems (2023) |
| Priyanka Taslim | The Love Match (2023) |
| Tanwi Nandini Islam | Bright Lines (2015) |
Emergence of English in the Bangla Region (1774–1855)
[edit]The emergence of English-based literature in the Indian Sub-Continent is intertwined with the advent of the British Raj, with some of the important early examples being the critical essays of Raja Ram Muhan Roy, Thomas Babington Macaulay’s educational work including the Minutes of Macaulay, and the establishment of Hindu college.[citation needed][10]
Raja Ram Mohan Roy (1774–1833)
[edit]Raja Ram Mohan Roy (1774–1833) is a foundational figure in Bangla literature. He is more remembered for his social reforms, but also contributed to the spread of English not only by establishing it as a medium of education but also as the first moral essayist of Bengali English literature.
Ram Mohan Roy was important for motivating the British Raj to establish Hindu college and introducing English as a medium of instruction. Chakraborty states that:[11]
Prior to the advent of the British in India, the indigenous primary schools of Bengal taught very little beyond Bangla, simple Arithmetic, and Sanskrit, and the tols imparted lessons in advanced Sanskrit, grammar, and literature, theology, logic, and metaphysics. This failed to satisfy the aspirations of enlightened Indians like Raja Ram Mohan Roy, who felt that the process would only help to 'load the minds of youths with grammatical niceties and metaphysical distinctions' which had no practical use.
To solve this, Ram Mohan Roy aided the native gentry as well as the government to establish a formal institution for teaching secular ideologies, rather than Indian metaphysics and mythology.
Rashid Askari wrote that "Raja Ram Mohan Roy ..., the father of the Bengali Renaissance, was also the 'father of Indian literature in English'". Askari further notes that "He was the pioneer of a literary trend that has extended over a vast area of the subcontinent, including Bangladesh".[12] While in Rangpur, Ram Mohan took an interest in political developments in England and Europe. He read all the journals and newspapers that Digby got from England, and thereby not only improved his knowledge of English, which he had started to learn at the age of twenty-two, but also acquired considerable knowledge of European political thought. Through Digby it is evident that Ram Mohan was attracted by the political liberalism prevailing in Europe at that time. [13]
Ghose[14] has made a thorough discussion on the English work of Ram Mohan Roy. The following lists sketch the man's effort for social and political reformations from the perspectives of liberalism.
| 1. Preliminary Remarks – Brief Sketch of the Ancient and Modern Boundaries and History of India. |
| 2. Questions and Answers on the Judicial System of India. |
| 3. Questions and Answers on the Revenue System of India. |
| 4. A paper on the Revenue System of India. |
| 5. Additional Queries, respecting the condition of India. |
| 6. Remarks on Settlement in India by Europeans. |
| 7. Translation of a Conference between an Advocate for, and an Opponent of, the practice of Burning Widows Alive; from the original Bangla. |
| 8. A second Conference between an Advocate for, and an Opponent of, the practice of Burning Widows Alive. |
| 9. Abstract of the Arguments regarding the Burning of Widows, considered as a Religious Rite. |
| 10. Brief Remarks regarding Modern Encroachment on the Ancient Rights of Females, according to the Hindoo Law of Inheritance. |
| 11. Essay on the Rights of Hindoos over Ancestral Property according to the Law of Bengal. |
| 12. Hindoo Law of Inheritance. |
| 13. Petitions against the Press Regulation (1) to the Supreme Court, and (2) to the Ring in Council. |
| 14. A Letter to Lord Amherst on English Education. |
| 15. Address to Lord William Bentinck. |
| 16. Anti-Suttee Petition to the House of Commons. |
| 17. Petition to Government Lakh raj. |
| 18. Speeches and letters. |
Thus, the emergence of Ram Muhan Roy, the establishment of the Hindu College, and the Minutes of Macaulay helped the emergence of English in the Bengal region, which afforded those in the Bangla region the opportunity to create literature through English.
Period of early singing birds (1830–1870)
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Light of reason (1870–1905)
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Emergence of Muslim consciousness (1905–1947)
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Pre-liberation period (1947–1971)
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Post-liberation sensibility (1971–1980)
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Transnational experimentation (1980–2000)
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Contemporary scene (2000–2022)
[edit]It is now viable for contemporary Bangladeshi English writers to write about the details of transnationalism, the Liberation War, political disharmony, massive unplanned urbanization, and identity issues.
A Golden Age by Tahmima Anam is set during the Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971. Anam is also the author of The Good Muslim. Zia Haider Rahman, a British Bangladeshi novelist, published his debut novel In the Light of What We Know in 2014,[15] which won the James Tait Black Prize for literature in 2015.[16] Monica Ali’s Brick Lane was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 2003. Published in the US in 2018, Fayeza Hasanat's debut short story collection The Bird Catcher and Other Stories addresses gender expectations, familial love, and questions of identity and belonging. Like A Diamond in the Sky by Shazia Omar portrays the psychedelic world of Dhaka's university students, who are caught up in the haze of drugs, punk rock, and fusion.[17] Rashid Askari’s short story collection Nineteen Seventy One and Other Stories (2011) has been translated into French and Hindi.[18] In 2019, Mehrab Masayeed Habib wrote a novel named Slice of Paradise. It is an English novel based on Dhaka in the 1960s and published by Swore O Publication.
Native Bangladeshi Contributions
[edit]Fakrul Alam
[edit]Fakrul Alam (born 20 July 1951) is an academician, writer, and translator. He writes on literary and postcolonial issues and has translated works by Jibanananda Das and Rabindranath Tagore into English. He has also translated Sheikh Mujibur Rahman's autobiographical works Asamapta Atmajibani (The Unfinished Memoirs) and Karagarer Rojnamcha (Prison Diaries), and Mir Mossaraf Hossain's epic novel Bishad- Sindhu (Ocean of Sorrow). In 2012 he was the recipient of the Bangla Literary Award in translation and the SAARC Literary Award.[19]
Notable works include:
- Jibanananda Das: Selected Poems with an Introduction, Chronology, and Glossary
- Ocean of Sorrow
- Essential Tagore[20]
- The Unfinished Memoirs
- Prison Diaries
Syed Manzoorul Islam
[edit]The Merman's Prayer and Other Stories[21] eternalizes Syed Manzoorul Islam: the narrative of the stories entangle reality and fantasy. Twists and turns prevail in their narration. The characters emerge from the fringes of Bangladeshi societies and the urban middle class. Desires and deprivations, ecstasies and frustrations engulf all the characters presented.
Kaiser Hamidul Haq
[edit]Kaiser Haq is the most prominent name in Bangladeshi English-language poetry. He has contributed to the fields of poetry, translation of the poems of Shamsur Rahman, the leading poet of Bangladesh, and also prose translation.[22] His works include:
| Poetry | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Serial No: | Book: | Publication History: | ||
| 01 | Starting Lines: Poems 1968–75 | Dhaka: Liberty, 1978 | ||
| 02 | A Little Ado: Poems 1976–77 | Dhaka: Granthabithi, 1978 | ||
| 03 | A Happy Farewell | Dhaka: University Press Limited, 1994 | ||
| 04 | Black Orchid | London: Aark Arts, 1996 | ||
| 05 | The Logopathic Reviewer's Song | Dhaka: University Press Limited and London: Aark Arts, 2002 | ||
| 06 | Selected Poems of Shamsur Rahman (translations) | Dhaka: BRAC 1985; enlarged edition, Pathak Samabesh, 2007 | ||
| 07 | Contemporary Indian Poetry (editor) | Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 1990 | ||
| Prose Translations | ||||
| 08 | Quartet (Rabindranath Tagore's Chaturanga) | Oxford: Heinemann 1993, also in Tagore Omnibus Vol. I, Penguin India 2005 | ||
| 09 | The Wonders of Vilayet (an 18th-century Indian's travel memoir) | Leeds: Peepal Tree Press, 2002 | ||
Niaz Zaman
[edit]Niaz Zaman is a writer, translator and academic. She was honored with the Bangla Academy Literary Award in 2016 for her contribution to translation. Trees without Roots[23] is a trans-created[clarification needed] novel by Zaman grounded on Syed Waliullah’s novel Laal Shalu. Trees without Roots depicts the natural scenery of Bangladesh including the ravages of nature - floods, and storms. She also shows the use of religion for food and shelter by the people. This English novel brings the Bengali mind to the English-speaking world and shows impact of religion as well as superstition on the village populace of Bengal.
Sabiha Haq
[edit]Sabiha Haq (born January 1, 1977) has garnered a reputation for postcolonial and gender issues, women's writings, and cultural studies. The Mughal Aviary highlights the literary contributions of four Muslim women in the Mughal regime in pre-modern India: Gulbadan, Jahanara, Zeb-un-Nessa, and Habba Khatoon, the Nightingale of Kashmir. Their literary sensibilities were exposed with deep concern by the author who could never fail to highlight how gender politics made a mark on their lives and activities which were sufficient to efface their literary faculties.[24] This book covers roughly 200 years of the 16th and 17th centuries, reflecting the subjective tone and the self-fashioning of the princess under the Mughal regime through the forms of biography, hagiography and poetry by the four Zenana writers. Their writings depict a strong place for those women who could create a counterculture within the imposed culture they grew up in. The book The Mughal Aviary shows the dignity of the Muslim women as undiscovered writers and how the annals of history failed to pay due respect to their contributions.
Theme
[edit]The book cherishes the contribution of the three Mughal princesses: Gulbadan Begam (1523–1603), the youngest daughter of the Mughal Emperor Babur, Jahanara (1614–1681), the eldest daughter of the Emperor Shah Jahan, and Zeb-un-Nissa (1638–1702), the eldest daughter of the last Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb. The book also highlights the nightingale of Kashmir, Habba Khatoon (1554–1609). This book makes a thorough discussion and critical evaluation of Humayun-Nama[25] (a biography on the emperor Humayun, the half-brother to Gulbadan Begam) by Gulbadan Begam, where the biographer delves into the lives of the wife and daughters of the Mughal Emperor, Babur. The hagiography by Jahanara tends to glorify the Mughal monarchy. The third writer excels in poetry where the subaltern spirit peeps up with magical gaiety. Habba is famed for her lyricism in Kashmiri poetry. Her pangs of separation add an elegiac tone to the regional poetry.[26] Thus, the author, Sabiha Haq, excavates the prominence of Muslim women's writings even in pre-modern India, while history supposes to deliberately suppress the contributions of those living at the subaltern periphery.[27]
Chapter details
[edit]The Mughal Aviary has six chapters, as follows:
- "The Mughal Aviary and Women In/Out"
- "Humayun's Biographer Gulbadan Begam: A Quiet Observer of the Aviary"
- "Jahanara's Hagiographies: The Mind of A Matriarch"
- "Dissenting Songbird in the Aviary: The Poetry of Zeb-un-Nissa"
- "The Plaintive Songbird beyond the Aviary: Habba Khatoon's Lol"
- "Where to Conclude?"
Chapter one exposes the thought on the key metaphor, the aviary, distinctively featured with the harem or zenana established by the Mughals alongside their other khash mahals (special chambers). This chapter seeks to explore the unsought stories from the women, especially the sojourners of the "aviary" like the princess of the Mughal emperors. The scope of the "aviary" extends to the Queen of Kashmir who is linked among the other Mughal Sahajadies as Kashmir was annexed by the Mughal emperors and Habba Khatoon was the last queen of the Free Kashmir. Thus, the first chapter covers the literary women who had to peep up their heads with the literary spree during the Mughal period while the harem existed.[clarification needed]
The second chapter deals with Gulbadan as a biographer. Gulbadan positions Humayun from the neutral point of view being a man of flesh and blood as well as of a strong sense of justice. Haq judges Gulbadan for making keen observations regarding Humayun's characteristics.[28]
The third chapter delves into the hagiography of Jahanara Begam, where the biography is given a "self-fashioning", according to the author. Jahanara writes a biography on Sufi masters like Hadrat Sheikh Nizamuddin Auliya in Munis-ul-Arwah, and Mullah Shah Badakhshi in Risala-i-Sahibiyah. She focuses on the spiritual power – soft power per se – of those Sufis that led to the spread of the Mughal dynasty. The Mughal Aviary traces the masculine flavor imposed on the translation of Jahanara's biography.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Mughal Aviary: Women's Writings in Pre-Modern India|Paperback |url=https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-mughal-aviary-sabiha-huq/1141186878 |access-date=2
- ^ Askari, Rashid (14 August 2010). "Bangladeshis writing in English". The Daily Star. Archived from the original on 2022-06-16. Retrieved 2017-08-07.
- ^ Anam, Tahmima (27 May 2011). "My hero Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain". The Guardian. Retrieved 2016-08-06.
- ^ "Kashiprasad Ghosh - unsung 'English' poet and author of colonial Bengal". Get Bengal. Retrieved 2022-06-20.
- ^ Haq, Kaiser (20 March 2004). "The Daily Star Web Edition Vol. 4 Num 288: Alive and Kicking-English Poetry from the Subcontinent". The Daily Star. Retrieved 2022-10-28.
- ^ "Maria Chaudhuri's Beloved Strangers follows a life more or less ordinary". The National. 2014-01-09. Retrieved 2022-06-20.
- ^ "The Bird Catcher by Fayeza Hasanat - Necessary Fiction". necessaryfiction.com. 11 March 2019. Retrieved 2022-06-20.
- ^ "Nineteen seventy one and other stories: a collection of short stories – Sangat Book Review". Retrieved 2022-06-20.
- ^ Habib, Meherab Masayeed (2019). Slice of Paradise (1st ed.). Bangladesh: Swore O. ASIN B07NKBX7MF.
- ^ Mahtab, Mahtab Bangalee (2022). Behold (1st ed.). Bangladesh: Swore O. ASIN B07NKBX7MF.
- ^ "Presidency University". Presidency University. September 9, 2024. Retrieved September 9, 2024.
- ^ "Hindu College". Banglapedia. Retrieved 2022-06-27.
- ^ Askari, Rashid (2015-10-01). "A Brief History of Bangladeshi Writing in English". The Missing Slate. Retrieved 2022-10-28.
- ^ Lambert, H. M. (1958). "Contemporary Indian Literature. A Symposium. Sahitya Akademi, New Delhi. Foreword by S. Radhakrishnan. pp. 300. Ministry of Information, Delhi 8". Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society. 90 (1–2): 89. doi:10.1017/s0035869x00116910. ISSN 1356-1863. S2CID 163688700.
- ^ Midgley, Clare (2020). "Cosmotopia Delineated: Rammohun Roy, William Adam, and the Calcutta Unitarian Committee". Itinerario. 44 (2): 446–470. doi:10.1017/s016511532000011x. ISSN 0165-1153. S2CID 212795553.
- ^ Wood, James (19 May 2014), "The World As We Know It: Zia Haider Rahman's dazzling début",The New Yorker. Retrieved on 2015-01-20.
- ^ Flood, Alison (2015-08-17). "James Tait Black prize goes to Zia Haider Rahman's debut novel". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2024-10-14.
- ^ "Twinkle, twinkle, little stir | books". Hindustan Times. 2009-09-11. Archived from the original on April 25, 2015. Retrieved 2016-08-06.
- ^ "Nineteen seventy one and other stories: a collection of short stories". Dhaka Courier. 2013-05-23. Archived from the original on 2013-05-23. Retrieved 2020-04-01.
- ^ Haq, Sayed Shamsul (2021). Ballad of Our Hero BANGABANDHU. Translated by Alam, Fakrul (1st ed.). Dhaka, Bangladesh: Bangla Academy. p. 77. ISBN 9789840760428.
- ^ Alam, Fakrul; Chakravarty, Radha (2011). The Essential Tagore (1st ed.). Belknap Press of Harvard. ISBN 9780674057906.
- ^ Islam, Syed Manzoorul (2013). The Merman's Prayer and Other Stories. Bangladesh: The Daily Star. ISBN 978-9849027171.
- ^ Haq, Kaiser (2007). Published in the Streets of Dhaka: Collected Poems 1966-2006 (1st ed.). Dhaka: writers.ink. ISBN 978-9848715116.
- ^ "Tree without Roots | The University Press Limited". www.uplbooks.com. Retrieved 2022-09-13.
- ^ Haq, Sabiha (2022). The Mughal Aviary (1st ed.). Bangladesh: The University Press Limited. ISBN 9789845063913.
- ^ "Humayun Namah". Banglapedia. Retrieved 2022-08-24.
- ^ Amin, Nishat (8 March 2022). Introduction to The Mughal Aviary. ISBN 978-1622738526.
- ^ M, Somdatta; al (2022-05-19). "Sabiha Huq's 'The Aviary': History depicted by three Mughal princesses and a Kashmiri queen". The Daily Star. Retrieved 2022-08-24.
- ^ Mukherjee, Srideep (2022-06-24). "Sabiha Huq, The Mughal Aviary: Women's Writings in Pre- Modern India". Asiatic: IIUM Journal of English Language and Literature. 16 (1): 186–189. ISSN 1985-3106.