Bengali Culture Research Articles

Early marriage and childbearing among Bengali women in India: Exploring the role of culture

One’s culture influences age at marriage, rules of mate selection, and fertility preferences. Language, as a component of culture, also influences culture itself. Therefore, language, as an indicator of cultural identity, is a significant, yet understudied social determinant of health in health-care settings. This study analyzes the role of cultural norms, measured through language, in early marriage and childbearing among Bengali speakers in India. Descriptive, bivariate, and multivariate analyses were conducted for 51,069 women aged 15 – 49 years from three Indian states (Assam, Tripura, and West Bengal) using data from the fifth round of the National Family Health Survey (2019 – 2021). Stata was used for the analyses, with p < 5% considered significant. Among these women, 46% were married before the age of 18, 34% were married before 18 and began childbearing before 19, and 55% were native Bengali speakers. After controlling for predictors, Bengali-speaking women were significantly more likely to marry before the age of 18 (odds ratio [OR]: 1.72, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.66 – 1.79) and marrying and having their first child before the age of 19 (OR: 1.55, CI: 1.49 – 1.62) compared with their non-Bengali-speaking counterparts. Thus, Bengali culture appears to be associated with early marriage and motherhood. To address this, a multi-pronged strategy involving social and behavioral change communication, targeted programs delivered by grassroots health workers, and school-based campaigns that emphasize the adverse effects of early marriage and childbearing may help reduce these practices in states with significant Bengali-speaking populations.

At Home in the World: Remarks on the Bengali Sense of Belonging

Two Nobel laureates coming from the same geographic area, writing more than 100 years apart, using—more or less—the same concepts to describe the importance of cultural identity. What changed in these 100 years? Generally understood, cultural identity refers to a person’s sense of belonging to a particular culture. We often understand the construction of identity in terms of gender, class, age and ethnicity, language, and/or religion. But what happens when a person is forced to leave his/her culture and to live in a different environment, alongside people never met before, in a place where another language is spoken, and where God has a different name? What does cultural identity mean? How are the home and the world related nowadays? Where is home in the world? This essay views the Bengali sense of belonging in the current context of globalization, linking the determinants of the Bengali culture to the structural changes in the world.

Fairs and Females: A Socio-cultural Perspective of 19th and 20th Century Bengal

Abstract: Fair or Mela has been an integral part of Bengali culture since time immemorial. A fair is generally a conglomeration of people in a festive arrangement for buying and selling goods centering on religious or other special occasions at a specific time and a place. Fair was an integral part of colonial Bengal’s socio-cultural and economic spheres as well. Numerous fairs used to be held in 19th and 20th century Bengal for various reasons which concerned seasonal harvesting, religious festivals, marketing, occasional cultural events, promoting entertainment including traditional games and sports, arts. In a broader aspect, fairs have played role in shaping colonial Bengal’s society and in several ways helped to develop our rich culture over the decades. Another major yet less valued aspect of these fairs is the involvement of women in these which speak in volumes about the socio-economic participation of different classes of women in colonial Bengal. Women of lower social classes participated in these fairs mostly as sellers or entertainers whereas women of higher social classes were found as occasional visitors. Though, due to ‘purdah’ restrictions the numbers of native elite women visitors were often low, women of British or Anglo-Indian families often visited such fairs in their proximity. A number of British women have written about their splendid experiences at Bengali fairs in their memoirs. This vivid participation of women of all strata in different categories in Bengali fairs has not gained much focus in earlier studies. Not merely in the lens of feminism, the role of the womenfolk in those Bengali fairs to contribute in accelerating their families’ economic standard, deserves historical recognition. This paper attempts to study the roles of such women, played in the fairs in both parts of Bengal in 19th and 20th centuries and its grave significance in revisiting gender roles in colonial Bengal’s society.

Districts of Bangladesh Named After Sufis Manifesting the Great Impact of Sufism on Bengal Civilization: A Qualitative Study

Sufism, a mystical Islamic practice, has profoundly impacted Bengal's culture and civilisation, including Bangladesh and the Indian state of West Bengal. The current study aims to discuss how Sufism has helped to reduce religious hatred and extremism among Bengalis. It has also established a system of equality, love, and fraternity among people in the Bengali culture. The history and influence of Sufism in Bangladesh is over a thousand years old and significantly impacts about hundred sixty-nine million people in Bangladesh. One of the reasons is the effect of the calling of Dawah's activities. After Sufism crossed the threshold of Bangladesh, it fascinated the Bengalis and left a meaningful impact on them, which also strengthened their Islamic ideology. Sufism immensely helped the promotion of societal peace in Bengal. The Bengali Sufi saints preached love and compassion, and their ideas also promoted different aspects of religion. They urged people to appreciate variety and value one another's uniqueness. This selfless act inspired many humans to leave their faith to convert to Islam. There is a unique contribution of Sufism to the development of social life and the civilisation of Bangladesh. Remarkably, the settlements of eleven out of sixty-four districts with the names of the famous Sufis show the influence of Sufism. Moreover, since the Sufis were charismatic leaders, their piety, helpfulness, and compassion continue to help Sufism remain a pillar of mystical Islam in Bangladesh.

Queering Bangladeshi Blogging Networks: Legal Rights, Religious Fundamentalism, and the Politics of Blog Publics in Bangladeshi LGBTQ+ Activism

Abstract LGBTQ+ activism in Bangladesh is a comparatively less explored avenue in queer Asia studies. Although academic and socio-political conversations around hijra and transgender communities in Bangladesh are more often foregrounded, scholarly discussions around gay, lesbian, and bisexual experiences and identities are rarely pursued. This is partly due to the vitriolic and brutal treatment of gay, lesbian, and bisexual subjects and allies in the Bangladeshi nation-state where both socio-cultural ideology and legislative principles are dominated by pro-Islamic religious doctrines and colonial-time legislature that make non-normative sexual identities and acts invalid and punishable. Currently, the gay, lesbian, and bi-sexual queer communities of Bangladesh exist as “enclave publics” in the Bangladeshi online and networked media-spheres, particularly after the 2016 killings of Xulhaz Mannan and Mahbub Rabbi, leaders of the first organized Bangladeshi LGBTQ+ activist community. However, certain queer and decolonial counter-public formation around specific alternative Bangladeshi blogs and archival websites have opened new avenues for a more sustained LGBTQ+ resistance. In this article, I problematize the approach of Bangladeshi LGBTQ+ activism and critically analyze how adopting Western frameworks of queer activism, primarily based on pro-visibility, coming-out strategies, and pride rallies, presented itself with extreme existential challenges for gay, lesbian, and bi-sexual individuals in key digital platforms. I also re-evaluate liberal narratives around progressive digital activism in Bangladeshi blogging networks to argue how blog-publics in progressive and secular platforms like Somewhere in . . . fail to protest queer oppression and advocate for queer rights. The examination observes that so-called secular blogging communities in Bangladesh is only selectively progressive, and regarding questions around the rights of LGBTQ+ subjects, makes increasingly clear that conservative and religious doctrines continue to undergird its discursive and affective logics. Finally, I closely analyze Mondro (2019), an enclave queer digital archive and alternative blogging platform for LGBTQ+ subjects in Bangladesh, created in response to the oppression and hate queer subjects face in traditional blogging communities. Predominantly centering Bengali culture, heritage, and tradition, the Mondro community secretly arranges workshops for LGBTQ+ peers on issues around mental-health, healing, and suicide prevention. Here, I claim that alternative queer communities like Mondro, that remain hidden from traditional blogging networks and mainstream media, where queer bloggers and allies mostly post anonymously, is not necessarily a move backwards into the closet, rather a timely tactical intervention for queer identities and narratives to survive and possibly thrive within the digital networks of the Bangladeshi blogosphere. This is an approach that takes the issues around queer survival in Bangladesh seriously, acknowledging and reconciling both its own cultural historicities and its situatedness in a religious sectarian nation-state. To this end, I usefully investigate Mondro through Ahmed Sofa (আহমেদ ছফা) (1981) and Kuan-Hsing Chen's (2010) decolonial frameworks of placing Asia at the center of any conceivable model of networked queer resistance and LGBTQ+ world-making in Bangladesh.

Socio-Economic Structure & Sustainable Development of Indigenous Society: A Study on the Munda Community

There are 50 indigenous or minority ethnic groups scattered across different regions of Bangladesh, of which the Mandas are a community. The Munda community has been living in the areas adjacent to the Sundarbans of Khulna and Satkhira districts for hundreds of years. Originally, their forefathers were the ones who cut down the forest and made the land suitable for cultivation without caring about the roar of the tiger and the snake. The ancestors of the Munda’s played a major role in cutting down the forests in the area surrounding the present Sundarbans and making them suitable for human settlement. The number of Munda’s scattered in the Sundarbans and its surrounding areas is decreasing day by day due to various types of adverse environment. On the other hand, the Munda’s own culture is also under threat due to the influence of Bengali culture. The main aim of this research is how to develop sustainable development of the Munda community from their current socioeconomic structure in view of the current condition of the Munda community. The study is mainly quantitative in nature. Koira and Dumuria upazila of Khulna district and Shyamnagar, Debhata and Tala upazila of Satkhira district were selected through convenient sampling technique for the purpose of collecting primary data, because a large part of Munda community lives in these areas. Structured questionnaire was used to collect data from 250 respondents from five preselected areas. The respondents were selected using simple random sampling technique. Data was analyzed in terms of statistical indicators of frequency and percentage. The results of the study show that social indicators, Economic indicators and Cultural factors are very weak among the Munda community. Among the social indicators, Munda women and men have very little interest in following hygiene rules (Sanitation, Birth Control). Economic indicators show Income Source, Jobs Opportunity Munda community is facing many challenges recently. Many educated boys and girls of the Munda community spend their days in agony due to lack of suitable jobs which has a negative impact on everyone in the community. Cultural factor shows that the Munda community, which is plagued by poverty, can celebrate its cultural events in a grand manner, so that other communities or ethnic groups do not get any idea about their culture. This research will be of great help to those who work with the indigenous communities of Bangladesh, especially the various ministries of the government, NGOs, policy makers, government and private research organizations will be benefited.

Women and Emotional Variabilities: Reading of the Delicate Complexes ‘Subjecting Asha-Binodini’ in Tagore’s Chokher Bali

Women have often been deployed from many social representational practices for their absently marked subject positions; they have been made to function as the ‘subjects’ of absent political representations. Feminism as such had no pinpointed strategy of commencing in Indian geography, except for personalities protesting against social rules to demand equal spaces for the women. In the field of Indian English Literature that can be considered as feminist writings, we indeed have remarkable contributing personalities like Mahasweta Devi, Jhumpa Lahiri, and many more. Culture functions as a foundationalist fable in shaping identities and sustaining them, and such Bengali culture has also created women as a separate entity definable by few ‘fixed’ characteristics of linguistic absence. In this regard Judith Butler beautifully stated that “Women are the sex which is not “one”. Within…a phallogocentric language, women constitute the unrepresentable…women represent the sex that cannot be thought, a linguistic absence and opacity” (Butler, 13). Rabindranath Tagore’s literary pieces has often been called feminist works for they constructively deconstructed the intricate cultural stigmas. Tagore’s presentation of women was both subversive and culturally vibrant, few dominated; while few were dominated, which my paper would try discerning by the application of queer-post-structuralist feminist theory.

The Cultural Politics of “Spring Thunder”: The Naxalbari Movement and the Re-framing of Bengali Culture in the 1960s

The Cultural Politics of “Spring Thunder”: The Naxalbari Movement and the Re-framing of Bengali Culture in the 1960s

The Chronicler of Hooghly and Other Stories

The Chronicler of the Hooghly and Other Stories by Shakti Ghoshal (Half Baked Beans Literature, New Delhi, 2020) is a collection of stories. A versatile personality, Ghosal has worked in the corporate world for decades, and now has come up with his first book of fiction. But his captivating style of narrating tales bears testimony to the fact that he is an accomplished writer of prose. According to the author, these four stories are inspired by his personal experiences. However, he has woven these stories into a multi-hued fabric of history and societal norms prevailing at that time and linking Bengali culture to modern times. The prominent aspect of the book is that readers get a taste of both the ancient and the modern times, and the switchover is amazing.

Drug Abuse: Prognostic Role of Sibling Position in Bengali Culture in India: AStudy in Kolkata, India

Background: It is commonly believed that birth order is an important determinant of personality, intelligence, and economic success. A number of recently published popular books, each with its own approach to the topic tend to support the belief. In keeping with published studies, we noted strong evidence of race and ethnicity effects. In addition, we find that adolescents who lived with both of their parents are much less likely to have used tobacco, alcohol, or marijuana, whereas household income seems to have an effect on female, but not male, substance use. Growing up in an urban area is associated with an increase in the probability of having smoked marijuana and, for females only, an increase in the probability of having drunk alcohol. We find that children with older siblings are, on average, more likely to have used tobacco, alcohol, and canabis than their firstborn counterparts controlling for family size, age, and the other factors in the model. Males with older siblings are 6.2 percentage points more likely to have drunk alcohol and are 5.1 percentage points more likely to have tried marijuana than their firstborn counterparts. With this intention we observed the influence of birth order of the individual among the siblings on the course and outcome of the drug abused subject in the eastern part of India that is known at West Bengal, and its inhabitant called Bengalis. Materials and methods: The data were collected on the basis of retrospective study of the records of 225 consecutive Bengali heroin and brown sugar dependents attending at Ashadeep De-Addiction Centre in Kolkata. All the subjects were male, the age spanned 15-35 years; and hailed from low or middle socio-economic status. All the subjects were treated for detoxification and were followed up while they were undergoing the counselling sessions. The subjects were followed up for little over one year. Results: In Bengali culture the eldest, youngest and the only son, are usually considered to be of much valued position. No such extraordinarily value is attached to any other intermediate ranks. In Bengali, the eldest one usually learns to sacrifice, to tolerate and to be loyal to the hierarchical value-system, whereas the youngest one usually enjoys the indulgence, given not only by parents but also the other elder siblings, and often exhibit poor frustration tolerance and strong pleasure-seeking attitude. The first-born in having a better prognosis, and less drop-out than the lastborns, are expected to be more amenable to therapy than the latter. Conclusion: We are fully aware that the cultural influence is much more varied, extensive, intricate and complex. In such broader perspective, the present study is only a modest attempt. However, we hope that this will throw some light on such a vast subject.

Matijaner Meyera in Translation: Cultural Identity Construction Through Untranslatability of Language

The concepts of language and cultural identity of a speaker are entwined as they complement each other. However, translation poses a challenge to the identity language predominantly constructs. Therefore, translatable elements of language get the stage of universality while the untranslatable-s essentially bring forth the culture they are descended from. In this study, a short story collection from Bangladesh, Matijaner Meyera, where there is a celebration of diverse branches of Bengali language, has been brought to light to show how untranslatability of a number of culture-oriented vocabularies vibrantly tells about Bengali culture. The primary resource includes a lot many culture-oriented vocabularies as well as few phrases that English, as a language, cannot accommodate in it. Inability of other languages to penetrate such culture-rooted belongings of Bengali language showcases the power a language retains to protect itself from any invading force. This study has argued in favor of the untranslatable base of Bengali that English, due to cultural distance, cannot embrace linguistically. Therefore, such cultural difference eventually develops a distinct linguistic identity of Bengali through untranslatability that this study has attempted to divulge.

Cultural Identity Transformation of Gaudiya Vaishnavas in Russia

This study of Gaudiya Vaishnavism in Russia focuses on the transformation of its former followers’ worldviews. Major attention is paid to the ways and trends of these changes and, in particular, to the extent of their resilience in Russian cultural landscape today. The Russian Society for Krishna Consciousness (RSKCON) gradually strengthening its position in Russian religious field, its effects are growing in importance and need to be analyzed with the view to previous scientific works. This article outlines the patterns of identity manifestation and realization by Russian Krishnas. The study conducted in 2018 endorsed literature analysis and qualitative methods — an online questionnaire with both close-end and grid-in questions was used for these ends with a non-probability sampling (n=62). The believers and the former believers narratives were analysed so as to illustrate typical patterns and attitudes. The conclusions are as follows. Eclectic identity is what results from engaging with Krishna practices: converting into Hindu, Bengali culture while abandoning traditional Russian culture. However, despite long-lasting practicing of Gaudiya Vaishnava in both cult and mundane aspects, only a minority of former believers still have faith in Krishna after leaving the community. It is therefore revealed that basic customs and patterns — and identity — acquired in the childhood tend to burgeon after quitting Vaishnavism.

Cultural Hybridity and Depiction of Bengali Culture in Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Namesake

Cultural Hybridity and Depiction of Bengali Culture in Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Namesake

AN ANALYSIS OF CULTURAL DISPARITY IN JHUMPA LAHIRI’S THE NAMESAKE

The study aims to spotlight the cultural disparity in Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Namesake. The cultural disparity is the focal concept in literature. It concerns about culture, especially those who are adopting another culture and the problems that they face while embracing another culture. The issue of cultural disparity focuses on the problems of adopting a different culture. Jhumpa Lahiri is a trendy writer. Her famous work The Namesake is about the Bengali couple Ashoke Ganguli and Ashima Ganguli who settled in Massachusetts and how they lead their life in a foreign country. When Ashima starts her life in Massachusetts and she is always in the state of oscillation that whether to follow her Bengali culture or to adopt the foreign culture. So, this paper abbreviates the character of Ashima Ganguli under the issue of cultural disparity. The famous culture theorists are Michael Foucault, Antonio Gramsci, Richard Hoggart, Jurgen Habermas and Theodor Adorno whose theories were used in this study to substantiate the present study. Only a few articles have been published under the title of culture. This motivates the authors to conduct research in this area. The issue of cultural disparity is analyzed by using theories of culture in Lahiri’s The Namesake. The disparity of cultural issues of Lahiri’s The Namesake is discussed and compared with the finding of other studies. Finally, the contribution of cultural disparity of Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Namesake is highlighted in the present work through the character of Ashima Ganguli because of her oscillation state. Further, this study also paves the way to future researchers to analyse Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Namesake in the areas of migration, alienation, parental love, quest for identity, and so on.

Ki sambandha hoibe takhon he?: Locating Nachnis in the Societal Margins of Kinship in Rural Bengal

Na_chni na_ch, a dance form of West Bengal, is going through a difficult time in its 500-year history. The woman dancer, who is known as a nachni, performs, often at night, along with her male partner, or rasik. Her life is intricately tied with that of her rasik, which includes her status as a woman performer at public events and the observance of proper rituals upon her death. Caught in a web of exploitation, the nachni essentially has no ‘kin’. Following the work by Inden and Nicholas on Bengali kinship and its categories and meanings within Bengali culture, this article looks at the amorphous pattern of kinship for the marginalized, with a special focus on the daily lives of nachnis. It explores the networks on the margins of kinship in which women performers of this crisis-ridden folk-art form survive.

Six-Pointed Star Motif in Muslim Architecture of Bangladesh (Past Bengal) and Turkish Influence: An Historical Study

With the rise of Islamic states as the dominant powers of India and Indian Sub- Continent (India, Pakistan and Bangladesh) and South Asia Sultanate and Mughal period (1200-1800 A.D.), by Turkish heroic figure (horsemen), Indian art was subjected to Islamic influence, resulting in a hybrid aesthetics as well as Indo- Islamic art which flourished to varying extends across south and southeast Asia. Bangladesh is world third largest Muslim majority country and situated in South Asia. So the main and primary identity of the notion is mosque architecture and then languages via culture in Bangladesh (past Bengal). Moreover, Traditional history called Mughal and ottoman was the center of all traders and referred as the “Middle Man” due to access to water routes between Asia and Europe. The Ottoman and Mughal Empires were all founded with art and architecture by members of the same ethnically Turkic tribe and originated from Oghuz tribe. Firstly, in the early 14th century, Osman Bey established a small principality in the northeast corner of Anatolia. Despite these many similarities, there are some key difference within the approach to Islamic Art and Architecture from Miniatures Illustrations in Indian Sub-Continent to Mosque architecture in Turkey and the Levant the Mughal and Ottoman empires left their indications.Turkish Military Ikhtiyar Uddin bin Muhammad Bhaktiyer Khilji and his Turkish followers captured Bengal in 1204 A.D. and after then ruled by Turkic. Besides these many Sufis saint-like Khan Jahan Ulugh Khan, Burhan Khan, Gharib Shah, came here and spread Islam and Turkish culture with languages too. The Ilyas Shahi dynasty was the first independent Turkic Muslim ruling dynasty in late medieval Bengal, which ruled from the 14th century to the 15th century. It was founded in 1342 by Shamsuddin Iliyas Shah. As follows still presence many Turkish words which used in the Bengali language as Barood, Nishan, Chaku, Bahadur, Begum, Chadar, Surma, bavarchi, kiyma, Korma, and so on. And then showed their power through art and architecture as Mosques and Tombs follows Adina Masjid at Pandua in 1368 A.D.; Eklakhi mausoleum, Pandua; Tomb of Shah Rukn-e Alam in Multan, Sixty Domed Mosque at Bagherhat of Bangladesh, etc. Based on all evidence present, it can be found that the Turks contributed significantly to Bengali languages and culture as well as art and architecture (Mosques and Tombs). Besides many Jewish people came in here through missionary and business purposes. And also we see that there have been found many designs in mosque architecture especially six-point stars which is mentioned as a David symbol. So my focus is the Connectivity between Turkish and Bangladesh through Islamic architecture and Jewish with six point star/hexagon/seal of Solomon. It is a historical study with a journalistic approach.

Seeing Kolkata: Globalization and the Changing Context of the Narrative of Bengali-ness in Two Contemporary Films

Abstract The article engages with the question of an exclusivity, an ‘otherness’ of the Bengali culture, in the available representative modes of Indian cinema. It studies the socio-cultural dynamics through which this ‘otherness’ can be found reorienting itself in recent years in a globalized perspective. It takes two contemporary films, Kahaani (Hindi, 2012) and Bhooter Bhobishyot (Bengali, 2012) to dwell upon. The analysis aims to historicise the construction of a cultural stereotype called ‘Bengali-ness’ in Indian cinema by marking some significant aspects in the course of its historical development. Using the films as cases in point, the article attempts to develop a framework in which the changing landscape of the city of Kolkata, shifting codes of the cultural habits of the middle class and reconfigured ideas about a ‘Bengali nation’ can be seen operating to develop a refashioned relationship between the state of Bengal and the rest of the country. It suggests that the global cultural inflow, along with the localized notions of the new, globalized Bengali-ness, are engaged in developing a new politics of representation for the city and the Bengali society in the cinemas of India.

Guns in Bangla cinema across borders: perspectives on cultural evolution

In tracing a specific trajectory of cultural evolution, this paper builds upon Jean Baudrillard’s concept of ‘simulacrum’, arguing that the use of guns in Bangla cinema from Bangladesh and West Bengal (India) is connected with ‘hyper-reality’ and ‘simulation’. The authors hold that both are symptomatic of the unreal nature of contemporary Bengali culture in an age of mass consumption. A perusal of Bangla cinema following the Partition of India (consequently, of Bengal too) in 1947, and the Liberation war of Bangladesh in 1971 shows a tradition of ample use of guns and ammunition. The authors perceive three distinct phases of such representation—films from West Bengal highlighting Partition violence around 1947; exponents from Bangladesh upholding the independence of former East Pakistan in 1971 and the brutality of the West Pakistan armed forces; and hyper action in contemporary commercial cinema. The last category is perceived by and large as hyperrealist, for it substitutes ‘the signs of the real for the real itself’. Basing upon Baudrillard’s contention that we have lost our capacity to grasp reality as it is, and need to depend on set-up realities in a virtual world, this paper claims that the initial patriotic zeal (its remnants notwithstanding) of Bangla cinema has taken a retrogressive turn, so as to seek recourse in representations of violence as channels of personalised/disorganised pseudo-real entertainment like video games. This undoubtedly signifies the confusion of cultural values. The paper hypothesises that the first two categories qualify as cultural texts attempting to approximate historical realities, wherein guns function as vital symbols of power and unity, resistance and liberation. The third category, conversely, is another façade of culture—one that symbolises the present time as an ‘age of simulations’ that hardly has any organic connection with ground realties that the films claim to contextualise. The authors from either side of the India-Bangladesh border intend to focus on the use of guns in Bangla cinema of these three evolving phases, applying film analysis to select productions from Bangladesh and West Bengal in India. The paper is conceptualised as a substantial contribution to film and cultural studies, as this area has hitherto remained uncharted in academic discussion.

Representation of Colonial Bengali Culture as Depicted in Rabindranath Tagore’s Short Stories

Representation of Colonial Bengali Culture as Depicted in Rabindranath Tagore’s Short Stories

Review: Bengal Stream: The Vibrant Architecture Scene of Bangladesh

Bengal Stream: The Vibrant Architecture Scene of Bangladesh S AM Swiss Architecture Museum, Basel 2 December 2017–24 June 2018 Bengal Stream: The Vibrant Architecture Scene of Bangladesh was an exhibition about dichotomies: coexisting dichotomies, dichotomies in dialogue. The tensions between modernity and tradition, lightness and gravity, silence and chaos, urban and rural, resisting and floating are just some of the productive oppositions that define recent developments in Bangladeshi architecture. Curated by Niklaus Graber, Andreas Ruby, and Viviane Ehrensberger and produced by the S AM Swiss Architecture Museum in cooperation with the Bengal Institute for Architecture, Landscapes and Settlements, the exhibition brought together more than sixty projects by established and emerging architects in Bangladesh. Two premises are fundamental to understanding Bangladesh's architectural scene. The first, the geoclimatic, was briefly introduced in the exhibition's entrance panel. The second, the historical, was presented didactically in the first room. Bangladesh arose from an extreme territory, the Ganges-Brahmaputra delta, a labyrinth of streams, creeks, ponds, marshes, and fertile soil. The monsoons—seasonal warm winds from the Bengal Bay—bring heavy rains that, when added to the Himalayan snow runoff, cause regular annual flooding. Bengali culture emerged in constant dialogue with these unavoidable natural conditions and their rhythms. The vibrant contemporary architectural scene of Bangladesh, presented in the main exhibition space, owes its timeless language to this dialogue and to the continuous interaction between tradition and modernity, which started with the work and thinking of Muzharul Islam (1923–2012), the intellectual father of a generation of Bangladeshi architects. After studying architecture in the United States and Britain, Islam returned to Bangladesh and started adapting international modernist principles to local culture, climate, and materials. The synthesis he effected required a deep and precise knowledge of little-studied …