Inspiration from a land that knows tragedy all too well
These words are dedicated to the memory of Tarishi Jain, who was one of three students killed in the terrorist attack in Bangladesh on Friday. She was a student at the University of California, Berkeley, where I teach. At the time of the attack, she was in Bangladesh on an internship sponsored by UC Berkeley’s Subir and Malini Chowdhury Center for Bangladesh Studies. She had so much more to offer to the world. May her ideals continue to live on and inspire others to do the good work that needs to be done in the world.
It may come as a surprise to many people that back in July 1993, when torrential rains caused the Mississippi river to flood its banks with historic ferocity, inundating entire towns and creating countless scenes of devastation and destruction, Bangladesh responded by sending foreign aid to the United States. Bangladesh is a country that knows all too well the destructive power of massive floods, and so when they saw the images of the mighty Mississippi leaving town after town and home after home under water, they responded with empathy, compassion, and kindness.
What they sent to the United States was also quite touching. Bangladesh is known for its jute (the word jute comes from the Bengali language), so the first thing they sent was a large shipment of jute bags, which are the perfect thing with which to make sand bags. They also sent tea, which might at first glance seem an odd choice. But if you know anything about Bangladesh, you know that a cup of tea is one of those comforting everyday rituals that sets things right again and keeps the world at peace with itself for a little while longer. Bangladesh saw that people in America were suffering, and so they sent something they thought would provide a bit of reassuring comfort in a time of great trouble.
Bangladesh is one of those countries that remains relatively unknown to most people. Unless you are from Bangladesh, or have some compelling reason to know something about it, Bangladesh remains something of a mystery. Tourists will flock to India, for instance, lured by imaginative thoughts of some sort of exotic, romantic, and spiritual landscape. But with Bangladesh, even though it is in the same part of the world, and once upon a time was actually a part of India, well, no one goes to Bangladesh unless they have to, usually for family or for work.
It’s a shame, too, because in spite of the fact that Bangladesh usually hits the world’s headlines only for negative reasons — natural disasters, economic crises, or political problems — there is much to love about Bangladesh. Once famously, or infamously, dismissed by former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger as the “basket case” of the world, Bangladesh has persevered through the sorts of challenges that would have brought any other country to its knees. Even the origins of Bangladesh were suffused with trauma and tragedy. Originally a part of India, it was partitioned at the moment of India’s independence in August 1947 and became East Pakistan. As East Pakistan, it had a continuously turbulent relationship with what was then known as West Pakistan (now just Pakistan), until through a series of complex and extraordinarily violent events, including what is still remembered to this day as a genocide, Bangladesh finally broke away and emerged as an independent country in 1971.
Bangladesh is exceptional
At a time when it has become all too easy and all too common to lump together all Muslim countries — Bangladesh is just over 90% Muslim — as hotbeds of radicalism, Bangladesh has struggled to be the exception that doesn’t just disprove the rule, but exposes it as false. Yes, the political system of Bangladesh since 1971 has been depressingly dysfunctional — any of my Bangladeshi friends would agree with me on that point, even the ones who are politicians — but there is inspiration to be found among the people of Bangladesh, who in spite of everything have never given up trying to turn their country into the Bangladesh they always hoped it would be.
The terrorist attack in Bangladesh that took place on July 1 didn’t happen because Bangladesh is a failure, one more country that has fallen prey to the violent and hateful creed of militant Islam. It happened for precisely the opposite reason. There’s no greater threat to the Islamic State than a country like Bangladesh, where so many people struggle every day to reclaim and renew their commitment to democracy, secularism, tolerance, and freedom. The people of Bangladesh have struggled against all odds to pull off the impossible. In spite of the heartbreaking tragedy that took place on Friday at the Holey Artisan Bakery in Dhaka, I know they will continue to do so. For that, they deserve our respect, and never our pity.
As an homage to Bangladesh, here are a few things to remind us that Bangladesh is closer to us than we might think. Think of it as a cup of tea for Bangladesh, in words.
American football
If you are a fan of the Cincinnati Bengals, and even if you aren’t, you can thank Bangladesh for that. (Yes, you can also thank the state of West Bengal in India, but today, this is all about Bangladesh.) Bangladesh literally means “country (desh) of the Bengali people (Bangla),” and Bangla gives rise to the English variant of Bengal, as in Bengal tiger, after which the Cincinnati Bengals are named. The Bengal tiger is a highly endangered species, and its homeland can be found in the stunningly beautiful mangrove forests of the Sundarbans, in the south-western corner of Bangladesh.
The American bungalow
If you live in a bungalow, a style of house that became extraordinarily popular in the United States in the earlier part of the twentieth century, you can thank Bangladesh for that, too. The word bungalow is a partially-mangled pronunciation of the word Bangla, which in Bengali pronunciation sounds more like bonglo. If you say bonglo a few times out loud, with the o-sounds rhyming with low rather than hot, you’ll hear bungalow without much difficulty. The simple housing style was first copied by employees of the British East India Company in Bengal, then brought back to Britain, from whence it made its way eventually across the pond to the United States, which put its own American touches onto the original style.
The benefit concert
Benefit concerts are now a well-established part of the repertoire of popular music in the West. Some, but not all, are at this point little more than publicity stunts, but the concert that created the template for all of them was The Concert for Bangladesh, organized by none other than former Beatle, George Harrison. The concert was held on August 1, 1971, with two shows on the same day at Madison Square Garden, to raise awareness about the situation in Bangladesh and to raise funds for refugee relief and humanitarian assistance.
To anyone who reads this outside of Bangladesh, if you have a cup of tea today, give a kind thought to Bangladesh. To anyone in Bangladesh who might happen to read this, know that there are many of us in the world who know your struggles and share your pain.
