Abstract
This article examines cross-scale iterations of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman as the “Father of the Nation” of Bangladesh. By documenting local, national, and international memory projects of Sheikh Mujib, the study illustrates the importance of taking seriously the different scales on which memory is institutionalized, and how iterations on different scales give shape to each other. It does so by applying a dual textual and ethnographic lens to iterations of Sheikh Mujib on three different scales. First, it analyses how the Sheikh figures in policies in Bangladesh to legitimize the present-day political order. Second, the paper reveals how these national policies are reinforced and made more meaningful through international heritage-making projects. Here, the paper investigates the inclusion of a speech given by Sheikh Mujib on 7 March 1971 in the UNESCO Memory of the World Register in 2017. Third, the paper evaluates policy decisions made in London around the application of a bust of Sheikh Mujib by long-distance nationalists in the city, and how these need to be understood in relation to national and international projects. Building on these three cases, the paper concludes with a discussion of ethnographic material from the unveiling of the bust of Sheikh Mujib in London to reveal how transnationally intersecting and overlapping policies shape local commemorative practices. In doing so, the paper documents how local memory projects initiated by long-distance nationalists are restricted by lower-level policymaking decisions that take place outside the targeted nation state’s political framework.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
As Siddiq wrote on her personal website retrieved through Web Archive Org at http://web.archive.org/web/20090130052325/http://www.tulipsiddiq.com/ on 15 December 2017.
This does not mean that all Labour politicians with Bangladeshi heritage have links to the Awami League or other Bangladeshi political parties. Due to the focus in this paper on long-distance nationalists, only the councilors with connections are documented here.
Lakh and crore refer to the South Asian numbering system, lakh is 100,000, crore 10,000,0000
References
Alexander, C. (2013). Contested memories: the Shahid Minar and the struggle for diasporic space. Ethn Racial Stud, 36(4), 590–610.
Anderson, B. (1992). Long-distance nationalism: world capitalism and the rise of identity politics. Amsterdam: Centre for Asian Studies Amsterdam.
Appadurai, A. (2003). Sovereignty without territoriality: Notes for a postnational geography. In S. M. Low & D. Lawrence-Zuniga (Eds.), The anthropology of space and place (pp. 337–350). Oxford: Blackwell.
Assmann, A. (2014). Transnational memories. European Review, 22, 546–556.
Bertacchini, E., Liuzza, C., Meskell, L., & Saccone, D. (2016). The politicization of UNESCO World Heritage decision making. Public Choice, 167, 95–129.
Bodnar, J. (1992). Remaking America; public memory, commemoration, and patriotism in the twentieth century. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Bond, C. (2012). Proposal: erection of bronze statue of the Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in centre of Brunswick Square Gardens and associated hard and soft landscaping. (Camden Officer Report Application 2011/5956/P). London: London Borough of Camden.
Brubaker, R. (2006). Nationalism reframed: nationhood and the national question in the New Europe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Camden Regeneration and Planning Development. (2011). Decision application ref.: 2011/5956/P. London: London Borough of Camden.
Chaudhury, K. (1972). Genocide in Bangladesh. London: Orient Longman.
Connerton, P. (2006). How societies remember. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
De Cesari, C. (2012). World heritage and mosaic universalism, a view from Palestine. Journal of Social Archaeology, 10(3), 299–324.
De Cesari, C., & Rigney, A. (2014). Introduction. In C. De Cesari & A. Rigney (Eds.), Transnational memory: circulation, articulation, scales (pp. 147–168). Berlin: De Gruyter.
Development Control Tower Hamlets. (2014). Application for planning commission. Town and country planning act 1990, Ref. PA/14/762. London: Development Control Tower Hamlets.
Diplomatic catalyst (2009). Retrieved from http://www.embassymagazine.com/biog/biog_countries/biog_emb19_bangladesh.html.
Eade, J., & Garbin, D. (2002). Changing narratives of violence, struggle and resistance: Bangladeshis and the competition for resources in the global city. Oxf Dev Stud, 30(2), 137–149.
Election Manifesto of Bangladesh Awami League (2008) (2013) Retrieved from https://albd.org/index.php/bn/2013-09-03-17-25-43/2014-09-09-07-38-09/80-updates/articles/4070-election-manifesto-of-bangladesh-awami-league,-9th-parliamentary-election,-2008.
Erll, A. (2011). Travelling memory. Parallax, 17(4), 4–18.
Fazakarley, J. (2016). Multiculturalism’s categories and transnational ties: the Bangladeshi campaign for independence in Britain, 1971. Immigrants and Minorities, 34(1), 49–69.
Ferguson, J., & Gupta, A. (2002). Spatializing states: towards an ethnography of neoliberal governmentality. Am Ethnol, 29(4), 981–1002.
Foot, T. (2012). Opposing protests outside town hall as proposal for bust of Bangladeshi founding father is rejected. Retrieved from http://archive.camdennewjournal.com/news/2012/jul/opposing-protests-outside-town-hall-proposal-bust-bangladeshi-founding-father-rejected.
Gal, S. (2006). Language, its stakes, and its effects. In R. E. Goodin & C. Tilly (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of contextual political analysis (pp. 376–391). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Glick Schiller, N., & Fouron, G. E. (2001). Georges woke up laughing: long distance nationalism and the search for home. London: Duke University Press.
Glynn, S. (2006). The spirit of ‘71: How the Bangladeshi War of Independence has haunted Tower Hamlets. Socialist History Journal, 29, 56–75.
Gupta, S. (2007). Samaj, Jati and Desh: reflections on nationhood in late colonial Bengal. Stud Hist, 23(2), 177–233.
Historic Speech of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman (2017). Retrieved from http://www.unesco.org/new/en/communication-and-information/memory-of-the-world/register/full-list-of-registered-heritage/registered-heritage-page-4/the-historic-7th-march-speech-of-bangabandhu-sheikh-mujibur-rahman/.
House of Commons (2015). European union referendum bill (vol. 597, col 197). Retrieved from https://hansard.parliament.uk/Commons/2015-06-16/debates/15061658000001/EuropeanUnionReferendumBill?highlight=maiden%20speech#contribution-15061658000274.
Lewis, D. (2004). On the difficulty of studying ‘civil society’: reflections on NGOs, state and democracy in Bangladesh. Contributions to Indian Sociology, 38(3), 299–322.
MacDonald, S. (2006). Undesirable heritage: fascist material culture and historical consciousness in Nuremberg. Int J Herit Stud, 12(1), 9–28.
McQuaid, S. D. (2016). Notes on studying public policies of memory: the parades commission in Northern Ireland and the institutionalization of memory practices. In M. Corporaal, C. Cusack, & R. Van den Beuken (Eds.), Irish studies and the dynamics of memory: Transitions and transformations (pp. 129–147). Bern: Peter Lang.
Memory of the World Register (2017). Retrieved from http://www.unesco.org/new/en/communication-and-information/memory-of-the-world/register/.
Meskell, L. (Ed.). (1998). Archaeology under fire: Nationalism, politics and heritage in the Eastern Mediterranean and Middle East. London: Routledge.
Mookherjee, N. (2011). ‘Never again’: aesthetics of ‘genocidal’ cosmopolitanism and the Bangladesh Liberation War museum. J R Anthropol Inst, 17, S71–S91.
Mookherjee, N. (2015). The spectral wound: sexual violence, public memories, and the Bangladesh War of 1971. Durham: Duke University Press.
Polletta, F. (1998). Legacies and liabilities of an insurgent past: remembering Martin Luther King, Jr., on the house and senate floor. Soc Sci Hist, 22(4), 479–512.
Renan, E. (1996). What is a nation? In G. Eley & R. G. Suny (Eds.), Becoming national: a reader (pp. 41–55). New York: Oxford University Press (Original work published 1882).
Tarrow, S. (2001). Transnational politics: contentions and institutions in international politics. Annu Rev Polit Sci, 4, 1–20.
The Daily Star (2017a) UNESCO recognition of Bangabandhu’s 7th March speech another milestone: PM. Retrieved from http://www.thedailystar.net/politics/unesco-recognition-bangabandhus-7th-march-speech-another-milestone-1484821.
The Daily Star (2017b). Stay alert against anti-liberation forces: PM. Retrieved from http://www.thedailystar.net/city/nation-celebrates-unesco-bangabandhu-7th-march-historic-speech-recognition-celebration-1496314.
Tsing, A. L. (2005). Friction: an ethnography of global connection. In Princeton. New Jersey: Princeton University Press.
Van Schendel, W. (2009). A history of Bangladesh. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Vertovec, S. (2009). Transnationalism. New York: Routledge.
Wimmer, A., & Glick Schiller, N. (2002). Methodological nationalism and beyond: nation-state building, migration and the social sciences. Global Networks, 2(4), 301–334.
Zerubavel, E. (2003). Calendars and history: a comparative study of the social organization of national memory. In J. Olick (Ed.), States of memory. continuities, conflicts, and transformations in national retrospection (pp. 315–338). Durham NC: Duke University Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of Interest
The author declares that he has no conflict of interest.
Ethical Approval
All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.
Additional information
Publisher’s Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Visser, J. Bangladesh’s “Father of the Nation” and the Transnational Politics of Memory: Connecting Cross-Scale Iterations of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. Int J Polit Cult Soc 32, 163–179 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10767-018-9301-2
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10767-018-9301-2