The conflict of extremism in cultural practice

Opinion

We are going through the most critical time after half a century of Bangladesh’s establishment. The country has entered a social, political, and economic catastrophe. Due to the extreme deterioration of law and order, it is now surprising to live a normal life here. If you open your eyes to the media, the daily news – murder, rape, extortion, robbery, looting, clashes, and mob terrorism are terrifying people. It is not possible to express in words exactly where the human rights situation has reached. Although it is not possible, in the eyes of the imperialist powers, the people of Bangladesh are quite at peace. Because now there is a ruler here who has won the Nobel Peace Prize, trusting in him, we are enjoying the taste of heaven. In the midst of enjoyment, cultural enjoyment has appeared as a questionable issue.

The rise of stifling anarchism and the fact that people are doubtful about the certainty of their natural death and living a normal life in a hostile environment, at a time when the topic of cultural practice is not without irony! Yet, it is not without saying something. In this unstable state system, the unhappy human society is losing its grip due to anarchy. It is in such difficult times that the debate on cultural practice has been presented to us. This debate is not a one-day event. The compromise of fundamentalism with the ruling class is particularly responsible for this rise. Every ruler after independence has allied himself with fundamentalists in the Pakistani mindset instead of building a non-communal, secular, liberal democratic state. By playing the trump card of religion in electoral politics, the country has been brought closer to Afghanistan. As a result, the mission of ‘We will be Afghans, Bengal will be Bangladesh’ has progressed at a very fast pace.

We see that for the past few days, religious groups in the country have been protesting against the decision to appoint cultural teachers in primary schools. During this protest, I remembered a report in a daily newspaper published a few days ago. I read in the report of ‘Bonik Barta’ that the rate of buying and selling musical instruments in Bangladesh has decreased by fifty percent.

Although there are no official statistics on the size of the musical instrument market in Bangladesh, the report states, “Stakeholders estimate that the size of this market, including local production and imports, is around 4000 to 5000 million taka. Bangladesh imports at least 12 types of musical instruments, including guitars, pianos, harmoniums, and drum sets. In addition, various traditional musical instruments, including tabla and dhol, enter the country’s market informally from India. According to data from Statista, a German-based online statistics and market research platform, the size of the musical instrument market in Bangladesh in 2025 is 635 million dollars or around 7811 million taka (123 taka per dollar).”

Many concerned believe this figure is much higher than the actual size of the market. Musical instrument sellers claim that sales have now decreased by more than 50 percent. Where earlier they used to sell 80,000 to 1 lakh taka a day, now it is difficult to sell even 30,000 taka. According to some, sales have decreased by 70%. As can be seen from the report, the situation in the country’s cultural arena is not very good. The dire situation that began in the war between culture and subculture has today turned into a disaster.

Those who have read Aktaruzzaman Ilyas’s article ‘The Broken Bridge of Culture’ know the current state of Bengali cultural practice. He said, “There is a ‘big round of debate’ among intellectuals about culture these days. No debate can be had without an opponent, an enemy has emerged in discussions about culture, this enemy is called ‘subculture’.” Due to this subculture, the opposition of fundamentalists to cultural practice has also been strongly encouraged. This group of people, who have always been against Bengali culture, has recently become very close to the state authorities, and their activities have also become overwhelming. We have seen that the country’s cultural institutions have been the most affected in the post-July Uprising period.

There have been repeated reports of attacks on cultural organizations, Shilpakala Academies, libraries and cultural event stages in various parts of the country. At the same time, attacks on free-thinking people, stalls at the book fair at the Bangla Academy, plays at the Shilpakala, and various cultural events have been disrupted in various places of the country, including Lalon Utsav. Cultural and theater workers are also being attacked and sued. Various traditional fairs, including Baul songs, have been stopped at various shrines. Numerous shrines have been destroyed. Attacks on the homes of minorities and dissidents continue.

To legitimize these activities, extremists are being told that it is a fight to protect the faith of the ‘Tawheed Janata’ and ‘devout Muslim society’. Those affected by religious terrorism are being given the tags of ‘anti-Islam’, ‘atheist’ and ‘un-Islamic activities’. In this time of terrifying mobocracy, these tags are instantly taking the situation to the battlefield. Which has become the main obstacle to the stability of the country. At the same time, it is increasing the risk to the lives of the country’s cultural workers. Not without mentioning one of my own incidents. I had established a library and cultural organization called ‘Projanmo Samaj-Sanskriti Kendra’ for book reading and cultural practice among the new generation in my village. In July, a section of the currently banned Chhatra League attacked here. Later in July, Chhatra Dal occupied it. With the help of various people, we resumed activities after liberating it. But it was not possible to continue that either. Books and musical instruments have been stolen to disrupt cultural activities. Along with this, threats of anti-religious tags have been made. We had to stop all our activities as part of a conspiracy to incite mobs by accusing them of being ‘atheists and anti-Islam’. Otherwise, the reader can only guess what would have happened there. More or less, everyone has such stories.

In such an environment and situation, the propaganda that “cultural practices are anti-religious or anti-religious” has been spreading for the past few decades has prepared the ground for resistance. In the past, such propaganda was everywhere. Currently, the results of that propaganda are being witnessed. We are seeing in the current reality that this propaganda by the fundamentalists has not failed. The way in which plays, processions, concerts, stage shows and other cultural programs have started to decline since the last few decades and are reaching zero today is not a matter of just one or two years. These one or two years have only brought the fundamentalists to the final stage of preparing the time to harvest and the field to enjoy the harvest. As a result, despite the attack on the cultural arena, no protest or any significant reaction is being observed among the large Muslim-dominated population of the country.

It is also noteworthy that, thanks to social media, informal or non-formal music, drama and dance practices have increased a lot in the country today. But it is very difficult to find creativity in these three fields. Rather than creativity, attempts to destroy previous creative works are increasing. Almost all of the music, drama and dance that still touches people, especially those of the middle class, are previous works. This modern virtual culture is also dissolving them. In the name of TikTok and Reels, the new generation has indulged in the festival of obscenity, prostitution and distortion of culture. Capitalizing on this decline of the generation, the path has been paved for the rise of groups opposing cultural practices. The crisis of healthy cultural practices and the opposition of fundamentalists are all part of a grand plan to send culture into exile.

It is true that cultural practices have gradually shrunk due to the nation’s cultural aversion. Many cultural festivals have been lost. The sense of beauty that traditional Bengali culture had in the fusion of cultures has also started to decline since the late eighties and nineties. The lack of a healthy cultural orientation has led to a crisis in cultural, social values, ethics and morality. In the current of degradation, the country’s young society has also become misguided. Just as a large part of them has become chaotic, another part has become involved in fundamentalist philosophy. The cultural arena is shrinking due to all these complications. Due to which attacks on the cultural arena have increased further. Even though these attacking groups identify themselves as religious, they are not devout human beings. They are fanatics and to a large extent, inconsiderate and inhuman. Their culture is ‘destruction, not creation’. They basically like to destroy. They do not realize that while destroying others, they themselves will one day be destroyed.

In the article ‘Sanskriti Katha’, Motahar Hossain Chowdhury said, “Religion is the culture of the common people, and culture is the religion of the educated, refined people. Culture means awareness of a better life – awareness of beauty, joy and love. The common people get it through religion. Therefore, depriving them of religion is one thing and depriving them of culture is one thing.” Fundamentalists do not agree with this, they are busy imposing their religious beliefs on everyone. On the other hand, cultured people are completely opposite. They are not in favor of imposing any ideology or philosophy by force. They know that religion means a disciplined life. In the words of Motahar Hossain Chowdhury, ‘The refined enlightened ones control themselves through culture. It is not external orders, but their inner subtle consciousness that drives them, so they do not need religion that much. On the contrary, it is harmful to impose religion or external principles on them. Because it destroys their subtle consciousness, and the other name of subtle consciousness is “soul.” And these soul destroyers are fundamentalists. They seek their own interests by taking refuge in conventional religion. There is no alternative to practicing culture to stop this evil act of theirs.

It is not possible to stop the destruction of this fanatic group without a cultural revolution. We have to develop the non-communal, universal culture that we were supposed to build in the spirit of the Liberation War. The reactionary forces have to be stopped through the establishment of secularism. This evil communalism can be eradicated forever, or not. If this is not done, communalism will become more intolerant and violent. An example of which we have already seen through the demonic joy of burning the bodies of living and dead people by militant groups. If we do not wake up against this now, we will have to embrace this terrible consequence.

-Mir Rabi