Reclaiming our stories: The case for Bangladeshi literature in English curricula

In my four years of studying at the Department of English and Humanities and taking several literature and linguistics courses, it was not until my final year, while doing the course Postcolonial Theories and Literature, that I first encountered 'Sultana's Dream' by Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain.

It was then that I began to question why our four-year syllabus predominantly consisted of textbooks by Anglophone writers. 

For almost three years, I have been trying my level best to understand the struggles women face in society, the power imbalances that persist, the consent of marginalisation, and how it is always the vulnerable who are sidelined — yet all from Western perspectives. I would encounter characters, names, places and citations that seem far removed from my own culture. 

While I could resonate with the struggles of these male and female characters, there was always something distant about the setting. I often found myself needing to understand the historical or cultural context of the story to fully understand what the writer was trying to convey. 

However, when I read novels or poetry from the South Asian region, particularly Sultana's Dream for the first time, it felt as though everything clicked into place. I didn't need to check for references or do treasure hunting into a foreign history to understand the depth of the narrative. 

For the first time, I felt like I was reading something that belonged to me — something that reflected my culture and my identity. I could deeply connect with the struggles that Rokeya depicted in her writing and the world she painted felt so familiar, so close to my own experiences and those of my community. 

The syllabus that is followed in the English department of the public and private universities in Bangladesh is comparatively the same and includes mostly classical works of British writers along with some works of American and European writers. 

The works of William Shakespeare, Christopher Marlow, John Milton, Dryden, Ben Jonson, Alexander Pope, William Wordsworth, John Keats, P B Shelley, Alfred Tennyson, Robert Browning, D H Lawrence, Charles Dickens, Thomas Hardy, and many others have been included in the syllabuses generation after generation. 

Apart from these, the syllabus also includes works of diverse voices in literature such as Arundhati Roy, Chinua Achebe, RK Narayan, Orhan Pamuk, Kamala Das, Mo Yan, Haruki Murakami to some extent or some courses such as Postcolonial Studies, South Asian Literature, Contemporary Literature, English in Translations and so on. 

However, if we compare the ratio of anglophone and non-anglophone works,  the class materials remain dominated by the works done or translated by native English writers leaving very little floor or no floor at all for the local Bengali works or writers. 

The legacy of Bangladeshi writing in English can be traced back to pre-independence undivided Bengal towards the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century. The pre-1947 Bengali English language writers work includes Sheikh Deen Muhammad's The Travels of Dean Mahomet (1794) and Kylas Chunder Dutt's A Journal of Forty-Eight Hours of the Year 1945 (1835). 

Let's consider the current map of Bangladesh after the division of the country from Pakistan in 1971 as the border for Bangladeshi writers in English (as the critics often do), Madhusudan Dutt, Bankim Chandra Chatterjee, Toru Dutt,  Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore, Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain, Humayun Kabir are some of the prominent writers of this region. 

Furthermore, there are several first-generation writers from post-1971, second-generation, and contemporary writers whose works are worthy of serious critical and analytical consideration. 

Even though our country has globally recognised literary works and English writers, the English Departments in the country tend to centralise their course materials following the works of Anglophone writers resulting in the rejection of its local literary texts and works.

Unfortunately, there aren't many courses that include Bangladeshi local stories or books written by Bengali authors in the current syllabus of these English departments. 

The absence of local literature in English classes deprives students of the stories and voices of their own culture. It overlooks the valuable contributions of Bangladeshi writers to English literature and hints at a persistent post-colonial mindset. 

As a student of Humanities and someone just starting their research career, I truly believe it's time for our English syllabi to reflect what's relevant to us — our culture, our stories, and our writers. Sure, learning about Anglophone literature is important, and we need to understand its history and influences but focusing on it exclusively doesn't do justice to our own literary traditions. 

English today isn't just "English" anymore; it's "Englishes" shaped by different cultures all over the world. If we bring more local Bangladeshi literature into the classroom, we can give our writers the recognition they deserve and make our voices heard globally. After all, embracing our own culture in the curriculum will make our literature shine on the world stage while helping us connect more deeply with our roots. 

Sanzida Alam Lisa is a Research Assistant at the Center for Sustainable Development (CSD) and an Early Career Researcher at V2V Global Partnership. She is currently pursuing her MA in Applied Linguistics and TESOL at ULAB.

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and views of The Business Standard.