Brick Lane And Sylhetis in Brick Lane
Jackie
Kabir
The
name "Monica" is again in the limelight. It's not
Monica Seles or Monica Lewinsky but our very own Monica Ali
- a Bangladeshi by birth residing in the UK with her British
husband. She was in the news some time ago, for the Bangladesh
government didn't grant her the visa for visiting the country.
The authority concerned would be able to tell us why she was
denied permission to come to her birthplace.
Ever since
her first book Brick Lane was nominated for the Booker Award,
London was abuzz with her name. She had also been nominated
for the Guardian's First Book Award. Now her book has become
subject to controversy, as the Greater Sylhet Welfare and Development
Council in London has last month announced that Monica Ali has
shamefully portrayed the Bangladeshi community in the United
Kingdom.
Well, no
achievement comes easy; one must have chaos to give birth to
a rising star. Monica Ali, the lone Bangladeshi star of international
repute in the literary field is also possibly going through
a phase of chaos. She has written a book which has brought recognition
for Bangladeshis -- both at home and abroad. The novel had --
and has -- the chance of winning awards of international fame
that any Bangladeshi is yet to achieve. Instead of being proud
of her work, Greater Sylhet Welfare and Development Council
is being critical even though the book is a fictional story
about a rural Bangladeshi girl who wants to come out of a traumatic,
passion-less marriage.
In truth,
Ali's Brick Lane paints a picture of Bangladeshi women as a
whole. Most of the time it is the story of the woman next-door
who never complains about her forced way of life, nor does she
have the audacity to say that she wants to come out of the pointless
marriage. Brick Lane's protagonist Nazneen is an exception as
she is reticent till the very end of the story when on being
asked to return home with her husband she revolts and chooses
her young, radical lover who gives her hope of real happiness.
The
Bangladeshi community in the UK, especially those from Sylhet,
have said that the novel is "despicable "and "shameful"
in showing their community reaching England by jumping ships
and saying that they had lice and lived like rats in holes.
These sentences, no doubt, are hurtful to anyone who had lived
in the East End of London. But does is not portray reality of
the early Bangladeshi settlers? Ask anyone who has been to the
East End of London and seen how this part of London city has
been transformed into a mini Bangladesh; even the tea cups (the
ones used by the employees) in some of the shops are like our
very own street side mamu'r dokan. Ali has just been
brave enough to put it in her book, which has made the expats
so upset.
Ali's portrayal
of women is true like the sun rises in the East. It goes without
saying that there are thousands of housewives like Nazneen --
both in the Bangladeshi community abroad and across Bangladesh
-- whose dreams are being demolished by household drudgery.
The Greater
Sylhet Welfare and Development Council has sent an 18-page letter
to the author and also to judges of the Booker Awards. They
also threatened to send more letters to any organisation who
might decide to put Ali's book on an award-winning list. They
even went to the length of comparing the book to Salman Rushdie's
Satanic Verses which, they say, insults the name of the prophet.
This has stirred up hostility in the literary world but those
who have read the book should certainly realise that these allegations
don't do justice to the book.
The community's
leading personnel may mean a lot to the expats who live in the
UK, but in terms of doing something for the country, their words
mean nothing. Of course, they may have invested huge amounts
of money in Sylhet and in other districts to build shopping
malls in the middle of nowhere. There are about 500,000 Sylheti
people living in the UK who have about 2 or 3 factions of either
Bangladesh Nationalist Party or Bangladesh Awami League. Why
can't there be just one community who will represent the whole
country?
Monica Ali
has also depicted the plight of a character in Brick Lane called
Hasina (Nazneen's sister). Hasina, who is very beautiful, becomes
a victim to the social injustices has to choose a life that
is degrading to both herself and her surroundings. The Greater
Sylhet Welfare and Development community Council -- for the
matter the entire Bangladeshi community in the UK -- is living
in a fool's paradise by saying that the author has been critical
of only the Sylheti community in the UK. Monica is just showing
her expertise in writing about the anomalies of the Bangladeshi
society through literature.
It should
be kept in mind moreover, that anyone who is gaining international
praise must have real talent. It mustn't be the game of pulling
someone backwards when one is striving to win the battle. Can
any Sylheti or Bangladeshi deny any one of the elements that
Ali has portrayed in her book? There is enough negative publicity
regarding Bangladeshis. Let this not be another story of failure
but let's make sure that while Monica Ali is chosen for another
award all our best wishes are with her.
Jackie
Kabir teaches English at the Tairunnessa Medical College