Reviewer: Salma Hossain, containing extracts from Scattered Memories of 1971 by Antara Datta.

The Cost of Independence

When you think of Bangladesh, what’s the first thing that springs to mind? A geography project? Floods? Shanty towns? Genocide?

Woah. Let’s get a Re-Rewind.

‘Bangladesh 1971’ is a documentary photographic exhibition that focuses on the struggle for independence of this chapatti-shaped country in 1971. Independence is often recalled as a time of celebration; the birth of a new nation; liberation from oppression and hope for the future. Take into account the 266 days of struggle, during which over a million people died, and somehow there is a moral obligation for every one of us to recognise what happened only 37 years ago.

"They had risked all to hold onto this moment in history. The scarred negatives, hidden from the military, wrapped in old cloth, buried underground, also bore the wounds of war. These photographs were the only soldiers who preserved tangible memories of our war of liberation. These faded images, war weary, bloodied in battle provide the only record of what was witnessed. Nearly four decades later, they speak." Shahidul Alam

The history of Bangladesh is inevitably linked to the partition of India in 1947, and just as the traumatic memories of war resound in the hearts and minds of Indians and Pakistanis, there is much that is similar between 1947 and 1971. There is little doubt as to the scale of human tragedy that accompanied 1971, the tip of which is illustrated by a selection of graphic pictures.

What was perhaps most alarming, was the exhibition’s reference to the number of East Pakistani women who were raped during the chaos of 1971. There is no question that rape did occur on a mass scale with estimates varying from 3,000 to 400,000. Tragically, rape is perhaps the ‘norm’ during episodes of war, however to accept this as normal is to reject one’s conscience. The new Bangladeshi state tried to incorporate these women into national life by calling them birangonas, or heroines, but contradictingly refused to grant citizenship to the children born of rape.

The wounds of war run much deeper than the physical manifestations of the destruction it leaves behind. There is emotional scarring – the mental trauma of a people who have seen the unforgettable, and are haunted by their dreams.

“But I’m not Bangladeshi!” you exclaim. Why should you bother?

Please bother. For those who have paid the price with their lives for freedom, who have been left behind, who live with the pain, for the perpetrators of a crime who must be confronted with their deeds, and for the youth to know the birth pangs of a nation. This is a history that is not part of the National Curriculum, but must be told.

Autograph ABP present ‘Bangladesh 1971’ in conjunction with Shahidul Alam and Drik Picture Library, running at Rivington Place, London, EC2A 3BA, until 31st May 2008. Entrance free. A range of films also accompany the exhibition.

Links: www.autograph-abp.co.uk

www.drik.net

www.rivingtonplace.org

 

White Boy by Tanika Gupta | Review by Kamal Hussain

Directed by Juliet Knight, Soho Theatre

The National Youth Theatre has been running for over 50 years since it was established by Michael Croft in 1956. It's helped develop the careers of actors such as Dame Helen Mirren, Jude Law, Orlando Bloom, Matt Lucas, Catherine Tate and David Walliams to name but a few. Little wonder then that I jumped at the opportunity to watch a number of NYT productions in the space of a week, if only to say in years to come, "Yeah, I saw them before they were famous"…

Like the teenagers it portrays, White Boy is cocky, loud, unapologetic and shocking. It conveys some of the paradoxes of identity that arise from living in multicultural Britain: like the character who is a Muslim girl complete with hijab and mini-skirt, at one point intent on setting a world record for the longest snog with her willing boyfriend.

Despite being set in a school playground and with the odd dance number and violin recital, White Boy is no High School Musical with a happy ending. On a minimal grey set that echoes the harsh urban landscape of today, where having a social worker is like having a "personal trainer", Gupta uses the characters of Ricky and Flips to tackle the identity confusion and conflicts faced by white kids from inner city areas. Ricky tells his black best mate Victor, the school hero, that "It ain't cool to be white," and that he has "no history" as he tries his best to pass off a cringe-worthy Jafaken accent. His foil is Flips, a skinhead racist thug who fancies getting together with Zara, a confident black girl who just 'won't go there girlfriend'.

Although at times it seemed like there was too much attitude in the gestures and speech of the cast, this was still amazing stuff from the National Youth theatre. With moments of surrealism, stylistic slow motion scenes à la Matrix, combined with the simplicity of the set, White Boy boldly exposes the taboo of white identity fears caused by immigration trends. At the same time it highlights the problem of knife crime in working class communities, without pretending to know the answers to resolve them.

The viewer is left with the sense that Britain is a vibrant place: where identities mingle, collide and are ever harder to define.  It raises questions and gives depth to its characters' stories, rather than providing a quick moral fix for society's current ills.

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Tarquin Hall’s Salaam Brick Lane, Review by Kamal Hussain

There are some books that you just can’t be bothered to finish and there are some books you just don’t want to finish. Tarquin Hall’s Salaam Brick Lane is one of the latter.

Autobiographical in nature, the novel is essentially an exploration of Englishness, albeit the East End’s unique version of it. Hall evokes laughter from the beginning of the adventure through to the end, but it is the lives of an exuberant bunch of characters in Brick Lane (including Hall himself) that makes this book so hard to put down.

We meet Hall’s Bangladeshi landlord, Mr Ali, a booze-guzzling, topi-wearing man of contradictions, who refers to anybody he dislikes as a ‘bustard’. Mr Ali’s other tenant, Sadie, a shrunken but feisty Jewish
octogenarian, takes an instant disliking to Hall. She tries to “cosh [him] with her umbrella” on their second meeting, but then invites him for tea because she’s worried about what the neighbours will think. Then there’s Chalky, a Cockney “local businessman who sells boxes of Côtes du Rhones out of the back of a white van”.

Through the narration of the individual characters’ stories, who come from a vast range of ethnic, national and religious backgrounds, Hall takes the reader on a journey of the year he spent living in Brick Lane. He highlights some of the joys and woes that arise from living in such a diverse society, without becoming mired in detail or political correctness.

Comparisons between Hall’s treatment of Brick Lane and its inhabitants against Monica Ali’s Brick Lane are unavoidable. Ali’s novel caused a lot of controversy because the local Bangladeshi community felt that she had misrepresented them with negative portrayals. It’s not as though Hall’s characters are all angels, but there is a
difference between his novel and Ali’s. Ali’s Brick Lane feels like it was written from the outside looking in, whereas Hall’s novel feels like it is describing the inside from within. If non-immigrant readers consider Ali to be
an authority on the Brick Lane community because of her mixed-race background, Hall ought to be given equal credence because he lived amongst the people he is writing about.

Those readers who think they can learn all there is to know about the Brick Lane community from Ali’s novel, or from watching the forthcoming film adaptation, ought to read SBL. This is not only because it is hilarious and gritty in equal measure, but because it provides alternative perspectives, with a wider variety of characters, thus
creating a larger picture.

Even judged on its own merits SBL is an intriguing read, as it looks at what it means to be English, what it means for immigrants to integrate into British society, and comes to a calm but optimistic conclusion.

RRP £16.99

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