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Beyond the Paradox: Religion, Family and Modernity in Contemporary Bangladesh

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 March 2012

SARAH C. WHITE
SARAH C. WHITE*
Affiliation:
University of Bath Email: S.C.White@bath.ac.uk
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Abstract

This paper reflects on the apparent ‘paradox’ of a contemporary Bangladesh that appears both ‘more modern’ and ‘more Islamic’, focusing on changes in the family (and the gender and generational orders that it embodies) as a central locus of anxiety and contestation. The paper begins with theory, how the paradox is framed by classical social science expectations of religious decline and how this has been contested by contemporary writers who describe specifically modern forms of piety. It then turns to Bangladesh, where highly publicized symbolic oppositions between ‘religion’ and ‘development’ contrast sharply with people's pragmatic accommodation of development goods in everyday life. Analysis of religious references in interview data reveal the co-existence of very different understandings: a more traditional view of religion as embedded in the moral order; and a more modern deliberate cultivation of a religious life. They also reveal how many of the uses which people make of religion are not specifically religious: to conjure a moral universe, to mark what is important to them, to say things about themselves. The final section returns to theory, reflecting on how this is informed by the findings from Bangladesh, and suggesting that the importance of the private and personal as a site for governance offers a further dimension of why the supposed ‘paradox’ of a religious modernity may not be so paradoxical after all.

Type
Research Article
Information
Modern Asian Studies , Volume 46 , Issue 5 , September 2012 , pp. 1429 - 1458
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012

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References

1 Jahanara Begum—40a Mm (see footnote 12 for key to codes regarding quotations from interviews).

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4 Ibid.

5 The 2001 Bangladesh Census figures are Muslim 89.6 per cent; Hindu 9.4 per cent; Christian 0.3 per cent; Buddhist 0.6 per cent; Others 0.15 per cent. In the 1981 Census, Muslims were 86.7 per cent, Hindus 12.1 per cent.

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8 The closeness of these ties are underlined by the fact that ‘dharma’, the term derived from Sanskrit which is commonly translated as ‘religion’ in Bangladesh and northern India, is also used to describe the cultural grounding of this moral order, providing a foundational logic which structures the family along with all social institutions, including, but not limited to, those identified more particularly as ‘religious’. For more detailed discussion see a companion paper, ‘Religion, politics and the moral order in Bangladesh’, J. Devine and S. C. White, (2009) Religions and Development Working Paper 40, University of Birmingham. Discussion with Joe Devine has been of great significance in preparing this paper, and special thanks are due to him as a supportive and stimulating colleague.

9 The logic behind this selection of villages was to capture a contrast in distance from the hub of development/modernity in Bangladesh, the capital city, Dhaka. This was relevant to the larger study within which the data presented in this paper were gathered, but no clear patterns by site could be identified in the much more limited sample and focus of attention here.

10 The 2006 research was conducted under the ESRC Research Group Wellbeing in Developing Countries (WeD), University of Bath, 2002–2007. The support of the ESRC is gratefully acknowledged. The 2008 study and analysis of this data has been carried out under the Research Programme Consortium in Religion and Development led by the University of Birmingham, 2005–2010, funded by the UK Department for International Development (DFID) for the benefit of developing countries. The views expressed are not necessarily those of DFID. The interviews were conducted by members of the WeD Bangladesh team, following profiles which I designed. Particular thanks are due to M. Hasan Ashraf, Nasrin Sultana, Suborna Camelia, Taifur Rahman, and Tahmina Ahmed.

11 The 2006 research involved 58 respondents from couples in which husband and wife were interviewed separately and 10 single elderly life histories. From the 2008 research this paper draws on one individual case history; eight focus groups and one extended case study focused on religion and family life. All the interviewees were drawn from the wider WeD sample and thus had already completed a general household questionnaire.

12 The case studies are coded as follows. The number after the initials of the name shows the district and couple number. The small letter shows sex—a for female, b for male. The next capital letter shows religion, ‘M’ for Muslim or ‘H’ for Hindu. The final letter provides a very rough economic categorization: ‘r’ for rich, ‘m’ for middle, ‘p’ for poor, based on a mix of occupational and asset status, and self-classification. The case study respondent profile is as follows: Manikganj total 33: 7 Hindu, 26 Muslim; 7 rich, 11 middle, 15 poor; Dinajpur: total 35: 4 Hindu, 29 Muslim, 2 Santal (Adivasi); 4 rich, 22 middle, 9 poor. Focus groups were organized separately by age and gender. The sample was chosen to cover a range of criteria, and not intended to be representative of the villages as a whole, either by wealth or religion.

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35 Naher, Gender, Religion and Development p. 151.

36 ‘Sir’ refers to a Grameen Bank worker.

37 Naher, Gender, Religion and Development, p. 152, my translation.

38 Ibid.

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43 Latefa—08a Mr.

44 Osman Ali—17b Mm.

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48 014a2.

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51 12b Mm.

52 4b Mp.

53 01a mH.

54 18a Mm.

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56 Dhirendronath—01b Hm.

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62 Anjumon Bewa—015a Mp.

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71 The candidate was Fatimah Jinnah, sister of Muhammed Ali Jinnah, the most prominent leader of the movement for Pakistan.

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