A film by?Khijir Hayat Khan
Author: Shahidul Alam
Time Magazine Person of the Year 2018. A photographer, writer, curator and activist, Shahidul Alam obtained a PhD in chemistry before switching to photography. His seminal work “The Struggle for Democracy” contributed to the removal of General Ershad. Former president of the Bangladesh Photographic Society, Alam set up the Drik agency, Chobi Mela festival and Pathshala, South Asian Media Institute, considered one of the finest schools of photography in the world. Shown in MOMA New York, Centre Georges Pompidou, Royal Albert Hall and Tate Modern, Alam has been guest curator of Whitechapel Gallery, Winterthur Gallery and Musee de Quai Branly. His awards include Mother Jones, Shilpakala Award and Lifetime Achievement Award at the Dali International Festival of Photography. Speaker at Harvard, Stanford, UCLA, Oxford and Cambridge universities, TEDx, POPTech and National Geographic, Alam chaired the international jury of the prestigious World Press Photo contest. Honorary Fellow of Royal Photographic Society, Alam is visiting professor of Sunderland University in UK and advisory board member of National Geographic Society. John Morris, the former picture editor of Life Magazine describes his book “My journey as a witness”, (listed in “Best Photo Books of 2011” by American Photo), as “The most important book ever written by a photographer.” View all posts by Shahidul Alam
Yes,everybody in Bangladesh wants unity at his or her terms. So whole nation is divided. You say,you are a Bangalee and I say I am a Muslim Bangalee.Now,you just tell me how do you estimate or scale our distance. I have an independent state because I am Muslim Bangalee. All bangalees of the world do not have any state. You are rather confusing my identity. I know my heritage and history. You are trying to erase my identity as a Bangladeshi.My heritage is that I belong to this part of Bengal. This is my geographical identity. So ,I am Bangladeshi. My language is Bangla. It is my cultural identity. I am known in the world,because I have a state. Without state there can not be NATION.I know you are trying to undermine my status as a citizen of an independent state of BANGLADESH.
the map on the flag as shown on the background defines a territorial boundary of the then peoples of diverse cultural identity, denoting merely the differences under statehood, who we believe by now have spread over across the globe beyond territorial boundaries with the new unique identity- bangladeshi. state can not define a nation- humans of differences, nor can the nation define a particular demand for a state; the struggle and human costs of nation-state processes from time immemorial are caused by authority and power loving tiny minority group of people, the so called state authorities, state figures; americans can kill afghans or iraqis for preserving any attacks on any interests of their nation-state, they kill people, for nation state, so do israelies, so do indians, so do many authority and power loving tiny minority group of statesman. we need to withhold the rights of any single individual with or without, within and beyond any nation-state-identity realm. to that effect the narrative here put me on to some extent- what the nation is, what the state is, what the country is.
a correction in the just above note, the third last line a word ‘withhold’ should be read ‘uphold’. apologies for incoveniences.