I always have this confusion when I think about my relationship with my birthplace. Am I patriotic? Do I love my country, my people, and the culture?
These are the questions that always disturb me. The confusion started from a very early age when I had discovered that I dislike almost every aspect of Bangladesh and Bangladeshi people -- from the dirty footpath and roads to the political culture to the people’s habit of asking you very personal questions.
I don’t mind if someone questions my patriotism. I don’t see any point in pretending that I love my country.
It is only after my educational move to the United States that I understood that some patriotism, though not dominant, is still present in me.
I feel very defensive when I hear any harsh criticism of my country and culture from any foreigner. This is true even in cases in which the criticism was valid.
For example, most patriotic Bangladeshis might not deny the fact that we have a very corrupt system in the country. You will often read in the newspapers that corrupt people smuggle billions to foreign countries. I recently discovered that I just don’t like it when a foreigner talks about the corruption in Bangladesh.
I was also surprised to notice that in the US, the first things I look for are Bangladeshi stores and restaurants. In mid-2020, when I moved to Boulder, Colorado, the fact that there were no Bangladeshi stores disappointed me a lot.
I was even thinking of switching to another PhD program to a city where there were plenty of Bangladeshi stores and a large number of Bangladeshis.
On the second day in Boulder, while I was walking to the nearest grocery shop, I found an Indian store called India Bazar.
The signboard in front of the store said that South Asian food items were also available. As Indian stores often have most of the food items we eat, I thought it would work and I was happy to find one.
There was no product from Bangladeshi companies at the store, but I found all the items I was looking for, from Indian companies.
When I went to the manager to pay, I found two people speaking in Bangla. I discovered that the owner was a Bangladeshi.
We talked for about half an hour. In the conversation, my first question to him was asking why there weren’t any Bangladeshi products in his store. The owner told me that most of his customers were Indian and Indians did not like Bangladeshi products.
“I incurred a huge loss in the initial stage when I had Bangladeshi products as Indians did not purchase them,” he said. The owner told me that even if there were no alternatives, Indians would never purchase a Bangladeshi product.
“If I run out of tea from an Indian brand and I have tea from a Bangladeshi brand, Indians will never purchase them. However, this is not a problem with Bangladeshis. They are happy to purchase Indian products,” he said.
The owner said that he also does not like the idea of not selling Bangladeshi products but he does not have any option.
“Bangladeshi people in Boulder, Colorado often mock me saying I don’t love my country. But should I incur losses to show I love my country?” he asks.
I also learned that there are three popular Indian restaurants in Boulder which are owned by Bangladeshis. The owners told me that when they identify the restaurants as Indian, they get more customers from South Asia.
While calling a Bangladeshi-owned restaurant an Indian restaurant was understandable to me, I just did not understand why Indians have problems purchasing products manufactured in Bangladesh.
I feel that it is due to deep mistrust among South Asian nations. Though we have a lot of similarities, we just don’t get along.
Politics has divided us and sometimes it seems that the division is so deep that we hate each other. And in this way, we are destroying the potential the whole sub-continent has.
I think it is high time peace-loving South Asians gave some thought to addressing this mistrust.
Mushfique Wadud is a journalist currently pursuing his PhD in journalism at the University of Colorado, Boulder in the US.
