Bangladeshi literature in English: A thrice born tradition

The use of the phrase “thrice-born” in the title of this introduction to a Special Focus on Bangladeshi literature in English has connotations of uneasy or interrupted beginnings. Perhaps we should start by clarifying that “thrice-born” here bears no relation to the Sanskrit word dvija or “twice-born” or the title of Meenakshi Mukherjee’s (1971) book on Indian English novels, The Twice Born Fiction. Dvija is used in the Hindu social system to refer to the elitism and privilege of the three upper castes: Brahmins, Kshatriyas, and Vaishyas. Mukherjee uses the term “twice born” to explain the derivative and hybrid nature of Indian English fiction, in which Indian tropes, thoughts, and dialogues are “translated” into the colonizer’s speech. In contrast, we have used the expression “thrice born” to suggest the evolutionary nature of Bangladeshi anglophone literature: that it has developed through three historical phases, during which the geographical territory that now constitutes Bangladesh has gone through several political rebirths and renamings: Bengal/East Bengal (1905–11),1 East Pakistan (1947–71), and Bangladesh (1971–). To put it differently, although Bangladesh is a relatively new country, to gain a holistic picture of how the anglophone literary tradition has developed in this geographical space, one needs to look back to its beginnings during the British colonial period, take stock of English writings during the Pakistani phase, and, finally, investigate the state of the tradition and its challenges and achievements, especially after the country’s attainment of self-rule in 1971. This will help establish the nature of cultural continuity in a land that has gone through a political whirlwind since the colonial era and been subjected to changes of political identity on multiple occasions.