The Construction Of “Otherness” In Urban Bangladesh

The Urdu-speaking Bihari community of Bangladesh,the de facto stateless individuals,is the victim of clashing politics and nationalism.This study aims to explain the nature of exclusion and otherness of the Bihari community in Bangladesh,considering various significant indicators such as citizenship status,voting rights,political power,participation in elections,passport issue,bank account,insurance facilities,access to government and private jobs,discrimination in workplaces,and inadequate government facilities.This study is conducted in three Bihari camps of Dhaka metropolitan city: Geneva camp(Mohammadpur),Murapara Bihari camp(Mirpur),and Kurmitola Bihari camp(Mirpur).The central research questions of this study include: how do socio-political factors contribute to constructing the historical and contemporary forms of the othering identity of the Bihari community? How do political-economic aspects reinforce the othering identity?How do cultural and spatial factors shape and reshape the idea of the othering identity?This study uses three relevant theories of otherness offered by Robert Park(1928),W.E.B.Du Bois(1903),and Shelley Feldman(2006)to identify the reasons for statelessness and explain the dynamics of exclusion and otherness among the Bihari community.Purposive and random sampling techniques were used to select the study area and the respondents respectively.Data were collected from primary and secondary sources(using a combination of survey and interview)following a mixed-method approach.Based on the304 surveys,32 in-depth interviews,5 KII,and 4 FGDs this study finds that Bihari people have no socio-political power and political participation in the local or national level election as a candidate due to their identity crisis,residential location,unavailability of citizenship status,and limited access to voting rights.The respondents identified Bihari identity and living in the Bihari camps as the principal causes of no access to the passport,government services,bank accounts,and insurance facilities.Moreover,this study finds that discrimination and exploitation of the Bihari people in the labor market create‘economic exclusion and otherness’ among the ill-fated camp-based Bihari community of urban Bangladesh.This study analyzes that the people of the Bihari community in Bangladesh are the victims of severe political exclusion,and socio-political factors are mainly responsible for the ‘otherness’ of the Bihari people.This study concludes by proposing policies to lessen the socio-economic,political,and spatial marginality of the Bihari community of Bangladesh.