ROUTES AND BEYOND:

VOICES OF EDUCATIONALLY SUCCESSFUL

BENGALIS IN TOWER HAMLETS

Revised Edition 1997 (First Published 1993)

CENTRE FOR BANGLADESHI STUDIES

COVER DESIGNED BY VASEEM MOHAMMED

ISBN No: 0 946665 14 1

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

Glossary of Terms

(A) Preface

(B) Introduction

(C) Educational Experience

(i) Family Support

(ii) Support at School

(iii) Extra Mural Classes

(D) Identity

(i) National, Local and Religious Identities

(ii) Gender and Class

(iii) Experiences of Racism

(E) The Future

(F) Educational Changes

(G) Conclusion

Acknowledgements

Some Suggested Readings

3

GLOSSARY OF TERMS

hadith Reported Tradition of the Prophet

hejab veil, headscarf

inshallah Allah willing

kalima Islamic statement of faith

kameez loose fitting top

kufr non-believers in Islam

maulvi religious teacher

namaz Muslim prayers

shalwar light, loose fitting trousers

sharia Islamic law

4

(A) PREFACE

This Report is the first publication of the Centre for Bangladeshi Studies. The Centre was

formed in 1991 after discussions between Bangladeshi social workers and community activists

from the second generation and white academics who were involved in research on issues of

race, racism and ethnicity. A Steering Group comprising Ayub Ali, Nisar Ahmed, Noor Uddin

Ahmad, John Eade, Michael Keith, Kumar Murshed, Ala Uddin, Jalal Uddin and Hasina Zaman

was established to oversee the initial research project on educational achievement. The Group

held regular monthly meetings at Queen Mary and Westfield College and collectively agreed the

Centre's aims and objectives which are:

(a) to undertake research on the social, cultural, political and environmental issues

affecting the Bangladeshi population in Tower Hamlets and elsewhere in the UK.

(b) to produce research papers and mount seminars and conferences which will disseminate

the results of the research with a view to influencing official decision- making.

(c) to undertake research into the history of Bangladeshi settlement in the area. The need

here is for a written history which will give a voice to local people, thereby

contributing to the community's sense of its own identity. Such a history would also

become available to the second and third generation of British Bangladeshis.

Members of the Centre decided to make the study of educationally successful young

Bangladeshis one of their priorities in the belief that popular stereotypes about an

'unsuccessful' Bangladeshi community should be challenged. They also believed that those

interviewed might provide positive role models to other young Bangladeshis.

A conference on the criminalisation of Bangladeshi youth at Queen Mary and Westfield College

in February 1993 was the Centre's first step in opening the debate on issues which are crucially

important to local people. It is our belief that the publication of this Report will carry the debate

forward and initiate a public discussion which can extend well beyond the confines of Tower

Hamlets.

(B) INTRODUCTION

We have chosen the title of the report 'Routes and Beyond' because we want to highlight the

dynamic and diverse character of people's experiences and their identities. Usually discussions

about social and cultural identity refer to the search for 'roots' but this tends to portray identities

as static, fixed entities. 'Routes', in contrast, conveys the journey from somewhere to

somewhere else, which is an experience shared by all of us who leave home and never really

return. The journey, of course, has particular meanings for people who have migrated across

the world and for their descendants. It is a journey across numerous frontiers (political, social,

5

cultural, economic) and entails movement in people's awareness of the world around them.

Here we will explore the routes taken by a specific group of people - British

Bengalis/Bangladeshis - where it is important to discover (a) not only where people have come

from but also where they are going to and (b) the numerous, divergent directions in which they

are heading.

The interviews were conducted by Hasina Zaman during 1992. She worked closely with John

Eade, a member of the Department of the Sociology and Social Administration department at

the Roehampton Institute, who had been awarded a small grant from the Institute's Principals

Fund. They devised an open ended interview schedule which covered a wide range of issues

from family background, education, identity to their aspirations for the future and which was

used in tape recorded interviews with 20 young Bengalis (10 female, 10 male).

The tapes, many of which last for over an hour and a half, were transcribed by Charlene

McGroarty during late 1992 and early 1993.

In order to avoid the creation of yet more stereotypes the emphasis will be on letting the twenty

tell their own stories and inviting the reader to learn from these individual accounts. Inevitably

there is a large element of editorial selection involved. The interviews produced a vast body of

material which cannot be incorporated whole within a short report such as this. John Eade has

chosen certain extracts with the intention of showing a range of opinions and experiences over

as wide a field as possible. His selection has been discussed by members of the Centre and the

Report is the product of this joint effort.

The accounts are, then, individual responses to the questions asked by Hasina. Some of the

twenty interviewed will appear more frequently than others largely on the grounds that they are

more vocal on the particular issues discussed or that they articulate a recurrent theme. (To

protect their identity we have changed their names).

The Interview Schedule was divided into eight sections - basic information about the person

being interviewed, their educational profile, family background, schooling experience, identity,

life skills, the person's views about their future, and the future of education (see Appendix). In

this Report we will be concentrating on what we believe to be the most interesting and

informative of the sections, i.e. schooling experience, identity, views about the person's future

and current educational reforms.

We believe that the interviews reveal three important issues:

i there is a wide range of difference even among this small number of young

people. There is no consensus - rather a very lively and illuminating discussion

of a range of experiences and attitudes.

ii the answers are very nuance and well thought defying simplistic

generalisations about 'bright', 'thick', 'success', 'failure'.

iii the respondents show an impressive capacity for strategic thinking.

6

They are able to look hard at the situations in which they find themselves and

develop personal strategies to cope with those situations.

The questions are frequently difficult in the way they reach down into highly personal issues

and explore links between individuals and changing social, cultural and political institutions.

Readers will have their own opinions about the issues which are discussed - opinions which

may well differ sharply from those which we have chosen here. We believe, however, that the

interviews show how thoughtful and honest the young Bengalis are in their exploration with

Hasina Zaman of the world around them - a world where ambiguities, conflict and uncertainty

are as 'normal' as their opposites.

By opening up a space where young Bengalis speak for themselves (admittedly prompted by the

interview schedule which we initially devised) we hope that others might look again at the

assumptions they might have about not only Bengalis in this country but other young people

from diverse social and cultural backgrounds who are making a vital and distinctive

contribution to changing Britain.

Before we enter the interviews in detail some background details need to be briefly mentioned.

As numerous studies have shown (see Suggested Readings at the end of the Report)

Bangladeshis experience severe problems in many areas of social and economic life within

Tower Hamlets. Although these problems are also shared by other members of the local

working class (white and black) deprivation in its various forms weighs most heavily on a

Bangladeshi population which in 1991, according to the Census, constituted almost 232% of the

borough's 161,271 inhabitants.

In the western wards where most of our twenty young informants lived Bangladeshis far

exceeded this 23% average - for example, in Spitalfields they comprised 61% of the total

population, in St Mary's 42%, Shadwell 36% and St Katherine's 35%. The first generation of

Bangladeshi settlers had been joined by a second and a rapidly expanding third generation. The

high proportion of young people in the Bangladeshi community is revealed in the latest

education statistics which show that over half of Tower Hamlets' pupils are now Bangladeshis

(see Tower Hamlets Education Strategy Group, 'Ethnic Background of Pupil Population 1993'.

Although many Bangladeshis are staying on at school or entering further education after 16 the

statistics also suggest that a much lower proportion are going on to university compared with

white students (see Tower Hamlets Career Service, 'School Destination Survey 1993'). It is not

just older Bangladeshis, therefore, who are experiencing disadvantage.

Those whom Hasina Zaman interviewed come from the second generation and were often

brought to the UK at an early age (see tables 1-4 overleaf). They entered the borough's

educational system at a time when the numbers of Bangladeshi pupils was beginning to make an

impact on local schools. They attended that state primary and secondary schools with a high

proportion of the young women interviewed going to a single sex secondary school in St

Katherine's ward. Their fathers usually worked in the local garment factories and catering trade

or in factories across the UK, while their mothers are described as 'housewives'. The

educational success which these twenty young Bangladeshis had achieved may lead them far

away from the work which their fathers were obliged to undertake but, as we shall see, the ties

to their family, friends and community in Tower Hamlets are strong. These individual accounts

do not support popular assumptions about assimilation into the 'host society' nor a return to

7

roots - rather they reveal a variety of routes and diverse assertions of belonging which draw on

multiple and dynamic identities.

8

TABLE 1

Name

DoB

Place of

Birth

A Levels

Degree

Subject

University

Afia 1971 Sylhet to

UK in 1977

Maths

Physics

Politics

BSc Combined

Sciences

East London

Farida 1969 London Biology

Chemistry

BSc

Biochemistry

North London

Fatima 1972 Sylhet to

UK in 1975

Biology

English

Religious Studies

BSc Social

Policy

London School

of Economics

Jabida 1973 Sylhet to

UK in 1975

English

Literature

History

Communications

BA Media

Studies

London College

of Printing

Jahanara 1972 Sylhet to

UK in 1975

Chemistry

Physics

Religious Studies

BSc Pharmacy London School

of Pharmacy

Justna 1968 Sylhet to

UK in 1973

Biology

HND in Applied

Biology

BSc Biology University

College,

London

Noorjan 1968 Sylhet to

UK in 1972

English

Literature

Sociology

Politics

BA Social

Anthropology

Sussex

Rupna 1968 London Art

English

History

Sociology

BEd North London

Sultana 1970 Pakistan to

UK in 1972

Biology

Chemistry

Maths

Physics

MBBS

Medicine

Royal London

Medical School

Tahera 1970 London Biology

Chemistry

Maths

BSc Medical

Science

Queen Mary

University of

London

9

TABLE 2

Name DoB

Place of

Birth

A Levels

Degree

Subject

University

Abdul

Huq Chowdhury

1970 Sylhet to UK

in 1975

HND Ll.B Law Guildhall,

London

Ayub 1969 Sylhet to UK

in 1976

Economics

English

History

Politics

BA Law

Ll.B

Kent, London

Azad 1970 Middlesb'gh Sociology Certificate,

Youth and

Community

Goldsmiths

College,

London

Faud 1968 London Economics

Geography

BA Economics Central England

Helal 1969 London Pure and Further

Maths

Physics

Economics

BSc Maths Queen Mary

College,

University of

London

Jehangir 1969 London BSc Design &

Advertising

East London

Kadir 1970 Sylhet to UK

in 1977

Chemistry

Maths

Physics

BSc

Engineering

Bath

Lutfur 1967 London Chemistry

Maths

Physics

BSc Chemical

Engineering

Brunel

Noor 1969 Sylhet Chemistry

Design

Technology

BSc Newcastle

Shahjehan 1971 Sylhet to UK

in 1973

Chemistry

Maths

Physics

BSc Physics &

Computing

South Bank

10

11

TABLE 3

Informant

Father's

Arrival

in UK

Father's

Education

Father's

Occupation

Mother's

Arrival in

UK

Mother's

Education

Mother's

Occupation

Amina 1962/63 Class 8 factory

worker

(retired)

1972 Class 6 housewife

Farida 1959 Class 5 saw mill

worker

(retired)

1970/1 none housewife

Fatima early

1960s

BA

(B'desh)

shopkeeper

(unempl'd)

1976 Class 7/8 helped in

shop

Jabida late

1960s

-

factory

worker

1973/4 Matric. housewife

Jahanara mid-195

0s

Class 6/7 restaurant

owner

(retired)

1975 Class 5 housewife

Julekha 1965

(died

1990)

-

garment

factory

worker

1975 -

housewife

Naima late

1950s

Madrassah garment

factory

worker

(retired)

1972 Class 5 housewife

Rupna 1962 primary

education

B'desh

garment

factory

worker

1966 none housewife

Salma 1960s

(died

1985)

Matric. cook at

Royal

London

Hospital

1972/3 -

housewife

Tahera 1963 'went to

college'

B'desh

owned

shop and

garment

factory

(retired)

1967 some

education

helped in

shop

12

TABLE 4

Informant

Father's

Arrival

in UK

Father's

Education

Father's

Occupation

Mother's

Arrival in

UK

Mother's

Education

Mother's

Occupation

Abdul around

1970

-

cigarette

factory

(unempl'd)

1975 -

housewife

Ayub around

1965

-

Guardian

Royal

Exchange

(retired)

1972 -

youth

worker

Azad 1965

(died

1981)

Matric. British

Steel

1971 Class 8/9 -

Faud 1962 Matric. at

Madrassah

restaurant

owner

(retired)

1966 Matric. -

Hassan 1963 'secondary

level'

foundry

worker

(retired)

1972 none housewife

Jehangir early

1950s

used to

teach in

B'desh

owned

shop, cafe,

travel

agency

(retired)

late 1950s not much helped in

shop & cafe

Kadir around

1950

none garment

factory,

hotel porter

(retired)

19177 none housewife

Lutfur 1965 Matric. garment

factory,

restaurant

owner

(unempl'd)

1965 -

-

Noor (data

missing)

Shah-

jehan

1962 Class 8/9 Ford motor

mechanic

(retired)

1974/75 none housewife

13

N.B. The Classes in the Bangladeshi educational system referred to above approximately accord to

British primary and secondary schooling up to the age of 16. Someone who had completed Class 8

would be, therefore, first year secondary in this country and someone matriculating would be 16.

(C) EDUCATIONAL EXPERIENCE

(i) Family Support

At the beginning of this section Hasina discusses the encouragement which the young

Bangladeshis received from their parents, brothers and sisters and other close relatives.

Although both the young men and women were supported by various members of their families

there were clearly certain differences in the way their parents viewed the education of their sons

and daughters. Moreover, the young women were generally far more articulate about their

relationships with their parents and the influences exerted upon them. We will, therefore,

discuss the views of these young women first.

Some spoke of the encouragement which they received from both parents. Noor Jan described

her parents involvement in the following terms:

Hasina: Who would you say encouraged you in your education

within your family?

Noor Jan: I got encouragement from everyone because I used to

get good results and everything. All my family,

everyone. My mum and dad - they encouraged me.

Hasina: How did they encourage you?

Noor Jan: Basically when you say encouragement they never

inhibited me from, restricted me from doing anything

that I wanted to do. So it is not as if they knew a

lot about the education system that they could say:

'Take this path, take that path'. But it's just that

everything I said to my parents - 'I'd like to do this' -

and they said: 'Yes, why not do it'. I just told them

and they said: 'Yes, that sounds good'.

Despite their lack of knowledge about the British educational system Noor Jan's parents were

determined that their daughter should attend to her studies. In Kalhadiah's case her father was

already relatively well educated and took a keen interest in her studies both in the school system

and in voluntary classes. However, her mother's support was also crucial.

I think it all goes back to my parents basically because I think to a certain extent my

dad was educated plus [he knew] what was going on.

So he never restricted me on education. For example, until the age of sixteen I was

going to mother tongue classes because he was the chairperson then and he

knew what was going on. So he allowed me to go there and study and things

like that...my father was lenient and he gave me the freedom to go out and

study...Especially at the time I was studying

there was not a lot of people who were sixth formers...

14

My mother also encouraged me and I think without my mother's help I wouldn't

have been able to come up where I am at the moment because like being an

Asian girl you have to help around at home and especially when I have eight

brothers and sisters. My mother...would never let me touch anything in the

kitchen because she was saying: 'You have to go and do your study'. And I

think she saw the motivation within me because I was busy with Arabic and

Bengali and I hardly had time at home...they left me to finish my A levels

otherwise there was no way I could have stayed without my parents' consent.

And still they encourage me through letters and things like that.

The issue of working hard at school and also doing domestic duties was particularly important

for daughters. Justna moves from describing the support for her studies which she received from

her father to a discussion of her 'laziness' in the home:

I know [my father] wanted my brother to go into higher education - my

older brother - but he wasn't interested after doing his BTEC or whatever.

So my dad was pretty disappointed about that because he had high

expectations of him. And then I was the next one so a lot of pressure was

on me to do well and to go into higher education. But I personally wanted

to do that myself so I wasn't forced into it...he didn't say to me: 'I want you

to do maths and politics or whatever'. He wasn't that directive. He left the

choice up to me...but he took an interest in what I was doing. He asked me

what A levels I picked and why I picked them. So I conversed with him in that

way...Now I am doing my degree his interest is less because he knows I have

got to that stage - that it is up to me now...I think he is paying more attention

to my brothers now because they are at that vulnerable age of needing guidance...

There was no pressure on me to help mum but that wasn't because of my

education or having a lot of homework...I was just lazy - I couldn't be bothered

to do it. She didn't ask me, she never asked me to come down and do it. I do it

more now because I understand it and I just think it is too much for my mum but at

the time I wasn't thinking about it at all...[my parents] had decided that when

I get older I would understand anyway.

The interplay between outside study and domestic duties and the differing roles which parents

could play in these two areas was again described vividly by another young woman, Anawara:

My father was very encouraging. He used to encourage me to go on holidays

and trips that school had arranged and he also took me out himself. He

encouraged me to go and visit universities, to go and stay at the university

summer school so that I would see what other people were doing and be

motivated. And he always, sort of, wanted me to pursue excellence and his

favourite quote was, like: 'If you can eat at a five star restaurant why would

you eat at a four star or a one star. You should aim for the highest. Even if

you can't get there you get second best'.

That encouraged me and he also encouraged me to be very vocal, very...

vociferous and quite active orally, so my oratory skills were developed at

15

the same time and that is why I am big-mouthed! Mum always said that the

Bengali outlook...is that a woman's place is at home doing the cooking and

cleaning and everything. And she said that if you pursue education then you

don't have to do the cooking and cleaning. You may well be able to keep

someone to do that. So you can have the best of both worlds - you can

still breed a family and have a family life but also be a career woman. And

she was quite religious as well and she always said that Islam says that even

if a person has to go to China to pursue their education then they must do so.

Other parents were more worried about the social implications of higher education for their

daughters. Halima describes her parents' attitudes towards education and the factors which her

father took into consideration when considering her university education:

I know some families have a really, sort of,..deep attitude about education

- you have to do it, you have to achieve it. We didn't have that sort of grilling

so we just did what we could - like we wasn't pressurised to work. My mother

always had this thing: 'Oh yes, they will do well' but it is only...when I got my

GCSEs my mum thought: 'Yes, it is really good she got it'...

it is my dad who I sort of talked [my university education] over with. I made

my decisions but I had to make it look like he was helping me. Yes, because

[my family] don't want me to go to Sussex - that's my second choice - but you

have to be ready for this. If I don't get my grades I might have to go there. But

he was going: 'Why do you have to go there? We've got people from all over

the country come to London to study and why are you so special that you have

to go out?' ...He did not mean to...downgrade what I was doing - he was saying...we

are just like normal people, we don't need to reach that high - just

go and do a degree where you want to. But we have to be aware of our stupid

community...You know you are not just living on your own...we have to take

account of all these other stupid factors.

...even though he knows that maybe Oxford or Cambridge is the best that this

country has to offer he would still say no because I have to live away from

home. He would say: 'You are only a Bengali and people would equate you

with - God knows, I don't know - English WASPS - God knows what'.

When dealing with such problems Halima was able to enjoy a much warmer and friendlier

relationship with her mother than with her father:

I communicate with my mum more. With my dad I don't really. The relationship

is there but it is not really a good one. It is just a parent/child relationship

whereas with my mum and I can get down to it and joke around. If I need something

I ask her and she is always, like, letting me go - you know, when I have to go out.

The support of other family members was less frequently mentioned. Zakiriah spoke of the

support which she received from both her mother and elder brother as well as schoolfriends:

Well, they told me that I you don't have any education you have no future

16

because if you have a good educational background then that will help. And

`you will have a much better future in front of you because you can do many jobs,

you can switch jobs plus your status will be much higher because if you do minor

work, work in a factory, then you will always stick with that job. So they

encouraged me in that way. Yes, whenever I needed help [my brother] helped

me but most of the time it was just a few of our friends. We would get together and

do our homework. You know, help each other. We found it much better like that.

Sometimes neighbours were seen as hostile to education for Bangladeshi females. Fatima

claimed that:

The woman living on the same street, she never had any education herself,

She is totally illiterate and she is always cutting down women and girls who

study...She was saying that the present circumstances in Bangladesh - you

know, the disasters that happen - are because...women are being educated and

they are not in purdah and this and that and the other. And she is the kind of

person who is always feeding things into my mum.

Even my relatives, they say things like: 'What is the point? She is going to get

married and her husband is not going to let her work and his family is not going to

let her work'...And my mum...said to one particular person: 'Well, I will give

her to someone who will let her work then'...They were discouraging - the

community. Now they are just quiet. I suppose they didn't succeed, did they?

Similar themes occur when the young men discussed their education. Nazrul received vigorous

support from both his parents:

They used to push me to study and make sure that I did my homework and

other work. They used to use my sister as an example...They don't know the

system in this country so I don't know what they were expecting. I didn't know

the system in this country until I went through it. Sometimes they stopped me

going out because I used to play a lot of football and it distracted me a lot.

And they used to keep me in - not tie me literally, like! - but they stopped me

from going out.

In Shahi's case his parent's support was more indirect. They left him to get on with his studies

without needing to get a job to support the family:

when you start from...the age of about fourteen onwards usually there is a lot

of pressure to go out to work...I didn't have any of that...at some points I actually

asked them: 'Do you want me to earn money'. Because obviously...that's what

everyone else was doing. And they just said: 'No, do what you want'...I think

they latched on to the fact that I was fairly, you know, OK at my studies so they just

let me get on with it...that's the best encouragement you can have.

Help came from other members of the family. Mustafa was assisted in different ways by his

parents and his older brother:

17

I had the support in the sense that...all the parents see their children is growing up,

[at] sixteen leaving school and for the parents to sit back and wait for their

kids to come home for the money. It doesn't matter what their kid is doing in the

meantime or how he is growing up. As long as he brings home a wage packet at the

end of the day.

And so I wanted to do well, so I applied myself. I had the support in the sense

that my father didn't pressure me to go out and work and do part-time jobs and

bring in money like that...but the only [other] people that could support me

was my older brother. Any problems with my schoolwork he would take it.

Mustafa later considers the problem of unemployment and the security of a small business

which his father had enjoyed when Mustafa and his brothers were at school:

maybe it wasn't so bad because he had his restaurant business...at the

moment it is unemployment but now quite a few of us are working so it is

not too bad. We can help him out. I can understand maybe if he was

unemployed all those years ago, like some parents are, then maybe it would

have been different. Maybe he would have had to pressure his children to go

[out to work] because there would be no way he could have survived really or

married his daughters off or anything like that.

Mustafa emphasises the role played by his father in his education but we have already seen the

different kinds of support which mothers provided. When Helal's father died his mother made

sure that he kept at his studies. His relatives were concerned about his education but:

I didn't really take any notice of them...it was really to keep my mum happy that

I went into Sixth Form and college and that...She used to nag at me, pick on me, do

all sorts of things to get on my nerves. So then I used to get fed and say: 'All right, I'll

do this, I'll do this'...I didn't want to let her down and she'd always turn and say: 'Well,

your father would have liked it this way, that way'. And so

I done what she wanted.

In some cases the attitude of relatives outside the immediate family towards a young man's

education was considered hostile. Mustafa claimed that:

My relatives didn't want me to achieve and I thought that I will definitely do

my best...because if I become educated and education is something that is

respected and they can't do anything about it.

Sultan was exceptional in his refusal to accept that anyone had encouraged him at home. He was

training to be a graphic designer - an interest which was largely self-motivated:

I don't think I got any positive encouragement. I mean, it's like...all the family

expects you to become a doctor or a lawyer...but I think it was all self-motivated

especially in my area of work.

18

Young men as well as women noted the reluctance of their parents to let them attend

universities outside the area. Shahi received far more support than Halima when he considered

leaving London for a university education:

when I wanted to go away to Bath Uni they didn't really mind at all. I mean

when I applied for the Uni's I had to go there to get the sponsorship. So they

said: 'Fair enough...if you want to get the training as well you have to go'.

That's OK. I mean, sometimes they can be a bit wary of letting kids go off...far

away.

(ii) Support at School

It is already evident that the support of schoolfriends was important to several of those

interviewed. Hasina explored the issue of who encouraged them at school in questions which

followed the discussion of family influences. Sufia described her involvement with a small

group of Bangladeshi girls at a single sex secondary school:

The people I mainly hung around with, they all wanted to do what I wanted to

do or...vice versa. We all sort of helped each other...Even though some of us

were brainier than others...we were still doing the same thing. We wanted to

carry on to do O levels and A levels and, hopefully, a degree.

At his mixed secondary school Habib belonged to a highly competitive group which brought

together boys and girls:

[it] stood out all the time and if there was any prizes or any academic stuff

then it would be somebody from amongst us that would take it...all the

people...were Bengalis in that group and they were...mostly boys.

Kalhadiah argued that in her case family, friends and teachers were all important in her

development:

I think it is all interlinked - you know, the family encouragement as well as the

teachers' encouragement and my friends. I had friends who were very motivated

to go into higher education and sometimes I felt that probably I won't make it

there but still their encouragement helped me a lot. Because we were very

ambitious to go into higher education, to get our jobs and that, and that helped and

plus the teachers in school...the teachers were very helpful all the time - any problems

you had - anything - they were there.

When the young Bengalis discussed the influence of their teachers specifically they referred

both to their primary and secondary schooling. Habib described the support he received from the

headteacher of his primary school:

He was like a father to me all the way through...in the first year when we

started he took us for English and one of his aims was for me to finish all

the books in the library. He knew I wouldn't do it but, you know, the drive

19

was constantly there. 'Come on, you can read the extra book'. You know,

that sort of thing...every time a presentation had to be made by a student to

an external body or something, he always forced me to go...and stand there

...and just take us to places of interest.

Rabya experienced support from her teachers at both primary and secondary school:

At primary school it was more the competition almost. You know,

when you are younger. It is, like, with your friends - who can do better

than who, really...I can't remember any single teacher wanting me to

[do well] because they always praised you if you did good. So it was, like,

all the teachers...I was quite proud to be able to get good grades and the

teachers putting it down in your report. So I think that all encourages you.

Secondary school? There were teachers that wanted me to do specific subjects

...I remember Miss X wanted me to do maths and she was always encouraging

me. And somebody else that taught chemistry.

The influence of particular teachers was evident in several cases. Anawara described it in the

following way:

I had a very good form teacher and she was very independent and she had

high...ambitions in life and I think her ambitions rubbed off on to us. And she

herself went to Cambridge and everything so she really believed that you had

to work hard...she used to quote this thing to us day in and day out: 'Einstein

was 90% hard work and 10% genius'. And all of us had that 10% genius and

it was the 90% work and how much we put into that tilts the boat she would

say...the science teachers were really good - they made our subjects very interesting

and we just wanted to learn.

And even I remember when I was in my primary school I had an excellent teacher

and again this woman had a very wide outlook on life. She was taking us to the

Barbican, she was taking us to concerts, she was teaching us about the

Renaissance art, Mozart, Picasso, Renoir, Monet. She took us to...the National

Gallery, ballet - she was really arty but at the same time she was making us look at

plants, look at the biology of plants...Basically she was teaching us to be observant so that

we could pick out things for ourselves and be analytical at the same time.

...By the time I got to A levels I had my own motivation. Nobody had to encourage

me. And by that time I had already visited Cambridge about four times and wanted

to go to Cambridge. I wanted to go to Oxford or Cambridge. I already had my

ambition. I had seen things for myself and I knew what I wanted to do.

The influence of outside activities and the encouragement of certain teachers as well as the

transition to university was also discussed by Shahi:

20

the [school] field centre...was a really great place to go to, recharge your batteries,

you know. I went there about twelve times. I went to Scotland with

a club. I just got away from everything, from town. Enjoy the peace. They do

field trips for geography and biology, right?, which everyone has to go to but

during holidays they also do field trips. Adventure holiday type activities -

walking, rambling in the mountains, camping, skiing in the Cairngorms, that

sort of thing.

At the Sixth Form Centre there was Mr. X [who] is a very good teacher. He

really knows his subject and I think he was instrumental in my getting two

As in maths...At university it is more impersonal - it is mainly you and your

friends...there are good lecturers and bad lecturers but unless you make a

real effort you are not going to get on a sort of personal basis with them

...There was one at City - he was Bengali actually...he actually called me

upstairs once, in the staff section...I was going to play tennis or something

and he was saying: 'You shouldn't be wasting your time '. So I suppose there

are one or two out there who do care a bit.

For those who did not enjoy their schooling experience issues such as poor teacher expectations

and racism loomed large.

Hasna spoke of her determination to avoid early marriage and her teachers' assumptions about

her future:

I wanted to leave home and have a job and have my own place to live and stuff and

education was one way of getting out of the perceived...future for Asian

women because I didn't want to get married early on...

[teacher support was] very poor in secondary school. Very poor except for

that one English teacher. The assumption was that I would leave school, get

married and have children. The school as a whole had a very bad record for

getting young people to pass exams and go for further education, to go for

experience outside the area.

These assumptions were linked to other stereotypes about Bengali students although a particular

teacher could transcend such images. Afia explains that the praise of her English language

teacher at secondary school was very important because:

I think it was mainly the [white] English students that got more...of the

teachers' attention because somehow they were vocal, they were more loud,

more cheeky...and we were seen as either being apathetic and passive or just

like stone-cold bored...and she was the kind of teacher if you showed an interest she

was really enthusiastic about what you were doing.

Nazrul, however, did not believe that anyone encouraged him at school:

21

No one [encouraged me] actually. There was too much racism during our

schooldays. Even the teachers were...racist, discouraged you. Well, they never

bothered about blacks and Asians. Mainly Asians especially if the Asians were

oppressed by any white or blacks then they didn't do anything really. So that

way they were depriving us of our education because when we used to go to

school we were always frightened of being attacked so most of our mind

wasn't on education.

He was subject to physical abuse at school but he did find one teacher who helped him for a

time:

I did get physically abused at school. Yes, by white and black kids because they

stick together...I used to stick around with white friends at the time but when I

got beaten up it was in front of my white friends and they didn't do anything...I was

messing about the playground and suddenly got surrounded by white kids above me - I was

in the second year they were in the third year - and that was it...it was bad, got kicked

in. It sounds normal but at the time when you are a

kid and scared - it is not just physical - it is like inside. When they are all around you

[and] you just panicking about what the hell they are going to do. They

asked for money and I said I had no money and they said: 'Bring it in

tomorrow'. And they just did me then. That was it.

I didn't care what teachers expected of me. They didn't used to communicate

with us that much. You come in, do your work. As long as you hand your homework

in, that's it. They don't sit down and say this and that. I didn't get

that kind of support or guidance. I only had it from one tutor but he left in my

fourth year. He used to sit with me and talk to me and speak to my dad as well

because my dad used to come and speak to him. And he used to tell me what to

do - it was, like, to concentrate on this field. He couldn't give me advice on

maths or sciences - he was a geography teacher.

[the school] didn't gear me towards higher education...and a lot of the staff

also underestimated what I was capable of anyway. and it didn't just go for

me - it went for a lot of other Bengali students...At the time the majority of the

Bengali students that were there couldn't speak English...properly or they

weren't very good with the subjects...My parents wanted me to go to college

and do my A levels but they didn't know the system enough to tell me what to

do. All the information they got was from me and my older sister so they

weren't really clear. My mother wanted us to study.

Helal also had a poor experience of school and most teachers' expectations:

They didn't have any expectations. They thought I was just the same old

Bengali kid who...wasn't any good at studying or, even worse, didn't have

the chance to do it because my parents wanted me to go into a restaurant

or factory or that I was mucking about getting in trouble. That is what they

thought and assumed all the time. And they would never push and help you

22

do things. Looking back at it I was always getting the wrong advice for some

reason...I look at it now and I see the system is there to make us fail anyhow

for some reason. That's about it - there wasn't any expectation from teachers

[except for] one or two maybe...There was one or two teachers who were supportive

in a sense but their advice and that didn't really help.

This lack of support extended to the careers advice he received:

...comparing [the] advice I used to get to some of my white friends in my class

it was completely different. They would get, like from the careers, for instance:

'If you have two, three CSEs you can get a nice job - clerical job - easy'. When it

was my turn I had to have five, six. I had to be good at speaking. I had to know

how to use a telephone when this was never told to others.

Rahim also believed that the careers advisers at school and further education college had low

expectations of Bengali students:

...if you want to go for A levels they always push you into GCSE. If you want to

go for a degree they...push you into a diploma or HND...especially to the Asians..

I found that during college when we were going for our further education.

Neesha also criticised the careers service:

I just thought the careers service was a bit stupid actually. The careers [adviser]

appears stupid to me because she assumed everybody that wen to X or anybody

who lived in Tower Hamlets was too thick to get to university, let alone dream

of going to the best universities or the best professions...we would go and be bank

clerks and shop receptionists and the rest of that....They would say: 'Oh gosh, no, no.

Don't apply to this university. You want to do medical training? Well, only

the best...'And I said: 'What do you mean, "Only the best"?'

Most of the young Bengalis were not disappointed with the careers service because they had

decided to pursue their own strategies concerning their higher education. Abdul, however,

looked for support from the careers service and was impressed by the help which he had

received:

...they didn't just help me with prospectuses...they told me which [places] were

good. They gave me a list of all the courses. I went to Brunel University on

Open Day - they told me about an Open Day they had there on a chemical

engineering course...I went to a couple of Open Days at Surrey University. I also

went to Southampton.

(iii) Extra-Mural Classes

Hasina then proceeded to ask the young Bengalis about their experience of extra-mural classes.

Most referred to their attendance of Bengali mother tongue classes and their Islamic education.

Abdul described his Islamic and Bengali education in the following way:

23

We used to go to Brick Lane mosque on Saturdays and Sundays and then after

a while we had a maulvi come home. He used to come and teach us for a couple of

hours. So we had some lessons that way.

....the only Bengali lessons I really had was with the formula and sometimes for

a while they started having them at the mosque as well. One day at least - open

Bengali. My mum taught me as much as she knew when she had the time at

weekends. She'd sit down and make us read Bengali or learn Bengali

I learnt a bit when I was in Bangladesh for a year and a half. At that time we

actually went to school there...because we were there for such a long time...But

I have lost a lot of it now because since my mum died I haven't really kept it

up...With Arabic - yes, it is something, I think, because toy are doing the maths and

things you remember it anyway. But even now, saying that, I haven't read

the Koran for a long time.

Sufia describes the demands of coping with three different modes of learning:

when I was about eight, nine, ten I went to...a man and he taught us Arabic and

how to read the Koran and Namaz [prayers] and all that. So we went to that for

about three years. Every day? No, two probably. I can't remember...I know it was

a regular thing because we attended regularly for two hours learning Arabic.

We went to the bengali school for a year or so but I didn't learn that much. My

parents saw the Arabic side of it [as] more important...They thought Bengali

important but they were aware that they can't cram everything into our head -

English, Arabic, Bengali - all at once. And so we learned the Arabic first and

then we went to the Bengali school for a year but the teachers weren't very

serious about it and we just thought: 'God! It is one thing after another. First

it was Arabic and now it is Bengali'. And we were just so fed up and we didn't

really make an effort to learn properly which I regret now...I am trying to take

Bengali lessons now...I take out books from the library and learn it or get my

mum to read it to me. I am trying to find a Bengali teacher.

Karim was grateful for his education in different languages despite the hard work

I learned Bengali when I was in primary [school] and the first couple of year of

secondary. Bengali and Arabic. At home whenever my mum could sit me down.

When I was in primary it was, like, coming home and spend an hour and a

half every night doing Arabic and Bengali which I used to hate at the time. Now

I look back and think: 'Thank God I've done that.' I used to spend seven hours

a week doing Arabic and Bengali - a mixture of it - one on each day. My mother and

father supervised.

I was in Middlesborough. There wasn't a large Asian community. Altogether in

the whole town there was about six, seven of us the same age. So we all used to

stick in one house...and a person we used to call 'uncle' - to whom you read the

Koran - used to come and teach us because maybe the idea was that if parents

24

were there you wouldn't do it properly.

It worked...Once you go through it and you look back at it you think: 'Thank

God I've done that'...I wouldn't be able to know what was happening back

home...if I didn't have any contact with my own community, my own relations

back home. And because I have learned to read and write Bengali it has

made so much impact on me. Because from London I am running a business in

Bangladesh and, hopefully, in the future perhaps something else with England

and Bangladesh.

Mustafa was also brought up in area where there were 'few Asians' but he preferred to speak

English rather than Bengali:

At home I spoke poor Bengali with my parents and English with my brothers

and sisters. And it was the case that my English was better than my Bengali

and it still is the case.

(D) IDENTITY

(i) National, Local and Religious Identities

In Section D we discussed a variety of identities which were clearly interrelated. However, for

the purpose of exposition we look at those referring to territories and Islam first before we

consider other forms of belonging.

Our opening questions concerned their identities as Bangladeshi and as Bengalis. Lutfur did not

see any sharp distinction between the two and claimed that most people preferred to describe

themselves as Bengalis:

A Bengali? Is that different to being Bangladeshi? I don't know. Bengali,

Bangladeshi - what is the difference? Being from Bangladeshi will be Bengali.

It is the same thing, isn't it? Maybe it is that everyone talks about being

Bengali in this area. No one says being Bangladeshi. I don't know why. It is just

something you have used from when you are small.

Kadir, however, did see a difference between the nation, Bangladesh, and the language group of

Bengali-speaking people which cut across national boundaries and included those who lived in

West Bengal, India, and were predominantly Hindu:

Bengali? Bangladeshi? Bangladeshi is someone from, obviously, the east -

what was East Pakistan - and a Bengali is someone who speaks the language,

I assume. Is that right? But then what does that question mean?...it is a very

open question isn't it? I know a few people from Calcutta and I have spoken to

them. They are very friendly.

The issue of how religious differences between Hindus and Muslims related to national

belongings was more fully explored by Shahjehan:

25

I see the difference. Bengal is a region of India before it split into East Pakistan,

West Pakistan and India. When it split into East Pakistan part of Bengal was

incorporated into India...When you talk about being Bengali it has a sort

of Hindu connotation to it, you know, because there used to be a lot of

Hindu...people living in Bangladesh...After it became East Pakistan a lot of

Hindu people moved out so Bangladesh has more of a Muslim connotation to it, you

know.

Farida took this argument a step further by associating Bangladesh with Islam and traditional

values:

Well I don't know about other Bangladeshis but I feel being a Bangladeshi...my

religion is very important whereas other Bengalis their religion isn't. Islamic

religion I am talking about. Other Bengalis are, like, Hindus and they don't

consider their religious values as highly as I do...I wear shalwar kameez at

home...I eat dried fish. These are Bangladeshi things...I think Bengalis wear

skirts and all those things because I have met a lot of Bengalis and they

are not very into their religion. Being a Bangladeshi when I go home I help my

mum, cook and everything...I consider my mum's opinions all the time. I consider her

feelings and how she has to face the community and stuff like that. I wouldn't do

anything to put my mum in a difficult situation. I think that's the main difference between

being a Bangladeshi and a Bengali.

Farida, however, was mindful that Bangladesh included Hindus and other minorities who were

also Bangladeshis. She wanted to use both terms to describe herself and was concerned about

the divisive effect of emphasising differences between Bangladeshi and other Bengali-speaking

people:

There are minorities in Bangladesh...[and] they are obviously Bangladeshi.

Some of them might not want to be but they...have Bangladeshi nationality...I

do describe myself as Bengali because to say Bangladeshi sometimes -it depends on

the situation -...can be a bit separatist.

When Hasina proceeded to ask about how these identities were expressed nationalism, religion,

arts and language were usually discussed together. Shahi, for example, replied:

Well, you don't have to proclaim it from the rooftops. I just go about my life.

The traditions - our society has the cultural traditions, mainly religious ones,

and we follow all those traditions. Also I do try to keep up with the news. I am

quite interested in what happens over there. Although...I have been to sort of

read Bengali language newspapers to improve my Bengali but I don't really

have enough time to do that. I have seen a few of Satyajit Ray - I have seen a

few of his films and I found them quite enjoyable to watch. I don't watch Hindu

films as a rule. I find them a bit childish...but there really isn't that much. I

mean you can get Bengali films as well but they are also for that sort of popular

market. I don't really listen to Hindu music either...I have listened to Ravi

Shankar - sitar - but he is Indian, isn't he?...Yes, I speak Bengali. I read. My

26

writing isn't that wonderful - the spelling is a bit off but I do write letters in

Bengali.

When Julie responded to this question she reflected more on how she lived and appeared to

others in this country:

In my language - speaking Sylheti. In my food. My clothes. The type of food I eat.

I grew up eating Bengali food...I still eat a lot of Bengali food although not as

much as I used to...Clothes...I wear certain clothes in certain situations especially

round family gatherings and things. And also when I want to make a statement

about my identity I will wear clothes that are not Western...What other ways?

I don't know. My behaviour is very Anglicised so I wouldn't say I express myself

very...culturally, very much as a Bengali person, but it has influenced ny actions

now...Whatever a typical Bengali is - I wouldn't see myself as much because I think

everyone has been shaped individually by their circumstances. And although their

upbringing is a very significant part of that I think also what is happening now in

my life is a reflection of living in Britain as much as being a Bengali.

Hasina then proceeded to ask whether they would describe themselves as British, English,

Londoner, Eastender and Cockney. When they discussed the issue of being British they

frequently defined themselves as British by virtue of citizenship. Azad claimed that:

British I use when I am applying for jobs or applications or whatever because my

status is a British citizen. I also put a stroke in and put British/Bengali so people

know that I am not an original British person and I have got an identity as a

Bengali.

Faud also defined his British identity in terms of citizenship and made a sharp distinction

between British and English:

British because I am a British citizen. No mater what the whites say I am British. Not

English but British.

The refusal to identify with the term 'English' appears to be due to the way it had been

appropriated by white people:

I'm British and Londoner...I don't know why. I just feel to be British you don't

actually have to be white. But to be English I always have this feeling you have

to be white...British people are not necessarily English...The English, I think,

would agree although they probably wouldn't say it directly.

Afia identified herself as British but associated with black rather than white British citizens:

I am a British citizen. It is to do with having certain rights in this country and

I have lived here for so long. I don't think I could live in Bangladesh although

I keep on going on about my loyalties and affiliations...I don't really identify

with white British people but I identify with people who are black and British.

27

There are a lot of us now - about three million...I don't feel nationalistic about

being British...it is just another aspect of my identity.

Jabida claimed to be proud of being British with reservations:

I would be stupid to say [I belong to] Bangladesh because I am not growing up

there...I can be proud of being British being that I came over from Bangladesh

and I did it. Like, I made the best of it, you know...Some people ask me questions

about identity - I don't find it really simple. I could say I am Bengali and Muslim and

British and all of that but it is really hard because at the end of the day you

are enjoying all these things you never had in Bangladesh...I would be lying if I

said that I am not proud of being in this country but sometimes I think: 'I wish

they hadn't fucked up all of us. Otherwise we would have been this really proud

country...and we wouldn't have this stupid thing called the Third World and all

of that.

Salma, on the other hand, preferred to identify totally with her country of origin:

I belong totally to Bangladesh and if I think I belong half there, then there is

something really stupid, something wrong with me mentally because nobody in

England would see me as part of their [country]. No matter what age we come

into - we would all be classified as somebody from abroad. It comes to the point

where they don't even know that Bangladesh exists - you are just an Asian...I

don't want to be integrated into the whole system and just become nothing

in their sort of pot. I want to retain my identity and possibly go back with it.

There was a tendency to avoid such clear-cut choices, however. Several spoke of the ways in

which their Bengali/Bangladeshi, British and Muslim backgrounds formed a composite identity

even though different weightings could be given, perhaps, to each element of that composite

identity. Jabida expressed her view of this issue in the following way:

if you had to on one to ten scale of who you are, what you are, it comes Muslim,

Bengali and then British and then whatever the things that make me up. If you

take the British bit away I think that would still be me. Is that what you mean?

...But Bangladeshi is the full thing...If I was just talking to somebody I would say:

'Yes, I am Bengali'...To somebody who doesn't really know anything about

Bangladesh I'd say: 'Yes, I am Bangladeshi'. Because we had a war. Because

I identify...with Bangladesh. Because my parents come from there.

The issue of identifying with others as Muslims was more fully explored in questions which

followed those concerning national and local belongings. Shahi responded to the question 'What

do you mean by describing yourself as a Muslim?' by discussing his observance of religious

practices and then considering his identification with a universal Islamic community:

...I am Muslim and I will follow the guidelines laid down by my faith or try to...I

mean I go to Friday prayers. I try and fast. It is not physically impossible. I try and

pray when I have time. I wouldn't say I was very devout. If I was really devout I would be

praying five times a day but it is difficult anyway and I am a bit lazy in that respect...I

28

actually identify with Islamic community as a whole - not just here, everywhere.

For Jahanara an identification with Islam raised the issue of whether particular nations observed

Islamic law (sharia). Such a question could lead to difficult choices between one's motherland

and truly Islamic nation-states:

...I do have a tendency for my mother land [Bangladesh] but would say...a

Muslim country where probably the law of sharia is established...that country

is where I belong more than anywhere else. Most of all I feel I might belong more

towards Bangladesh because my relatives and everybody is there and my family

history is back there. If any other country than Bangladesh and sharia is enforced

and there is an Islamic state I would feel more belonged than anywhere else. I feel

I have a duty to fulfil. Obligations.

Although Jahanara did not discuss the relevance of Islam to the country in which she was now

living Mustafa suggested that Islam should be fully incorporated within British institutions:

Islam is a complete way of life and so I believe that Islam needs to be established

within this country's institutions because, after all, there is a large community of

Muslims in this country. And by Muslims I do not [just] mean Bangladeshis...but

Muslims of all races and their voices and their beliefs and the practices that have

to be taken into consideration. For example, in the Salman Rushdie affair Muslims

did not have any justice at all because of the law -the law only takes into account

Christianity.

So in that I believe I want to pass the message of Islam to all these places and so

educate myself through this education system and make people aware that Islam

is not just a compartment thing...you know, as a Muslim woman I feel that the way

that Islam has been portrayed within the West - especially the aspiration

considering women,...the status of women, the rights of women in Islam - [there] has

been [a] very narrow-minded image. And Islam gives women more freedom than any

other religion, any other ideologies can give. And that should be passed on...I would pass

that message on through not just institutions but pass that

message [by] being a Muslim, as an example to everybody - Muslims and non-

Muslims alike.

Most deliberations about how they expressed themselves as Muslims concentrated on personal

belief, practices and appearances, however. These reflections sometimes expressed the

individual's sense of incompleteness. Halima found herself lacking:

I believe in Allah and Allah only and that, to me, is like the first step towards

recognising or finding what Islam is about. And then kalima because Islam is

not like a religion that tells you what to do, how to do it and what is good and

bad. It is, like, everything you know...Islam...is different from all the religions.

Even though I don't practise it to the bone I think I would like to. I just hate

myself for not doing it and I just think: 'God, what I need is this. I could die

tomorrow...Why aren't you taking advantage of the fact that you are a Muslim?

It is [a] birthright and you should practise it'. And I will I think.

29

Lutfur provided the most vivid description of the issues he had to deal with as a Muslim student

at university:

The way I have approached it when I've gone to university is that I've done

everything I've thought I could do and still be a good enough Muslim. I mean

my older brother is an example. He is a very strict Muslim and he has managed

to do it while he is at university. The namaz and everything - he didn't have a

problem with that but I've found I didn't really do the namaz at university.

Things like smoking. Well, not smoking - drinking - I didn't do that. And helal

meat - it was quite easy not to do because we had Southall quite close by and

when I used to come home I used to take quite a lot of meat back.

I found that most of the people I hung around with after hours were...Asians -

Muslims and Gujeratis mixed - but I didn't have that pressure of drinking. I

didn't go down to the bar and all that business. So although I was in the

football team...after football everyone had to go to the bar and socialise...I

found that there wasn't a problem there. I thought initially: 'Am I going to be

pressured to drink?' Because they play all sorts of games afterwards in the

bar after they have had a good match and there are all sorts of things you

can get up to - singing songs and playing games...It is just how strong you are

inside.

I can't say I was a strict Muslim...because I didn't do the namaz...I still feel I am

a Muslim...I do believe in Allah and I have got that. In terms of putting it into

practice I haven't put everything into practice so I suppose in that sense I am

not a good Muslim as such. I have the intention and I know what I am doing is

wrong...It is just that the discipline and doing something about it I haven't got

and I don't know whether I will get that as I get older.

Shafia also discussed the difficulties of practising Islam as a woman

I pray. I have been to a few conferences with the YM [Young Muslim

Organisation]. I wish I could wear the hejab all the time...That is a weak

point about me. I am willing to do everything and at college it is a different

matter. I have always said to myself: 'When I go to college I wish I could

wear the hejab. I see so many other girls wearing the hejab and I feel so bad.

'If the can do it why can't you do it,Shafia?' When I going to my cousins I am

always putting the hejab on but the Bengali community is different...Have the

British people brainwashed me or something?...I read a lot of hadith...There is

another girl called Slima who does influence us and I go and pray with her, like

even in the medical building...The rest of my family - we have got the mosque

literally next to our house - Christian Street Mosque. My brothers go in there

all the time when it is prayer time.

Abdul Hassan Chowdury saw a sharp separation between 'complete' Muslims and others and

placed himself on the borderline between the two types. He also expressed considerable

confusion about what he believed about Islam at the moment:

30

Well, I consider that if you are either a Muslim - complete Muslim - or not and I am

on the borderline. So I'd say I am a borderline Muslim...Like I said, when I am praying I

have silly doubts and I don't know - silly ideas come into my head...up to seventeen [I was]

very devoted...I have tried reading the Koran, tried to translate it but it is very difficult. In

English you can't really get the perfect translation and phrases aren't that good so I

think I really stopped trying to understand the Koran. I believe all religions are

contradictions and are so man-made. I can't really confirm that. I'm sure that it is not

man-made, especially Islam. You see, there I go again! I sometimes practise it [but] I

keep saying these things to myself.

The problems involved in acquiring a deeper understanding of Islam were also discussed by

Justna:

I try to do the prayers if that's what you mean. I believe in most - I haven't really

studied it in length, the actual religion. I know about the prophets and all that

because we did that in Islamic studies. And that's a very general overlook of the

religion...so I've got that little bit [of] knowledge. But the only way I can say that

I have expressed myself was in doing the prayers as much as possible. And I

went to Arabic classes when I was younger and I had to read the Koran without

understanding it which I think is a bit of a pointless task. You know, I wish they

taught us to really understand it instead of just learning loads of verses by heart, like

in a parrot fashion...I know how to read but understanding it?

Afia was exceptional in claiming to be an atheist but she points out the difficulty of freeing

herself from her background:

Muslim? I have just had an argument with someone about that and I am really

confused now. I kept on telling them I was an atheist and they kept on telling me:

'Well, actually you are a Muslim'. I don't know. I don't describe myself as a

Muslim. I've described myself to you as Bangladeshi, feeling British, etc but

throughout my interview I have never mentioned the word 'Muslim'...I don't see

myself as a Muslim but other people do see me as a Muslim.

Hasina then invited the young Bengalis to express their views about the Gulf War and the

Salman Rushdie affair. As regards the Gulf war Kalhadiah joined several others in vehemently

criticising the United States and its United Nations allies including Saudi Arabia:

I was so disgusted at the whole conspiracy of the United States and the United

Nations. I think as a Muslim it made me aware that when it comes to Islam...you get

oppression from all sides...From Day One when Saddam Hussain went into

Kuwait - I am not saying that it was justified what he did -no, of course it is an

oppression against another nation. But...from Day One United States knew it had to

go to war with Saddam Hussain...I mean all those things about Bush saying: 'We don't

want war. We are a peaceful nation'. It is just a load of rubbish. Who could be a bigger

slayer than him?..

Look at King Fahd. How dare he take non-Muslims because in the Koran it has

31

been said that Jews and Christians will never be your friends...What power could be

more than the power of Islam? You do not pray to Allah and say: 'Young man, help me

from this oppressive Saddam Hussain'. [King Fahd] said: 'President Bush, help me

with half-skirt ladies or whatever. Send me all these kufr [non-believers] ladies and men to

help'.

Justna also criticised the USA and its allies but not for religious reasons:

[The Gulf War] did bother me but it is not to do with the religious side of it. It was

the hypocrisy of different nations that bothered me and interested me in the sense that I

wanted to find out what they were doing. [The war] was nothing to

do with religious reasons. The fellow Muslims were fighting against Iraq which was

Islamic. I don't think much of Saddam Hussain. I think he is an hypocrite...but I think all

the other nations - Kuwait...not the nation but the leaders...I think they were all

hypocrites. And Saudi's kings and princes and queens (whatever they have)...they are all

hypocrites. I also think the US was a hypocrite and Britain. I don't want to say the West

was because the West consists of other nations as well.

In Nazrul's opinion the conflict was about oil rather than democracy:

I disagree with Saddam Hussain actually going into Kuwait...I believe in war but not

that kind of war....because that was over oil really, wasn't it? ...Bush fought for

what? Democracy? But there is no democracy in Kuwait.

Shafia blamed both sides but then discussed the war's impact on student relations at her college:

The fighting was a load of rubbish...It was fighting over nothing and I don't see why

America and all the other people were involved...After the Gulf war when I was at

college last year there was, like, a segregation...Our class consisted of every different

kind - white, black,everything - and during the Gulf war all the whites and all the Asian

[and] black people went on the other side. And then afterwards one of the girls...- she

was an English girl - she said: 'Look, we can't have this. Why are we doing this? This is

silly. We are mature people'.

Some were even more vociferous in their criticisms of Salman Rushdie and The Satanic

Verses. Anwara claimed that:

If was [a] man I would kill him myself. Forget anybody else doing it - I would do it.

Basically, first of all he is a terrible writer and I have read the book OK? So I am not

talking out of my arse as people would put it...I don't know how he got the Booker

Prize but the prizes can go to anybody...Second of all basically he just wanted some

attention...and he got too much attention because he fired too many people. That again

shows how stupid he is because I think he miscalculated how much...importance would

be given by the Islamic community.

32

Jahanara also considered the book's effect on Muslim sensibilities in the context of free speech:

I think that guy is a lunatic and what he has written is not freedom of speech.

What he has said there is no evidence and truth behind that and what that has

done was upset millions of Muslims. A lot of Muslims got killed because of this. And

they call this freedom of speech? Freedom to abuse people -I don't think that's morally

accepted in any culture or any religion. But the British people and the Western people

they accepted this because it was against Islam. But if it was

against them they wouldn't have accepted it. So there is a lot of prejudice and

racism behind all this rubbish.

Nazrul took a similar line but argued against the death threat to Salman Rushdie:

I was against Salman Rushdie printing those words but then again the [money] for

killing him - I am against that. I don't believe that someone should die for that. He

shouldn't publish something which is close to the heart of millions of people...This

country is a hypocritical country because they defend their religion but nobody

else's.

Kalhadiah was more concerned with the media's role in the affair:

What Salman Rushdie said did offend me but most of all the whole image that has

been put through the media offended me more than what he said...No truth was

said and especially when they interviewed Muslims. It was Muslims who were not

practising Muslims. They were so-called Muslims but they had no knowledge of

Islam...According to Islam you have to look into the [blasphemy] law and this

whole issue wasn't dealt to the media...Because in the Muslim state if somebody

says something like this it would go against the [blasphemy] law. [Blasphemers]

would get the punishment necessary.

Justna discussed the affair in terms of free speech but then proceeded to distinguish between her

knowledge about the book and the effect its publication had on the 'general atmosphere' in this

country:

I think there should be a limit to the freedom of expression and free speech. If it

means like you offend other people, if it means it will stir up all the trouble,

then I think there should be a limit to freedom of expression. To be honest I

haven't read the book and even to this day I don't know what the book says...I

know it is a lot to do with hearing from the media and from other people

that...influenced my opinion. So I can't really say the book has offended me

because I don't know what it is all about...Just the general atmosphere it created

I despised most.

(ii) Gender and Class

33

The young Bengalis were then asked their views about the position of men and women in

society and whether they belonged to a class. We will begin with considering the views of the

male respondents about their gender and relations between males and females. Nazrul claimed

that:

...the man's position is exactly the same as a woman's position. It is a difficult

question...A man works. I expect a woman to work. It is up to the individual. If a

man wants to work he can work; if he doesn't he doesn't have to. Same with a

woman...If there is a couple they both want to work and have a kid, fine. They

have got to work round that to make adjustments and solve their problems - like,

who is going to look after the kid. I don't see the man's position as a breadwinner and

the woman's as homeworker unless the woman wants it that way and the man wants it

that way.

Helal spoke of his experience in changing his conventional ideas about male/female relations:

Maybe it is because I know so many people, have done so many things and dealt

with a lot of issues...I have been able to look back at myself and correct my

mistakes...and being a bit more understanding towards women - females...having

the courage to turn around and say: 'Yes, I have been wrong in doing things'...A lot

of men in the Bengali community don't see it that way. They see women as they are

supposed to be - at home looking after their children. They have still got

those basic ideas...And I think it is down to people like me and other people who are

involved in the same kind of thing to actually put out to the community, you know, to

make it a bit more equal between men and women.

...To me being a man is, like, more freedom - talking on my own

perspective...Maybe if I was a woman I wouldn't be where I am now basically...

I have been able to do what I wanted to do, anything that I wanted to do

whereas if I was a woman then these chances wouldn't have arisen, whereas

my mum would have kept me back. Like, she would be more protective of me.

The theme of sexual equality in the context of Bengali society was also taken up by Abdul Huq

Chowdhury:

I think a man should really get a good education. He should have a flexible

attitude in this present day. Equal opportunities - not there's a thing! I don't

quite understand about equal opportunities. I accept it though. What is equal

opportunities? Is it being fair? Discriminating [in favour of] the other? I have

always been in favour of [sexual equality]. Women are taking more roles.

I accept that...I have always thought that women should have come out and

fought.

...Some of my friends' brothers are getting married. They go to Bangladesh and

bring back their wives. I know a few of [the wives] and I am always trying to

encourage them to take up study - a couple of them have. Or find themselves as job

or something rather than stay home...I wouldn't want to get married to someone who can't

really support herself or me...if I end up being made redundant or something. I would be

a househusband. Yes? Would I do that? I love kids...so I'd be OK on that. I'll look after

34

the kid but I'd also find myself a job. I don't think I could stay in the house for too long...I

would never give a kid to a nanny - my mummy, I guess, or my sister...or some relatives.

The theme of equality between the sexes was related to Islamic conventions according to

Muhammad Aziz:

I see men and women as both being equal but different. I see the men as the

breadwinner and women as the teacher. I see the man as somebody who runs the

external affairs of the family or household and the woman who runs the internal

affairs of the household. It might seem a very black and white picture. Some people

might even call it a sexist picture...but that is how I define myself and how I define

the Muslim woman...Islam doesn't prevent a woman from making money, having her

own property - she can have her own business - but her prime responsibility it to look

after the household first and to educate [the] children.

The responses by the female informants to the question about gender roles and relations were,

not surprisingly perhaps, more extensive and concentrated more on the issue of individual

choice, social pressures and personal experience. Justna explained her position in the following

terms:

I don't have a general perception of a woman in society because to have that I feel

you have to do a lot of research and I can only speak for myself...I hope you ask this

question to the guys because that would be interesting to me ...I should be able to do what

I like. If somebody chooses to be a housewife and a mother, then fine. That is their

choice and if they are happy with that then it has nothing to do with me or other

liberated women who just condemn that kind of thing, attribute it to husband's

pressure...or because there is less training. I suppose [training]...is a contributing

factor. If there is less training for women specifically then they

have less choice and they just get married and become a housewife and a mother and

everything.

I do know a lot of educated women who chose to be a housewife but [that] is what

they want to do and that's fine...It is all to do with individual choice...I know

society does influence everybody...[but] at the end of the day I think the choice is

your's...I know there is more pressure for Asian women in every sense than there is

for non-Asian women...they experience a lot of struggle and hassles and everything.

I personally and some of my friends are lucky...because I know loads of other girls

who probably wanted to go into higher education or get a job [but] are forced into

marriage and then later kids and everything. I am aware of that as well so what I

said about choice - some people have no choice.

The issues of sexual politics and male power were more fully developed by Afia:

Women? I do see it as part of my life every day. I love being a woman and I feel

really superior to men! I am interested in sexual politics - issues about sexuality.

Why? Because I think sexuality is a very important issue in all societies and the way

who has control of the sexuality and the development of the sexuality is very important.

35

And when it comes to women in order to liberate themselves women have to discover

their own sexuality. It is at the core of the kind of position we have in society. Like

pornography is a false portrayal of women's sexuality or prostitution...and the way gay

women are portrayed.

Most oppressive things about being a woman? Everything! I don't know where to

start. I think society and all its institutions are geared around men and created to

oppress women and keep women down. I think they are all bastards -the media,

parliamentary system, legislation, the education system, everything. Everything is

geared towards men to disadvantage women. Religion as well.

In terms of addressing it? I don't see it is a sort of mission in life or anything. But

with my job [youth and community worker], of course, it comes up all the time

because...you have to address issues about equal opportunities all the time and

educate younger people about how they relate to women, how they see sex or how

they see parenthood, family etc. Personally I support campaigns organised by

women's organisations like this woman, Karanjit, who was released from

prison...and campaigns for legalising abortion in Ireland.

Sultana believed that she was caught between two different models of women which she found

hard to choose between:

The thing is I have lived in two societies really because when I go home...I am

back to being Bangladeshi...When I go out it is British society. I don't really like the

model any western society has to give about women but then again I don't like our

Bengali role of women either. Do you know what I am trying to say? I do like the Muslim

role of women because that's what I believe in and I think from what I

have studied about Islam that it gives women a lot of freedom to be themselves

despite the fact that people think it doesn't.

...I think I would agree that in this society rather than in Bangladesh I would have

more room to be myself...In Bangladesh women are, like, dominated totally, I think.

It is all, like, men telling you what to do. Even though I think this society is

too...promiscuous...I still think it gives women room to be themselves...I am not

saying this society is any better but you know what I am trying to say. I would

have the space to be more myself within that society.

Sultana introduces here the part played by Islam in defining the role of Bengali/Bangladeshi

women. A more detailed discussion of Islamic conventions was supplied by Kalhadiah which

provides an interesting comparison with the earlier exposition developed by Muhammad Aziz:

I think the Islamic position I would go for...because it has given me everything and

it has got a lot to offer me...Yes,of course I think everybody has the right to stand

against oppression but at the end of the day the so-called liberated women is being

used all over again. What justice has been done? They go to court the husbands

beat them up...The man goes up into the court and he says: 'I am never going to do

this again' and he is let free. But you look at the laws of divorce and marriage in Islam -

they are so beautiful. You do not even have to give a reason why you want to divorce

36

your husband. Even if it is a personal reason you say: 'I want to divorce him'. I mean,

what could be more beautiful than that? What more disgraceful can you get than

going into court and describing your personal relationship and everything?

Then again I have to say that Islam has its beautiful ideologies...but to day we still

see that Muslim men...ignore it. Muslim men are not living according to the law of

Allah...They are making women work more than they are and [women] are not

given their rights...so many girls are being married off without their permission. In

regard to this situation the position of women is very appalling but if only people

heed to Islam that is the time it will get better and better and better. And we

should all work towards it.

These responses to questions concerning the position of men and women in our society evoked

a wide range of responses which these extracts have tried to convey. When Hasina moved to the

issue of class there was considerable agreement about their involvement in a society where class

distinctions were important and where they might be moving between classes. Julie explained

her position thus:

I would say I was between classes...I come from a not very educated background and

in my life I have tried to educate myself so I can become something my parents aren't. So

I would say I am in a mobile state. If I got the job of

teacher it would mean that I would be in a different class from my parents...I

would say that class is more associated to employment now although for a lot of

people it is very much part of their cultural identity...people living in the East End

would consider themselves a certain class...it is [a] working class environment.

Shahi defined class in terms of wealth and locality and say himself as remaining a member of

the working class:

At the moment I would describe myself as working class -right at the bottom of the

ladder. Well, if you take the advertising classifications - A1, A2, C2 and all this -

I've got no money so I must be at the bottom. The class issue has been talked

about since the year dot in this country. It is still here: it is still with us. It is

because of where I live, because of how rich I am. I mean I do have friends at

university who...don't see themselves as working class but I don't feel that I've

got out of that yet. If I manage to get a good degree, get a job, I think I will

always think of myself as working class but maybe I won't be so impoverished.

Halima also explained her membership within the working class in terms of locality but also

drew attention to cultural factors:

Two things that tell somebody about a class is...the way they speak and the way

they dress. And you just know, like, this so even though I'd like or not like to it is still

there...Somebody from the middle class wouldn't wear what I am wearing and wouldn't

talk the way I am talking...Yes, I mean locally...Brick Lane...it is not a pretty picture, is

it? If I said to myself, to anybody: 'Yes, I live in E1' they all think: 'Yes'...if I said I

lived in Hampstead it is a different story altogether. And the fact that I do live in

37

Spitalfields says something about the fact that I am working class.

Sultana emphasised the differences in personal experience and attitudes between her and her

fellow students on the social policy degree course at the LSE:

fifty percent of the students tend to be overseas which means that they come

from a very upper class family in the other countries because otherwise they

couldn't afford to come out here...and their way of thinking and their values

are totally different than mine and they are bringing in loads of money to blow

away....Some of the students are mature students and they are also from a middle

class background...When you talk there is some difference in the way you look at

things and the way you view people....Like a lot of people tend to think people are

poor because they scrounge...they are lazy, blah, blah and being a working

class person, coming from a working class background and knowing people you

know...that is not the case...They don't see [poverty] as a position in a structural

society, as inevitable...the society reinforces it rather than helps to overcome it.

Helal's response was interesting because he related the issue of racism to the theme of social

mobility:

I don't believe in class but this society would class me as working class...if you talk

about class then in a sense I am moving up the stage from working class to middle

class. But I will never be...middle class in this society...On the streets you are still

mainly Asian or Paki - class has got no say in it...I don't see myself as working

class or middle class - I just think of myself as a normal person.

Kalhadiah also did not subscribe to class difference but for Islamic reasons:

I do not believe in classes. As a Muslim there is no such thing as class...you are a

Muslim irrespective of race, colour, sex, language, wealth, status...in the sight of

Allah the one who is greater is the one who has more knowledge and you can only

be better than others when you have more knowledge in fear of Allah. And the

more you fear Allah the better you are and that is my aim.

(iii) Experiences of Racism

The last major item in this section dealt with the existence of racism in this country and their

identification with a black and Asian community. In responding to the question 'Do you think

that racism exists in this country?' the young Bengalis expressed a rare degree of unanimity and

they spoke vehemently about the operation of racism at a general level and about their personal

experiences of racism. Afia, for example, explained racism within the context of the East End

and its history:

This country is really, really racist. They are all racist. Street level racism is

really, really disgusting in this country. I have worked locally on local estates

where the levels of street racism - like, racial attacks - is really, really bad. It is

38

all...shoved away under the carpet. A lot ...[of] people think Britain is a really

tolerant country but it has some very extreme elements and they all operate

around the East End because that's the traditional support for them - among the

Eastenders...racism has always existed here, like, first of all towards the Jewish

people. It is part of working class culture - it is such a deprived area...and because

it is deprived that's why people come here...and the people here they really take

everything out on people who are foreigners or they see as being foreigners

although most of the Bengalis around here were born within the sound of Bow

Bells.

Afia later related this general account to her own experience of racism:

Personally I have been called 'Paki' at school, called 'Paki' on the street. Stuff like

that. I have never been beaten up...I work with white people and underneath the

surface a lot of things happen. A lot of stuff goes on which people don't

realise...there is a power relationship going on that no-one realises is happening.

And it is all very unspoken, all very taken for granted.

Helal did get involved in fights with his white peers at school but his account of school violence

moves towards a consideration of how to organise resistance at further education level:

When I was in school every day was the same old day. I was getting involved in

fights, coming home with a black eye, being called a 'Paki', having eggs thrown

at your head - at secondary school. In school, out of school. Walking down the

street, getting jumped...At that time because it was really bad - '84, '85, '86, '87.

I think those years were really bad especially for people our age...We didn't

want to stay at home like our older parents were doing. Either they stayed at

home or they were at work. We wanted to go out and about. If you went out

and about you had to face the consequences...there has been various instances

where I have been cut, or cut on my face twice, stabbed on my leg once.

...after the violent type of racism when I got to college ...it was like different

issues...I was able to get one of the Assistant Principals sacked. What happened was

at exam times and all of us were standing around the college and a few people had exams

and a few of us were waiting outside the college in the park. The Assistant Principal

called up one of the girls, Pakistani girls, and she just basically called her a prostitute,

hanging around the park, asking for guys to

come round in cars. And she basically called her a prostitute which the girl found

really offensive and started crying. Because I was Chair of the Asian Society at the

time I thought something had to be done...so I took up action against it, wrote to

...the main Principal of the...college and in a matter of two/three weeks [the

Assistant Principal] was taken out of the site.

Although Sultan had also experienced racism at school he found that at work he could use racial

stereotypes to his advantage:

...in school you have direct experience of racism...In the workplace I haven't had

39

any. Not really. If anything I was treated quite well. Probably...I was treated better

because I was Asian rather than white or black because the people, they perceive

Asians as hard-working and working long hours and everything.

Although Rabya agreed that her experience of direct racism diminished as she had got older she

detected a more subtle form of racism at university:

Hasina Zaman: What about racism at secondary school or college?

Rabya: I don't remember it much but I am sure I would have had a comment here

and there but I don't remember it as vividly. Teachers? No. But I will tell you

of an incident recently though in my final year...I am sure this warden was racist

and it really sticks in my mind because it is a long time since I came across

something like that. I just got the impression from a few comments that he made.

Things like I remember picking up the key from him for the house I was going to

stay in and I couldn't open the door but the lock was a bit dodgy - it had nothing

to do with me not being able to lock the door. And I said I couldn't open the

door -that it was the key or the lock and he said: 'Oh, you have heard that saying

that workmen blame their tools?' and I said: 'No' and he said he would have to teach

me some

English phrases then. And I thought: 'What is that supposed to mean?' And

as far as I was concerned I took it slightly as racism.

Some chose to discuss what they saw as expressions of institutional racism as well as direct

racism. Julie saw racism in the allocation of public resources:

In school, in housing, in employment, in the health service...Housing in terms of

what is available in this area.Bengali people are being discriminated against by not

[being] give the choice that a lot of white people have about where they want to live...I

grew up on a predominantly white estate with a lot of racism - attacks actually on the

estate, going to school...I wouldn't say physical violence but the sort of potential of

violence was very apparent...In the health service in the way that doctors/nurses treat

Bengali women in particular because they don't have

the language skills to communicate what they need.

Job wise I have been lucky in terms of youth work...because of some of the

progressive...things that ILEA did. It allowed certain groups to be able to have

access to facilities that were previously denied to them...But outside the youth

service when I have gone for jobs and things, like in shops, the assumption that

when I was younger I wouldn't have a full command of English, that I wouldn't

understand people or the way they treat me in interviews...So sort of very real

experiences in my life but also from what I have seen has happened to other

people in my family and friends and relatives.

Muhammad Aziz also reflected on the problems which he might face in the competition for

jobs:

if I start looking for jobs now I may find that maybe some of my [white] friends

40

with the same qualifications may be getting them easier than I am or

something...there has been a lot of talk about institutional racism and interviews, for

example. How do you know that they are assessing your interview performance? When you

can go to an interview and have a really brilliant interview, really enjoy it, have a good

chat, tell them everything and ask them brilliant questions and then they will tell you

haven't got the job. So how can you tell? It is very difficult to know what is happening

because once you get to professional level you just can't tell. So unless there is a strict

monitoring by

external bodies there is no way of knowing.

Justna raised the issue of how racism can interweave with other forms of discrimination - in this

case, sexism:

I know they are doing their best to employ Asian and black people in media, i.e.

television, but I think they are sexist as well...not just racist. By just watching T

regularly you can tell that there is more men doing more chatshows or quiz games,

hosting quiz games and all that.

Halima also pointed to the way in which religious differences can also act as a basis for

discrimination against Bengalis:

We were applying for [college] right? And you know where the teacher writes a

personal statement on the kid and she applied to a Catholic college and the guy - of

all the stupid things - do you know what he wrote? 'Sadia is a very good Muslim girl. Being

Muslim is so important to her'. And, like, she went up to him and she had an argument

with him. And he said: 'No, I don't see what...are you saying you are ashamed of being

Muslim?' And she said: 'No'. But...you could see just what he was insinuating...and he

was making her feel guilty about being Muslim...I felt like I had to say something. I felt

obliged because she was like my sister ...It is not direct racism but it is his bloody

attitude. He wasn't thinking he was racist but he was...You don't write you are gay, you

are this or that...when you put in a personal statement. He hasn't written: 'She is

Protestant or Catholic' to any other white kid. It is horrible but there you go.

When the interviews moved on to consider identification with 'a wider black and Asian

community' the responses were fewer, more cursory and less impassioned. Shahi saw himself as

part of such a community by virtue of a shared minority experience and an empathy with

outsiders:

Yes, I think that is purely because everyone who comes here ...must have a lot of the

[same] experiences. They ...must be quite similar in terms of cultural experience and

also the hostility or indifference or whatever they get....Asian

community? Yes, definitely. But then again you have got people from Kenya but

they are very different, you see. This could get really bogged down because you do

have some empathy with them as with the general Asian community as well. But day

to day you don't go round thinking: 'Yes, I am a minority'. You just get on with it.

I do feel some empathy with other minorities or other people who have come from

overseas and different backgrounds. I have friends from quite a lot of different

41

backgrounds - English, Scottish, Pakistani, Cameroon. In general life you

don't go round looking at people thinking: 'Yes, he is black'. Or: 'Yes, he is white

I am not going to talk to him'. You just go about living your life. You do feel some

empathy with minorities. Well I do!

Kalhadiah related her identification with 'black and Asian' to skin colour, racism, the

classifications used by white people and Islam :

Yes, I do because I am an Asian and I cannot denounce my colour. I cannot say: 'I

am white or English or I hate my culture or whatever'. I cannot say that because at

the end of the day it doesn't matter whatever culture I try to be. I can be very

westernised, do everything like English people but at the end of the day somebody

will look at me and say: 'You are black and Asian'...Once you start integrating and

forgetting your identity...- I am not talking about Islam here - I am talking about

things that do not contradict Islam.

The existence of cultural differences between 'ethnic minorities' was considered by others as

well. Afia identified with a wider black political struggle but did not see herself as belonging to

an Asian community:

Nationally I identify myself with black politics or issues to do with black people in

this country. Certainly. But I wouldn't say that a community existed out there...I

don't believe there is such a thing as an Asian community...We are not an

homogeneous entity...For me 'Asian' doesn't have any political meaning. It certainly

doesn't refer to a geographical space because 'Asian' is vast. Who do we mean

when we say 'Asian'? And people are Chinese so they are Asian as well...We have

got different issues...we see differently from people who are from an Indian

background...and I think it ignores the differences that exist. Like Gujerati people

have a very different sociology from Bengali people and Pakistani people have

a very different sociology, very different history. There is a difference in class, a

difference in status and levels of education. Like, Gujerati people are much

more...middle class, much more business orientated.

To avoid the problem of cultural and social diversity among 'Asians' Helal used 'black' as an

all-inclusive term:

In this society I see myself as a black person. In a political term I see myself as a

black person. To me ...'black' covers everything so I don't need to go to break

it down into 'Asian'. Once you break it down into Indian sub-continent, then you

break it down into Bangladesh and then you break it down into Sylhet and then you

break it down into religion...If I identify myself as a black person I can communicate with

everyone. It is not just Bengalis or Asians, it is everyone who is black - who is not see as a

white person. I am stronger in that sense.

Lutfur, on the other hand, was prepared to identify with the term 'Asian' rather than 'black':

If they are trying to say all coloured people experience the same kinds of racism

or have the same problems, I wouldn't agree with that. Different communities have

42

different problems. All Asians have experienced the same problems whether you are

from India or Pakistan or Bangladesh. I think what country you are from makes a difference

- the fact that you are Asian and that's the thing that makes you different from anybody

else.

Motin also preferred to identify with other Asians, especially those with origins in Pakistan:

I think I consider myself Asian not black. I couldn't consider myself as black

because I think my cultural background or anything like that is really more...

suited to Asian, the Indian, Pakistani and all that...My parents and Pakistani

parents - their background is similar because you have got to just remember that it

was one country. All Pakistan was one and, therefore, the sentimental thing is

still there.

Sultan was the only person who rejected both terms:

Black and Asian? No because I don't see people as being - people are basically

people...No, I don't see myself as part of a wider Asian community.

(E) THE FUTURE

In this, the third section to be considered, the young Bengalis were asked about their plans for

the next five years. Not surprisingly they were mainly concerned with finding a suitable job or

gaining further training. For many marriage was also a serious proposition once they had

qualified.

Rabya focussed on the problems of getting the right kind of job initially:

I would like to get a really good job. I don't know what in but every time I think of

a job...I am sort of greedy. I don't want to start at the bottom. I think I would like to

get right to the top. Not necessarily because that is where the money is. But I don't really

[like] being told what to do. I like working with people but I wouldn't like to be in a

situation where you are underdog to someone...I want to have a say in whatever it is I

am going to do...Although I have done youth work I don't want to be a youth worker. I'd

like to do development work or something a bit more specialised - even social working

- something specialised. Specialised

youth work maybe but not like I have been doing. Not that I have not enjoyed it or

anything.

Helal also did not want to remain at the level of a youth worker once he had qualified. He was

also pondering the possibility of marriage.

I am going to apply and get a full-time job somewhere...where I can put in all the

money and all the experience I have gained to more practical...use...not...youth

work but open it out more to community work. And then gain more experience and

43

then, hopefully, by the end of that time -five years - go into a bit more

management, more management/political, whichever suits me. Where there is a

lot of power which I can use...That is professionally. Personally I don't know.

There are hopes for my mum and dad that I should be married soon but that is not

in mind right now. I don't think I should [go] into something like that until I am

secure, stable, which I am not right now. Hopefully in a year's time or so. I've got

plans on a business that will work, maybe it won't. So a lot of things depend on the

actual business. That's about it.

Motin was also considering the prospects of political involvement, further training, business

adventure and the problem of marriage:

In two years' time there is a council election coming up and that's one of the

targets. My mother wants me to get married for some reason...but she wants

me to finish my education. I was thinking of doing my Mac. The I think back

and say: 'No, I'll do a CPA'...I have difficulty in deciding precisely what I want to

do...A friend of mine is setting up a business which is expected to make

a hell of a lot of money - it is unique...[Bengalis] have so many ideas but that one

will definitely work.

Mohi Uddin Khan was primarily interested in gaining further training through his company:

I am starting - it is really pretentious - I think it is a Graduate Executive

Training Scheme for the Prudential Corporation and I am going to be in

that for the next two years. Broadly speaking I see the next two years as

giving me the business and professional skills that I want and that

covers business and management skills, professional qualifications,

hopefully to give me an MBA. I have been in education twenty years - a

long time. Now I am getting into the real world and I guess [I need]...to find

my feet in the business world, to develop professionally and start climbing

the ladder.

Halima wanted to gain an experience of working in a business while she was doing her

undergraduate degree:

I want to do a degree but at the same time I want to stay running a magazine...and

get some sort of training with a newspaper...That kind of thing...You know, like

they say: 'Words are weapons' or whatever. I think that is my main asset - I can

write...Something that I like to do, not something that I have to do because I have to

get the money ...Money isn't important but maybe for me to take to my family it is.

Anwara was determined to use her abilities on behalf of others:

My education will give me a certain - it is a horrible word to use - but a certain

prestigious place in society and, Allah willing, I won't abuse it...I'd like to use it

to help myself and also my surroundings and people within those surroundings

44

because we are not all lucky to have a prime position or whatever...Allah willing

I don't just become money minded. I'd like to be a doctor of the people and not

a doctor just by name. I'd like to be a people's doctor and preferably a women's

doctor

The Islamic theme introduced by Anwara is taken up even more vigorously by Kalhadiah:

I would like to finish up my BSc course - I start this October so that is going to

take me three years. And within that course if there are any good proposals then

I might get married. By the end of the course I would like to get more involved in

voicing out for the Muslims in this country.

Noor was more concerned with making a more comfortable life for herself and her mother:

One of the plans is after I get a good job then I want to renovate the house

or get a good house for my mum to live in. Accommodation. And then I want

to buy a nice car and then I'll let my mum get remarried if she wants. It is up

to my kismet (luck, fate) really. Leave the rest up to fate. The issue of marriage was

more fully discussed in a later question - do you think that having a

partner is/will be a help/hindrance to your present situation or your plans in

the future?

Muhammad Khan did not believe that he was ready for such a commitment:

As far as the future goes I don't know - anything could happen. If someone sort

of bowls me over...I have no intention of getting married - not for a couple of

years. First of all I don't think I am stable enough yet. I do a lot of things on

impulse so I don't think I have got that sort of stability and character yet. I

think perhaps emotionally I might not be totally ready for it either. Certainly

I don't think I am...secure enough financially yet.

Muhammad Aziz also saw marriage as a hindrance to his plans for travelling:

At present it would be a hindrance...if I did get married now I wouldn't be able to do

a lot of travelling that I'd need to do before I started at the institution. Because I'd need to

go to Saudi Arabia and spend some time there. Go to Pakistan and spend some time

there - at least six months in each country.

Abdul Huq Chowdhury welcomed the prospect of a partner but not marriage:

Partner? What partner? I haven't got a partner at the moment. She has left me. If I

had a partner? No, it would certainly be a positive thing...I think it would be a

help as long as I am not married...Not in the near future. Perhaps five years. I'm not

sure.

Rabya did have a partner which she did not regard as a hindrance:

My present situation is a bit stagnant because I haven't got a job. I am looking for

45

a job and I am not a hundred per cent sure what I want to do. And I have got a

partner as such. Not marriage or anything. And I have been with him for a couple

of years so I wouldn't say it was hindering what I am doing. I mean the situation

would only change if something more permanent was going to come out of it like

a marriage. Obviously then it is a different matter as to what I go on to do.

Anwara welcomed the notion of a Muslim partner:

In the future...yes. I think, first of all, as a Muslim I believe in the sanctity of

marriage. People should marry. Whether they procreate is another question

altogether. I would like to procreate. I would like to pass things on to my kids

but I am speaking from a Muslim viewpoint. I would like to get married because that

is one of the things Muslims do. We read the Koran. We pray. We have Ramadan. We get

a house if we can afford it.

Having a partner helps you. How can that hinder you? It can hinder you if you

marry the wrong person! Hopefully, inshallah, we shall all marry the right person

and you can get so much pleasure out of being with someone you [can] talk to. You

interact.

Kalhadiah also located her hopes within her understanding of Islam:

I think every Muslim woman and man who can afford to and who are mature and

believe that they can take the responsibility of getting married should get

married...In terms of family life, in terms of the purpose of your creation, like the

procreation of more human beings and development of the human race and

propagating Islam...Because without a person getting married, unless they really

have very strong [will], they can fall into so many sins...Islam wants responsible

men. If they want to marry more than once go ahead but you are responsible

totally for the family and the women and keep the women with respect and dignity.

Not just have an affair, have children and then just leave to fend for herself

...inshallah but I feel I can take the responsibility when the time is right.

(F) EDUCATIONAL CHANGES

In this section Hasina discussed among other things the introduction of testing, the local

management of schools and the reasons for Bengali underachievement in Tower Hamlets.

Many were worried about the implications of testing seven year old children especially those

from Bengali families. Sultana argued that:

I don't think they are right - not at the age of seven anyway because I feel that

(a)...it put too much pressure on teachers (b) I think it is too much pressure on

46

the children as well, (c) I think middle class children do better in these tests than

working class children do and (d) I think they do even worse (children from

Bangladesh) because at that age Bangladeshi children or any other children that

don't speak English as a first language... haven't developed their English so much

to be able to think at that level, in that language and that will immediately

discriminate against them.

Helal was very suspicious of the uses to which tests might be put and referred to his own

experience:

In a way it is going to be negative for a lot of people. If they are not very good

then they are going to be dropped down and put into lower classes where - I

don't know whether they are going to get more support from the people who pass

or are they going to get less support? We don't know that yet. If they are going to get

more support then good. But what I've seen and what I've heard and what I've known is

that people who go to the lower classes don't really get any attention at all so they lose out

and the people who've passed these tests get on better...When I was in school...I saw the

whole system putting me down, undermining me. So that is what my idea would be

towards it

Kobirul Mustafa, however, saw some advantages in the use of tests even at the age of seven:

I don't quite know what they are going to do once they test people at seven.

What are they going to identify?...If they are testing at seven to see if people

are on track or not and who are going to be identified as people they need to

work on then I don't think that's a problem. At least then you are identifying

people who need extra help or extra work or extra support. Well, if they are

nationally published to achieve a league table of schools to see which schools

are good and which schools are bad then that would be an incentive for the bad

schools to do better or whether they can't do better because of the intake they have

or because they can't add value...The fact that seven year olds in one school might

be quite bright might mean...they come from the area which is naturally bright -

middle class parents - that kind of thing.

As regards the local management of schools Afia was extremely concerned about the influence

of political interests. She cited the case of a local secondary school which had become a

'political football' and argued that:

a school should remain out of politics - out of any local politics or community

politics. And it should be left to [be] run by people who are bureaucrats or

whatever. It is like the NHS...there has to be certain basic standard of

rules - universal rules that everyone, whatever they are, whatever part of the

country they are in, they follow and run their school along those lines. What do

parents know about running a school for God's sake? They are not trained

to run such a large organisation.

Motin Miah was already an experienced school governor and not surprisingly he detected

advantages in greater parental involvement in the management of local schools:

47

Although there was governors before..to give more authority, more rights on

education I think is being positive...[local parents] get a lot of information through

me...and I give advice on, basically, how they could help their children to achieve

and...make sure that they don't take their children to Bangladesh during an exam

time or school period time.

Kalhadiah believed that the local management of school provided opportunities for expressing

the Muslim interests of parents:

I think it would be better because that way the parents of the children will have

more say and more power over what their children [are] taught, especially in

terms of Muslim parents. They have so much reservations, for example, sex

education...and...activities with boys and girls. So they probably can have more

say and probably run the school according to what they want.

As regards the causes of underachievement Motin believed that both parents and the schools

were at fault:

Every party is to blame. I think, first of all, you can't [simply] blame the

parents...they are one of the factors...they don't expect their children to

achieve...Primary school [is another factor] because...the teachers are

basically saying: 'Well, children just go and play'...the schools let them

down in a way...When I went to primary school I used to know my times table.

I used to be able to multiply and all that stuff. Nowadays children even going

to secondary school don't know their times tables...What's happened is because

the parents don't complain. They don't go and say: 'Why is my child not achieving?

Secondary schools are mostly blamed...- they do hold some of the blame but now

I think primary schools need to be dealt with. The primary school needs to be told

that they can't let our children down...The root is primary schools and parents'

participation in primary schools - to go and see what their children are doing, to

basically go to the parents' evening and talk to the teachers and say what they

want their children to achieve.

Abdul Huq Chowdhury chose, however, to emphasise the role of parents in motivating their

children:

It has got to be parents because the kid is not responsible. He doesn't know what

he is doing. If he is guided he is OK...I've got a couple of nephews and a niece...and

if I show interest in their work they are very keen...

Perhaps hobbies would be good for the kids...They haven't got many

hobbies...perhaps they have got football, go outside, kick the ball about but

other than that they haven't got much. So if a parent could get them interested

in a hobby or if they joined clubs, whatever. I think the recreation facilities are

poor in this area as well...and Bengalis aren't encouraged. The careers service

could play a big part as well. They are trying but I think they haven't got enough

resources at the moment.

48

Sultana, on the other hand, pointed to economic and political factors rather than the role of

parents and schools:

I think [underachievement] is down to the fact that it is a deprived area. The local

economy is not exactly flourishing, is it? And there is a high rate of unemployment

round here. There is a high rate of immigrants as well who are second generation

immigrants. There is a lot of things working to suppress Tower Hamlets with both

racism and all the other factors that we have just said...And at the political level

I think the ethnic minorities are suppressed all the time - they are not allowed to

spread their wings.

(G) CONCLUSION

During this account we have met a variety of opinions and a range of experiences which reveal

the ability of your Bengalis in the East End to make strategic choices about the world around

them. These choices defy simplistic generalisations about the Bengali community which the

mass media and many 'experts' are only too willing to disseminate.

We trust that the publication of this Report will challenge journalistic stereotypes about the

SOME SUGGESTED READINGS

Adams C. 1987 Across Seven Seas and Thirteen Rivers, London: THAP Books

Ballard, R. & 1994 The Ethnic Dimensions of the 1991 Census: A Kalra,V.S.

Preliminary Report, University of Manchester: Census Group

Barton, S 1986 The Bengali Muslims of Bradford, Dept. of Theology and

Religious Studies, Univ. of Leeds

Bermant, C. 1975 Point of Arrival, London: Eyre Methuen

Bethnal Green 1979 Blood on the Streets

& Stepney Trades

Council

Carey, S. & 1985 `A Profile of the Bangladeshi Community in East London,

Shukur, A New Community 12, 3

Choudhury, Y. 1993 The Roots and Tales of Bangladeshi Settlers, Birmingham:

Sylhet Social History Group

......... 1995 Sons of the Empire, Birmingham: Sylhet Social History Group

Keith, M. 1995 `Making the Street Visible: Placing Racial Violence in

49

Context', New Community 21 (4)

C.R.E. 1979 Brick Lane and Beyond: An Inquiry into Racial Strife and

Violence in Tower Hamlets, London: C.R.E.

Dhondy, F. 1976 East End at Your Feet, Basingstoke: Macmillan

Duffy, P. 1979 The Employment and Training Needs of the Bengali

Community in Tower Hamlets, London: C.R.E.

Eade, J. 1989 The Politics of Community: The Bangladeshi

Community in East London, Aldershot: Avebury

........ 1990 `Nationalism and the Quest for Authenticity', New

Community 16, 4

........ 1997 `Keeping the Options Open: Bangladeshis in a Global City'

in A. Kershen (ed.) London: A Promised Land?, Aldershot:

Avebury

Eade, J., Vamplew, 1996 `The Bangladeshis: The Encapsulated Community' in

T. & Peach, C. C. Peach (ed.), Ethnicity in the 1991 Census, Vol. 2,

London: HMSO

Fishman, W. 1981 The Streets of East London, London: Duckworth

Foreman, C. 1989 Spitalfields: The Battle for Land, London: Hilary Shipman

Gardner, K. 1991 Songs at the River's Edge: Stories from a Bangladeshi

Village, London: Virago

.......... 1993 `Desh-Bidesh: Sylheti Images of Home and Away', Man 28,

1: 1-16

.......... 1995 Global Migrants: Local Lives: Travel and Transformation in

Rural Bangladesh, Oxford: Clarendon Press

Gardner, K. and 1994 `"I'm Bengali, I'm Asian and I'm Living Here": The

Shukur, A. Changing Identity of British Bengalis' in R. Ballard (ed.),

Desh Pardesh: The South Asian Presence in Britain, London:

Hurst and Co.

House of 1986 Bangladeshis in Britain, London: H.M.S.O.

Commons Home -1987

Affairs Committee

Hyndman, S. 1991 Housing and Health amongst British Bengalis in Tower

50

Hamlets, London: Q.M.W. College, Dept. of Geography

Merriman, N. 1993 The Peopling of London: Fifteen Thousand Years of (ed)

Settlement from Overseas, London: Museum of London

Neveu, C. 1989 `The Waves of Surma Have Created Storms in the Depth of the

the Thames', Atlanta, Georgia: APSA Annual Meeting

Rhodes, C. 1992 `Brick Lane: A Village Economy in the Shadow of the

and Nabi, N. City?' in L. Budd and S. Whimster (eds.), Global Finance

and Urban Living, London: Routledge

Tower Hamlets 1993 Ethnic Background of Pupil Population 1993

Education

Strategy Group

............ 1993 Analysis of 1992 G.C.S.E. Results

Writing by 1984 Breaking the Silence, London: Centerprise Trust

Asian Women

Bengali community and those educated in this country. We acknowledge that the twenty

Hasina Zaman interviewed from the second generation are not representative in a statistical

sense. Such an acknowledgement does not invalidate their individual interpretations of the

world around them. We are dealing with another form of 'reality' which has its own integrity

and viability.

The young Bengalis have operated within an area of London which experiences the full range of

problems associated with 'inner city' locales. Their educational success differentiates them

from the vast number of young people - both black and white - who leave school between 16

and 18 without many formal educational qualifications and who face a limited and uncertain

figure in the local labour market. The pilot study should be the precursor of a much wider

analysis which considers the educational experience and identity of those who are not

'successful' in the conventional sense.

We have made a start on this more ambitious project and we challenge others to listen to the

voices of these young Bengalis and to learn from their experience and opinions. It is for their

peers, Bengali parents, teachers and other interested parties to decide whether the twenty have

much to say to them about the conditions within which they all operate. We believe that they

do indeed have much to teach us about living not only in a certain part of London but also about

making strategic choices in a wider world where ideas and practices concerning family,

education, work and belonging appear to be rapidly changing.

51

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The Centre for Bangladeshi Studies would like to thank all those involved in undertaking the

research for this project and preparing this Report. We are particularly grateful to the twenty

young men and women for agreeing to be interviewed and for providing such detailed answers

to Hasina Zaman's questions. We are also grateful for Hasina's commitment on the project and

for her sensitive engagement with those who she contacted. Charlene McGroarty's role as

transcriber of the lengthy interviews was also invaluable.

We also thank the Governors of Whitelands College, Roehampton Institute, which made the

project possible and which enabled the Report to be published. In the production of the Report

we benefitted from the skilled assistance of June Ward-Munro at the Department of Sociology

and Social Administration, Roehampton Institute. During the many months of planning and

discussing the project we were able to meet at the Department of Geography, Queen Mary and

Westfield College, through the unfailing help and support of Michael Keith in particular.

As the person who was largely responsible in producing the Report I am grateful for the advice

and assistance of Michael and all those who attended the Centre's meetings - Nisar Ahmed, John

Mohan, Prod. David Smith, Kumar Murshed, Ala Uddin, Jalal Uddin and especially Ayub Ali

who first proposed undertaking such a study and who provided constant encouragement.

John Eade

52