Being Shia in Bangladesh: The intersectionality of ethnicity, language, and transnational connectivity

Abstract

This article attempts to delineate what it means to be Shia in relation to home-making in Sunni-majority Bangladeshi society. Unlike longer established Shias, those primarily settled in Old Dhaka and who are integrated into Dhakaiya culture and linguistic traditions, the post-Partition Urdu-speaking Shia migrants within the “Bihari” fold, a pejorative term used by Sunni-majority Bengalis, continue to seek to root home-making in Bangladeshi society. Both groups, however, have repeated a common practice in making home to bridge geographical and historical distance from a culturally significant center by reproducing it in the new location. Yet, despite the clear connections with Iran, it is the post-Partition migrants who find themselves negatively represented as collaborators with West Pakistan (now Pakistan) and this hinders the integration of this group into their new home. The article demonstrates that home is never produced in isolation of wider geopolitical, spatial, and historical factors.