Home | Neamat ImamNeamat Imam | Author of The Black Coat
The book that begins right with its cover
It is the 1970s. After a bloody struggle, Bangladesh is an independent nation. But thousands are pouring into Dhaka from all over the country, looking for food and shelter. Amongst them is Nur Hussain, an uneducated young man from a remote village, who is only good at mimicking a famous speech of the prime minister’s. He turns up at journalist Khaleque Biswas’s doorstep, seeking employment. He is initially a burden for Khaleque, but then Khaleque, who has recently lost his job, has the idea of turning Nur into a fake Sheikh Mujib. With the blessings of the political establishment, he starts cashing in on the nationalist fervour of the city’s poorest. But even as the money rolls in, the tension between the two men increases and reaches a violent climax when, after watching the severity of the famine of 1974, Nur refuses to stick to the script.
Intense yet chilling, this brilliant first novel is a meditation on power, greed and the human cost of politics.
Wanted: Reviewers
Although reviewers in India hailed my novel
The Black Coat as “extraordinary… a fine work of fiction,” “…one of the best to come out of the subcontinent in the recent past” and “the gold standard for any book which seeks to engage with South Asian politics or history,” I cannot find anyone in Bangladesh to review it.
Bangladeshi papers do not have official reviewers to review books. They often depend on journalists, university professors, writers and freelance contributors for this. I was a university faculty member myself at one time and I know many of these reviewers. But most of the reviewers I approach to write on my book refuse to do so, citing various excuses. That is why, in the last three months only the Daily Star has reviewed the book although there are over 50 different Bengali and English papers and magazines in the city of Dhaka alone.
Some of the writers, who have not lost their sanity totally, tell me in private conversations that
The Black Coat will not be reviewed unless there is a change in the government because it explores the present Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s father Sheikh Mujib’s time in office from 1972 to 1975. That period is politically a taboo subject in Bangladesh and my book presents him as an autocrat instead of what he is publicised as by Sheikh Hasina’s government and her party the Awami League – Father of the Bengali Nation.
Sheikh Mujib banned all opposition newspapers and opposition political parties during his time. Sheikh Hasina has also created a climate of intense fear among the newsmen by arresting an editor and shutting down his newspaper recently. These writers tell me that no paper would like to put their publication at risk by reviewing my book even if it speaks the truth about Sheikh Mujib.
In the meantime, the Fictionists, the only e-zine on Bangladeshi writing in English, removed from their site my book’s excerpt and cover artwork which they published early in July with much enthusiasm. Although they publish the full covers of books written by other Bangladeshi writers, they decided not to show my book’s cover to their readers – not even the thumbnail version of it. They put a disclaimer in this regard saying they decided to do so following dissent from their readership.
They are a new site, and as far as I can surmise from their emails, they are also a group of polite people with a strong sense of personality. Keeping an e-zine is a thankless job but they do it out of their passion for Bangladesh and out of their pride in Bangladeshi writing in English. I do not think they would like to be drawn into a controversy for any reason.
But it is not unprecedented to satirise a public figure’s photograph. Satirical publications do this all the time, as do many serious publications including the
Guardian. As my book is also partly satirical, and Sheikh Mujib was a public figure, I do not think any reader of the Fictionists should have made a complaint about it. If there was a complaint, Fictionists editors could stick to their editorial policy of not giving preference to any writer and also of not deceiving any writer of an opportunity to showcase their work on their site. They could also consider the fact that while Sheikh Mujib offended a whole country of Bangladeshi people with his political short-sightedness, I covered his photograph only partly in the cover of my book.
Amarblog.com, which is a platform of the new generation Bangladeshis famous for the Shahbagh Uprising in Dhaka, has also shown extreme hostility to my writing. They removed my latest blog on the relations between Sheikh Mujib and fundamentalism in Bangladesh from their site and also restricted me from contributing to it. I wrote that Sheikh Mujib disregarded Bangladesh’s constitution by seeking the membership of the Organisation of Islamic Conference in 1974 for the country. One of the four core principles of Bangladesh’s constitution is secularism. How can a country call itself secular by being and remaining a member of the OIC? Don’t OIC countries introduce themselves as “Islamic” countries?
My latest blog particularly focused on Sheikh Mujib’s use of Khuda Hafiz instead of Joy Bangla at the end of his speeches. Joy Bangla was his signature slogan. He used it in 1971 to motivate Bangladeshis of all walks of life to fight against Pakistan. The result was excellent. Joy Bangla was a secular slogan, to spring from Bengali culture and heritage, whereas Khuda Hafiz was foreign, i.e., completely Islamic. I also cited the research publication’s name and its author’s name in support of my blog. I said that by using Khuda Hafiz Sheikh Mujib proved that towards the end of his rule he was leaning towards the Islamic fundamentalists of the country, who at that time were accused of slaughtering innocent Bangladeshis and collaborating with the occupying military of Pakistan. He leaned towards them, seeking their support for his government because he had proved himself immensely unpopular with the common people of the country with his failure to tackle the ruthless famine of 1974 which claimed hundreds of thousands of lives.
There is no email, telephone or earth address to reach the amarblog editors. I used the only contact form available on their site seeking a clarification from them regarding why I was not allowed to post a blog any more. So far I have not heard back from them.
The latest blow came from the Hay Festival Dhaka. On June 7, I received a mail from a Hay Dhaka co-producer congratulating me on the publication of my book. “Your book is already being talked about and making waves,” the mail said. “…. We would love you to launch your book in Bangladesh at Hay Festival Dhaka, and … would be great if you could participate.”
The Hay Dhaka festival is supposed to take place in November. I live abroad and considering the fact that launching the book in Dhaka would need some preparation, I needed to plan my visit ahead of time. The Fictionists and amarblog gave me a lot of stress. Upon that I already had the stress and the fear of being a debut novelist. I thought Hay Dhaka would be the perfect opportunity for me to speak about my book in Bangladesh. I would have an audience ready to hear why I wrote the novel and why it was so important for our country and its democratic future.
The Black Coat too would receive some coverage in the Bangladeshi press which it was not receiving now.
On 16 July, I received another mail from Hay Dhaka. “We are trying to arrange funding for this year’s Hay,” it said. “…. At the moment, we are not able to find funding for you. Also, we are having to change the themes of the festival slightly so am trying to construct the current panels. It looks like our theme of novels based on historical writing (like your book) may be pushed back to next year, as some people that we had expected to come, cannot come till next year. A lot of people that were to be on that panel would prefer to come next year after the elections” (parenthesis original).
They invited me and then un-invited me as they pleased. It was not supposed to happen like this.
Although I thanked them instantly for considering me for their festival, I believe Hay Dhaka has lost its conscience. It is not innocent any longer. It has compromised its mission. Hay Festival of Hay-on-Wye in Wales says it is a “programme of debates and conversations.” But Hay Dhaka has surrendered to the popular political demands of the country instead of serving the cause of literature and culture. It has not stopped a debate; it has not allowed it to begin.
It is highly possible that Hay Dhaka officials were not aware of the content and scope of
The Black Coat when they invited me. Then, when they read the novel, they behaved the way any individual in the country who is afraid to critique the legacy of Sheikh Mujib would do. It is the election year this year in Bangladesh. So what? Literature is not in terms of politics of a country. It is because it has to be. I did not expect this kind of behaviour from Hay Dhaka. They were supposed to be on my side but they chose to be on the side of the political establishment.
With this article I want to draw the attention of my country’s intellectuals to my book. I want them to read it and talk about it. I want to tell them that we need to create a culture based on the values of liberalism, transparency and tolerance in our country, without which we cannot create a successful democratic future for it. Gross mistakes were made in the past. Wrongs cannot be considered right only because they were done by a mighty leader like Sheikh Mujib whose leadership was indispensable for the creation of Bangladesh. Our nation will benefit if we can understand what mistakes he made and what prompted him to make them.
The Black Coat may open our society to ask questions, to recognise mistakes, to admit limitations. It may begin a debate to make the next forty years of our national life completely different from the last forty years of its passage through misunderstanding and misinterpretation. We will be truly independent only when we all agree to leave behind the cult of the leader.
