Videos by Mahmudul H Sumon
Lecture on Flaherty's film Nanook of the North (1922)
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Journal papers by Mahmudul H Sumon
Nṛbijñān Patrikā 28, 2023
Bangladesh’s education system at the primary and secondary levels has undergone some significant ... more Bangladesh’s education system at the primary and secondary levels has undergone some significant revisions in recent decades. Nevertheless, received wisdom is that there has not been any substantial change as far as student intake at the tertiary level is concerned. On the contrary, educators often suspect that the “quality of education” overall in the country has gone down. Against this decline hypothesis of education’s “quality,” the current paper takes up issues of student background and their campus experience as an object of study. It aims to build an understanding of the “quality discourse” of education in Bangladesh by foregrounding some of the broader discursive shifts initiated by the neo-liberalization of the education sector and, more recently, the World Bank’s policy regime for the country’s tertiary education. It argues for better context-based solutions to some problems that beset our public universities and for more research on pedagogical practices in Bangladesh.
Journal of Labor and Society, 2023
After the 2013 collapse of Bangladesh's Rana Plaza garment manufacturing building, the Rana Plaza... more After the 2013 collapse of Bangladesh's Rana Plaza garment manufacturing building, the Rana Plaza Arrangement (rpa) provided work-injury compensation benefits to injured survivors and the families of those killed, funded by global apparel brands. This article draws upon qualitative interviews with international stakeholdersincluding global brands, activists, and the International Labour Organization (ilo)who developed and implemented the rpa, and survivors who claimed compensation payments. We analyse the rpa as an experiment in transnational social protection, which attempted to recentre labour rights and state responsibility after three decades of neoliberal labour governance. Arguing that social protection can be a technocratic "fix" to restore and make tolerable an injurious economic system, we demonstrate the inherent paradox of attempting to integrate precarious labour into decent and dignified social protection. The rpa's many failures suggest that state commitment to regulation and organized labour power are necessary ingredients for successful transnational social protection.
The Jahangirnagar Review Social Science 25-26
Nṛbijñān Patrikā , 2015
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Nṛbijñān Patrikā 14, 2012
The Jahangirnagar Review: Part II Social Sciences , 2019
The paper attempts to understand the question of workers' rights beyond the legal discourse of ri... more The paper attempts to understand the question of workers' rights beyond the legal discourse of rights and voices through an exploration of the practices and experiences of the female garments workers. The practices and experiences of the female garments workers in the factory settings are complex and multilayered. We have shown the discordance of the legal discourses of labor rights and workers' experiences through presenting some micro narratives of the workers' daily life struggle to deal with in (formal) management system of the factory. A commonplace analysis places these discords as exemplars of lack of awareness on the part of the workers and also argues for better enforceability of laws. We argue that in neoliberal settings such as the one where the garment sector of Bangladesh is located, such a straightforward call is simplistic. The discourses presented herein show the practices of workers from their everyday experiences. It proposes a deeper meaning of rights beyond the question of enforceability, and awareness. It brings into fore other discourses and narratives which are often ignored in contemporary labour rights discourses.
The Jahangirnagar University Journal of Business Research, 2020
The paper discusses how a key post-Tazreen/ Rana Plaza initiative, namely the Accord on Fire and ... more The paper discusses how a key post-Tazreen/ Rana Plaza initiative, namely the Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh (Accord), a transnational/ multisectoral initiative meant to address worker's health and safety at the Ready-Made Garments industry has gone into a transformation and nationalized in Bangladesh. The transformation indicates not only friction between the Accord and the local business elite but also a clear collaboration between the government and the local business elite when it comes to questions of governance of Bangladesh's garments sector. Through reviewing newspaper reports and analyzing some government statements, and other secondary sources, the paper builds around an increasingly important set of literature on neoliberal global order and its forging of global connections and import in the global south.
Nṛbijñān Patrikā , 2017
The paper explores Wanna/ Wangala, a Garo festival related to harvesting, its revival in the newe... more The paper explores Wanna/ Wangala, a Garo festival related to harvesting, its revival in the newer settings of Dhaka and its import amongst the urban Mandi youth. It focuses on how organizing for Wanna is bringing about a “consciousness” of identity among the Mandis, a community better ¬¬¬¬known as the Garos to the world. The ethnographic example provided in this article presents us with the opportunity to explore theories of ethnicity, ethnographic imagination and identity in the wake of what I call the rise of transnational discourses of indigenous rights and its effects in Bangladesh.
Politeja, 2016
In this paper I problematize the notion of majority/ minority and try to argue that much of this ... more In this paper I problematize the notion of majority/ minority and try to argue that much of this construction can be shown to have links with forms of colonial governmentality in South Asia. Using relevant literature, the paper discusses how categories such as " minority " or " majority " came into being and were normalized through different technologies of power in post-colonial states such as ours. Such constructions, when taken uncritically, can pose problems for the communities to which they refer. The paper indicates that nomenclature is an important issue and one needs to be careful about the terms they use, as they may have a far-reaching effect.
This paper is borne out of an attempt to do a netrography of the recent blog activity concerning ... more This paper is borne out of an attempt to do a netrography of the recent blog activity concerning the phenomena we call the " adivasi debate. " This discussion took place in different public spaces like seminars and symposiums and also in various electronic and print media. However, our focus in this study is to look at how this debate has unfolded in the blogosphere of Bangladesh, amongst the emerging cyber community. In this paper, we have tried to provide a schematic account of how this recent debate took shape in the new and emerging blogosphere of Bangladesh. Needless to say, the transnational discourse of indigeneity and its " field of power " acts as an overarching framework of discussion. Adivasi rights activists are organizing accordingly in Bangla blogospheres. The blog posts show that this rise of what is often termed as " adivasi rights " is not without some dissent. It shows that a group of bloggers have strongly contested the very term " adivasi " in Bangladesh in the emerging Bangla blog space much like the government of Bangladesh did in recent times.
The Journal of Social Studies , 2004
Nrvijnana Patrika, 2001
This paper aims at three things. It begins with a review of how credit
constitutes to be a fundam... more This paper aims at three things. It begins with a review of how credit
constitutes to be a fundamental element in the development discourse. Secondly, it shows albeit in a brief way, how in the specific context of Bangladesh, the concept of micro-credit has been put into use/ operationalized. This has been exemplified by focusing on how the dominant practices of researchers and scholars working in this field, have so far dealt with the issue, borrowing the models and the rationales of empowerment from the West, thus ignoring the local voices and meanings of the term.
The third section of the paper deals with my experience as a researcher and a fieldworker. It is precisely this experience, which lead me to think that all this talk, discussions and seminars on microcredit, in general, will carry no meaning to the rural poor if not a thorough understanding is made of the specific context of relations in which a woman finds herself in a Bangladeshi village.
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Videos by Mahmudul H Sumon
Journal papers by Mahmudul H Sumon
constitutes to be a fundamental element in the development discourse. Secondly, it shows albeit in a brief way, how in the specific context of Bangladesh, the concept of micro-credit has been put into use/ operationalized. This has been exemplified by focusing on how the dominant practices of researchers and scholars working in this field, have so far dealt with the issue, borrowing the models and the rationales of empowerment from the West, thus ignoring the local voices and meanings of the term.
The third section of the paper deals with my experience as a researcher and a fieldworker. It is precisely this experience, which lead me to think that all this talk, discussions and seminars on microcredit, in general, will carry no meaning to the rural poor if not a thorough understanding is made of the specific context of relations in which a woman finds herself in a Bangladeshi village.
constitutes to be a fundamental element in the development discourse. Secondly, it shows albeit in a brief way, how in the specific context of Bangladesh, the concept of micro-credit has been put into use/ operationalized. This has been exemplified by focusing on how the dominant practices of researchers and scholars working in this field, have so far dealt with the issue, borrowing the models and the rationales of empowerment from the West, thus ignoring the local voices and meanings of the term.
The third section of the paper deals with my experience as a researcher and a fieldworker. It is precisely this experience, which lead me to think that all this talk, discussions and seminars on microcredit, in general, will carry no meaning to the rural poor if not a thorough understanding is made of the specific context of relations in which a woman finds herself in a Bangladeshi village.
understanding of community and identity are emerging in the post-colonial discourses of social science. These questions, unlike the ones of the idea of a stable/ primordial identity of the colonial discourse, have shown promising possibilities and helped shape our understanding of community and identity in theoretical terms. My goal is to look into these possibilities. In the light of increasing visibility of Adibasi related activism in the country, I believe this is the right time to pose these broad theoretical questions. My contention is that a fuller understanding of these theoretical questions will force us to rethink the whole issue of difference per se, the identity-based politics of the Adibasi people in the country and give us new insights in our understanding of identity formation, self-hood and agency.
[ শিক্ষক মঞ্চ, জাবি ১৫ই মে, ২০১৬]
We invite book chapters on the following areas and topics but the list is not meant to be exhaustive. New areas/ topics are welcome!
History/ Politics of Language/ Subaltern music/ Village studies and the Subaltern question/ Identity politics/ Feminist analysis/ Resistance
Please contact for setting up a plan for submission at the following emails:
[email protected] and [email protected]
How should we read the idiom of adivasi activism in the wake of what we may call the transnational valorization of the term “indigenous”/ “adivasi”? How do we analyze the nation-state’s response to it? And finally how do we understand the activists’ agency in this context? In this panel, an effort will be made to map out the main issues and concerns, publicly discussed, debated and demanded by the “adivasi” rights activists. These questions are more important in the wake of what we call transnational discourses of indigeneity which has taken root in South Asia. The “field of force” (Li 2001) within which the idea of indigeneity emerged in South Asia in the 1990s is linked with an NGO agenda first seen in the early 1990s. The history of this linkage is rarely discussed in social science literature and the early beginnings are sketchy. In this panel, we try to bring this sketchy past into our focus in order to show and analyze how some of the organizing/ operationalization of indigenous rights discourse in different countries of South Asia is linked with broader changes at the transnational policy level of indigenous rights. The panel will attempt to bring into fore a discussion of some of the transnational legal frameworks and instruments of indigenous rights discourse which have become important over the years, and argue that this framework has essentially been appropriated by the rights organizers-activists in a number of South Asian countries as “the” framework for the articulation of “adivasi” identity and rights questions.
Papers in the following area are most desired:
1. The relationship between Non-Governmental Organization, nation-state and Indigeneity
2. The responses of the nation-state in relation to transnational Indigeneity and rights discourse
3. Indigenous collective voices and identities
4. Other voices, and agencies.
from being part of an activist platform which in the aftermath of Tazreen fire staged several public protests for the arrest of its owners for their “criminal negligence” and finally, after several months of inaction from the government, filed a Public Interest Litigation in the High Court of Bangladesh. The experiences in the aftermath of
Tazreen fire and Rana building collapse are kept under the purview of this discussion.
Keywords: Other, Kol, Santal, Colonial governmentality
It traces the use of categories such as “primitive”, “tribe”, and “adivasi” in post-colonial Bangladesh, both in the political discourse and in everyday life. The volume studies the history of these essentialized categories used for indigenous communities within the hierarchies of power and identity. It also analyses the diverse articulations of indigeneity through ethnographic narratives, exploring the formations of newer traditions and identity. The author highlights the persistence of the terms “simple” and “primitive” in contemporary discourses while also sharing examples of complex mediations and appropriation of these categories by adivasi groups in Bangladesh.
This book will be of interest to researchers and students of sociology, social ethnography, social and cultural anthropology, indigenous studies, exclusion studies, development studies, political sociology, and South Asian studies.