The social, cultural and religious barriers to development
Saturday, 15 September 2007
Enayet Rasul
Notwithstanding the importance of morals in the present context of Bangladesh society-- gripped extensively as it is by loss of ethics, corruption and delinquent behaviour -- one is led to questioning also what should constitute proper moral values in our situation. First of all, one has to form the principles and core values first, above reproach and controversy, before the same are sought to be inculcated.
Then there are also the aspects of traditional moral values and the demands of the times. Undoubtedly, many of our traditional values have everlasting good in them . But there are others which are superficially attractive but on close examination their shortcomings can be seen. For instance, in our traditional society blind or unquestioning deference or acquiescence to elders or even their irrational and improper behaviour is seen as a moral virtue of sorts. In other cultures that have progressed much more than us, materially and in other ways, elders are shown respect but even juniors are welcome to question the improper actions or attitudes of the seniors. The seniors are subsequently obliged to recognise them and amend themselves.
In some sections of Bangladesh society, the more women lead a life indoors and less in contact with men, the better is regarded their character. Some religious preachers even propagate views (and they have many adherents in our society) that modern scientific education is in conflict with Islamic teachings and values. They even teach complete resignation in mortal life-- and the inevitability of destiny --saying that the same is transient and all human preparations must be only for after life. This outlook breeds a fatalistic and withdrawal behaviour from mortal life whereas Islam is a dynamic religion that actually teaches the addressing and the overcoming of the problems of the physical world.
The trend of early marriage , specially of females, is still found to be strong among the rural people in Bangladesh in a situation where the population of the country remain preponderantly rural. The greater number in the population consider it safe to have their teenage girls married off at the fastest. According to tradition, a female who has not been married in her teens has perhaps missed the train of good luck because of some deficiency on her part. Thus, parents or guardians feel a psychological pressure to get the girls married early lest they face the prospects of spinsterhood. Besides, the egotistical and male dominated society also puts preference on the marriage of very young maidens. Young girls as brides are preferred by the bridegrooms and their family members over the older ones.
But the outcome of these practices are early motherhood with crushing burden of the same on these girls who have barely come out of childhood themselves. They lose their health in the process, many die while delivering babies and suffer other related health problems. The major casualty is their education leading to denial of awareness and consciousness and taking of the major decisions of their life such as marriage by themselves. The young and uneducated brides become the typical housekeepers and undernourished mothers of equally undernourished children and little else. Early marriage means faster procreation and adding undesirably to the already existing high population growth of the country in its overpopulated conditions.
Women constitute half the population of Bangladesh. The country's economy can gain a great deal if this half of the population can lead productive lives and are enabled to take conscious decisions of their own such as growing up to adulthood as single persons, marrying late and engaging in occupations outside the bounds of their homes. But this will require a social movement and the quicker it is launched by conscious groups in society, the better for the country in all respects.
Bangladesh as one of the biggest Islamic countries in the world has an Islamic clergy to be proud of in terms of knowledge of the Koran and its interpretations. If this clergy only exerts itself widely and seriously, then there should be no reason for the people to be misguided or for them to engage in activities ironically opposed to Islam. But in Bangladesh we see many persons posing as holymen or the enlightened ones on Islam and wanting the subservience of common people to their views and fiats.
In many places of the country, a fertile religious business may crop up in the following manner : first, on the roadside, a grave is set up. Next, someone drapes it with red cloth with Arabic writings in bold letters on the cloth that draws reverence from illiterate or gullible people. Third, on a placard the site is declared to be the grave site of a holyman. In subsequent stages, the disciples of the so called holyman gather around the site and in still later stages start asking passers by to donate to the shrine. Fairly soon, the dargah (shrine ) of the so called deceased peer ( holyman) starts acquiring renown in the area. Stories start circulating that visits to the shrine create miraculous cures from diseases, fulfillment of long held desires of the visitors, etc. There are usually no truths in the stories but simple people seem to like to believe such tales and their going to such shrines in hordes turns the place into one of distinction. Even many educated persons start believing them .
Too many people in our country drink waters blessed by holymen and add to stories that they have been cured from diseases by the same. Some of these peers even advertise in papers that they can help barren couples to have children by arranging divine help for them in this regard. Others sell talisman, sanctified strings and bangles with the assurance that these will keep the devil away or bring good luck. Devotees are seen kneeling in prayers before the burial chambers (mazars) of holymen praying to them for deliverance from various problems.
But is there sanction in Islam for such things? Islam as the supreme and the last of the monotheistic religions expressly demands that humans shall pray to none but Almighty Allah for deliverance from any sort of predicament or fulfillment of wishes. Therefore, how consistent with Islam is such utter devotion to holymen and their shrines ?
The holy Koran unequivocally declares Prophet Mohammed (SM) as the last of the prophets and exhorts Muslims of future generations to be guided entirely by the Koran and the Hadis left behind by Prophet Mohammed (SM). Where is, thus, the scope for the peers (holymen) to claim that they have divine or almost prophetic powers ? Do not the followers of the holymen through their overflowing devotion to the latter do things contrary to the purely monotheistic character of Islam ? Truly learned Islamic scholars are very uncompromising on the point of holymen or peers, darbesh, etc. They maintain that those who venerate such holymen thinking that they have supernatural powers to do things above normal humans are guilty of committing 'shirk', the Arabic word meaning believing that some humans have powers that resemble the powers of Almighty Allah . It is stated in the Holy Koran that Almighty Allah may consider forgiving of all sins but not 'shirk.'
Besides, hypocrisy in the name of values abound in our society. The leading persons in society feign moral values on the outside to violate them most unabashedly in their private lives. People are no fools and most of the time they realise this double-standard .
Clearly, for moral building to succeed, the need first is to establish clearly what such education must be and then to match the moral preaching with actual practice. In Bangladesh society, the observance of some traditional views, beliefs and practices are held in too high esteem as the morally correct path regardless of the fact that these are barriers to moving forward in making human existence better in diverse areas.
Notwithstanding the importance of morals in the present context of Bangladesh society-- gripped extensively as it is by loss of ethics, corruption and delinquent behaviour -- one is led to questioning also what should constitute proper moral values in our situation. First of all, one has to form the principles and core values first, above reproach and controversy, before the same are sought to be inculcated.
Then there are also the aspects of traditional moral values and the demands of the times. Undoubtedly, many of our traditional values have everlasting good in them . But there are others which are superficially attractive but on close examination their shortcomings can be seen. For instance, in our traditional society blind or unquestioning deference or acquiescence to elders or even their irrational and improper behaviour is seen as a moral virtue of sorts. In other cultures that have progressed much more than us, materially and in other ways, elders are shown respect but even juniors are welcome to question the improper actions or attitudes of the seniors. The seniors are subsequently obliged to recognise them and amend themselves.
In some sections of Bangladesh society, the more women lead a life indoors and less in contact with men, the better is regarded their character. Some religious preachers even propagate views (and they have many adherents in our society) that modern scientific education is in conflict with Islamic teachings and values. They even teach complete resignation in mortal life-- and the inevitability of destiny --saying that the same is transient and all human preparations must be only for after life. This outlook breeds a fatalistic and withdrawal behaviour from mortal life whereas Islam is a dynamic religion that actually teaches the addressing and the overcoming of the problems of the physical world.
The trend of early marriage , specially of females, is still found to be strong among the rural people in Bangladesh in a situation where the population of the country remain preponderantly rural. The greater number in the population consider it safe to have their teenage girls married off at the fastest. According to tradition, a female who has not been married in her teens has perhaps missed the train of good luck because of some deficiency on her part. Thus, parents or guardians feel a psychological pressure to get the girls married early lest they face the prospects of spinsterhood. Besides, the egotistical and male dominated society also puts preference on the marriage of very young maidens. Young girls as brides are preferred by the bridegrooms and their family members over the older ones.
But the outcome of these practices are early motherhood with crushing burden of the same on these girls who have barely come out of childhood themselves. They lose their health in the process, many die while delivering babies and suffer other related health problems. The major casualty is their education leading to denial of awareness and consciousness and taking of the major decisions of their life such as marriage by themselves. The young and uneducated brides become the typical housekeepers and undernourished mothers of equally undernourished children and little else. Early marriage means faster procreation and adding undesirably to the already existing high population growth of the country in its overpopulated conditions.
Women constitute half the population of Bangladesh. The country's economy can gain a great deal if this half of the population can lead productive lives and are enabled to take conscious decisions of their own such as growing up to adulthood as single persons, marrying late and engaging in occupations outside the bounds of their homes. But this will require a social movement and the quicker it is launched by conscious groups in society, the better for the country in all respects.
Bangladesh as one of the biggest Islamic countries in the world has an Islamic clergy to be proud of in terms of knowledge of the Koran and its interpretations. If this clergy only exerts itself widely and seriously, then there should be no reason for the people to be misguided or for them to engage in activities ironically opposed to Islam. But in Bangladesh we see many persons posing as holymen or the enlightened ones on Islam and wanting the subservience of common people to their views and fiats.
In many places of the country, a fertile religious business may crop up in the following manner : first, on the roadside, a grave is set up. Next, someone drapes it with red cloth with Arabic writings in bold letters on the cloth that draws reverence from illiterate or gullible people. Third, on a placard the site is declared to be the grave site of a holyman. In subsequent stages, the disciples of the so called holyman gather around the site and in still later stages start asking passers by to donate to the shrine. Fairly soon, the dargah (shrine ) of the so called deceased peer ( holyman) starts acquiring renown in the area. Stories start circulating that visits to the shrine create miraculous cures from diseases, fulfillment of long held desires of the visitors, etc. There are usually no truths in the stories but simple people seem to like to believe such tales and their going to such shrines in hordes turns the place into one of distinction. Even many educated persons start believing them .
Too many people in our country drink waters blessed by holymen and add to stories that they have been cured from diseases by the same. Some of these peers even advertise in papers that they can help barren couples to have children by arranging divine help for them in this regard. Others sell talisman, sanctified strings and bangles with the assurance that these will keep the devil away or bring good luck. Devotees are seen kneeling in prayers before the burial chambers (mazars) of holymen praying to them for deliverance from various problems.
But is there sanction in Islam for such things? Islam as the supreme and the last of the monotheistic religions expressly demands that humans shall pray to none but Almighty Allah for deliverance from any sort of predicament or fulfillment of wishes. Therefore, how consistent with Islam is such utter devotion to holymen and their shrines ?
The holy Koran unequivocally declares Prophet Mohammed (SM) as the last of the prophets and exhorts Muslims of future generations to be guided entirely by the Koran and the Hadis left behind by Prophet Mohammed (SM). Where is, thus, the scope for the peers (holymen) to claim that they have divine or almost prophetic powers ? Do not the followers of the holymen through their overflowing devotion to the latter do things contrary to the purely monotheistic character of Islam ? Truly learned Islamic scholars are very uncompromising on the point of holymen or peers, darbesh, etc. They maintain that those who venerate such holymen thinking that they have supernatural powers to do things above normal humans are guilty of committing 'shirk', the Arabic word meaning believing that some humans have powers that resemble the powers of Almighty Allah . It is stated in the Holy Koran that Almighty Allah may consider forgiving of all sins but not 'shirk.'
Besides, hypocrisy in the name of values abound in our society. The leading persons in society feign moral values on the outside to violate them most unabashedly in their private lives. People are no fools and most of the time they realise this double-standard .
Clearly, for moral building to succeed, the need first is to establish clearly what such education must be and then to match the moral preaching with actual practice. In Bangladesh society, the observance of some traditional views, beliefs and practices are held in too high esteem as the morally correct path regardless of the fact that these are barriers to moving forward in making human existence better in diverse areas.