At length the Man perceives it die away,
And fade into the light of common day.
Infancy, Youth, Manhood...downhill all the way.
Hence, the army of young, student thugs with their extra-rational loyalty to political parties, especially to the quasi-nationalist Mujib dynasty.
However, European ideas are not heading our way anymore. When Emmanuel Macron decries the "leprosy" - mot juste! - of nationalism - our intellectuals scarcely notice.
In an authoritarian culture, where obedience to parents as opposed to independence, is inculcated from infancy, children tend to believe what they are told - especially if it comes as a textbook issued by the government. The mythology of nationalism is imbibed by many a student who evince great conviction and equal indignation if the official narrative is queried. Adolescents who pride themselves on their 'modernity' and 'secularity' (meaning, hatred of Islam) are the most indoctrinated.
On the Hofstede index of individualism, Bangladesh scores a measly 20 (the same as Singapore and China) while America scores 91 and hierarchic India scores 48, with Japan close at 46. Pakistan's score is even lower than ours (14).
Bangladeshis (and Chinese, Singaporeans and Pakistanis), therefore, show a preference for a tightly-knit framework in society in which individuals can expect their relatives or members of a particular ingroup to look after them in exchange for unquestioning loyalty. A society's position on this dimension is reflected in whether people's self-image is defined in terms of "I" or "we." Obedience greatly outweighs independent thought in these countries.
(At the same time, Bangladeshis are highly averse to uncertainty: Bangladesh scores 60 on the uncertainty avoidance index, while the United States scores 46, India 40, China 30, Pakistan 70, Japan 92 and Singapore only 8. A high score indicates a propensity to exert control over the future rather than let things unfold. Countries exhibiting strong UAI maintain rigid codes of belief and behaviour, and are intolerant of unorthodox behaviour and ideas. Weak UAI societies maintain a more relaxed attitude in which practice counts more than principles. Bangladeshis, Pakistanis and the Japanese are more hidebound than the others.)
But the indoctrination of children can only go so far. Five years ago, none of my female students used to wear hijab. Some wore shalwar-kameez and some wore shirts and pants. But now many students - and their mothers - wear hijab (and my students are as young as ten, graduating at fifteen). In the shopping malls, hijab used to be a rare sight; now, women, some of them speaking in fluent English into their mobile phones, are covered by the hijab. The burqua and the niqab are frequently seen. This is a recent change, indicating that government indoctrination is not only having a limited effect, but is also spurring a backlash.
Repression rarely works.
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