Black ink on Tagore: The fight over Bangladesh's identity

"Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls."More than a century after Rabindranath Tagore penned these lines in Gitanjali, Marzia Khandaker Rimi, a senior leader of Bangladesh's Rashtra Sanglap Forum, smeared black ink across his portrait in Dhaka, declaring that the poet was Indian and his image should be erased. Clearly, domestic as well as international walls exist, and going by the evidence, they may be hardening further, with prominent leaders of the July uprising expressing concern over growing Jamaat influence in the country.The Rashtra Sanglap Forum emerged after Bangladesh's July 2024 uprising. On October 10, Rimi joined others outside Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy to protest what she called "Indian aggression". She also alleged that Tagore mistreated Muslims while managing his family's estates. Rimi was among four people subsequently arrested, including another leader of the forum, ANM Ayas. The incident has reopened old faultlines over what Tagore means to Bangladesh.On October 11, Nurul Haque Nur, Bangladesh's state minister for expatriates' welfare and overseas employment, described the defacement as a "communal Jamaati misdeed". Th...