The Dark Shades of Cultural Fusion in Bangladesh

Chowdhury Nafisa Sadhaf

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Bangladesh is a country full of vibrant cultures. It has rich and colorful traditions like pohela boishakh , folk songs , nouka baich , pitha utshob etcetera. But over the years these traditions have noticeably changed and the main reason behind this is globalization and intercultural communication. Our earth is now a global village and so people of different cultures can interact with each other easily. As a result of these interactions, Bangladeshi culture and customs have got a new face as they are influenced and changed by the elements of western culture and traditions. Our traditions are now changing very frequently and it has beneficial sides but it does have many dark sides too.

Due to cultural exchange and globalization, our traditions have lost their authenticity and got a western touch. For instance, today’s generation prefers western pop songs over our  folk or other songs. Nowadays people don’t wear the traditional clothes during  pohela boishakh rather they tend to wear fancy western clothes and this reduces the authenticity and beauty of the culture. I myself have seen my cousins wearing fancy gowns in pohela boishakh, listening to Charlie Puth and other artist's songs in such festivals.

People are now more into concerts of pop singers, they are more likely to explore English literature than Bengali literature and show less interest in traditional activities. In my friend circle, when I say that I like bengali songs or dramas, my friends call me backdated. That's why most of the time I hide these things from them. So, I think this is also a major reason that no one engages themselves with bengali culture much as they kind of get trolled for this. Moreover, this cultural fusion many times seems to degrade moral values. For example, our culture emphasizes greatly on family or community whereas western culture does on individuality. Witnessing this, today’s young generation are getting the courage to go and raise their voice against parents and elders of the family. They don’t think it is necessary to listen to what elders say, they do whatever they like and this mindset is ruining their morality and giving rise to many social crimes. The influence of western culture is one of the main reasons that today’s kids are getting addicted to drugs and other intoxicants.

Thus our culture and rituals are getting highly affected due to the exchange and fusion of the elements of western and native culture. This fusion of culture has many beneficial aspects but the negative aspects are overshadowing those  with each passing day and it is indeed a great concern for Bangladesh, our society and culture.