IDENTITY, NATION AND RELIGION: EDUCATED YOUNG BANGLADESHI MUSLIMS IN LONDON'S `EAST END'

Abstract

In this article I seek to analyse the diverse understandings among British Bengalis of their social identities as shaped by national and Muslim belongings. The complexity of these understandings is described as the young Bengalis explore the interrelationships between these identities, attempt to rank them and, in some cases, look beyond national boundaries to a worldwide Islamic community. Their constructions of identity are influenced by their social situation within Britain where racism plays a significant role but also by political and religious developments within Bangladesh and other nation-states within the Indian sub-continent. Like other descendants of migrant workers in Western Europe, they are caught up in a public debate about national belonging where their supra-national links provide them with special insights into the construction of hybrid identities and new ethnicities and the maintenance of individual identities in a globalising world.