Paper short abstract:

The paper explores the festivity of wanna, its revival in newer settings of Dhaka and its import among the urban Mandi youth of Dhaka. It focuses on how such organizing is bringing about a “consciousness” of identity among the Mandis. The case presents us with the opportunity to explore theories of ethnicity, ethnographic imagination and identity in the wake of transnational discourses of indigenous rights in Bangladesh.

Paper long abstract:

In this paper I explore the festivity of wanna (a Garo harvest festival among the Garos/ Mandis) related to the harvesting season of the Garo/ Mandi people and its import among the Mandi population living in the Nadda-Kalanachanpur-Kuril area of Dhaka. I will try to contextualize the Mandi festival of wanna, how such organizing is bringing about a "consciousness" about identity or the loss of identity among the urban Mandi people living in Dhaka. In addition to drawing from fieldwork based material and observation, I also use some secondary sources of information such as autobiographical literature, poetry and some other writings written and published in Bengali by Mandi activists/ intellectuals and writers to discuss the identity question in relation to their organizing for wanna.

The case I elaborate presents us with the opportunity to explore theories of ethnicity, ethnographic imagination and identity and how this is taking shape in contemporary Bangladesh in the wake of indigenous rights discourses. I try to argue that themes of reviving "our culture and tradition" espoused variously and consciously by a small group of young Garo activists in Dhaka and many of their social activities is linked to the transnational discourses of indigeneity, propounded by institutions like ILO and UN through conventions like ILO 169 and other instruments which gives emphasis on protecting "culture" and "identity" of the indigenous people of the world.