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Paper short abstract

Bangladesh’s academia remains epistemically colonial, lacking postcolonial studies. This vacuum sustains Eurocentric curricula, silencing local knowledge. Establishing the field is vital for epistemic justice, decolonising pedagogy and enabling sovereign intellectual futures.

Paper long abstract

The academia of Bangladesh operates within a profound paradox: while politically postcolonial, its knowledge structures remain deeply colonial. The systematic epistemic havoc wrought by British rule—the imposition of English linguistic hegemony, the erasure of indigenous knowledge systems (e.g., textile technology, land tenure), and the fabrication of communal historiography—created a rupture that post-independence education has failed to mend. The lack of a dedicated, critical Postcolonial Studies discipline has resulted in a vacuum where colonial categories and Eurocentric universalism persist as default settings in social sciences, humanities, and curricular design.

This paper contends that establishing Postcolonial Studies is not a mere academic addition but an urgent necessity for epistemic justice and institutional agency. It moves beyond critique to map a concrete framework for integration: (1) Curricular Power: Reforming syllabi to centre Bengali intellectual traditions, subaltern narratives, and hybrid histories of the Bengal region. (2) Overcoming Epistemic Limitation: Creating “counter-archives” from oral histories, folk wisdom, and community praxis to challenge the colonial archive. (3) Exercising Institutional Agency: Building interdisciplinary programs, fostering transborder collaboration with West Bengal (India), and training scholars to decolonise methodology.

Embedding this field is a foundational step for Bangladesh to critically understand its own past, navigate present challenges like climate justice and digital futures, and contest the geopolitics of knowledge. It transforms academia from a site of colonial reproduction to a platform for generating sovereign, pluriversal futures—aligning directly with the panel’s focus on knowledge, power, and institutional agency in the Global South.