ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses to unpack some of the workings of the rituals of diaspora through an exploration of the Shahid Minar and Ekushe in Tower Hamlets, East London. Like the Muharram celebrations in Dhaka, Ekushe marks part of the annual cycle of Bengali diaspora life in Bangladesh and among Bengali Muslim diaspora communities across the world. The Shahid Minar monument and associated Ekushe rituals function on multiple levels, as a story of diaspora consciousness, as a symbol of multicultural Britain, and as a more local narrative of the Bengali presence in specific sites. The permanent monument in Tower Hamlets was constructed in 1999 as part of a larger process of regeneration of the area centred on the creation of Banglatown. Shahid Minar was only made possible, along with the development of Banglatown, as the Bangladeshi community became more powerful in terms of the local economy and local political arena.
