Salimullah Khan

Salimullah Khan was Born in a Bengali Muslim family of Cox's Bazar district and grew up in Maheshkhali.[6] Passing his SSC from Chattogram Cantonment High School and HSC from Chattogram College, he studied Law at the University of Dhaka. For a brief period, he was involved with the student wing of Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal.[7] In 1986, he went to the United States, and did his PhD on Theories of Central Banking in England, 1793-1877 at the New School.[8]

A proponent of anti-colonial movements, Khan has engagements in the regional political economy and culture from a Lacanian-Marxist perspective.[12][13][14] A critic of Western interventionism,[15] Salimullah Khan analyzes Western thought and discourse through critical scrutiny of the colonial and imperial legacy of the West.[16] From this perspective, he has written on the works of Charles Baudelaire,[17] Walter Benjamin, Michel Foucault,[18] Frantz Fanon, Claude Lévi-Strauss, Edward Said,[19] Aime Cesaire,[20] Talal Asad[21] and many others. Since 1997, his engagement with Freud and Lacan has made him use psychoanalysis to explore Bangladesh's politics and culture and also international issues. He also wrote two books on Freudo-Lacanian philosophy: Freud Porar Bhumika, and Ami Tumi She.[22]

Khan in 2018

In his book Behat Biplab, Salimullah Khan analyzed the strategic and political aspects of the liberation war of Bangladesh.[39] In Khan's view, the three fundamental principles of the liberation war of Bangladesh are equality, human dignity, and social justice.[40]

During the Shahbagh Movement in Dhaka, Khan came forward in strong support of the war crime trial.[41][42] He has intervened in recent debates on the number of martyrs in the Liberation War of Bangladesh.[43]

Khan advocates for an inclusive education system in Bangladesh.[44][45] In April 2017, as the government of Bangladesh took the decision to recognize the Dawra degree of the Qawmi madrasa system, Khan hailed the decision as important for integration of Qawmi group into the national mainstream.[46][47] He discussed how Islam was propagated in Bengal through the medium of Bengali language.[48]

Khan analyzes the issue of communalism and extremism from a historical perspective.[49][50][51][52][53][54][55] and locates the origin of communalism in South Asia in the British colonial period.[56] His analysis of communalism has also touched upon the Rohingya question,[57] He denounced communal attacks and suggests that upholding social justice is critical to drive away communalism from the national arena.[58] He defends equal right of all communities to observe respective religions.[59] Proper education and guidance is critical to dissuade the young generation from going down the path of extremism.[60]

Salimullah Khan at a discussion

Khan is a leading advocate of Bengali to be the main medium of education in the Bangladeshi academia.[61][62] He opined that without establishing Bengali as the main medium of education in all stages, the decolonization process would lag behind, and the Anglocentric colonial cringe would persist in the social dynamics in Bangladesh. In Bangladesh, the ruling class albeit admits Bengali to be the state language, their preference for English is apparent in their language application.[63] Citing Freud and Lacan, he wrote that the people of the ruling class are pervert since their acts and thoughts do not reflect their words.[64] He also called them traitors to the nation.[63] Quoting a French proverb with puns in Bengali, he stated that until Bengali is not the medium of education in higher studies, the quality of education would stay medium, and in the realm of education, medium (quality) equals low. Compromise with the medium of language thus means the demise of quality in the domain of education, impeding progress of the nation as a whole. He also said that second languages should be taught to complement Bengali, not to supersede it.[65]

Khan is a vocal critic of certain prescriptions on Bengali orthography.[66] In his opinion, Bangla Academy has failed to perform its duty in publication of advanced knowledge in Bengali language.[67]

Khan was criticized for his use of Sadhu Bhasha. His writings were labelled incomprehensible and impenetrable.[68]

Essays

• Bangladesh: Jatiya Abasthar Chalchitra (1983)
• Freud Porar Bhumika, Ed. (2005)
• Satya Saddam Hussein and ‘Srajerdaula’ (2007)
• Behat Biplap 1971, Ed. (2007)
• Ami Tumi Se (2008)
• Silence: On Crimes of Power (2009)
• Adamboma (2009)
• Ahmed Sofa Sanjibani (2010)
• Swadhinata Byabsay (2011)
• Ahmed Sofar Swadesh, Ed. (2015)
• Gariber Rabindranath, Ed. (2017)
• Prarthana (2019)
• Amader Bhashar Nayak (2020)[69]
• Thakurer Matsyanyay (2023)
• Utsarga: Paribar Prajati Rashtra (2023)

Poetry

• Ek Akasher Swapna (1981)

Translations

• Allahr Badshahi: Selected Poems of Dorothee Sölle (1998)
• Collected Works of Plato, V. 1 (2005) (Co-translated)
• Uhara Batase: Kabita 1958–1980 (2021) (Poems of Pentti Saarikoski)

• Loke Literary Award: 2017[70]
• Ranajit Award: 2020[71]