Kaiser Haq’s “Ode on the Lungi”: A Resistance to the Politics of Socio-Semiotic Violence

Abstract

This paper is an attempt to project Kaiser Haq’s one of the most celebrated poems “Ode on the Lungi” as a resistance to the politics of socio-semiotic violence. Literature and politics are two interconnected phenomena. The contemporary version of Colonialism employs the politics of engineering its target nation’s socio-semiotics to maintain an invisible dominance. Socio-semiotics refers to anything non-material like religion, culture, and tradition. Socio-semiotic violence means invading the socio-semiotic systems of a nation and replacing and distorting its symbols or at least the understanding of the symbols. This paper argues that the renowned Bangladeshi poet  Kaiser Haq in his poem “Ode on the Lungi” has created a resistance to the politics of socio-semiotic violence by tracing the conspiracy, celebrating the native way of being and doing, and calling for a united stand.