You want an empty Dhaka, but can it survive without people?

“Go back to where you came from, leave us alone,” I bet that line made you angry. It’s one of those lines you hear from certain elitists across the world, and, ironically, even in Dhaka.

During Eid or other long holidays, most people leave the metropolitan city to return to their hometowns or villages to spend the occasion with their loved ones. The numbers are staggering, and as a result, this leaves Dhaka practically empty.

This is where the elitists chime in, riding their high horse and sneering at people who return home. They say provocative things that get under your skin, such as: “why can’t we have Dhaka like this all the time?” and “Dhaka is so much better without the invaders.” Then it escalates -- from bad to worse, one sentence at a time.

They go on to say offensive things like: “Go back to your village, leave Dhaka alone. Dhaka is dying because of you.”

I’ve heard different versions of these comments here and there, and they are heard more often during long holidays. It’s amusing when people go down this route, because it is not only funny but also highly hypocritical. For one thing, these are the same people who condemn others for saying things like “Go back to your country”. Such comments, and the thinking behind them, are racist and hostile in every sense and context. But for these people, that morality applies only when others say it; when they say it, it’s fine (It’s not!).

The irony remains because those who say ‘do not come into Dhaka’ had to come to Dhaka someday, right? Many of them have been living in Dhaka for one or two generations -- maybe three at most. It is rare to find people who are what younger people would call “OG Dhakaiyans”.

Also, when people say go back where you came from, it makes me wonder: how far back, and back to where, should I go? As far back as the primordial ages, when everything was essentially a protein stew in water? People who are overzealously protective of Dhaka -- were they still living in these “Dhaka lands” back then, when only single-celled organisms existed?

Given the long holiday, surely you have got a taste of what Dhaka would look like without all these “outsiders” over the past few days. These people, dismissively labelled “outsiders”, are the ones who built Dhaka. Because of them, Dhaka is what it is today: a metropolitan city. And it’s not like Dhaka nursed them because Dhaka loved them. Everyone knows Dhaka is probably the most unforgiving city in the country. Whoever stays in Dhaka does so because they fight every day, and Dhaka deems them worthy.

Without these “outsiders”, Dhaka would be a ghost town -- like it seemed during the Eid holidays. Many of the shops were closed, the city barely functioned, and whatever you needed had to wait because the people who run this city were on vacation.

Civilisation builds on collaboration. People from different places, knowledge, faith, and communities come together to build something greater. They might be “strangers” in the beginning, but once you work together, there are no more “outsiders”. So, next time you think about sneering at the “outsiders”, consider the fact that Dhaka needs them just as much as they need Dhaka. It is a symbiotic relationship.