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MEDIA CENTER In Bengal, Language, Rather Than Nationality or Religion, NEW YORK (5 January 2001) — New research from Population Council demographer Sajeda Amin and colleagues suggests that a language-based identity arising from Bengali, the language shared by Muslims in Bangladesh and Hindus in West Bengal, may influence contraceptive use in the two populations. Some of the highest rates of contraceptive use in Bangladesh exist along its border with the Indian state of West Bengal, and this proximity to a same-language border appears to raise contraceptive use, the researchers suggest. Their findings are reported in the December 2000 issue of Population Briefs, a quarterly research newsletter published by the Population Council. Amin and colleagues Alaka Malwade Basu of Cornell University and Rob Stephenson of the University of Southampton analyzed data from the 1992 Indian National Family Health Survey and the 1993–94 Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey. They identified districts that exhibit exceptionally high and exceptionally low contraceptive use, using a statistical method that takes into account individual, familial, and larger-scale factors that can affect contraceptive use. The researchers theorized that the shared culture and history of the two areas might be playing a role in the diffusion of contraceptive behavior. Diffusion is the process by which individuals' decisions are affected by the knowledge, behavior, and attitudes of people with whom they come in contact. In the case of Bangladesh and West Bengal, both populations speak Bengali and share a language-based ethnic identity, even though the population of West Bengal is predominantly Hindu while the population of Bangladesh is predominantly Muslim. "Both of these populations are characterized by a strong sense of language identity that often overwhelms political and religious differences, facilitates the spread of information across those political and religious barriers, and often provides similar motivations for reproductive behavior by providing similar attitudes to life in general," explains Basu. Contraceptive prevalence among various districts within both countries varied considerably, the researchers found. For instance, district-level contraceptive practice ranged from 14 percent in Sunamganj, in eastern Bangladesh, to 67 percent in Khulna, in the west. Mirroring the situation within Bangladesh, the researchers found substantial regional variation in contraceptive use in India. They also found that none of the Indian states that border Bangladesh—with the exception of West Bengal—showed any discernible increase in contraceptive use related to the border. Many historians suggest that a strong language-based Bengali identity developed under British rule, perhaps as a response to the colonial experience. This identity, along with a relatively open border, has increased the interaction between the two populations. And—given the political and religious divide between the two regions—it has thus exposed each region to a wider world of ideas and behaviors than would have been possible had cultural contacts been confined within political borders. Moreover, within each region the language- based identity facilitates interaction between the elites, who often pioneer new ideas and behaviors, and the general population. The main contraceptive difference between West Bengal and Bangladesh lies in the choice of method: whereas contraception in West Bengal is dominated by sterilization and traditional methods, in Bangladesh temporary modern methods are most prevalent. This may be a consequence of the home-based delivery of contraceptives in Bangladesh, which provides a wider variety and greater access than in West Bengal. While focusing on populations within national borders may be the dominant approach to demographic research, "placing exclusive emphasis on the modern nation-state may obscure important clues to the source of demographic change," concludes Amin. The findings were published in the following publications:
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