My Little Plot of England: Morrissey and Tagore

by Sabiq Shahidullah

Morrissey, the former lead singer of The Smiths, was once a voice of the dejected and downtrodden. His melancholic lyrics and literary references have resonated with generations of moody teenagers and bookish introverts. But aside from being a sensitive musician, Morrissey has worn many other hats: animal rights activist, racially charged vegan, anti-establishment agitator, and far-right sympathizer. Morrissey’s takes are always hot and controversial yet hard to pin down politically. His simultaneous support for working-class rights and disdainful bigotry, such as when he called Chinese people subhuman for their treatment of animals, make him a confusing person to criticize. 

While Morrissey may hide behind a thick layer of irony, his views reflect a flawed nostalgia for an old England, a yearning for the mythical all-white Manchester of his childhood — with a unique touch of veganism and animal rights. Morrissey expresses his thought process in “Bengali in Platforms,” from his solo album Viva Hate. In the song, Morrissey uses Bengali as a catch-all term for immigrants in the UK. Though he sympathizes with the struggles immigrants endure, he ultimately pleads for them to not come to the UK as life for native Brits is already dreary. Critics have debated the intentions of “Bengali in Platforms,” as straightforward xenophobia while others argue it is pro-immigrant. Regardless of Morrissey’s intentions, the song is a condescending and one-dimensional view of the immigrant experience. By portraying the Bengali as a naive traveler, Morrissey strips immigrants of their Britishness and makes them outsiders without a home. 

Morrissey’s soft and melodic delivery contrasts with the dismal message he has for immigrants. Before he tells the Bengali to “shelve [their] Western plans,” he comes to their defense, presumably against more abrasively anti-immigrant people. “He only wants to embrace your culture/And to be your friend forever,” Morrissey sings as he expresses compassion for immigrants and their difficult journeys. He is not trying to criticize Bengalis themselves but rather the impact they have on his idea of Britain. He cloaks his views with sympathy as he says, “Don’t hate me/Just because I am the one to tell you/That life is hard enough when you belong here.” In Morrissey’s gloom, there is an implied othering of the Bengali: Morrissey belongs in England while the immigrant doesn’t. He not only erases those of the British-Bengali diaspora born and raised in the UK but also alienates migrants who try to find a new home in England. Many immigrants do go to the UK for economic opportunity while still maintaining strong ties to their native heritage, but it is the connection to different cultures that contributes to the richness of British culture. By drawing a line between who is British and who is not, Morrissey attempts to preserve the nation’s white identity. 

The immigrant is closed off from being considered fully British even when they contribute to the wellbeing and culture of Britain. They are thrown into a liminal state: not British but still at the mercy of supposed true Brits. The Bengali is treated as a temporary guest or traveler who may be tolerated but never truly accepted. The attitude in Morrissey’s song leaves the immigrant without a sense of agency or even an identity. Morrissey sees immigrants as random colored folk infecting a white land, rather than fully-formed people. But how can immigrants regain agency in Morrissey’s England? 

England’s large Bengali immigrant population belies a long and complicated relationship with Britain. The Bengal region was an important colony for the British empire, with Kolkata serving as the capital of the British Raj for nearly fifty years. While Bengal is split between national borders today, Bengalis have a universal connection to their language. The region has a rich literary and poetic history in writers like Rabindranath Tagore, iconic for his poetry, plays, novels, and songs that remain influential in Bengali culture. Born under the empire in Kolkata, Tagore lived to witness nearly the entirety of British rule, passing away six years before partition in 1947. His naturalistic writing and anti-imperialist politics revolutionized Bengali literature and inspired common people. 

Reading writers like Tagore can help immigrants reconnect with their heritage and ease the disorientation of being a perpetual stranger. A major component of Tagore’s poetry is his vivid description of rural Bengal. In the poem “Dui Bigha Jomi (My Little Plot of Land),” a greedy land baron forces the speaker to sell a piece of land that their family has lived on for seven generations. As the speaker leaves their village and roams around the world, they succumb to a severe bout of homesickness. They become absorbed in reverie as they say, “I bow, I bow to my beautiful motherland Bengal/To your river-banks, to your winds that cool and console/Your plains, whose dust the sky bends down to kiss.” The deep love the speaker has for Bengal is similar to how many immigrants can idealize memories and sensations from their homeland. The speaker returns to his homeland after many years, only to find that it has changed and lost the charm of the past. Despite the land’s physical transformation, memories flood the speaker at the sight of a mango tree that they used to play around with: “Suddenly a sharp gust of wind shook the branches above me/And two ripe mangoes fell to the ground beside me/I mused: my mother still knows her son, maybe.” Tagore injects a vivid sense of humanity and mindfulness into all aspects of nature, from the consoling winds to the kissing skys. His personification of rural Bengal as a mother creates a sense of everlasting love for all who have ever lived on the land. He admits how such an intense glorification of physical land can lead to unrealistic expectations and disappointment. However, it is the memories and history associated with nature that create an eternal home, no matter how far one may travel. By ascribing a status of motherhood to Bengal, Tagore allows the Bengali identity to transcend geographic location and generation. Immigrants and diaspora maintain a connection to their homeland and thus fill some of the gaps created by displacement. They do not necessarily need to return to Bengal or sacrifice a British identity to gain a more fully-developed sense of home. Tagore shows how native poetry and literature can help immigrants bridge the disorienting liminal space they find themselves in. 

While Morrissey and Tagore come from different times and places, they both share a nostalgic and idealistic vision of home. Tagore’s love inevitably burns as he witnessed the colonization and subjugation of his land and people; Morrissey may feel his vision of England has a similar cause. But Morrissey’s narrative ignores the history of the empire and its toll on places like Bengal. Many people migrate out of necessity and Morrissey’s England leaves no room for them.