Title : Dhaka is a contemporary unreal city like London, which is a reflection of T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land . 

Keywords:  Decadence, Unreal, Pollution, Hypocrisy, Fertility, Spiritual, Suicide. Prostitution,  Corruption,

ABSTRACT :  T. S. Eliot's The Waste Land is a significant 20th-century English poem, foundational in modernist poetry. It depicts Decadence and post-war disillusionment in Europe, with hope found in the search for Dhaka is a contemporary unreal city like London, which is a reflection of T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land . 

This paper draws connections between Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, and traits such as pollution, corruption, and social issues. It explores parallels with London in T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land, highlighting the potential for Dhaka to become an unreal city despite its similarities to busy London.

  In the poem "The Wasteland" by T.S Eliot, the poet called London city is unreal city. To put it briefly, I substantiated and established my assertion in this article using several examples from real-world events, credible sources, and published reports. In this research paper I have labeled Dhaka city an unreal city in order to raise awareness among its residents.

Abbreviations:

T.S Eliot = Thomas Stearns Eliot

UNDP = United Nations Development Programme

MLA = Modern Language Association

 AQI =   Air Quality Index

CIRDAP = Centre on Integrated Rural Development for Asia and the Pacific.

 BBC = British Broadcasting Corporation.

Introduction : 

1.1. Background of the study:

T. S. Eliot's The Waste Land has long been a subject of interest and study for researchers. T. S. Eliot has demonstrated his excellence as a poet, essayist, publisher, playwright, literary and social critic, among other roles. The Waste Land (1922), consisting of five sections, is hailed as a prime illustration of rhetorical discontinuity.

“Unreal City

Under the brown fog of a winter dawn”,

(The Burial of the Dead, 60-61)

Again in ‘Fire Sermon’,

“Unreal City

Under the brown fog of winter noon.”

(The Fire Sermon, 206-207)

"Unreal City" appears in "The Waste Land" twice, representing the peculiar quality of early 20th-century city life. The poem reflects wickedness and uncertainty, alluding to the breakdown caused by World War-I on societal, emotional, and psychological levels. The beginning segment of The Waste Land, known as "The Burial of the Dead," references infertility and desolation and is often compared to the burial of the god of fertility. The poem starts with these lines: "April is the cruelest month, breeding/ Lilacs out of the dead land,/ mixing/Memory and Desire" (1-3). Eliot portrays April as the cruelest month, contrasting with Chaucer's gentle depiction of a river. Eliot's April does not bring life to the dead, unlike Chaucer's invigorating version. "The Fire Sermon" presents London as a realm of melancholic people sacrificed to cravings, depicting spiritual barrenness and moral decline in modern society. The poem reflects the anxiety and neurosis stemming from the horrors of World War I in the 20th century. In this paper, I have attempted to identify the issues facing contemporary London and draw connections to the current situation in Dhaka city.

1.2. Statement of the problem:  Dhaka is a modern unreal city like London, with a population of 19.84 million in Bangladesh. It does not fully embrace post-modern traits such as rejecting meta-narratives or cultural distortions. The issues in "The Waste Land" mirror those in Dhaka, like pollution, prostitution, corruption, and suicide. Many in Dhaka prioritize indulgence over intellect and work. Suicide rates, especially in Dhaka, are increasing. This research highlights the similarities between contemporary London and Dhaka, both facing societal challenges.

1.3  Research Gap :

Limited research exists on the topic of fantastical cities like Dhaka and London. This research gap is a top priority in the current study project, with Dhaka being compared to London despite poet T. S. Eliot declaring London an unreal city in "The Waste Land" (1922). 

T.S. Eliot described both London and Dhaka as "Unreal City" under the brown fog of winter in his poems. This research aims to transform Dhaka into a real city and fill the gap in understanding of both cities.

 1.4. Research Question(s)/Hypothesis:

The aim of the study is to find answers to the following questions:

1. How does a real city become an unreal city according to T.S. Eliot's poem "The Waste Land"?

2. What similarities does T.S. Eliot's poem "The Waste Land" identify in the ways of life of Londoners and Dhaka residents?

3. How  Dhaka city can be compared with the world's best city, London, in light of Eliot's poem The Waste Land?

4. How we can  raise awareness among Dhaka residents?

1.5. Research Objective(s) : 

 The objectives of the study are as follows:

1. To examine the lifestyle of the people of Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, and the lifestyle of the people of London.

2. To compare and promote the advanced modern city of Dhaka with world’s best city London.

3. Conducting some experiments to increase awareness about real and unreal cities among residents of Dhaka city.

4. To examine how unethical social practices and political indifference can turn a real city into an unreal city with good infrastructure.

1.6 Scope of the Study :

Within the context of the study project, this research article is very important. Research on "The Waste Land" has potential for scholarly expansions in modernist poetry. Focus limited to "Unreal City" elements in First and Third Sections of T.S. Eliot's poem. Comparing Dhaka and London as unreal cities is useful for researchers and city enthusiasts to analyze and learn about the elements of an imaginary city, potentially prompting real city transformations.

 1.7 Limitation of the Study

There are limitations of qualitative research. Study limits include imperfections from inadequate resources, a limited sample size, and faulty methodology. No perfect research exists. Dhaka's urban plan, like modern London, evokes T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land, seen as a modern epic with limits. Limited resources in the library for modernist poetry research projects. Only one book and a few research studies are available. Despite challenges, prepare for the next data collection and analysis expedition.

1. Qualitative research often requires interpreting subjective data. Limited availability of textbooks for T.S. Eliot's "The Waste Land" is evident.

 2. The process takes a long time. temporal restriction of two years.

3. Limitations of secondary sources include previous research projects, incomplete data and information, etc.  

4, Studying causality in modernist poetry is difficult due to reliance on online sources, unable to personally visit London for research.

. 1.8 . Outline of the Study

Chapter 1: Introduction

Chapter 2: Definition of real city and unreal city.

Chapter Three: Chapter Four: Theoretical and Conceptual Framework.

Chapter Four : Describing about the culture of  Dhaka and London.

Chapter Five: Describing the element of real city .

Chapter Six: Describing the element of  unreal city.

Chapter Seven:Describing the Worst Impacts of unreal city.

 Chapter Eight:  Ecological concerns of the London city and Dhaka city.

Chapter Nine:  Conclusion and Findings

Bibliography

2. Research Methodology

2.1 Theoretical Perspective:

The Research project compares Dhaka and London, utilizing literary and theoretical frameworks like postmodernism and modernist poetry. The term "Unreal City" is mentioned two times in The Waste Land, and it holds various symbolic interpretations. In more broad terms, the expression evokes the dreamlike character of city living in the early 1900s. In this sense, the expression mirrors the general feeling of decay and confusion present in the poem.

2.2 Conceptual Framework :

Postmodernism and modernist poetry, as literary theories, investigate literature created within the cultural contexts of Unreal cities such as Dhaka and London. The Waste Land (1922) is reminiscent of an earthquake, dismantling the framework of modernism and all it encompassed. It depicts a confined environment where renewal and optimism appear unlikely. The main focus of the poem centers around this modern illness in the city of Dhaka and London. 

Engaging with the "Unreal City" requires recognizing the significance of the mundane, everyday experiences that still exist in the intense atmosphere of the modern city. The utilization of Ecology as a Symbol in T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land. In the initial part of the poem, Eliot attempts to depict a sense of brokenness, dryness, insignificance, and emptiness to the reader. The "dry stone no sound of water", the "handful of dust" and the "Unreal City/ under the brown fog of a winter dawn" all indicate a barren environment without a spiritual core.

Farzana (2015) argued that the detachment of the individual's consciousness in a sea of unthinking people contributes to the bleak loneliness of city life, along with the erosion of familial bonds, religion, and moral values. She also states that London is an Unreal city, with lust, bankruptcy, hypocrisy, and spiritual sterility.

2.3 Research Methods: Qualitative in  ecological concerns .

The research will involve textual analysis and interpretation to update existing data or discover new information on T.S. Eliot's poem 'The Waste Land'. Primary materials will be examined the T.S. Eliot's poem 'The Waste Land' and other sources, while other writings on Eliot will be secondary sources.

2.4 Ethical Consideration:

This research project will be unique as it will draw information from primary and secondary sources correctly referenced with the MLA Handbook, 9th edition. It will also be plagiarism-free because all references have been properly mentioned in MLA.

2.5 Study Area:  Modern Poetry.

3.1 Literature Review:

While preparing the proposal I have gone through available research as there are many critics and scholars who critically analyzed T. S. Eliot's poem ‘The Waste Land’ from various perspectives.  A literature review proves that the writer of the paper has done his home work properly and has adequate knowledge about the related topic. Many writers have given their opinions about the problems and solutions of modern city life based on The Waste Land.

  Moral and Spiritual Decadence of Modern Life  as depicted in T. S. Eliot’s The Waste Land. In the whole of “The Waste Land”, we will come across many broken images, which are unrelated pictures, but are put together to give a coherent whole of meaning. Eliot also uses the ironies of the Modern life along with spiritual deterioration, etc.

 Several signs of the contemporary Waste Land can be found in current Dhaka, such as water contamination, individual and corporate hypocrisy, sex work, same-sex relationships, and infertility.

Air Pollution: Brown fog is first mentioned in "The Burial of the Dead" and afterward corroborated by the poet in "The Fire Sermon," who also recalls brown fog in winter midday. Winter fog is often not brown in hue. As a result of excessive pollution, it exists. In London town,

numerous industries prospered in the 18th and 19th centuries. The air in Dhaka is more polluted than in contemporary London, and this is extremely simple to demonstrate. The Air Quality Index (AQI) was reported at 608 ppm on January 30, 2018, making Dhaka the city with the worst amount of pollution worldwide. The AQI standards for Bangladesh are 0-50 (good), 51-100 (moderate), 101-150 (caution), 151-200 (unhealthy), 201-300 (very unhealthy), and 301- 500 (extremely unhealthy).

River Pollution:The beginning of "The Fire Sermon" mentions nymphs that can be discovered in the Thames River. The repeated phrase from Spenser's Prothalamion, “Sweet Thames, run softly till I end my song.”  Introducing the river song in this section, it flows peacefully until the end of my song.  The speaker seen in the current situation of fishing in the Thames River, but the region is filled with trash and vermin. The contemporary call girls have taken the place of the Elizabethan nymphs of the Thames. Holiday revelers have made the Thames River their hot spot of passion. Riverside litter like bottles, handkerchiefs, cardboard boxes, and cigarette ends suggest contemporary nymphs seeking work with city directors. Those they meet in summer leave no contact details, leaving the river clean. (The Fire Sermon, 177- 179) . Thames River, England's largest river, 215 miles long, polluted by industrial, human, and plastic waste, improved by wartime damage.Thames declared biologically dead in 1957, a "sizable, foul-smelling sewer," now threatened by plastic waste.

Plastic debris on the bank of the River Thames, London England United Kingdom UK

On December 4, 2014, a conference on pollution in the major rivers around Dhaka was held at the CIRDAP Auditorium. It was hosted by Plasma Plus and Brotee, revealing none of the rivers had drinkable water. 

Dhaka's history, culture, economy, and livelihood are linked to the Buriganga River. Once the heart of the city, it is now declining. 30,000 people use Sadarghat terminal daily. (The Daily Star, April 01, 2009). The Buriganga river in Dhaka is most at risk, prompting Bangladesh's Environmental Department's attention. “The major point sources of pollution in the Buriganga River are a number of industrial installations, municipal wastewater and sewage treatment plants.” (Rahman & Rana) .

The Turag River in Dhaka city is the second most polluted due to clogging caused by  corporations, and 29 heavy industries releasing toxic chemicals. Therefore, it is evident that the current Thames river resembles the rivers in today's Dhaka city.

Water quality of the Buriganga.                              Water quality of the Turag river in basila

Prostitution In Riverside: The following relevant subject is prostitution in Riverside. The oldest occupation in the world is regarded as prostitution, which denotes participating in sexual activities for payment. Even though our constitution permits it, it is a harmful profession in Bangladesh's societal system. The majority of the waterways in Dhaka City are now used by Commercial Sex Workers (CSW) and their clients as gathering spots at night. Additionally, Daulatdia, the largest brothel in Bangladesh, which is located close to Gualondo Ghaat, receives

3000 visitors each day (Dhaka Tribune) .

Hypocrisy in Society: The second argument is the hypocrisy of modern people.Madame Sosostris, a character of chapter 27 of Crome Yellow (1921) Aldous Huxley’s (1894-1963). Madame Sosostris, a clairvoyant named after an ancient Egyptian sorceress, is a character in the poem who possesses extrasensory perception and the ability to see things clearly. In Bangladesh, particularly in Dhaka, various fortune tellers can be found, ranging from street palmists to aristocratic predictors. In Gulistan, a bustling area in Dhaka, a man named ‘Shoshodhor Gonok’ has been revealing future secrets for the last two decades.

Unexpected Sex and Commercial Sex: The Waste Land explores sex, noted in English literature for spiritual dryness.  An elegant woman enters a fancy room in "A Game of Chess," where Dido, connected to Cleopatra, awaits her boyfriend impatiently. She lacks intertextuality and is frustrated and sensual. Plans for an outing and chess match end her day. Later, a woman and Lil converse in an East London barroom.
Tiresias, the poem's narrator, observes a typewriter girl waiting for a clerk to finish work. The girl represents modern working women who use sex for pleasure. When the clerk leaves, the typist is liberated and relieved. She sees her job as ordinary and is glad it's over. (The Fire Sermon, pages 217 and 250–256).

Dhaka has transformed into a bustling city, with hotels catering to the elite offering drinks and casual sex. Islamic TV highlighted the hotel prostitution industry on April 17, 2009, naming Karwan Bazar, Tejgaon, Mohakhali, Fakirapul, and Old Dhaka as risky areas..

 Extra-Marital Affair and Rape: The illicit relationship industry in Dhaka is growing rapidly, threatening social life. Jamil Sheikh and daughter Nusrat were murdered due to wife Arjina's affair with Shahin.(Rabbi).The first three chapters of 'The Waste Land' show a focus on sex solely for pleasure without reproduction. Dhaka City in 2018 mirrors this with widespread prostitution, affairs, rape, and cohabitation.

Infertility: The Waste Land references the Fisher King myth, symbolizing impotence and its effect on fertility in the land, shown through the characters'  opposition to it.

April is the cruelest month, breeding Lilacs

out of the dead land, mixing Memory and

desire, stirring Dull roots with spring rain.                                                                                              (The Burial of the Dead, 1-4)

Grover Smith believes abortion provides sterility, embodying a woman's life experience. Lil, after having five children, desires sterility against tradition. Modern women taking drugs for sterility or abortion experience powerful chemical reactions. Lil confesses abortion changed her forever (A Chess Game Line, 158–160). 

UNDP report shows high abortion rates in Bangladesh, especially in Dhaka. Abruptly stopping birth control pills can lead to gynecological issues. "Illegal Abortions Rising at an Alarming Rate in the Capital" highlights high unintended pregnancies among adolescent females.

The homosexuality of Business Class: Mr. Eugenides, a merchant from Smyrna, is the next character to arrive in T. S. Eliot's unreal city. Smyrna is an unreal city like Dhaka. Mr. Eugenides arrives in a foggy city without a beard, carrying money and London documents. He has a homosexual affair at the Metropole hotel in Brighton and invites the main character to lunch (The Fire Sermon Line, pp. 209–214).

Dhaka has an abundance of trade centers like Motijheel, attracting business professionals like Mr. Eugenides. This area is home to many bank headquarters, drawing people from different areas for business transactions. Therefore, Motijheel is comparable to Smyrna.

 Spiritual hollowness: The Waste Land by T.S. Eliot explores spiritual barrenness in modern London through references to empty churches, broken images, and Madame Sosostris's false spiritual guidance. It depicts a society lacking in religious faith and tradition, with individuals dedicated to meaningless pursuits.

 A clash between Tabligh Jamaat factions at Biswa Ijtima in Dhaka on December 1, 2018, highlighted a lack of spirituality. The non-violent group's dispute over control of Ijtima Ground led to one death and 200+ injuries. (AKAND)

Trying to commit suicide: The epigraph of The Waste Land reflects Sybil's desire for death. Sybil is found in Petronius' The Satyricon and was Apollo's favorite. She asked for eternal life but not youth, leading to her shrinking in a bottle. Trimalchio saw the Sybil at Cumae in a bottle and heard her say, "I want to die." Mudra (52). Sybil and Waste Landers: fear of existence divides desire for death or life. (Williams 33).

Dhaka is alarmed by rising teen suicides due to unfair practices, as seen in Aritry's suicide. Teens feel hopeless. In 2017, 11,095 suicides in Bangladesh included 569 by hanging, 3,467 by poisoning, and 59 by setting on fire, increasing from 10,600 in 2016. (Roney)

3.2 Justification of the Study

Research compares contemporary issues in London and Dhaka in "PORTRAIT OF DHAKA AS A MODERN UNREAL CITY," (TANJILA RAHMAN ) reflecting the decline of the modern world in T. S. Eliot's The Waste Land. Dhaka faces various infections like pollution, corruption, prostitution, and black money. It is a comparative study to prove that present Dhaka has many similarities with the modern London City of The Waste Land. Researchers overlooked Dhaka's resemblance to London, important in studying T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land, emphasized in upcoming research.

Prof. Radhika Subhankar Mukherjee, in the article “A STUDY OF ECOLOGY AS A METAPHOR IN T.S.ELIOT'S THE WASTE LAND” examine the use of Ecology as a Metaphor in T.S.Eliot’s The Waste Land. Throughout the first section of the poem, Eliot tries to present the reader with an image of brokenness, image of aridness; triviality  and nothingness. We see the “dry stone no sound of water”, the “handful of dust” and the  “Unreal City/ under the brown fog of a winter dawn” all of which point to a dry landscape devoid of a spiritual centre.

In “City of Dead Souls: The Waste Land and the Modern Moment”, Gordon (2016) mentioned that The Waste Land is a poem of vision of horror, suggested by the original epigraph. The poem is about a repeated search for reality and to find ourselves imprisoned from the ‘Unreal City’. The mass of the inhabitants of the Unreal City – the workers, the clerk, and typist, the chatterers in the pub – are too oblivious of their condition to suffer the realization that the poem grants us readers who enter its silences (‘I could not speak’, says the lover of the hyacinth girl).

  Andrez Zavrl noted in “Sexing The Waste Land – Gender, Desire, and Sexuality in T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land” that modernist men often plunge into the wild water of gender and sexuality, revealing a remarkable degree of anxiety in cities especially. Basically, death and winter are followed spring and new life. My intention of writing this article is to present a parallel picture of modern London and present Dhaka.

 My research work will be critically different from other research. The study will examine T. S. Eliot's representation of London and Dhaka, exploring societal issues in a modernist context using critical perspectives and theories.

Conclusion :

Being a modernist poet, T.S. Eliot utilized writing as a powerful tool to convey concepts in The Waste Land. He highlights an ecological issue in London City that mirrors Dhaka City's. In "The Waste Land," T. S. Eliot addresses societal issues and proposes fixes through the three paths to redemption mentioned in "What the Thunder Said." These techniques, inspired by the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, emphasize self-control, giving, and compassion. The thunder symbolizes impending rain to bring fertility to the land.

Citizens have duties like thunder promising rain, transforming Dhaka into a utopia with efforts to reduce pollution. Utopia embodies dreams of a perfect world with fair systems, clean cities, and happy communities. (Mariana). Prostitution ends with self-control, hypocrisy with morals, and religious beliefs. Enlightenment helps spiritual growth, medicine or technology tackle infertility. Collaboration can swiftly change Dhaka into an authentic city.

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