What is hegemony?

Hegemony

Hegemony means power or dominance. This word also refers to colonial or imperial dominance. In the field of language, culture, religion, etc there is always some kind of hegemony. In the colonial rule, the language and culture of the colonial power are considered better. This kind of view comes from hegemony. When a Christian thinks that his religion is better than other religions, the view is hegemonic. Similarly, people who believe that Western culture is better than other cultures, this is a cultural hegemony. In fact, in our day-to-day life, we observe people having different kinds of hegemonic attitudes. 

“Hegemony invades private space” is an illustration of how hegemonic notion works even in the minds of members of a family. The poet’s cousin lives in America. When he comes back from the office and wears a lungi, and then if any visitor comes to his house,  his son feels ashamed to see his father meeting the guests wearing lungi. They think that lungi is an ethnic dress. It is likely that the son’s father who is a Bangladeshi by birth went to America and settled there. The son born and brought up in American culture hates lungi. This is a hegemonic attitude towards dress.