Bengali in Platforms

"Bengali in Platforms" is a Morrissey song from his debut album Viva Hate. It refers to a Bengali boy who is living in the UK, and trying, but failing, to fit in. Some people believe that it is actually an allegory for the early life of Morrissey, who was the son of Irish immigrants, though the reference to 'Western plans' does not fit this narrative.

This song was included as evidence of Morrissey's oft-discussed, purported racism. The lines most often referred to are:

"Bengali, Bengali / Oh, shelve your Western plans / And understand / That life is hard enough when you belong here"

Writes the author of the "It May All End Tomorrow" Morrissey fan website:

"As [Smiths biographer] Rogan says, with its tone of condescension 'politely mocking', it's hard to justify these lyrics as anything other than incredibly badly thought out. Easily offensive, two justifications are that it was purposefully done to incite the critics (although as the individual Morrissey was always so closely aligned with his lyrics, it's hard to see this) and Rogan's point that the definite setting of the song is in the 1970s. At no point is it made clear that the singer is in any way sympathetic with the lyrics - it's fair enough to say that the only endorsement of the lyrics is that Morrissey wrote them." [1]

In a 1988 interview with Shaun Phillips for Sounds magazine, Morrissey justified the lyrics by saying: "If you went to live in Yugoslavia tomorrow, you would find you didn't really belong there."