Category Archives: History

Deep Politics 3: Dark times ahead for the Liberation War bloc

. 1971, Media, Politics, War Crimes
Rajshahi, Islami Chatra Shibir activists beat policeman with his helmet © Focus Bangla

Rajshahi, Islami Chatra Shibir activists beat policeman with his helmet © Focus Bangla


Deep Politics 3: Beware! Dark times ahead for the Liberation War bloc!
By Faruk Wasif , Translated by Tibra Ali

What was cat became a handkerchief. The movement to eliminate atheists has emerged as the opposition to the movement to bring the war-criminals to justice. The League government, mired in corruption and having betrayed the Shahbag movement, has no option but to compromise. Continue reading →

And meanwhile, in Kolkata …

. 1971, Bidesh, ICT, India, Jamaat, Politics, West Bengal

Image

Scanned copy of KALAM newspaper


For any non-Bangladeshis even remotely following politics and events in that country, it is clear that the situation on the ground is getting very bad. But not to worry. When things get too problematic, you know you can always rely on your armchair activist brothers across the border to speak up for you. Heard that before? If not from us your interfering neighbors, from your domestic dalals selling your country’s interests? Well, here’s news about an unusual show of support just a hop and a skip away from Satkhira. Continue reading →

Rumi Squad stage of Gono Jagoron: Day 4

. 1971, War Crimes

Hunger Strikers (clockwise): Joy, Deep, Niloy, Shubhra, Akash, Alif. [Image: Rahman Piash FB]

Hunger Strikers (clockwise): Joy, Deep, Niloy, Shubhra, Akash, Alif. [Image: Rahman Piash FB]

The hunger strike began at 10:30 pm on March 26th. The hunger strikers of Shaheed Rumi Squad opened a divide within the Shahbag movement, as pro-AL bloggers went on the attack. But this is good. Let the opportunists depart, let AL move away from Shahbag. Perhaps these seven hunger strikers of Shaheed Rumi Squad are the remaining heart of Shahbag now. A radical movement must understand that a violent, oppressive state that has been anti-people everywhere else, is not their ally in this movement. To survive, Shahbag must separate itself from AL-aligned forces.
Continue reading →

On the borders of two Bengals

. 1971, Bangladesh, History, India, West Bengal
©Manpreet Romana/NYT

Bangladeshi man runs across a makeshift bridge, as it starts to rain in Cooch Bihar district in the Indian State of West Bengal. © Manpreet Romana/NYT

In November 2012, The New York Times ran two paired pieces written from both sides of the Bengal border.

Jyoti Rahman analyzes both articles: “Naeem is a few years older than me, and Mr Ray is likely to be slightly younger. That means, all of us were born decades after partition. Ours is the generation that has not known Pakistan in Bengal. Ours is the generation that has no lived experience of 1971. Both writers describe what the ‘other’ Bengal has meant to them over the years. Obviously I can relate to Naeem’s story, but I don’t share his conclusion. And while I find Ray’s story interesting for its misconception, I do relate to the way his story ends.”
Continue reading →

Love that Country

. 1971, Film, Politics


It was early or mid 1980s. I am just finishing my high school.  1972 Bangla film ওরা এগারো জন  Ora Egaro Jon, was re-released in theaters across the country. In mine and many others’ opinion, ওরা এগারো জন is one of the ten best movies ever made in Bangladesh. This movie, made by freedom fighter turned director, Chashi Nazrul Islam and starred by Razzak, Shabana as well as star freedom fighters like Khasru, Nantu etc,  is one of the best 1971 related movies ever made. Continue reading →

Silence speaks volumes

. 1971, Bidesh, Media
alt
flickr / Rajiv Ashrafi
By Javed Jahangir
Prior to the outbreak of the recent violence in Bangladesh that pitted the police against the Jamaat-e-Islami, the conservative Islamic party, there was a stark silence among Western news outlets on the massive protests at Shahbagh junction in Dhaka. For 38 days and counting, up to a quarter of a million people have gathered peacefully everyday at Shahbagh, and elsewhere across the country, to demonstrate in favour of death sentences for those convicted of war crimes dating back to the country’s 1971 Liberation War against Pakistan. Shahbagh, and the subsequent violent backlash, was sparked by sentences handed down to leaders of the Jamaat, which collaborated with Pakistani forces in 1971 and has been tightly enmeshed in Bangladeshi politics ever since. Continue reading →