Author: Shafiq

Politics14 Comments

Death and Justice: What Might Have Been

Shafiq

Death and Justice: What Might Have Been
By Shafiqur Rahman for AlaloDulal

There was an eerie predictability about the verdict and also about the aftermath. Even the domestic and international reactions could also be foreseen given all that have transpired in the last year. At home fires burned, people died and the two nations screamed past each other. At abroad, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and other rights groups criticized the process. News and opinion centers like the Economist, New York Times duly noted the controversies about the trial and the reactions in Bangladesh and pontificated few lines. Continue reading “Death and Justice: What Might Have Been”

Politics3 Comments

In Praise of Lord Macaulay – 1

Shafiq

If there is one figure from Indian Sub-continental history who is uniformly hated by Hindu nationalists, Hindu fundamentalists, Muslim nationalists and Muslim fundamentalists alike, that would be Lord Thomas Babington Macaulay, famous British historian and politician of 19th century. Macaulay embodies in person all the insecurities the various Indian cultures and traditions harbors vis-à-vis the western civilization. Continue reading “In Praise of Lord Macaulay – 1”

Literature1 Comment

Humayun Ahmed: Personal Reflections on the Anniversary

Shafiq

Humayun Ahmed: Personal Reflections on the Anniversary
Shafiqur Rahman

In the week following the tragic death of Princess Diana of Britain in 1997, the reputedly “stiff upper-lip” British showed emotional outpouring on a mass scale such as the world has never seen before. The aftermath of Diana’s death is now recognized as a watershed moment in modernity. Continue reading “Humayun Ahmed: Personal Reflections on the Anniversary”