Fifty Years of Bangladesh, 1971-2021


Book Description

This book, the first historical sociology of its kind concerning Bangladesh, examines the country's what-went-wrong-syndrome during the first fifty years of its existence, 1971-2021. The work is an exception to the traditional studies on modern and contemporary Bangladesh. The study is also a post-history of united Pakistan. Busting several myths, it sheds light on many known and unknown facts about the history, politics, society, and culture of the country. Besides being a twice-born country – liberated twice, from the British in 1947 and from West Pakistanis in 1971 – it is also an artificial entity suffering from acute crises of culture, development, governance, and identity. Hashmi attributes the culture and identity crises to the demographic byproducts of bad governance. In addition to being overpopulated, Bangladesh is also resource-poor and has one of the most unskilled populations, largely lumpen elements and peasants. According to Marx, these people represent “the unchanging remnants of the past”. The second round of independence empowered these lumpen classes, who suffer from an identity crisis and never learn the art of governance. The proliferation of pseudo-history about liberation has further divided the polity between the two warring tribes who only glorify their respective idols, Mujib and Zia. Pre-political and pre-capitalist peasants’ / lumpen elements’ lack of mutual trust and respect have further plagued Bangladesh, turning it into one of the least governable, corrupt, and inefficient countries. It is essential to replace the pre-capitalist order of the country run by multiple lumpen classes with capitalist and inclusive institutions.




Fifty Years of Bangladesh, 1971-2021


Book Description

This book, the first historical sociology of its kind concerning Bangladesh, examines the country's what-went-wrong-syndrome during the first fifty years of its existence, 1971-2021. The work is an exception to the traditional studies on modern and contemporary Bangladesh. The study is also a post-history of united Pakistan. Busting several myths, it sheds light on many known and unknown facts about the history, politics, society, and culture of the country. Besides being a twice-born country – liberated twice, from the British in 1947 and from West Pakistanis in 1971 – it is also an artificial entity suffering from acute crises of culture, development, governance, and identity. Hashmi attributes the culture and identity crises to the demographic byproducts of bad governance. In addition to being overpopulated, Bangladesh is also resource-poor and has one of the most unskilled populations, largely lumpen elements and peasants. According to Marx, these people represent “the unchanging remnants of the past”. The second round of independence empowered these lumpen classes, who suffer from an identity crisis and never learn the art of governance. The proliferation of pseudo-history about liberation has further divided the polity between the two warring tribes who only glorify their respective idols, Mujib and Zia. Pre-political and pre-capitalist peasants’ / lumpen elements’ lack of mutual trust and respect have further plagued Bangladesh, turning it into one of the least governable, corrupt, and inefficient countries. It is essential to replace the pre-capitalist order of the country run by multiple lumpen classes with capitalist and inclusive institutions.




Understanding Fifty Years of Bangladesh Politics


Book Description

This book studies the first 50 years of Bangladesh politics since independence. It looks at Bangladesh politics as a unique case for study to analyze and understand the role of institutions, political parties, the election commission, election-time government, judiciary, the media, etc. The volume cross-examines the 1971 War of Liberation and the brutal killing of the republic’s founding father in 1975 as the two great divides that crystallized in the political arena between the Awami League on the one side and the BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami on the other. Through deep dives on major historical events and key political developments that have since shaped Bangladesh’s entire society and politics, it then delves into topics including the parliament, electoral integrity, civil society, and politics as they take on a confrontational course. An incisive study on major struggles, achievements, and challenges faced by Bangladesh in the 20th century, this volume will be of great interest to scholars and researchers in political science, democracy, modern history, and South Asia studies.




Politics and Governance in Bangladesh


Book Description

Since its Independence in 1971, Bangladesh has made remarkable progress in terms of reducing poverty levels, achieving high levels of economic growth over a sustained period of time, and meeting its Millennium Development Goals (MDG) targets set by the United Nations. With some justification, Bangladesh is considered an international development success story, and the country appears to be well on track to meet its policy target of becoming a middle-income country by 2021, the same year the country will celebrate 50 years of Independence. This book explores the central issue of Bangladeshi politics: the weakness of governance. The coexistence of a poor governance track record and a relatively strong socioeconomic performance makes Bangladesh an intriguing case which throws up exciting and relevant conceptual and policy challenges. Structured in four sections - Political Settlement, Elites and Deep Structures; Democracy, Citizenship and Values; Civil Society, Local Context and Political Change; Informality and Accountability – the book identifies and engages with these challenges. Chapters by experts in the field share a number of conceptual and epistemological principles and offer a combination of theoretical and empirical insights, and cover a good range of contemporary issues and debate. Employing a structurally determinist perspective, this book explains politics and society in Bangladesh from a novel perspective. Academics in the field of governance and politics in developing countries, with a focus on South Asia and Bangladesh will welcome its publication.







1971


Book Description

The year 1971 exists everywhere in Bangladesh-on its roads, in sculptures, in its museums and oral history projects, in its curriculum, in people's homes and their stories, and in political discourse. It marks the birth of the nation, it's liberation. More than 1000 miles away, in Pakistan too, 1971 marks a watershed moment, its memories sitting uncomfortably in public imagination. It is remembered as the 'Fall of Dacca', the dismemberment of Pakistan or the third Indo-Pak war. In India, 1971 represents something else-the story of humanitarian intervention, of triumph and valour that paved the way for India's rise as a military power, the beginning of its journey to becoming a regional superpower. Navigating the widely varied terrain that is 1971 across Pakistan, Bangladesh and India, Anam Zakaria sifts through three distinct state narratives, and studies the institutionalization of the memory of the year and its events. Through a personal journey, she juxtaposes state narratives with people's history on the ground, bringing forth the nuanced experiences of those who lived through the war. Using intergenerational interviews, textbook analyses, visits to schools and travels to museums and sites commemorating 1971, Zakaria explores the ways in which 1971 is remembered and forgotten across countries, generations and communities.




Birth of Bangladesh


Book Description

In 1971, the day after the Pakistan army surrendered to Indian army in Dhaka, four of us classmates at IIM Calcutta crossed over into Bangladesh. We travelled to Dhaka and returned after a week, traveling by train, bus, military jeep, fishing boat, bullock cart, but mainly our feet. In our interaction with people of the newly liberated Bangladesh, we experienced the full spectrum from being felicitated to being threatened. We were garlanded and served with fresh coconuts; we were also prodded in the back with bayonets in the middle of the night. Those experiences took us through a wide range of emotions – elation, grief, fear, happiness and relief. This book captures the emotional roller coaster ride that we, as youngsters, experienced at the birth of a nation. We relate our experiences as vividly as we had lived through them fifty years ago. The picture on the front cover has been taken by Mr. Manabendranath Mandal. It is being used with his permission.




The Demoness


Book Description




Bangladesh Under Awami Tyranny


Book Description

Bangladesh under the Hasina-led traumatically tyrannical and transgressive Awami regime is a story of disaster and damnation. The fraud and fascist regime, a lackey of Indian hegemonism and Hindutvaism, recklessly pursues a policy of death and destruction, at least since 2009. The country used to be ruled with the same policy of elimination and annihilation during the time of her father Sheikh Mujib in 1972-1975 as well. The miserable condition led to his unlamented death and dismissal, to the joy and relief of the people of all walks of life, including his own Awami party and the armed forces. Now the situation under his daughter Sheikh Hasina is much worse. She is at the top of an Indian puppet regime that is corrupt and criminal to the core making the great majority suffer in the ongoing choking and suffocating circumstances of state terrorism. People live an utterly insecure and frightened life in a highly polarized police and prison state of chains and shackles, boots and bullets. torture and torment, bestial appetites, pervert human intellect and endless malice against the political opposition. The regime’s brutalities know no bounds; its persecution and prosecution of dissent are unlimited; its foot soldiers are deadlier than anything. They and their partisan police and RAB are brazenly emblazoned figures of the seven deadly sins, just as their Hindutva cult following leader Hasina, dubbed by critics as ‘Mother of Mafias,’ is an illiberal embodiment of all mischiefs and misdeeds. A fascist dictator, she is a tigress in human form, hungry for humongous accumulation of autocratic and authoritarian power and control at the expense of freedom, independence, sovereignty, and human rights. A viciously vindictive tyrant, again, backed by the fanatical and fundamentalist Hindu nationalist India, Hasina enjoys innocent adversaries liquidated; massacres committed; innocent people gunned down; politicians, intellectuals and journalists arrested, remanded, tortured, thrown behind bars, and even hanged; opposition members detained or disappeared; houses and neighborhoods set on fire; religious festivities violently tainted; desecration of holy books exploited and flames of communal fires fanned for gaining political mileage; women and children raped; banks and billions looted; and the poor committing suicide or dying of hunger. In the name of development, mostly fake and fictitious, and dented and demented, floodgates to corruption are opened, mega millions stolen, democracy killed, opposition suppressed, elections rigged, drugs made available in plenty, institutions left to collapse, education to fail, professionalism in professions going down the drains, transparency and accountability going to the dogs, and thus Pandora’s box of ills and evils continuing to be released with no stop in sight. This book is an attempt to capture only a portion of the dark tunnel of all swallowing Awami tyranny and all its abysmal tentacles spreading across Bangladesh for years and years with no end in sight.




Towards a Sustainable Economy


Book Description

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were introduced by the United Nations (UN) for all member nations with a total of 17 goals and 169 targets to be achieved between 2016 and 2030. The recent pandemic has presented more challenges to achieving the UN’s SDGs. This book examines Bangladesh’s ascendancy in socio-economic terms and the prospects of Bangladesh overcoming the challenges to become a higher-middle-income nation by 2030. This book traces the transformation of Bangladesh from 1996 through 2020 and examines various factors contributing to its success from rural economy, external support, manufacturing, and structural transformation to energy consumption. This book also looks at the challenges and opportunities for Bangladesh as the Fourth Industrial Revolution unfolds and as climate change, to which Bangladesh is highly vulnerable, escalates. This book will be a useful reference document for those who are interested in gaining more insights into inclusive growth and sustainable development from the case study of Bangladesh.