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    Volume 10 |Issue 47 | December 16, 2011 |


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 Cover Story 1
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Books

71 Books on 1971

UPL's tribute to 40 years of Bangladesh Independence

Over the last 37 years, UPL has put forth over 70 titles on the history of the liberation war and emergence of Muslim Bengali nationalism for the global and local readers and scholars interested in the history of Bangladesh. On the 40th year of independence, UPL is featuring 71 titles on 1971 with the aim to encourage the post-71 generation to read the various perspectives of the liberation war narrated by different actors. These books include a range of angles from which the independence struggle can be perceived from. Starting from co-published or translated titles of books written by Pakistany army officials and war strategists like General Rao Farman Ali, to accounts by Bangladeshi diplomats (like K. M. Shehabuddin, to general citizens who were victims of the war (like Jahanara Imam, Bashanti Guhathakurata, and Abdul Mannan Khan), accounts by liberation war researchers like Prof. Muntasir Mamoon, ASM Shamsul Arefin, Prof. Imtiaz Ahmed, to stories and novels on 1971.

The Road to Bangladesh Series
The book is reprinted as part of UPL's Road to Bangladesh Series which is designed to present published accounts of the background to the emergence of Bangladesh. Books in the series including the present book are be an invaluable collection for those interested in South Asian affairs, particularly students and scholar in politics, economic development and social transformation.
Here is a sample of some of the books:

The Last Days of United Pakistan
Author: G W Choudhury, Price: BDT 400, First Published: 1993, First Bangladesh edition: 2011, ISBN: 978 984 506 008 0, Cover Type: Hardcover, No of Pages: 240, Status: Available

The disintegration of Pakistan and the emergence of Bangladesh in 1971 is the sad story of the Pakistan army generals, the misconceived role as 'guardian angles' of national interest.

From his unique personal experience, the late Professor Choudhury describes and analyses the internal and external developments from the day of resignation of Ayub Khan in March 1969 to the fall of Dhaka, and the Liberation of Bangladesh on December 16, 1971.

 

 

 

Green Fire
Author: Shahidul Alam, Price: BDT 495, First Published: 2010, ISBN: 984 506 018 9, Cover Type: Hardcover, No of Pages: 261, Status: Available

Green Fire is fictional account of a group of teenagers from an elite high school in the former East Pakistan who were suddenly confronted, upon graduation, with the much wider world that their privileged upbringing and exclusive schooling had largely sheltered them from having to deal with.

 

 

 

From East Bengal to Bangladesh: Dynamics and Perspectives
Author: Shaikh Maqsood Ali, Price: BDT 750, First Published: 2009, ISBN: 984 70220 0012 7, Cover Type: Hardcover, No of Pages: 438S, Status: Available

This book explains the dismemberment of Former Pakistan and the emergence of Bangladesh in a wider canvas of historical challenges, struggles and dynamics that had constantly worked in the background. This book is a part of Road to Bangladesh Series which is designed to present published accounts of the background to the emergence of Bangladesh. Books in the series should be an invaluable collection for those interested in South Asian affairs, particularly students and scholars of politics, economic development and social transformation.

 

 

Historicizing 1971 Genocide: State Versus Person
Author: Imtiaz Ahmed, Price: BDT 950, First Published: 2009, ISBN: 984 70220 0047 9, Cover Type: Hardcover, No of Pages: 106, Status: Available

Bangladesh genocide is the only genocide in modern times that resulted from a policy of deliberate containment of the democratic aspirations of its people. But genocide is as much a tale of the state as it is a tale of the person. As epicentre of 1971 genocide, Dhaka University has attained a special place in genocidal discourse, and this is as much for the reason of the state as it is for the indiscriminate, and yet killing of persons on the campus. Methodologically then it becomes meaningful to focus on Dhaka University as it had experienced a statist policy of murder and destruction while those who had survived are still in a position to narrate the painful experience of the person. In collecting the victims' tale, however, a deliberate attempt was made to search and reach out to the subalterns, including gardeners, security guards, peons and other less recognizable office bearers of the university.

Fault Lines: Stories of 1971
Editor: Niaz Zaman, Asif Farrukhi, Price: BDT 500, First Published: 2008, ISBN: 984 05 1792 9, Cover Type: Hardcover, No of Pages: 340, Status: Available

Fault Lines is the first anthology containing stories from Bangladesh, Pakistan, India, the United States and the United Kingdom on the theme of 1971. There is a lot of creative writing that has emerged from 1971, but most of it in regional languages. This anthology, by putting together stories originally written in Bangla, Urdu, Sindhi or Punjabi, in addition to a handful originally written in English, attempts to bridge the language barrier. The breakup of Pakistan and the emergence of Bangladesh were attended by violence and bloodshed. As these writers try to come to grips with the facts and the emotions of 1971, the reader is taken back to that turbulent and momentous time.

 

There and Back Again - A Diplomat's Tale
Author: K M Shehabuddin, Price: BDT 525, First Published: 2006, ISBN: 984 05 1756 2, Cover Type: Hardcover, No of Pages: 347, Status: Available

On the night of March 15, 1971, K M Shehabuddin, a young Pakistan Foreign Service Officer, was posted in Delhi. The news that filtered in from East Pakistan led him to renounce his allegiance to Pakistan and pledge loyalty to the unborn state of Bangladesh. The first career diplomat to join the war - even before the formation of the Mujibnagar Government - he became the first head of Bangladesh's Delhi mission. From April to October 1971, he played a leading role on the diplomatic front of the liberation war.

Shehabuddin was also able to witness at first-hand India's participation in the liberation war.

 

 

The Foreshadowing of Bangladesh: Bengal Muslim League and Muslim Politics 1906-1947
Author: Harun-or-Rashid, Price: BDT 525, First Published: 1987, Revised and Enlarged Edition: 2003, ISBN: 984 05 1688 4, Cover Type: Hardcover, No of Pages: 382, Status: Available

This study covers, what Leonard A. Gordon calls, the neglected history of Bengali Muslims before 1947. It provides a detailed account of the Bengal Muslim League during the period from 1906 to1947. It covers its various aspects, such as, problems of organisation, policies and mobilisation, nature of leadership, inner party conflict, bases of support and relations with the parent all-India body.

 


 

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