Bangladesh Studies

‘Transition to Democracy’ is a compilation of articles published in newspapers ad magazines at home and abroad. The author writes on such developments which impinge on public policy issues and on strategic policies pursued by successive governments of Bangladesh. Tow major political parties, the Awami League (AL) and the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), elected by the people one after the other, ruled the country with the pledge to promote democracy and the rule of law.

At birth Bangladesh was a homogenous nation state with a promise to make every house a happy home. But soon after its birth, schismatic tendencies developed because of the ill motive and machinations of certain political forces. The lack of a clear perception of the civil society and of the politicians about Bengali nationalism and nation state of Bangladesh, resulted in some ambiguity about their identity. Additionally, the military rulers during their term of office impaired the constitution and dichotomised the nation in order to create their own power base.

These essays show that contrary to the widespread belief, nationalism is not all about the celebration of territory as a marker of identity and power; it is also about time in a fundamental way. The anxiety over time is as fundamental as the one over space. Indeed space appears as one in the distribution of the elements that go into making the time of nationalism. The author contends that, each time the nationalist destiny of Muslim Bengal took a clearly discernible turn, it seemed to the actors as final and irrevocable?the actors of 1937, 1947, 1954, 1957, or 1971.

Bangladesh is an account of a courageous man who has boldly faced every adversary which aimed to destroy him or his will to fight back. Muhiuddin Khan Alamgir was first jailed in 2002 for seven months, was made to starve and tortured by his political opponents. Subsequently, Dr. Alamgir was again picked up in the middle of the night by the military backed government’s Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) on February 2, 2007, without any warrant or charges drawn up against him. He was jailed by the government and was at times put in solitary confinement.