Academic and Reference Books

Although the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty alone has hogged the worlds ---‘attention so far — because of its uniquely dazzling dominance and durability — it is not the only one within India, leave alone the neighbouring countries of South Asia and beyond. Indeed, the number of clans striding the political stage in the region is rather large. The Senanayakes and the Bandarnaikes were entrenched in SriLanka well before Indira Gandhi first became India’s prime minister in 1966.

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.

This book assesses the extent to which fairness prevails in various aspects of Bangladesh’s politics, judiciary and society at large. It starts by examining fairness as a concept and social norm before moving onto a detailed assessment of the electoral process in Bangladesh. Several chapters are devoted to the coasts and benefits of the caretaker government system. One chapter focuses on the implications of the ‘clean candidates’ campaign launched by civil society during the last election. Another set of articles revolves around multiple dimensions of governance.