Academic and Reference Books

Bengal Raag is a wonderful book about twin sisters and their childhood in Bangladesh, formerly known as East Pakistan. A blend of fiction and real life, it chronicles an important moment in the history of that region. Although seen through the eyes of children, it deals with adult and complex issues of family dynamics, belonging and separation amidst a gradual building up of social, cultural and political tensions.

In the past decade, militant Hindu nationalism has emerged as a dominant political force in India, and it looks set to stay in the absence of a credible challenge from centrist and Left parties. The pursuit of an exclusivist agenda of ‘cultural nationalism’ (Hindutva) by the Bharatiya Janata Party, the Shiv Sena, and an assortment of other groups, that comprise the Sangh Parivar’, is seen as a threat to India’s pluralist traditions.

The book is about the identity politics in a post-colonial society that motivated the Bengali Muslims to participate in Bangladesh’s independence movement. Its approach is a major departure from the traditional analysis which tends to suggest that nationalist movement is a non contradictory political movement. To the contrary, the book argues, like all other social movements, the nationalist movement responds to restructuring the power relation in a society.

In this book, translated into English from Bangla in original, Dr. Mamoon has shown his admirable capacity to see and separate the deeper meaning of events from the dark and the grey surrounding them as ingredients of historical change and development. With more than 150 publications to his credit, Dr. Mamoon, at present teaches history in Dhaka University. For his free thinking and challenging writings, in 2002, he was incarcerated in jail allegedly for anti-state activities by the present government.