This book, by a veteran diplomat with widely acknowledged expertise on Bangladesh, etches a wide arc of regional history right upto 2022. A concise, pithy and racy book, it begins with the history of formation of Bengali identity in its different facets, especially Muslim. It then traces its evolution, conditioned by not infrequent changes in political circumstances whose precipitate, violent dimension barely recede from the community’s consciousness.
The author reflects throughout on the precise identity of a Bengali Muslim, which animates the regional politics till today while dissecting Bangladeshi politics to explain the functioning of the state and its regional ramifications for India’s foreign and domestic policies. The constant identity-related tension in Bangladeshi politics, whether a Bengali Muslim is ‘Muslim’ enough to constitute the core of its nationhood manifests itself as its daily grist. The inner contradictions of Bengali Nationalism before Partition, and thereafter, burst forth with ferocity during the liberation war for Bangladesh.
Despite Sheikh Mujib’s mass popularity before and after liberation, an abortive democratic transition under him complicated its growth as a nation, prising further apart its existing societal and governmental fractures. The post-1971 euphoric bilateral relationship was quickly followed by periods of dramatic swings between friendship and hostility. The hard-core statecraft practised by successive Bangladesh leaders nece.
