Bangladesh is to be ravaged by the west it seems
just saying, bangladesh was doomed from the start the moment mujibor rahman became a megalomaniac and didn’t let the rightful prime minister (tajuddin ahmed) get into power.
A few days late, but do you happen to have any recommendations for books and/or sources for learning about Bangladeshi history and recent politics? Bengali sources are fine; I can read some bangla.
Hi! Sorry I was late to get back to you. I was asking around other Bangali Communists to see if they had any book recommendations of their own as well (and to check if my recommendations thus far were fine). After talking with them, this is the list of books that I’d recommend to read regarding the History and Politics of our country:
- 🇧🇩 JASOD er Utthan Poton (জাসদের উত্থান পতন)
- 🇧🇩 Amar Fashi Chai (আমার ফাঁসি চাই)
- 🇧🇩 Ami Major Dalim Bolchi (আমি মেজর ডালিম বলছি)
- 🇧🇩 Tajuddin Ahmed: Neta o Pita (তাজউদ্দীন আহমেদ: নেতা ও পিতা)
- 🇧🇩 BNP: Shomoy o Oshomoy (বিএনপি: সময় ও অসময়)
- 🇧🇩 Protinayok: Shirajul Alam Khan (প্রতিনায়ক: সিরাজুল আলম খান)
- 🇬🇧 Bangladesh: A Legacy of Blood
- 🇬🇧 Bangladesh: Unfinished Revolution
Bangladesh flagged ones (🇧🇩) are Bangla Language sources, while UK flagged ones are English Language sources. But I’d still recommend reading all of them, if you can read Bangla.
Just a note:
- Tajuddin Ahmed: Neta o Pita was written by Tajuddin Ahmed’s Daughter, so there might be some bias towards him.
- Likewise, Amar Fashi Chai has an anti-hasina bias (good) and some things written there are being disputed. But it was written by a freedom fighter as well, so…
- Ami Major Dalim Bolchi is an autobiography written by Major Dalim himself. So there may be some bias here too. Major Dalim is an important figure in Bangladeshi History because he’s the one behind the killing of Mujib and (most of) his family in 1975.
But all three of them are still a must-read to figure out how Mujib and his daughter, Hasina were like.
JASOD er Utthan Poton goes on about the Rise and Fall of JASOD - the first political party to come out of Liberated Bangladesh. It used to be a part of Sheikh Mujib’s then-Awami League, but because Mujib would keep neglecting them for the more yes man-y faction of the Awami League, they departed from the Awami League to form their own party. “JASOD” btw, stands for JAtiyo ShOmajtantrik Dal. In english this would mean “National Socialist Party”, if the nazis didn’t ruin this term for everyone. No, JASOD isn’t a fascist party. They really are socialist as they say.
BNP: Shomoy o Oshomoy goes on about how BNP - the Bangladesh Nationalist Party - came into being. BNP is the second most popular political party over here, the first one used to be BAL.
I’d also recommend researching about Ershad and Jatiyo Party, as he murdered Ziaur Rahman to get into power. He ruled this country for 8 years straight before a student-led mass movement happened in the 90s to get him off the throne.
