This book studies the first 50 years of Bangladesh politics since independence. It looks at Bangladesh politics as a unique case for study to analyze and understand the role of institutions, political parties, the election commission, election-time government, judiciary, the media, etc. The volume cross-examines the 1971 War of Liberation and the brutal killing of the republic’s founding father in 1975 as the two great divides that crystallized in the political arena between the Awami League on the one side and the BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami on the other. Through deep dives on major historical events and key political developments that have since shaped Bangladesh’s entire society and politics, it then delves into topics including the parliament, electoral integrity, civil society, and politics as they take on a confrontational course. An incisive study on major struggles, achievements, and challenges faced by Bangladesh in the 20th century, this volume will be of great interest to scholars and researchers in political science, democracy, modern history, and South Asia studies.

Fifty Years of Bangladesh portrays the multi-faceted dimensions of Bangladesh’s development journey, its economic and social transformation and political and cultural contestations. The book presents new empirical data supplemented with critical analysis of processes, actors and actions that have been the drivers of Bangladesh’s transformation and offers new ways of understanding Bangladesh. Organized in six sections, the book provides a multi-disciplinary, holistic and interrelated narrative of the Bangladesh story covering its economic and social transformation, the political history and changing cultural landscapes. It presents new empirical data and proposes new theoretical and analytical frameworks to explain the country’s complex and paradoxical developments. Capturing the vast landscape of changes that have taken place in different sectors of Bangladesh during the last fifty years, the contributors analyse the variety of Bangladesh’s experiences, its achievements as well as the shortfalls and mistakes. They propose new models and perspectives to ground Bangladesh’s developments, identify persistent and emerging challenges and suggest ways forward. A valuable addition to scholarship on Bangladesh, this book can be used as a reference in universities, research institutions and international development agencies interested in Development Studies, South Asian Studies and studies of the Global South.

This book, the first historical sociology of its kind concerning Bangladesh, examines the country's what-went-wrong-syndrome during the first fifty years of its existence, 1971-2021. The work is an exception to the traditional studies on modern and contemporary Bangladesh. The study is also a post-history of united Pakistan. Busting several myths, it sheds light on many known and unknown facts about the history, politics, society, and culture of the country. Besides being a twice-born country – liberated twice, from the British in 1947 and from West Pakistanis in 1971 – it is also an artificial entity suffering from acute crises of culture, development, governance, and identity. Hashmi attributes the culture and identity crises to the demographic byproducts of bad governance. In addition to being overpopulated, Bangladesh is also resource-poor and has one of the most unskilled populations, largely lumpen elements and peasants. According to Marx, these people represent “the unchanging remnants of the past”. The second round of independence empowered these lumpen classes, who suffer from an identity crisis and never learn the art of governance. The proliferation of pseudo-history about liberation has further divided the polity between the two warring tribes who only glorify their respective idols, Mujib and Zia. Pre-political and pre-capitalist peasants’ / lumpen elements’ lack of mutual trust and respect have further plagued Bangladesh, turning it into one of the least governable, corrupt, and inefficient countries. It is essential to replace the pre-capitalist order of the country run by multiple lumpen classes with capitalist and inclusive institutions.

India’s neighbourhood has witnessed crucial developments in the last decade: complex security challenges, looming economic crises, socio-political unrest, border clashes, China’s expanding engagement, India’s rising profile, and the COVID-19 pandemic. Over the last eight years, India has advocated the “Neighbourhood First” policy which ‘focuses on creating mutually beneficial, people-oriented, regional frameworks for stability and prosperity’. India’s neighbourhood presents complex dynamics, and the challenges demand attention and serious consideration in its policy options. The versatile neighbourhood also offers opportunities for India to extend cooperation at the regional level and address common strategic, economic, social and security concerns. India’s Neighbourhood: Challenges and Opportunities with insights of leading experts is a timely contribution to academia, practitioners, and keen readers. The book fills a critical void in the domain of neighbourhood studies and comprehensively analyses India’s bilateral relations with Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, Iran, the Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. The book assesses the traditional security challenges like terrorism, examines crucial non-traditional security issues (hydro-politics and climate change), scans the emerging dynamics of rare earth elements and evaluates the wider possibilities of India’s role in stirring regional cooperation in these key areas. Print edition not for sale in South Asia (India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Bhutan)

The book is about Mawlana Bhasani who is a South Asian legend. He was an earnest leader; a Sufi pir turned revolutionary politician. He was a contemporary of the great South Asian politicians Pandit Nehru, Mawlana A.K. Azad, and Quid-Azam Jinnah. Bhasani was born in Pabna, in a part of Bengal that is now Bangladesh. He lived in hut all his life. For his belief in universalism and leading a selfless life, he was dubbed by some the “Gandhi of Bangladesh.” These ideas and other facets of Bhasani’s life and thought are examined in parallel with his struggle for protecting the environment of the region.

As the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) celebrate fifty years of economic dominion over the Third World, this reader brings the best progressive authors together to critique these two main proponents of neo-liberalism. 50 Years is Enough covers such topics as failed development projects, the feminization of poverty, the detruction of the environment, the internal workings of the World Bank and the IMF, and the struggle to build alternatives to neo-liberal policies.It also includes a guide to the many organizations involved in the struggle to reform the World Bank and the IMF.

In Asian Political Cartoons, scholar John A. Lent explores the history and contemporary status of political cartooning in Asia, including East Asia (China, Hong Kong, Japan, North and South Korea, Mongolia, and Taiwan), Southeast Asia (Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam), and South Asia (Bangladesh, India, Iran, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka). Incorporating hundreds of interviews, as well as textual analysis of cartoons; observation of workplaces, companies, and cartoonists at work; and historical research, Lent offers not only the first such survey in English, but the most complete and detailed in any language. Richly illustrated, this volume brings much-needed attention to the political cartoons of a region that has accelerated faster and more expansively economically, culturally, and in other ways than perhaps any other part of the world. Emphasizing the “freedom to cartoon," the author examines political cartoons that attempt to expose, bring attention to, blame or condemn, satirically mock, and caricaturize problems and their perpetrators. Lent presents readers a pioneering survey of such political cartooning in twenty-two countries and territories, studying aspects of professionalism, cartoonists’ work environments, philosophies and influences, the state of newspaper and magazine industries, the state’s roles in political cartooning, modern technology, and other issues facing political cartoonists. Asian Political Cartoons encompasses topics such as political and social satire in Asia during ancient times, humor/cartoon magazines established by Western colonists, and propaganda cartoons employed in independence campaigns. The volume also explores stumbling blocks contemporary cartoonists must hurdle, including new or beefed-up restrictions and regulations, a dwindling number of publishing venues, protected vested interests of conglomerate-owned media, and political correctness gone awry. In these pages, cartoonists recount intriguing ways they cope with restrictions—through layered hidden messages, by using other platforms, and finding unique means to use cartooning to make a living.

Southern Postcolonialisms is an anthology of critical essays on new literary representations from the Global South that seeks to re-invent/reorient the ideological, disciplinary, aesthetic, and pedagogical thrust of Postcolonial Studies in accordance with the new and shifting politico-economic realities/transactions between the North and the South, as well as within the Global South, in an era of globalization. Since the emergence of Postcolonial Theory in the 1980s, the shape of the world has changed dramatically. Old Cold War boundaries have shifted in the wake of the collapse of communism, Globalization, on an unprecedented scale, has dramatically changed the meaning of time and space. The rise of the US as a new imperial power has profound implications for the world order. In the South, new emerging markets have challenged the older division of industrial ‘first world’ and non-industrial ‘third world’. In most parts of the world, the academy is struggling to keep up with these developments. One result has been a major transnational turn in the humanities and social sciences. Terms like ‘world history’, ‘globalization’, ‘glocalization’ and ‘transnationalism’ now dominate academic agendas worldwide. These changing circumstances raise far-reaching questions. What does the new emerging world order mean for established models of postcolonial theory? Is postcolonialism as a field of study being overtaken by models of globalization and transnationalism? What implications do the new configurations in the South have for postcolonial theory? This volume, drawn from a major literary conference at Delhi University, provides a set of perspectives on these questions. With a majority of contributions by scholars from the South, these research articles have a dual focus – they revisit older debates on postcolonial theory, while suggesting new perspectives and directions.

This set reprints the essential scholarship published in the field. It includes a general introduction by the editors, as well as individual volume introductions, exploring and contextualising the main themes of the comprehensively covered tradition. This is a key point of reference for anyone researching the phenomenological tradition.