The Making of Bangladesh

In this paper, Alavi brings together an interview and academic scholarship on the 1971 partition of East and West Pakistan and the independence of Bangladesh. Throughout the paper, the author works through theories of nationalism to unpack how competing nationalist myths informed the events and aftermath of the 1971 Bangladesh War of Independence. Alavi argues for the importance of oral narratives as a way of bearing witness to histories that are overshadowed by nationalist myths. An earlier version of this essay was produced for an oral history assignment for the course Introduction to South Asian Studies (SOSC 2435) at York University and was the winner of the York Centre for Asian Research’s 2016 Undergraduate Asia Essay Award.