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Bangladesh Compiled and introduced By Mafruha Mohua and Mahruba T. Mowtushi University of London and University of Liberal Arts, Bangladesh.
Although comparatively few writers from East Bengal/Bangladesh have opted to write in English, from the late 1960s onwards there has been a steady trickle of English translations of Bengali works.
The first such example is Syed Waliullah’s Lal Shalu (1948), translated by the author in 1967 as Tree without Roots. While the aftermath of the partition of 1947 witnessed large-scale dislocation of people, regional relocations within the eastern frontiers of Bengal further complicated the many nuances of migration and reparation. Tree without Roots is one of the best-known novels by an East Bengali set in the newly created East Pakistan and presents an invaluable assessment of the role of religion in the construction of a Pakistani national consciousness. The story follows the travels and eventual resettlement of an ingenious Muezzin whose devout mysticism fittingly conceals the existential angst of a distressed man masquerading as a Pir (holy man). Tree without Roots is a brilliant exposition of the politics behind religious dogma in the rural outskirts of post-1947 Eastern Bengal. Yet what is curious about the novel is the complete absence of any direct reference to the Partition of 1947.
The 1971 War of Liberation is a major theme of Bangladeshi literature. One of the most captivating books to come out of the experience of the War of Liberation is Shaheen Akhtar’s Talaash (2004) translated into English by Ella Dutta as The Search (2011). The central character of Akhtar’s story is Mariam, also known as Mary, who is one of the 200,000–400,000 women raped by the Pakistani military and their collaborators. The occasion of the revelation of Mary’s experience in the military camps is the arrival, 25 years after the war, of a young researcher named Mukti who wants to write a book on the survivors of wartime rape. Partly through the answers to Mukti’s questions and partly through flashbacks, the reader is able to piece together the experiences of the women kept as “sex slaves” by the Pakistani army. Although the Bangladeshi government bestowed on these women the honorary title of Birangona (war heroine), a proper rehabilitation was never accomplished.
