The Best Bangladesh Liberation War Books of All Time

In December 1971 Bangladesh was born. Its birthing was among the mostpainful of any new nation: it had suffered a brutal genocide conductedby its former countrymen from West Pakistan, and a war for liberationfought between the indigenous Mukti Bahini (Liberation Army) and theIndian Armed Forces on one side, and the West Pakistani Armed Forceson the other. Open war broke out on the Western and Eastern fronts inDecember 1971. The war ended quickly, with the West Pakistani Army surrendering in Dacca two weeks later.

A significant factor in facilitating the Indian Army's rapid progress to Dacca was the Indian Air Force(IAF) which proved itself to be a formidable fighting force. Eagles over Bangladesh: The Indian Air Force in the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War recounts the IAF offensive over Bangladesh, commencing with the raids on Dacca on the first day of the war, and moving on to the final coup de grace delivered on the Governors House in Dacca. It aims to fill in the gaps regarding a military conflict that took place almost four decades ago.

In his new book 'India and the Bangladesh Liberation War', author Chandrashekhar Dasgupta travels a well-traversed path in search of answers to five questions: When and why did India decide to intervene in the liberation struggle, did India intend to break Pakistan, what was the impact of the massive influx of refugees from East to West Bengal, what effect did Kissinger's Beijing trip in 1971 have, and did India react to events or did it have a strategy?

The year 1971 exists everywhere in Bangladesh-on its roads, in sculptures, in its museums and oral history projects, in its curriculum, in people's homes and their stories, and in political discourse. It marks the birth of the nation, it's liberation. More than 1000 miles away, in Pakistan too, 1971 marks a watershed moment, its memories sitting uncomfortably in public imagination. It is remembered as the 'Fall of Dacca', the dismemberment of Pakistan or the third Indo-Pak war.

In India, 1971 represents something else-the story of humanitarian intervention, of triumph and valour that paved the way for India's rise as a military power, the beginning of its journey to becoming a regional superpower. Navigating the widely varied terrain that is 1971 across Pakistan, Bangladesh and India, Anam Zakaria sifts through three distinct state narratives, and studies the institutionalization of the memory of the year and its events. Through a personal journey, she juxtaposes state narratives with people's history on the ground, bringing forth the nuanced experiences of those who lived through the war. Using intergenerational interviews, textbook analyses, visits to schools and travels to museums and sites commemorating 1971, Zakaria explores the ways in which 1971 is remembered and forgotten across countries, generations and communities.