Lexington Books
Pages: 206
•
Trim: 6¼ x 9⅜
978-1-4985-3418-5 • Hardback • October 2016 • $109.00 • (£84.00)
978-1-4985-3419-2 • eBook • October 2016 • $103.50 • (£80.00)
Caf Dowlah is professor of economics with the City University of New York.
Chapter 1: Sheikh Mujib’s Rise to National Prominence
Chapter 2: The Failure of Tripartite Negotiation and the Military Crackdown
Chapter 3: The Liberation War and the Emergence of Bangladesh
Chapter 4: The Mujib Regime: Major Political Measures
Chapter 5: The Mujib Regime: Major Economic Measures
Chapter 6: The Curtain Falls
Chapter 7: The Mujib Regime: Major Legacies and Controversies
Dowlah confirms the continued salience of the debate about the place of Sheik Mujib in contemporary Bangladeshi history and politics. This book will have special relevance for insiders who know the characters and wish to garner support for the various and sometimes contradictory interpretations of the liberation struggle and the first years of the country's independence under the charismatic leadership of its founding father, Sheik Mujibur Rahman. It also is an easy read for those who desire an insider's view of the 1971 struggle, the emergence of Bangladesh, and its aftermath.
— Shelley Feldman, Cornell University
Caf Dowlah's lucid and methodical study of the Bangladesh Liberation War and its aftermath offers a careful explication of one of the twentieth century's most triumphant and tragic struggles for independence. Eschewing over-determined historical analysis and the temptations of hagiography, Professor Dowlah offers a measured assessment of the charismatic Sheikh Mujib and his role in the struggle for Bangladesh. Balancing Mujib's skills as a nationalist torchbearer against his inability to deliver on the promise of economic and political reform, this book represents a valuable contribution to the flowering of new literature on the unlikely birth of a new South Asian nation.
— Benjamin Siegel, Boston University