Ali Riaz and alumna Fahmida Zaman co-authored an essay on the 1947 Indian Partition in a special issue of the Daily Star of Bangladesh. The special issue of the newspaper on the partition originated from a suggestion of Professor Riaz, writes the editor of the newspaper, Mahfuz Anam, in the introduction.
“Long overdue public discourse on the 1947 Partition in Bangladesh will perhaps permit our present to engage with the past to accommodate our complex histories and identities.” Ali Riaz and Fahmida Zaman
In August of 1947, British imperial power left the Indian subcontinent after 190 years of colonial rule, and two independent countries, India and Pakistan, emerged. In the essay titled “The 1947 phenomenon: In search of new voices,” Riaz and Zaman describe the cataclysmic event as a “phenomenon,” underscoring the need for a reexamination of the event that cost millions of lives and caused migration of unprecedented proportions. They write that a “long overdue public discourse on the 1947 Partition in Bangladesh will perhaps permit our present to engage with the past to accommodate our complex histories and identities.”
Riaz, University Professor in the Department of Politics and Government, has written extensively on Bangladeshi politics. Fahmida Zaman graduated from the department in 2017 with a master’s degree.
