Event: The blood-stained birth of Bangladesh

The Bangladesh Liberation War of 1971 and the two-state theory of Partition
Friday December 16 2022, 10am | See video recording below

Join illustrator and educator Jhinuk Sarkar in conversation with Murad Qureshi, upon the 50th anniversary of the formation of Bangladesh.

The formation of the state of Bangladesh, argues Qureshi, substantially disproved the two-state theory of partition — that is, the cleaving in two of the Indian subcontinent on the basis of religion, which was the dominant ideology of imperialists like Mountbatten and backers of the creation of Pakistan, like certain members of the Muslim League elite.

In fact, linguistic, ethnic, and regional divisions were shown to be far more important to a people, and intertwined in a culturally complexity far beyond crude divisions of religious affiliation. The theory had clearly disregarded that “India is not a nation, nor a country. It is a subcontinent of nationalities,” as once stated by the founding father of Pakistan, Muhammad Ali Jinnah (an irony which may not be lost on many who know the history of the Indian subcontinent).

The focus of this discussion will be to consider how perspectives can influence and inform communication and development of ideas in y/our work, whether written, performed, in film, audio and visual media.