rajakardreams

Since we’ve had a lot of talk about cartoons in this blog recently, I present one that made me laugh out loud today. Sharier, the famed Daily Star cartoonist, always delivers. Brilliant! I am interested to hear readers’ take on the “war of liberation” vs. “civil war” debate. From a cut and dry academic perspective, all wars of independence are actually also civil wars since they involve secession from an existing sovereign state or colonial state. But obviously the 1971 war was fought for the independence of Bangladesh (interestingly enough it can also be correctly characterized as falling into the category of an international war given the India-Pakistan dimension). Ultimately, the academic point is moot in this case because the characterization as “civil war” is generally assumed to be politically motivated, meant to trivialize the independence movement.

The Star mentions “Witness to Surrender” by Siddiq Salik as a good source concerning Jamaat’s true allegiances. I would be interested in learning about some other good historical sources on the collaboration of Jamaat and other political groups with the Pakistani army. That reminds me, I need to visit the liberation war museum. They are bound to have some documentation on this.