Bangladesh Liberation War 1971: Oral History
vol. 1 Introduction & contents PDF file (102kb)
vol. 2 Introduction & contents PDF file (147kb)
vol. 3 Introduction & contents PDF file (100kb)
vol. 4 Introduction & contents PDF file (104kb)
vol. 5 Introduction & contents PDF file (91kb)

The Bangladesh Liberation War occurred in 1971, at the same time as the Biafra Civil War, attracting the eyes of readers of the international section of the newspapers. Looking back, perhaps what captured most readers' interest was not so much the development of the war itself, but the large number of refugees that resulted from the fighting and the severity of their plight. There were few articles on how the Bangladeshi people were involved in the war. Later, Bangladesh became known as one of the poorest countries in the world, and that situation has continued for over 30 years.

Bangladeshi politics in this 30-year period can be described as one big fight in the struggle for distinction in the Liberation War. The Awami League has focused its efforts on monopolizing distinction for its leader, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman; while the Bangladesh Nationalist Party with equal ferocity promotes the contributions of General Ziaur Rahman, who was the one to stand up against Pakistan. The first thing government offices have to do when a new government takes office is to change the portraits on the walls.

30 years after its liberation, and after such ongoing infighting, the general elections of October 2001 resulted in there being two Ministers from the Jamaat-e-Islami. Jamaat-e-Islami was responsible for the arrests and genocide of liberation fighters at the time of the Liberation War. It seems the true victim of the struggle for distinction is none other than the principle of liberation for which the country waged war.

There are more than 400 or 500 recollections, records, and commentaries on the Liberation War in Bengalese. However, there is no guarantee that the written documents are anything but miniatures of the struggle for distinction played out in the political arena. Outside of all this are the literally limitless individual experiences of the people themselves, who will never leave a written record of their experiences. The truth about studying the Liberation War in Bangladesh is that a fair and objective historical record of the war, in which the roles of the "leaders" and the "people" are evaluated fairly, has been a task undertaken by a handful of researchers with very limited resources.

In an attempt to make a breakthrough in such a research environment, the Bangladesh Muktijuddha Gabeshna Kendra, a private research institute in Dakha, recorded interviews with approximately 2,500 people throughout Bangladesh in 1996 and 1997. The interviewees included students, guerilla fighters, Bengalese government soldiers, doctors, educators, farmers, and shop owners over a wide spectrum of social classes, spanning not just participants and supporters of the war, but also some supporters of the Pakistani forces as well. This vast oral record had not yet been made widely available despite diligent efforts on the part of the Bangladeshi researchers. The 21st COE will undertake this project as part of the Center for Documentation & Area-Transcultural Studies Oral Archive Group project over the next three years, and issue 12 edited documents covering 8 districts.