Victory Day Special 2014
Editor's Note
Bangladesh stands at forty three today and while it is a time for celebration, there is also need for introspection as we observe our Victory Day. Freedom
Patheo / Patheo
The dying moments of Jinnah's Pakistan
When Pakistan's founder Mohammad Ali Jinnah floated his 'Two Nation Theory' to create separate homelands for the Indian Muslims he did not realise that such an absurd theory would not be viable in the long run. India is a country with people of heterogeneous religious beliefs and culture. Nations cannot be formed based simply on religion. If that was possible all Muslim countries of the Arab world would be one country and so would be the Christian continent of Europe or Americas. But Jinnah perhaps realised the mistake he committed and that is why in his first speech before the constituent assembly of Pakistan he declared that 'in course of time Hindus would cease to be Hindus and Muslims would cease to be Muslims, not in the religious sense, because that is the personal faith of...
Bangladesh has to be a secular state
As I read the history about the role of the anti-Liberation people, who were active during the nine months of the Liberation War, I see that the leaders of this group of people opposed the existence of Bangladesh due to an anxiety they felt about the birth of this new country, by which they thought it would mean the end of Islam. This anxiety also helped grow in them an inherent mistrust in the Bengali language and culture. So their anti-Bangladesh attitude had a bi-focal origin: they thought Pakistan as a state was synonymous with Islam, and secondly, they thought, its survival also ensured the survival of Islam. And they had at best a dubious attitude to the Bengali language and culture. Their mother tongue was Bengali, but they had seen it as an obstacle rather than an advantage...