1971 (Paperback)

1971: A People's History from Bangladesh, Pakistan and India poignantly brings out how 1971 is one of the originary wounds not only for Bangladesh but also for Pakistan and India, the ramifications of which are felt particularly today. In thinking through the relation[ship] between [a] nation and the memorialization in South Asia, Anam Zakaria, in her travails [while navigating] through the myriad "permitted" narratives and historiographies of these three children of Partition, shows the lasting traces of 1971 on the essence of these three countries.
Exploring memoirs, school textbooks, oral history accounts, history-writing processes, museums and memorials, Zakaria's timely book carries a temporal and moral imperative in a context where the losses of 1971 are not forgiven by history. By decentring the role of India, Bangladesh and Pakistan beyond the stereotypes of saviours, victims and perpetrators, 1971 highlights the high stakes that scholarship and public discourse in this area must negotiate around the debates of apology while being cognizant of the shifting contexts and readings of these historical instances,