The Concert for Bangladesh1971 United Friends of Bangladesh (Paperback)

This book predominantly discuss is not only the history of Bangladesh but also from a global perspective as to how the chain of events leading up to the 1971 Bangladesh liberation war impacted geopolitically. It was a great pleasure for both of us to have collaborated and worked jointly on this huge and vast piece of current history. The idea first to write about this book came about a few years ago when both of us were researching the pieces of the 1971 liberation war and in that context we came about some original pieces of advertisement and the disc records of the 1971 Concert for Bangladesh. Upon further investigations an archive researching both of us came to this conclusion that this is obviously one of the very significant pieces of modern day history. There has not been as such a book outlining not only the events and the context for the concert but to give it an additional layer as to the background history and the current situation in East Pakistan at that point of time which led to this concert taking place in the first place . Unfortunately our work had to be paused for a considerable period of time due to the challenges presented by the planetary pandemic which had created a lot of obstructions globally. We had to switch to alternate means of research as we could not visit the archive records especially in the British Library in London however we relied heavily on online sources and other collaborative interviews and interactions in order to compile this book. Furthermore this book is the English version of the original copy which was done in the language of Bengali and was released in Bangladesh by Swapno71 Publication. The Bengali version of the book was released in the month of February 2022, it was hailed as a grand success as there was a lot of interest not only from the Bangladesh media but also from other senior and notable academics, politicians, historians and diplomats. The book was also released in London at the prestigious London Bangla Press Club and in which the chief guest was His Excellency honourable House of Lords representative Baron Rami Ranger. In the London event we also had the acting High Commissioner for the Bangladesh High Commission who was present to give his deliberations. Both of them encouraged us and motivated us to create an English version of this book as both strongly felt that this piece of history should be made available in the English language so that it could reach a wider audience an hence we embarked upon the journey to translate our Bengali version of book to English which has finally taken shape. We are very grateful to both of the dignitaries mentioned above because without their motivation and support it might not have been possible for both of us to again work jointly and remotely in order to re-engineer the Bengali version back to its English form. This book starts with the forward section written by His Excellency Lord Rami Ranger. It follows by a timeline of Bangladesh history which outlines the significant years and the events leading up to the Bangladesh liberation war of 1971. It is then followed by Six chapters and in the end we have concluded with a list of references and an index. The first chapter outlines the beginning of the war for liberation and its roots embedded in the general elections of 1970 an other natural calamities like cyclone Bola. It also outlines the political scenario in the region especially in neighbouring India and how the western democracies especially United states and England responded to the events of 1971. The second chapter list out the core values and common interests for humanity when both these maestro's came together and created something remarkable first time in the history of mankind probably a concert to aid and assist the sufferings of people far away. In the third chapter we examined the role of other activists and intellectuals especially in the United States of America who went contrary to the government policies of patronage to the West Pakistani regime. We also examined closely how these events were probably inspired by the concert and these created global headlines to spread the word off terrible electricity's and barbaric treatment of the Bengali people. In the fourth chapter we focus our attention and research to the great legendary Pandit Ravi Shankar and George Harrison, their lives their friendship their expertise and their personal connect and connexion which came into being. At the core of this bonding was the unshakable foundation of friendship which eventually culminated in this concert reality. In the Fifth chapter we present a snapshot view of the key and prominent members of this terrific team without whom this concert would not have been possible at all. The last chapter we giving some overarching views and analysis of the birth of Bangladesh its ramifications not only in the Indian subcontinent but from a global perspective. We also try to present to our readers a neutral an unbiased opinion of the chain of events which are backed up by globally accepted resources which have been highlighted as well. We are in debt to our family members to have endured and supported us in this journey because it took a lot of personal time away from the family in order to concentrate and create this English version. We are very grateful indeed to them for their sacrifices. Lastly we would like to wish well and thank our publisher who have co-operated and shown a formidable interest and trust in our book, have participated in this journey from the beginning till the book has come out. A big token of thanks to you, our readers without whom we are incomplete.