What Begum Rokeya knew about changing Bengali Muslims from within

Liberation is not about what one wears or does not wear but about the values they live by
7 December 2025, 18:00 PM

A British witness to Bangladesh genocide: Val Harding’s 1971 story

In April 1971, at the age of 24, Val Harding was volunteering as a nurse at a hospital in Kathmandu, Nepal, when she first heard of the atrocities on March 25 in Dhaka and the fight for the Liberation of Bangladesh.
30 November 2025, 18:00 PM

Abul Hashim’s Bangalistaan

Hashim believed that ethnically driven societies with a common language would benefit from using religion as a tool for political self-representation rather than relegating it to the private realm.
13 October 2025, 18:00 PM

The lost history of Pilkhana’s elephant depot

In the seventeenth century, Dhaka was among the most prosperous cities of eastern India, home to nearly nine lakh people.
5 October 2025, 18:00 PM

Gandhi’s search for harmony in Noakhali

From the period of his lifetime and particularly in the aftermath of his assassination, Gandhi’s philosophies have been the subject of deep scholarly discussion.
28 September 2025, 18:00 PM

Sandwip’s forgotten wars

When the Dutch, Portuguese, Mughals, and Arakanese fought over a tiny island
21 September 2025, 18:00 PM

Forbidden Nazrul

Both Bengals are grappling with intense periods of unrest. While the political events unfolding in these two lands may not align directly, they share one significant commonality: distrust.
31 August 2025, 18:00 PM

Lal Salam: The making of Bangladesh’s leftist politics

The history of Bangladesh’s leftist politics is a story of unity and division, of shared ideals splintering into competing paths.
25 August 2025, 18:00 PM

Bridging the Partition through Education

The 1947 Partition of South Asia is usually associated with divisions, disruption, and the melancholia of displacement.
17 August 2025, 18:00 PM

Satyajit Ray’s ‘Tagore’ Films

Before taking a close look at the three feature films that comprise Ray’s tribute to Tagore we might note a few similarities between the two cultural giants.
11 August 2025, 18:00 PM

Sound of the July uprising

While the July Uprising was sparked by economic problems, political repression, and a desire for democracy, it found a strong and surprising voice in a new form of music for Bangladesh: rap. Two songs, “Kotha Ko” (Speak Up) and “Awaz Utha” (Raise Your Voice), came to represent the sentiment of the movement in July.
3 August 2025, 18:00 PM

Sandwip and the collapse of Portuguese ambition

In his analysis of the Estado da Índia, which was the official name of the Portuguese Empire, George Winius distinguished between the formal administration by the Estado’s headquarters at Goa over overseas possessions and the ‘informal empire’, which he called the ‘shadow empire’, that the Portuguese established in the Bay of Bengal. The shadow empire was a unique experiment carried out by sailors, merchant adventurers, pirates, and missionaries, with little formal sanction either from Goa or from Portugal.
27 July 2025, 18:00 PM

Muktadhara: How Tagore Exposed the Tyranny of Nationalism

Rabindranath Tagore, whose genius touched nearly every branch of the arts and literature, left an indelible imprint on the world of drama—not merely as a playwright, but as an actor, director, and visionary of the stage.
11 May 2025, 18:00 PM

In Search of Premodern Bengal’s Literary Treasures

With the passing of Professor Tony K. Stewart, Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt Chair in Humanities Emeritus, the field of South Asian religions, and more specifically, premodern Bengali literature, has lost one of its leading lights.
4 May 2025, 18:00 PM

Raja Pratapaditya Charitra and the Birth of Bengali History Writing

The writing of history in the Bengali language by a Bengali began around 225 years ago with the publication of Raja Pratapaditya Charitra in 1801.
27 April 2025, 18:00 PM

The untold story of Franklin Book Dhaka: In the shadow of the cold war

The Cold War was a war of armaments and ideologies—but it was also a war of words, fought in classrooms, libraries, and on the printed page.
20 April 2025, 18:00 PM

Jamdani as the battleground

Jamdani is not just the material or the motifs; it encompasses everything—from the river system and flora-fauna of the Dhaka region
13 April 2025, 18:00 PM

Dhaka's deadly air: What we know and what we can do

Dhaka's air is a stew of brick kiln soot, exhaust fumes, construction dust, and factory emissions
16 March 2025, 18:00 PM

Anisur Rahman: Farewell to a fellow traveler

Anisur Rahman and I have traveled together across the troubled landscape of Bangladesh’s history over many years. We first came together in October 1957, when we were recruited as teachers by Professor M.N. Huda, then the Chairman of the Economics Department at Dhaka University (DU).
9 March 2025, 18:00 PM

Reclaiming Panthokunjo from spectral wastelands

We live within ecosystems, engaging in mutual interactions. Ecosystems such as rivers, forests, and agricultural lands are shared resources.
2 March 2025, 18:00 PM