Chittagong centred and de-centred A forgotten history
26 January 2026, 00:00 AM
In Focus
Remembering Jayasree Kabir: The actress who chose absence
19 January 2026, 15:05 PM
In Focus
Amanul Huq: The romantic documentarian
12 January 2026, 00:00 AM
In Focus
Before the selfie age: Daddy’s self-portraits
10 January 2026, 13:51 PM
In Focus
Living in occupied Dhaka: Diaries from 1971
6 January 2026, 13:20 PM
In Focus
Ila Mitra: A symbol of indomitable courage
6 January 2026, 02:00 AM
In Focus
In Focus / In a city called Elias
4 January 2026, 18:00 PM
In Focus
The making of folk poet Jasimuddin
4 January 2026, 08:34 AM
In Focus
“In Rokeya’s writing, I see a universal truth”
1 January 2026, 11:17 AM
In Focus
In Focus / The untold history of why Khaleda Zia entered politics
30 December 2025, 11:53 AM
In Focus
The forgotten mutiny for India’s independence
One of the most important but undervalued events of India’s independence movement was the naval revolt of 1946, about which Indian historian Sumit Sarker wrote,
24 July 2022, 18:00 PM
Dr Muhammad Shahidullah: A tribute
Dr Shahidullah is one of the greatest linguists that the South Asian region has produced. This is a universally acknowledged fact and one can easily use it as the beginning statement of an article on him.
17 July 2022, 18:00 PM
University of Dhaka: The Trillion Dollar Opportunity Cost
Unlike in Western universities, the teaching staff of DU is constituted of her own brilliant graduates, but the brilliance of result is seldom the guarantee of excellence in teaching and competence in research.
3 July 2022, 18:00 PM
Plassey: Myths and reality
Each year on 23 June arrives an occasion of template lament for Bengalis: the defeat of Siraj-ud-daulah at Plassey at the hands of forces led by Robert Clive—and Bengal’s subsequent quick subjugation by the East India Company.
26 June 2022, 18:00 PM
A novice’s sadhusongo
In the early 2000’s, a concept restaurant was opened in my birth-town, Paris, France, named “In the Dark” (“Dans le Noir”). Clients enter a completely dark space, and are served a set menu which, obviously, they cannot see.
19 June 2022, 18:00 PM
The Making of Theatre: There are no secrets
What makes theatre good, bad or even deadly? I thought I knew the answer to this tricky question. I had a valid ground for this belief because more than thirty years ago, the pre-eminent playwright of Bangladesh,
12 June 2022, 18:00 PM
Mughal painting in its sequel
Note: To commemorate the 38th death anniversary of renowned historian ABM Habibullah we are reprinting one of his articles on Mughal painting. The article was first published in Pakistan Quarterly in Spring, 1959.
5 June 2022, 18:00 PM
Nazrul, the eternal rebel warrior: 100 years later
One late December night in 1921, Kazi Nazrul Islam wrote what would be his most iconoclastic poem, the poem that would give rise to his soubriquet, “Bidrohi Kabi,” the Rebel Poet. Inspired by a complex of emotions, Nazrul’s ideas were flowing too fast for his pen to keep pace.
29 May 2022, 18:00 PM
Remembering Rammohun Roy
It is now commonplace to call Rammohun Roy the ‘Father of Modern India’; it is much less common to understand or appreciate the historical and ideological content and context of this modernity.
22 May 2022, 18:00 PM
Raja Rammohun Roy: An Autobiographical Sketch
In conformity with the wish, you have frequently expressed, that I should give you an outline of my life, I have now the pleasure to give you the following very brief sketch:-
21 May 2022, 18:00 PM
Floral economy of Bengal
During the Mughal period, gardens were a ubiquitous element of the city landscape. Dhaka, once capital of the Bengal Subah, was no exception, and the names of some areas of the city such as Shahbag, Lalbag,
15 May 2022, 18:00 PM
Tagore’s idea of nationalism
If you look for a definition of the word ‘nationalism’ on Google, or in an encyclopedia, you will find quite a few. However, this word, like many such words, is ‘notorious’ in its own way, as no single definition seems to define it thoroughly.
8 May 2022, 18:00 PM
Administrative Civil Service in Bangladesh: Its legacy and role
In his seminal publication -- The Men who ruled India (1985) -- Philip Mason, in the last paragraph of the epilogue wrote: “When all has been said, one simple point remains.
17 April 2022, 18:00 PM
Bishop Heber in Dhaka,1824
Bishop Reginald Heber (1783-1826) was an Oxford educated Anglican clergyman from England, a man of letters and a notable hymn-writer. As an intrepid traveler and a curious observer, he has left behind an interesting travelogue entitled: ‘
10 April 2022, 18:00 PM
Muzaffar Ahmad’s Unexpected Turn in Life
Muzaffar Ahmad (1889-1973), one of the earliest communists in India, became the representative figure of a socialist and communist circle in Bengal during 1921-22.
3 April 2022, 18:00 PM
America, Grassroots Activism and the Creation of Bangladesh
Henry Kissinger once wrote that “history is the memory of states”. In this vision of the past,
27 March 2022, 18:00 PM
Sorry for what?
In classical Urdu epics, kings would transmigrate their lives into a bird and lock it away in a secured place. To kill the king, one had to go after the bird.
20 March 2022, 18:00 PM
Between fiction and testimony: Revisiting the inheritances Liberation War
Literature in Bangladesh about the war is in the nature of memorials to 1971, a thread between the dead and the living, a reminder of the absent as having once been, a mark of the present, of rupture and continuity.
13 March 2022, 18:00 PM
Guerrilla operations
Ak Khandker: Around June-July of 1971, those of us involved in the Liberation War were a bit frustrated. But in mid-August, our naval commandos conducted successful attacks on shipping at the Chittagong and Chalna ports.
6 March 2022, 18:00 PM
The day we made a tryst with destiny!
Amar Ekushey (Immortal 21 February) is a day of special significance for us in Bangladesh, as we recall with reverence and gratitude, all those young brave-hearts who made supreme sacrifice by giving up their youthful lives for a noble cause.
27 February 2022, 18:00 PM