Abul Hashim’s Bangalistaan
13 October 2025, 18:00 PM
In Focus
DHAKA, THE CITY OF ELEPHANTS / The lost history of Pilkhana’s elephant depot
5 October 2025, 18:00 PM
In Focus
156th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi / Gandhi’s search for harmony in Noakhali
28 September 2025, 18:00 PM
In Focus
Bridging the Partition through Education
17 August 2025, 18:00 PM
In Focus
Sound of the July uprising
3 August 2025, 18:00 PM
In Focus
Sandwip and the collapse of Portuguese ambition
27 July 2025, 18:00 PM
In Focus
US customs duties top $100 billion for first time in a fiscal year
12 July 2025, 05:02 AM
USA
Muktadhara: How Tagore Exposed the Tyranny of Nationalism
11 May 2025, 18:00 PM
In Focus
Raja Pratapaditya Charitra and the Birth of Bengali History Writing
27 April 2025, 18:00 PM
In Focus
The untold story of Franklin Book Dhaka: In the shadow of the cold war
20 April 2025, 18:00 PM
In Focus
A historiographical approach to addressing the refugee crisis
The global refugee crisis, with millions fleeing their homes due to violence, war, and persecution, is one of the most pressing issues of our times. While international law, particularly the 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol, provide the legal frameworks for refugee protection, many nations especially former colonial powers remain reluctant to accept their fair share of responsibility. A fresh approach to solving the crisis proposes that former colonial powers should accept refugees from their former colonies as a way of addressing historical injustices.
31 October 2024, 18:00 PM
5 books posed as literary cannibalism
Literary cannibalism refers to the retellings of Western classics written by colonised or formerly colonised countries. These authors aim to decolonise the mindset of the readers of the popular literary classics. Decolonisation is a violent process, and by comparing this genre with cannibalism it demonstrates the brutality of it.
30 October 2024, 18:00 PM
For the ‘Twilight’ fan who grew up
I was a Twilight girl.
30 October 2024, 18:00 PM
From Sultanate to Mughal: The Architectural Legacy of Bengal
In conversation with Professor Perween Hasan, distinguished historian and expert on architecture of the Indian subcontinent
27 October 2024, 18:00 PM
On the livestreaming of court proceedings
People are likely to gain confidence in the justice system when they see justice getting served. This is why courtrooms are deemed open or accessible, theoretically at least, to all. By the same logic, in an age of technologies, in order to foster public confidence, should livestreaming of court proceedings be encouraged? Comparative discussions may prove to be useful in finding the answer.
24 October 2024, 18:00 PM
Reforming the International Crimes (Tribunals) Act 1973
Since the July revolution, there has been a strong push for reforms across the country. As expected, the clamours for reforms have not left the International Crimes (Tribunals) Act 1973 (ICT Act) untouched. As the government prepares to prosecute high-ranking members of the former government, it is crucial to implement extensive reforms to the Act to ensure the proceedings are beyond reproach.
24 October 2024, 18:00 PM
A tale of forgetting and remembrance
Being an ardent admirer of K-pop culture, I wonder why I was hitherto unaware of this gem of a book, One Left by Kim Soom, and the excruciatingly painful truth it delineates.
23 October 2024, 18:00 PM
Of dewdrops and grit
‘Shabnam’ is a dewdrop in Persian. Shabnam (1960) is the name of Syed Mujtaba Ali’s passionate love story that stretches beyond the history of nearly a century ago.
23 October 2024, 18:00 PM
Sir Syed Ahmad Khan and the Muslim Renaissance in South Asia
This year marks the 207th birth anniversary of Sir Syed Ahmad Khan, who was born into a prominent family with ties to the Mughal court in Delhi on 17 October 1817, and passed away on 27 March 1898.
20 October 2024, 18:00 PM
Lebanon’s War Crime Zone
According to the Charter of the United Nations under article 2(4) all members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state, or in any other way inconsistent with the purposes of the United Nations.
17 October 2024, 18:00 PM
Empowering Army officials as special executive magistrates
It has been two months since the current interim government took over after the fall of the previous authoritarian regime.
17 October 2024, 18:00 PM
Rethinking constitutional minimalism
In the midst of the political transition facing Bangladesh, some people have suggested that the country should adopt a simpler constitution, akin to that of the United States— one that enshrines only the loftiest aspirations of the people while relegating procedural intricacies to statutory enactments.
17 October 2024, 18:00 PM
‘Huckleberry Finn’ through the eyes of Jim
Everett’s breezy, fast-moving retelling of Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884) is about putting in some due respect.
16 October 2024, 18:00 PM
Han Kang’s Nobel Prize win could not have come at a more significant time
As of writing this article, the official death count in the Palestinian genocide has surpassed 42 thousand lives. In my room, I quietly sit and read excerpts from Han Kang’s The Vegetarian (Portobello Books, 2015) in celebration of her winning the Nobel Prize in Literature.
16 October 2024, 18:00 PM
Constitution, legitimacy, and governance: Addressing the hard questions
There are some serious debates around the constitutionality of Bangladesh’s interim government. We have seen attempts to justify it both in terms of Hans Kelsen’s Grundnorm theory and the existing Constitution.
10 October 2024, 18:00 PM
Incidents of sexual harassment and our inadequate laws
In recent months, the streets and public transports have become increasingly unsafe, with women facing escalating levels of harassment, intimidation, and verbal abuse. What was once an unspoken daily struggle has now intensified, with more aggressive tactics being employed by the perpetrators. In some instances, the harassment has taken the form of physical violence, with social media flooding with statements of women experiencing harassments, assaults, and abuse.
10 October 2024, 18:00 PM
Nawab Faizunnesa was here
The Dhaka-Cumilla bus tickets are Tk 250 for non-AC, Tk 350 for AC, and Tk 400 for AC VIP. Window seats must be negotiated on the spot. The journey takes three to six hours, past the old capital of Sonargaon, where the moisture in the air inspired the muslin, across the Gomati river and into Cumilla town on the Tropic of Cancer.
9 October 2024, 18:00 PM
Six Edgar Allan Poe short stories to haunt your spooky season
Feeling guilty about something? After reading this story, you might think you feel guilty, but you'll never be quite sure if it's guilt or if your heart is just going to explode from sheer terror.
9 October 2024, 18:00 PM
Internet outage and freedom of expression
In 2012, a resolution of the United Nations human rights organisation (UNHRC) states, “the rights that people have offline must also be protected online, especially with regard to freedom of expression.” Later in 2016, the UNHRC condemned all measures that prevent the use of the Internet as a violation of human rights.
26 September 2024, 18:00 PM
Time to sign the Refugee Convention
In 1905, almost 46 years before the birth of the ‘Convention relating to the Status of Refugees’, commonly known as the 1951 Refugee Convention, Begum Rokeya, one of the pioneer feminist writers and scholars of Bengal talked about the ‘Principle of non-refoulement’ in her story Sultana’s Dream.
26 September 2024, 18:00 PM