The year was 1971. Dissent steadily brewing in East Pakistan. The enemy’s brutalities continued well into November. That November, people cried. But they dreamed of victory too. Then Eid-ul-Fitr arrived. How did Muslims celebrate this particular Eid, perched precariously upon a pivotal moment in history?

In a fast growing mega city like Dhaka, the purpose of designing a strategic transport plan is to provide a structural framework for the total urban transportation needs for the future, from which segmental parts may be implemented in phases.

Like most great historical events, the October Revolution of 1917 that shook Russia and helped shape the world into what it is today was the result of a confluence of factors that had slowly gathered momentum.

The two main objects of the partition were, “the reinvigoration of Assam and the relief of Bengal.” These were the objects stated in public, and the confidential official and private correspondence confirms that unquestionably these were the fundamental purposes.

Crowds, michhil, and political gatherings have played formative roles in the origin story of Bangladesh. The crowd at Bangabondhu’s speech at the Ramna Race Course in 1971 is a significant part of national folklore. The event of March 7 was a grand moment of declaration where the boundaries between popular demands for independence and constitutionalism were blurred to produce one of the most iconic moments – and sound bites – of East Pakistan’s struggle for nationhood.

Born on October 1, 1918, in the village of Darikandi under Bancharampur upazila in Brahmanbaria, Bangladesh, Abul Kalam Mohammad Zakariah received his Matriculation Certificate in 1939 from Brindaban High School in Bancharampur and Intermediate Certificate in 1941 from Dacca Intermediate College (currently Dhaka College), Dhaka.

Before the tribes and kingdoms of pre-medieval Bengal could unanimously elect Gopala king in 750 CE, they had to endure a hundred years of utter lawlessness, infighting and bloodshed. We know how Gopala’s Pala Dynasty heralded a golden era in Bengal, little is known about the dark age, and what came before.

The potters of the present day whose business it is to prepare clay images for worship, never dream of dressing the gods and goddesses made by them in any other garb than those ordinarily worn by the present-day inhabitants of Bengal.

The following account of Ma Huan was written at the commencement of the fifteenth century. It is a chapter taken from a work, bearing the title Ying-yai-sheng-lan (a general account of the shores of the ocean) compiled by Ma Huan who was an interpreter attached to the suite of Cheng Ho who was sent to the various kingdoms of the Indian Ocean by the Chinese Emperor Yung-lo.

In her bright head scarves and long, flowy dresses, Yonghua Zheng is a recognisable figure around Sangpo in Henan province, central China. This is because Zheng is an imam – or Ahong – of an all-women mosque in the hamlet.

Feroz Ahmed (F. A.): Let me begin with a question concerning a recent development in the East Bengal independence movement, i.e., the formation of a consultative committee consisting of the Awami League, your party and three other parties. Do you think that it is a significant development?

The history and the political landscape of Bengal have been greatly determined by its geographical position, like that of many other countries of the world.

This year, on August 14 and 15, Independence Day of Pakistan and India, celebrations were tainted with the political tensions that followed the Bharatiya Janata Party led Indian Government’s decision on August 5, 2019 to abrogate Article 370 and Article 35a, that granted special status to Jammu and Kashmir, including the right to have its own constitution and its own flag, and residents’ rights and privileges, respectively.

Dr. Shamsul Bari, a former Director of UNHCR, talks to The Daily Star about the Rohingya refugee crisis, its local, regional and global implications and the possible solutions to the crisis.

The Partition of British India (1947) had complex and wide ranging implications for the jute economy of deltaic Bengal. The border between East Pakistan and India separated Bengal’s jute fields from the jute factories. East Pakistan received more than 75 percent of the total jute growing land of undivided India, whereas all the mills were in India.

I am enamoured of Netaji. I have been since I was a five-year-old, when I had first listened with wide-eyed wonderment about this legendary hero from the elders in my family.

The First World War was contemporaneously described as “the war to end all wars”.

The unravelling of family history and their associated stories can sometimes take unusual twists and turns. Armenian family history in Asia is no different. For those of you who like facts and figures, sources and citations as well as biographical details, this is for you.

Medieval Bengali poems and foreign travellers’ accounts give us the impression that in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, Bengal was prosperous–her seaborne trade and a diverse mix of her industrial products added to her prosperity.

On June 3, 2019, the world of architecture lost one of its greatest designers and theorists, Stanley Tigerman. It is difficult to label the celebrated architect as a modernist or an early postmodernist; his works were wonderful fusion of modernism, technology, playfulness and pragmatic inventions.