Pakistan to Bangladesh, 1947–71: introduction

Journal article

Abstract:: The special section, ‘Pakistan to Bangladesh, 1947–71’, begins a reassessment of the ‘united’ Pakistan period on its own merits. From the vantage point of 1971, the inclusion of East Bengal and Sylhet (a district of Assam) in a Pakistan whose other part, or ‘wing’ as it was called, was separated by over a thousand miles of enemy territory, has always seemed to foretell the inevitable death of a united Pakistan. Yet, in its first couple of decades, Pakistan did not look so unusual or exceptional as contemporary scholars think. The relations between its two wings, moreover, also drew upon and reformulated older themes that had defined those between the League and Congress in colonial times. It is this world of inheritances and connections that the articles in this special section address. This Introduction contextualises the special section and introduces the papers therein.

Files:: Bangash_and_Devji_2024_Pakistan_to_Bangladesh.pdf

(Preview, Accepted manuscript, pdf, 127.4KB, Terms of use)

Language:: English
Keywords:: Bangla

Bangladesh

East Bengal

East Pakistan

nation-building

One Unit

partition

West Pakistan
Pubs id:: 2097317
Local pid:: pubs:2097317
Deposit date:: 2025-09-18

Copyright holder:: South Asian Studies Association of Australia
Notes:: The author accepted manuscript (AAM) of this paper has been made available under the University of Oxford's Open Access Publications Policy, and a CC BY public copyright licence has been applied.

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