Dead Reckoning: Memories of the 1971 Bangladesh War
"The "Events of 1971"...have been an enduring source of agonized contestation in South Asia for forty years. Subject to endless mythmaking and exaggerations in Pakistan, Bangladesh and their diasporas, all too rarely have these events been considered with the non-partisan care they deserve. Sarmila Bose's stunningDead Reckoningis the first book-length study that meticulously reconstructs the violence based on actual evidence. By showing how the terror of rape and massacre cut across many more cleavages of East Pakistani society than Pakistani and Bengali nationalists like to admit, her book is at once a correction of the record and a tribute to the virtues of humanistic scholarship. Written with courage and searing honesty, it will set anew the terms of debate about this dark chapter in the region's history."--A. Dirk Moses, Professor at the European University Institute, Florence and Associate Professor, University of Sydney"Combining rigorous scholarship and a passionate interest in setting the record straight, Dead Reckoning is the finest study yet of the social, cultural and political  meaning of the 1971 East Pakistan/Bangladesh war, one  of the major events of the twentieth century. Dr. Bose writes in the service of the truth, we are in her debt."--Stephen Cohen, author ofThe Idea of Pakistan"I have felt the need for a dispassionate account of the Bangladesh war ever since witnessing that triumph of faith over fact, the Mujibnagar independence ceremony. No one can take on that challenge better than Sarmila Bose, whose courage, disregard for orthodoxy and meticulous research make her the enfant terrible of Indian historians."--Sunanda K. Datta-Ray, columnist and author ofWaiting for America: India and the United States in the New Millennium"History emerges only slowly from the passion-filled context of contemporary events. Sarmila Bose's book sets Bangladesh's struggle for liberation at the start of this long passage."--David Washbrook, Trinity College, Cambridge"Bose's powerful and poignant retelling of the birth of Bangladesh exposes the wounds of civil war and international conflict in a way that has not been done before. This is history as told by participants at the grass roots and it dispels many myths that have been fed by faulty memories of the so-called elites in Pakistan and Bangladesh. Her book should help the people of both countries accept the facts of that tragic and bloody separation of 1971 and to take responsibility for the war that stained the verdant Bengali countryside red."--Shuja Nawaz, Director, South Asia Center, The Atlantic Council in Washington DC and author ofCrossed Swords: Pakistan, Its Army, and the Wars Within"Bose has written a book that should provoke both fresh research and fresh thinking about a fateful turning point in the history of the subcontinent."--Martin Woollacott,The Guardian"A significant intervention into the historiography of the Bangladesh War of 1971."--Amber Abbas,H-Memory'Dead Reckoningis a useful resource for students of the region ... the reasoning is open and clear [and the] descriptive analysis makes for grim and startling reading." --Politics, Religion & Ideology