From East Bengal to Bangladesh : Dynamics and Perspectives

Contents: Chronology of main political events in former Pakistan (1947-71). Preface. Introduction. I. Understanding socio-economic heritage of West Pakistan and East Bengal: Pre-British and British Period (Up to 1947): 1. Development of identity and consciousness of people of West Pakistan. 2. Role of Northwest India in the Pakistan Movement. 3. Development of identity and consciousness of the Bengali People. 4. Pioneering role of Bengali Muslims in Pakistan Movement. 5. Social structure of West Pakistan Vs East Bengal. 6. Political culture of West Pakistan Vs East Bengal. 7. Initial economic bases of West Pakistan and East Bengal: Controversies over their potentials for economic development. II. Choice of politico-economic system for development in former Pakistan (1947-1969): The process of institutional development: 8. Initial imperatives for politico-economic development. 9. Institution building for system maintenance: Further centralization in West Pakistan. 10. Message from East Bengal: Preference for democracy and social change. III. Refinement of authoritative system under Ayub (1958-\'69): 11. Governance under Ayub. 12. Bengali opposition to Ayub\'s Civil Service structure and administrative reform efforts. 13. Bengali challenge to the monopoly of the claim of martial race by the West Pakistan power elite. 14. Towards New Bengali Politico psychological confrontation. IV. East-West conflicts over strategies of economic development and allocation of resources in Five Year Plans (1955-\'70) of former Pakistan: Aggregative Vs disaggregative views: 15. Aggregative views: Ayub observed decade of progress. 16. Disaggregative view: Bengali challenge to former Pakistan\'s Economic development strategy. V. Moving towards greater confrontation: Hopes Vs despair: 17. Failure of Ayub\'s reform agenda. 18. Formulation of the Fourth Five Year Plan (1970-75): Alternative resource allocation proposals by the Bengalis. 19. Economic development and social welfare. 20. Intra-regional economic disparity within West Pakistan. VI. Military action Vs people\'s power: 21. Demand for constitutional reform: feudal-military-bureaucratic elites under new pressure. 22. General election under Yahya. 23. Perspective for political development in present Pakistan. VII. Bangladesh development: Towards one conventional and three innovative perspectives: 24. Bangladesh development: Towards conventional capitalism and three innovative perspectives. Conclusion. Index.

"Bangladesh emerged as an independent country in 1971 through a violent liberation war leading to the dismemberment of Former Pakistan (1947-1971). Former Pakistan came into existence when two Muslim majority areas of the British Indian sub-continent, East Bengal and Northwestern India (re-named as West Pakistan) formed one country. However, prior to that union, for historical reasons, West Pakistan had developed itself as a feudal-military-tribal/caste dominated socio-political culture with clear preference for authoritarian and centralized rule while East Bengal had emerged as a significantly successful fighter, challenging its own feudal system with distinct preference for participatory democracy, vertical social mobility and further social change.

The clash between the peoples of the two regions at two levels of historical development scale, therefore, seemed inevitable. This book explains the dismemberment of former Pakistan and the emergence of Bangladesh in a wider canvas of historical challenges, struggles and dynamics that had constantly worked in the background.

It is also hoped that the author\'s approach to the transition of East Bengal to Bangladesh would give a deeper insight into its current predicament: the new social contradiction between its present conservative middleclass, who would like to hijack the nascent democracy in order to maintain their status quo and the determined effort of its socially conscious poor, with their supporting social catalysts, to trigger off new innovative pro-poor development paradigm out of their historically acquired dynamics." (jacket)