The war that we need to know so much more about A review of '1971

                                                    

                                                Resistance, Resilience and Redemption'

It was my extreme privilege to be one of the millions who participated in our Liberation War. Even after 53 years and having read a considerable number of books on it, many of us feel that we still have so much left to learn about the war which gave us our independence. 

Our Liberation War is something we are proud to talk about, read about, and reminisce about but have not done much research on. The books that we have, and they are all very relevant and useful, can broadly be categorized in two: of the autobiographical nature, filled with reminiscences and descriptions of authors' personal involvement and actions; and those which deal with the overall history of the war, focusing on the big picture of social,

 economic, and cultural reasons as to why the war became inescapable. But what we feel terribly in need of are books that focus particularly on the nine-month-long war, with all its complexities and challenges. Bangabandhu was our leader and he did call upon us to prepare "with whatever we had," but there was no time for any preparation. So when the genocide began, we responded with courage and patriotism but not any preparation. All our responses were spontaneous and filled with raw courage. How that initial response became an armed war and how we organised ourselves into a functioning force is the story that not many books have included.