Bangladesh Independence Day

[sparkling_beatz]

Today is Bangladesh's 36th birthday. Here is a little blurb discussing Bangladesh's Independence Day:

March 26. The day Independence of Bangladesh was formally declared on the eve of a 9 month long war of Independence with Pakistan that led to the emergence of Bangladesh as a sovereign nation. After many years of exploitation, both politically and

Comments

[vicious_tongue]

Viva La Bangladesh!

oh, and food, the food!

[accusehistory]

I didn't know much about this...actually I still don't...I figure I'm free of the white guilt shit so I can ask you a stupid question for the second...

Was the desire for independence mostly about land control, or are Bengalis considered a seprate ethnic group that was suppressed by Pakistanis...etc.?

[accusehistory]

Nevermind! I didn't see the link you posted before I asked...it's all there in Wikipedia........ :)

[sparkling_beatz]

lol yeah, the source i gave is very comprehensive, it pretty much breaks down what the major issues (of which there were many) were at stake. Bangladesh, as a literal translation, means "country that speaks Bengali", so language was a very big deal in the fight for Independance... (i have some guilt around this issue since my Bengali is very poor... but that post is for another day! lol).

Bengalis, ethnically-speaking, are not really an "ethnic group". The racial mixings are actually pretty diverse (even in my own ancestry, we have some Burmese and other Asian background), so it's really hard to say. Since the country is still so young it's pretty cool cuz i can still talk to my dad about actual historical events and stuff!

[surface_air]

how interesting! it'll be really interesting to learn about some of bangladesh's and other south asian countries' histories next year in the politics of south asia class. i didn't know how young it was.