The young radicals who challenged 19th-century Bengal
6 HOUR(s)
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In Focus
More men are cooking. But is patriarchy leaving the kitchen?
23 September 2026
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In Focus
Everyday secularism and the Bangladesh we rarely talk about
22 September 2026
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In Focus
Reading Sarat Chandra at 150, with empathy
21 September 2026
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In Focus
Who really owned Britain’s royal jewels?
19 September 2026
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In Focus
The 25,000-year history of betel nut chewing
17 September 2026
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In Focus
The world map we know is distorted. Why does it matter?
15 September 2026
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In Focus
Bengal and the coming of Islam: A story of soil and spirit
14 September 2026
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In Focus
Xuanzang’s travels to Bengal and beyond : The man, the pilgrim and the Monkey King
11 September 2026
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In Focus
Professor Anisur Rahman: The economist who put people at the centre
10 September 2026
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In Focus
The Unforgettable Suhrawardys of Bengal
The spectacular socio-cultural efflorescence known by the sobriquet of ‘Bengal Renaissance’ was an extraordinary period from mid- 19th to early 20th century in Bengal.
8 November 2020
The cries of Modhupur Garh
“Leaf Storm” or La Hojarasca in Spanish, the debut novella by world renowned Colombian author Gabriel García Márquez, was first published in 1955. Largely applauded as the first appearance of Macondo, the imaginary village later made reputed in One Hundred Years of Solitude, Leaf Storm is a litmus test for a number of the themes and characters later to be crystallised in the book that earned the author the Noble Prize in literature.
1 November 2020
Sher-e-Bangla: In search of a national soul
Sher-e-Bangla was an institution rather than an individual. So say his critics as well as his admirers. And rightly so. But it seems very few have really appreciated the deeper significance of the epithet given him by themselves.
25 October 2020
The champion of the Bengali Muslim peasantry
AK Fazlul Haq burst into an all-Indian national political scene through the 1937 elections for the Bengal Legislative Assembly.
25 October 2020
The devil rays of Bengal
I was mostly lurking behind the group of marine biologists, young researchers, and local parabiologists scouting the dirt-ridden streets of Chattogram just opposite to the under-construction fisheries ghat.
18 October 2020
The early history of Bengali printing
The following account is concerned with Bengali printing before 1800, concentrating on the period after the Battle of Plassey in 1757 when the British East India Company established its control of the province.
11 October 2020
Environmental history of Dhaka: An outline
Environment has been key to Dhaka’s birth and rebirth, growth and development as well as its urban predicaments. Recently, Dhaka’s environmental issues have led to public debates drawing a lot of interest.
4 October 2020
(De-)Politicising Covid-19 Pandemic? Public Health Perspectives and Lessons Learned
“Please do not politicise this [corona]virus.” This statement of WHO (World Health Organization) chief a few months back provokes concern that there is something problematic in politicising Covid-19.
27 September 2020
Learning in the time of Covid-19
COVID-19 has brought death, destruction and disruption everywhere. However,
24 September 2020
When the Dufferins visited Dhaka
The failed Indian Rebellion of 1857, which saw the ultimate triumph of the East India Company, nonetheless also led to its demise and the emergence of the last great colonial empire in modern history- the British Empire in India - popularly known today as the British Raj (1858-1947).
20 September 2020
Is democracy possible?
Discourse on democracy is so overwhelmingly taken for granted that even the blatant autocrat or invader claims to act in the name of saving or installing democracy.
13 September 2020
Bangabandhu: the architect of Bangladesh's foreign policy
We celebrate 2020 as “Mujib Borsho”, to mark our Founding Father Bangabandhu’s birth centenary; we also mourn, and reflect on, his brutal assassination 46 years ago on the 15th August 1975.
6 September 2020
ANIS BHAI: TEACHER
Dr. Anisuzzaman’s life was a radiant gift to us, his departure an irreparable loss. The usual metaphors that have been applied (tower of strength, conscience of the nation, a reassuring lighthouse, an iconic intellectual/cultural presence , an institution by himself, a large and shady tree, the embodiment of humanist principles, and so on) may all be applicable.
23 August 2020
Decolonising the cities to address flood, rain and water
The city is conceptualised in many different ways – as a body, a machine, an organism, a second nature and now a third or even fourth nature.
16 August 2020
An Indefatigable Crusader: Dr Syud Hossain
Syud Hossain was born on June 23, 1888, in Calcutta the son of Nawab Syud Mohammed Azad (1850-1915), who belonged to an illustrious old aristocratic family of Dhaka.
9 August 2020
The story of Gauhar Jaan
Gauhar Jaan aka Eileen Yeoward was not Armenian. Here’s why.
7 August 2020
Bulbbul: Not a revolutionary feminist consciousness
I want to begin by saying that I do not look towards Bollywood for feminist lessons or representations.
29 July 2020
The different intrigues and agendas tied to the Srebrenica Massacre
This year marked a quarter of a century since the Srebrenica Massacre of July 11, 1995, when around 8,000 Muslim men and boys were allegedly massacred by Bosnian Serbs—during the Bosnian War—in what has been described by some as the “worst war crime” to have taken place on European soil “since World War II”.
26 July 2020
Shirin Banu Mitil: A person out of a fairy-tale
Shirin Banu Mitil is my mother. This is the most beautiful truth of my life and the part of my identity that fills me with the most pride.
20 July 2020
Ignaz Semmelweis
One of the front-line defenses individuals have against the spread of the coronavirus can feel decidedly low-tech: hand-washing.
19 July 2020