Author: Professor Rehman Sobhan
Publisher: Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD), December 30, 2011.

Over the last year we have been commemorating the 40th year of Bangladesh’s independence. In these 40 years Bangladesh has registered many gains for which we should feel proud. We have established a globally competitive garment industry moved ahead of India in particular areas of human development and gender parity, extended micro-credit to 25 million women and drastically reduced aid dependence through an explosive growth in remittances by our hard working migrants. We have furthermore held four reasonably free and fair elections where incumbent regimes have been replaced by opposition parties through the ballot box. These are not inconsiderable achievements for a country once written off as a basket cast.

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M. Asaduzzaman

Bangladesh Development Studies  Vol. XXXIV, March 2011, No. 1

Review of the book:

The Bengal Delta: Ecology, State and Social Change, 1840-1943  
By Iftekhar Iqbal, Palgrave Macmillan, UK, 2010, pp.268+xx

MD Saidul Islam
Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs, Vol. 31, No. 1, March 2011

Summary:

More than 85% of Bangladesh ’ s 150 million people are Muslims. Bangladesh earns its title as “ the third largest Muslim country of the world ” following Indonesia and Pakistan because of its enormous size of Muslim population. Their religion , Islam, is however becoming a “ minority” day by day. While Muslims in the West — in spite of being a minority — are enjoying their basic religious freedom, this basic right is increasingly being denied to the Muslims in Bangladesh while it continues to aspire to become a “ uniquely secular ” society . Based on a robust content analysis and interviews , the study shows that the current regime in Bangladesh has taken on a comprehensive policy of secularization with an aim to emasculate Islamic influence from political and social landscape of Bangl adesh. Apart from undermining basic religious freedom of Muslims, the policy — which turns out to be both aggressive and violent — is increasingly becoming hostile to democratic principles, rule of law, freedom of movement, and political pluralism.