Author Description

<p>"During a substantial stay in some East Bengal villages in the summer <br>of 1971, when East Pakistan was in the traumatic process of being <br>transformed into Bangladesh, it first dawned upon me that peasants <br>were not stupid, devoid of political consciousness. Discussions with <br>different types of peasants revealed that at least the upper echelons <br>were aware of the implications of the liberation struggle for <br>Bangladesh and the superpower involvement in it. Richard Nixon and <br>Indira Gandhi were familiar names. Ordinary peasants often quoted <br>the Bengali news readers and commentators of the BBC world service <br>and the Voice of America. Well-to-do peasants who owned transistor <br>radio sets regularly tuned into the British, American and Indian radio <br>stations. Many inquisitive and worried peasants asked me (then a fresh <br>graduate from Dhaka University) how their cherished Sonar Bangla <br>(golden Bengal) would improve their socio-economic conditions. Many <br>peasants also took part in the liberation struggle as members of the <br>Mukti Bahini or freedom fighters. Almost everyone, with a few exceptions <br>who collaborated with the Pakistan armed forces, was a keen <br>supporter of Bangladesh. After the emergence of Bangladesh, things <br>did not change to the expectations of the masses, but rather deteriorated <br>so much that Henry Kissinger is said to have coined the phrase <br>''bottomless basket"" as a denotation for Bangladesh, because of the <br>rampant corruption of a big section of the Bengali bourgeoisie at that <br>time. I was provoked to write the history of the peasants' glorious role <br>in the Liberation Struggle which was being overshadowed by claims <br>and counter-claims of heroism and sacrifice by members of the <br>privileged, parasitical urban elites. This work may be regarded as a <br>prelude to the history of the freedom struggle that eventually led to the <br>creation of Bangladesh. This is an attempt to shed li