Colonel Who Would Not Repent
The Bangladesh War And Its Unquiet Legacy
BY - Salil Tripathi
About the Book :
'Salil Tripathi brings together the narrative skill of a novelist and the analytical tools of apolitical journalist to give us the story of a nation that is absorbing, haunting and illuminating.'-Kamila Shamsie, author of A God in Every Stone.
Between March and December 1971, the Pakistani army committed atrocities on an unprecedented scale in the country's eastern wing. Pakistani troops and their collaborators were responsible for countless deaths and cases of rape. Clearly, religion alone wasn't enough to keep Pakistan's two halves united.
From that brutal violence, Bangladesh emerged as an independent nation, but the wounds have continued to fester. The gruesome assassination of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman-the country's charismatic first prime minister-and most of his family, the coups and countercoups which followed, accompanied by long years of military rule were individually and collectively responsible for the country's inability to come to grips with the legacy of the Liberation War.
Four decades later, as Bangladesh tries to bring some accountability and closure to its bloodsoaked past through controversial tribunals prosecuting war crimes, Salil Tripathi travels the length and breadth of the country probing the country's trauma through interviews with hundreds of Bangladeshis. His book offers the reader an unforgettable portrait of a nation whose political history since Independence has been marked more by tragedy than triumph.
Many nation-states of Asia and Africa were once celebrated for their bold act of self-determination. They are best understood today through their failure to break free of their bloody origins, and their always likely descent into anarchy. Salil Tripathi's book resourcefully and grippingly describes Bangladesh's tormented search for truth and justice, and its implications for the stability of one of the world's largest Muslim countries.' - Pankaj Mishra, author of From the Ruins of Empire: The Intellectuals Who Remade Asia.
About the Author :
Salil Tripathi studied at The New Era School and Sydenham College in Bombay and got an MBA from Amos Tuck School, Dartmouth College, in the US. He has been a correspondent in India, Singapore and Hong Kong and his work has appeared in several publications, including the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, New Republic, New Yorker, Guardian, India Today and Far Eastern Economic Review. His writing has won a Bastiat Prize and the Citibank Pan Asia Journalism Award. He is a contributing editor at Mint and Caravan. He lives in London.
ISBN : 9789382277187 Price : Rs. 595.00
