The Sun Rising Over Bengal
Today is Bangladeshi Independence Day. I know this thanks only to a good-humoured and educational chat I had with a chap in a Subway in Leytonstone a few months back. A conversation about how spicy we like our toppings quickly gave way to the richer and more interesting topic of our countries of origin. Not for him the affected wincing at being asked about his homeland (who knew that in 2020 curiosity about your fellow human beings would be classed as offensive?); he jumped at the chance to share a little about his country's proud and traumatic transition from 'East Pakistan' to independent Bangladesh. He told me about the annulled 1970 election in which 'East Pakistan' returned a huge majority for the nationalists, the following Pakistani military campaign to take out well known nationalists and the resulting (and successful) Bangladeshi Liberation War of 1971, concluding the potted history lesson with the playful postscript that today's Bangladesh continua...