Discover Bengal · Unfolded
❦Tanvir Mokammel
Creator / Contributor
Explore all resources attributed to this name.
Resources
8
1971
reference-sources · Encyclopedia and Archive Reference
A mega-documentary on the Bangladesh Liberation War, valuable as a broad visual archive of the year 1971.
Achin Pakhi / The Unknown Bard
primary-sources · Official Documents and Legal Texts
A documentary on the Bauls and Lalon’s world of folk-spiritual culture, useful for Bengali cultural history.
Karnaphulir Kanna / Teardrops of Karnaphuli
primary-sources · Official Documents and Legal Texts
A documentary on the plight of indigenous people in the Chittagong Hill Tracts and the politics of displacement.
Oie Jamuna / A Tale of the Jamuna River
primary-sources · Official Documents and Legal Texts
A documentary on the Jamuna river, useful for riverine Bengal, ecology, and cultural landscape.
Seemantorekha / The Borderline
primary-sources · Official Documents and Legal Texts
A documentary on 1947 Bengal Partition memory, borders, displacement, and divided homes; useful as a historical text on partition aftermath.
Smriti Ekattor / Remembrance of '71
primary-sources · Official Documents and Legal Texts
A documentary on the massacre of Bengali intellectuals in December 1971 and the memory of the intellectual killings.
Swapnabhumi / The Promised Land
primary-sources · Official Documents and Legal Texts
A documentary on the Urdu-speaking/Bihari stranded communities, connecting 1947 migration, 1971 conflict, and long-term statelessness.
Tajuddin Ahmad: An Unsung Hero
primary-sources · Official Documents and Legal Texts
Important for Mujibnagar leadership and Tajuddin Ahmad’s role in 1971 political command.
Related Events
7
1,971
Liberation War
The Liberation War of 1971 grew out of the denied majority verdict of the 1970 election, the March non-cooperation movement, and the Pakistan Army's 25 March crackdown. What followed was not a single battlefield episode but a combined political, military, and humanitarian rupture: a provisional government, sector-based armed resistance, mass displacement into India, and finally the defeat of Pakistani forces in December and the birth of Bangladesh.
1,947
Partition and Eastern Bengal
In 1947, British India was divided into India and Pakistan, and Bengal itself was split into West Bengal and East Bengal. The chapter is not only about constitutional division: the delayed Radcliffe boundary, minority insecurity, refugee movement, and administrative rupture reshaped everyday life and set the stage for later struggles over language, autonomy, and state legitimacy in East Bengal.
1,975
BAKSAL: Formation and Collapse
In 1975, Bangladesh entered a decisive turning point: the transition toward BAKSAL, escalating political centralization, the assassination of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman on 15 August, and the jail killings of 3 November. These events reshaped the state, party politics, and military-civil relations for decades.
1976-1997
Shanti Bahini Insurgency in the Chittagong Hill Tracts
From early 1976 onward, armed conflict in the Chittagong Hill Tracts intensified between state forces and the PCJSS's armed wing, Shanti Bahini, around autonomy, land, and political recognition demands. The conflict caused long-term insecurity and displacement before a formal peace accord was signed on 2 December 1997.
1,982
Ershad's Coup and the Return of Military Rule
On 24 March 1982, Army Chief Hussain Muhammad Ershad seized power, removed President Abdus Sattar's elected government, suspended parts of the constitution, and imposed martial law. The coup ended a fragile civilian experiment that had followed the turbulence of the late 1970s and reinserted the military directly into the core of Bangladesh's political order. What followed was not only a change of ruler but the beginning of a new authoritarian phase that reshaped institutions, party politics, and the language of democratic resistance.
1,990
Mass Uprising
The 1990 Mass Uprising was the culmination of years of resistance to military-backed authoritarian rule in Bangladesh. Student activism, the martyrdom of Nur Hossain in 1987, opposition-alliance coordination, and professional-civic mobilization converged in a final wave of pressure that forced Hussain Muhammad Ershad to resign and opened the path to the Shahabuddin-led transition and the 1991 restoration of parliamentary democracy.
April 1971
Mujibnagar Government
In April 1971, leaders of Bangladesh's independence movement formed the provisional Mujibnagar Government, creating constitutional and diplomatic structure for wartime statehood.