Intimation of Revolution
Global Sixties and the Making of Bangladesh

Studies the rise of Bengali nationalism in East Pakistan in the 1950s and 60s.

Subho Basu (Author)

9781009329873, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 15 June 2023

305 pages
23.6 x 16 x 2.7 cm, 0.66 kg

'Basu examines an understudied revolution that emerged from the mainly agrarian society of the lower Gangetic delta of East Pakistan in the sixties, presenting an innovative exploration of a remarkable period of South Asian history in a global context. For those familiar with twentieth-century Pakistan, Basu's work provides a foundation-shifting reading of the period. It rightfully highlights the critical role played by subaltern East Pakistani actors in their own liberation. The changing class composition of East Pakistani society at the time is also given a compelling prominence in the consideration of the links between the left, national populism and the eruption of military dictatorship. Basu's book is a crucial contribution making much-needed inroads into disrupting the dominance of the West in discussions of the sixties as a defining cultural and political epoch.' Crispin Bates, University of Edinburgh

Intimation of Revolution studies the rise of Bengali nationalism in East Pakistan in the 1950s and 60s by showcasing the interactions between global politics and local social and economic developments. It argues that the revolution of 1969 and the national liberation struggle of 1971 were informed by the 'global sixties' that transformed the political landscape of Pakistan and facilitated the birth of Bangladesh. Departing from the typical understanding of the Bangladesh as a product of Indo-Pakistani diplomatic and military rivalry, it narrates how Bengali nationalists resisted the processes of internal colonization by the Pakistani military bureaucratic regime to fashion their own nation. It details how this process of resistance and nation-formation drew on contemporaneous decolonization movements in Asia, Africa, and Latin America while also being shaped by the Cold War rivalries between the USA, USSR, and China.

Acknowledgements
Introduction
1. Nationality Question: Territoriality, Birth of East Pakistan and New Politics of Resistance
2. Global Politics and Local Alignment: Cold War Bureaucratic -Military Alliance and Popular Resistance
3. Language, Culture and the Global Sixties in East Pakistan
4. Praetorian Guards, Capitalist Modernization and Early Global Sixties: Global Cold War Empire and the Colonization of East Pakistan
5. For Whom the Bell Tolls: Popular Resistance and the Beginning of Global Sixties in Pakistan
6. Global Sixties and the Coming of Revolution
Conclusion
Bibliography.

Subject Areas: Regional government policies [JPRB], Regional government [JPR], Politics & government [JP], Society & social sciences [J], Regional & national history [HBJ], History [HB]