Asif Iqbal, "Bangladesh in Anglophone and Vernacular Literature: Cultural Imaginings of a Postcolonial Nation" (Routledge, 2025)

In this episode of New Books in Indian Religions, Dr. Raj Balchoran interviews Dr. Asif Iqbal about his new book, 'Bangladesh in Anglophone and Vernacular Literature: Cultural Imaginings of a Postcolonial Nation' (Routledge, 2025). Iqbal traces the origins of the book to his academic journey at the University of Dhaka and his doctoral studies at Michigan State University, where he noticed a critical gap in literary scholarship on Bangladesh’s liberation war and its cultural dimensions. The book examines 12 novels—six in English and six in Bengali—alongside films, oral histories, and historical documents to explore three pivotal historical junctures: the 1947 partition of Bengal, the 1960s political upheaval, and the 1971 war for independence. Iqbal argues that literature functions as a 'narrative archive' that reveals the complex, often conflicting cultural imaginaries of Bangladesh, offering insights beyond traditional historical accounts. He emphasizes how vernacular Bengali literature captures local agrarian struggles and minority experiences that are often overlooked in Anglophone narratives, which tend to cater to metropolitan readerships. The book’s central intervention is to center East Pakistan as a lived, culturally rich entity within postcolonial literary studies, challenging dominant Indian and Pakistani national narratives. Iqbal also reflects on the limitations of his project, noting that film and life writing could have deepened the analysis of violence and personal memory in the war. He concludes by announcing his next project: a study of 19th-century Bengal to trace the roots of Bengali Muslim identity and nationalism that shaped 20th-century political developments. The conversation underscores literature’s power to illuminate the emotional, ideological, and historical layers of nationhood in postcolonial South Asia.