THE STORY OF THE BIRTH OF A NATION
Nadeem Zaman’s debut novel is a fictionalized account of the bloody events that culminated in the creation of Bangladesh
Nobody knows exactly how many people were killed in the Bangladesh Liberation War of 1971. Nearly half a century later, first-time author Nadeem Zaman offers a detailed, albeit fictionalised, account of the bloody events that culminated in the creation of a new country. Set over a period of nine months of 1971 – March 25 to December 16 – Zaman recreates the violence that led to what the Bangladesh government has since called a genocide that killed 3 million people. The crackdown began with the killing of students and professors at Dhaka University, soon after a regional party, the Awami League, demanded greater autonomy for East Pakistan. The Awami League won the elections and launched a campaign of civil disobedience. Its supporters – the Mukti Bahini – started attacking non-Bengali civilians, upsetting the military regime of West Pakistan led by General Yahya Khan. The army launched a strike against the Awami League and the Hindu community, who at that time made up about 20 per cent of East Pakistan’s 75 million people, according to a BBC report.
Using the war as a backdrop, Zaman tells the story of Imtiaz Khan, a man who is unemployed and broke, and is trying to save his marriage with Lubna. Imtiaz travels from Chittagong to Dhaka to claim an inheritance that his mother has left him. It is not the best of times to travel to Dhaka, which is experiencing political turmoil following the breakdown of negotiations between Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, and has been placed under curfew, but he has no choice. Imtiaz is the guest of Kamruzzaman and Aisha Chowdhury, his maternal uncle and aunt. Chowdhury Villa is a safe haven for the young, multi-faith and fiery pro-independence fighters of the Mukti Bahini, mostly former students of Aisha, who are plotting for a separate land for Bengalis. On the other side of the spectrum is Fazal Shaukat - a young captain in the Pakistan Army with a family name to live up to, and an alcoholic wife to deal with. He is disgusted by the army’s brutality, especially the treatment meted out to women – “raped with bayonets” - but he tries to fit in as best as he can. However, his overzealous, nationalistic and sadistic boss, Major Pervez Shahbaz, is not happy with a thinking soldier by his side, who does not match his hate for the “Mukti vermins”. He is doing everything to make Shaukat’s life miserable, as much to his disbelief, he has failed to make an impact on Shaukat.
Zaman’s characters – both lead and supporting – are fighting for independence, in one way or another, and he successfully captures the nine tumultuous months in an unbiased way from the perspective of all the characters and what it means to live in violent times. Zaman’s intelligent, honest, non-judgmental and sensitive portrayals are based on stories of the Liberation War as told by his parents and grandparents. It is not the oral histories alone that shake the reader. Zaman has done a terrific job of recording the littlest details of the war, a result of sound research. Zaman’s best portrayal is of the stately Judge Mubarak – who “never thought of himself as anything other than Bengali” – yet he is a top target of the Mukti Bahini. Without taking sides, Zaman lets the readers peek into the heads of characters and see how each reacts to war and violence. The war is also seen from the army wives’ perspective, even as their husbands laugh at them for being brainless and gossipy. Captain Shaukat’s wife Umbreen tells him she wants to vomit each time he returns home. “How many people have you killed, Fazal? Have you raped women? Did you watch your soldiers rape them?” she charges at him one night. His boss, Major Shahbaz, who is losing two battles – on the outside and the inside - is found sleeping with a gun pointing to his head. His wife doesn’t scream at the sight, but quietly loosens his hand, frees the gun and waits for him to wake up.
Zaman was born in Dhaka and grew up there and in Chicago. He studied at the University of Illinois at Chicago and the University of Louisville. The novel is a part of his dissertation to study the making of a postcolonial state and the emergence of a postcolonial nation-state from Bengali nationalism to Bangladeshi sovereignty. At a time when Bangladesh’s Liberation War is being reassessed, In the Time of the Others fills several gaps. That it often reads like a Hemingway novel is a bonus.
Lamat R Hasan is an independent journalist. She lives in New Delhi.