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Home , Keshabpur Upazila, Mansur Ali Khan, Mir Jafar

HISTORY WEEK 17-26 OCTOBER 2015

Brick Lane Circle’s is organising its Sixth Annual Bengal History Week during 17-26 October 2015, which aims to help generate greater levels of interest on the learning of the .

affected an estimated 1.5 to 3 5.45pm - Contested Histories million people in every part of and Nationalisms: The Crisis undivided Bengal, with far-reaching effects on the neighbouring areas. of Contemporary

Shanjukta is an early career By Professor Mushtaq Khan researcher in agrarian history with an interest in colonial and contemporary history of South Asia. The political economy of FREE ENTRY! She completed her doctoral thesis developing countries is ALL WELCOME! on ‘agricultural knowledge characterized by the clientelist transfers’ from SOAS, with a organization of politics. This Saturday, 17 October 2015, fellowship from the Association of perspective gives us a theoretical 2.30-8pm. Brady Arts Centre 196 Commonwealth Universities. model of a clientelist political

Hanbury St, E1 5HU settlement as a framework for 4.15pm - The Last Raja of analysing the interaction between West Pakistan A HALF DAY CONFERENCE politics and economics in ON MAJOR EVENTS, ISSUES developing countries. AND STRUGGLES This paper looks at the emergence 2.45 pm - Changing Meanings of Bangladesh out of two violent of Rice - Famine, Food partitions in 1947 and 1971 through Campaign and Cultural this lens to address a number of Response to Politics of puzzles. Why did these particular Poverty: Bengal 1945-59 nationalisms emerge when they did when there was no prior history of Bengali Muslim nationalism in this area before the 1930s? Why did the achievement of the most religiously and ethnically

homogenous state in South Asia By Priyajit Debsarkar not result in stability in 1971? And The Last Raja of West Pakistan is what is the source of the persistent An image of the Bengal Famine by primarily about the role, policies, failure of modern Bangladeshi politics and decisions of Raja Tridiv Zainul Abedin political parties to achieve credible Roy, the monarch of the Chakma elections? tribe of Chittagong area, now By Shanjukta Ghosh. located in Bangladesh. Covering Professor Mushtaq Khan teaches the period beginning with his This paper is concerned with the coronation as king in 1953 up to the economics at SOAS, who material life of rural and urban independence of Bangladesh in completed his undergraduate Bengal focusing on the production 1971-72 this book evaluates his studies in Philosophy, Politics and and consumption of rice, crisis in decision to stay loyal to Pakistan till Economics at the University of the systems of exchange and the end and contextualizes the Oxford and then studied PhD in distribution, knowledge and political relationship between East Economics at Cambridge. meaning that link these together and West Pakistan at that time. Previously he taught at the during the most distressing period of Bengal famine and the Second Priyajit Debsarkar is a political universities of both Oxford and World War experiences. The analyst with special interest in the Cambridge. Information on his famine of 1943 was the last major geo-political . research interests are available on historical event of horrific deaths He studied at the University of http://www.soas.ac.uk/staff/staff312 resulting from starvation and London and currently works and 46.php. hunger-related diseases that lives in London.

Sunday 18 October 2015, Monday 19 October 2015, Tuesday 20 October 2015, 2.30-4.30pm. Lab 5, 6.30-8.30pm. Lab 2&3, 6.30-8.30pm. Lab 1A, Idea Store Whitechapel, 321 Idea Store Whitechapel, 321 Idea Store Whitechapel, 321 Whitechapel Rd, London E1 1BU Whitechapel Rd, London E1 1BU. Whitechapel Rd, London E1 1BU.

Michael Madhusudan Dutt: The Rise and Fall of the British-Islamic Identity: Third- The people's playwright Portuguese in Mughal Bengal Generation Bangladeshis from East London

The Holy Rosary Church, Dhaka, built by the Portuguese in 1677.

By Robert Ivermee

Almost 500 years have passed since the first Portuguese voyage to the Bay to Bengal. In this seminar, historian Robert Ivermee uncovers the lost history of the Portuguese presence in Bengal By Dr Aminul Hoque during the reigns of Akbar, Jahangir and Shah Jahan on the Mughal How does it feel to be constructed as By Sharmeen Haque throne, tracing the foundation, the violent, terrorist, un-British flourishing and decline of the 'other'? To be a minority in a majority Portuguese settlement of Hugli on Michael Madhusudan Dutta was a situation, to have no sense of the river of the same name. He belonging, to be popular 19th-century Bengali poet explores the experiences of voiceless, marginalised and and dramatist. He was born in Portuguese merchants and invisible? Sagordari on the bank of missionaries – among the earliest Kopotaksho River, a village in Europeans to encounter Bengal – This seminar examines these Keshabpur , (now and considers how the Portuguese complex issues through an in Bangladesh). set a precedent for later Dutch, ethnographic account of the lives and English and French colonialism in multifaceted identities of six British- The paper will explore Michael’s the province. born third-generation Bangladeshis two farces (Buro saliker ghare ron from East London. Do they see and Eki ki bole Sabhatya) and how Dr Robert Ivermee is a global themselves as Bangladeshi, British, these farces, unlike his better Muslim, Londoners, none of these or intellectual historian with a known works, for example, a fusion of them all? Their stories are Meghnad Bodh, are very much particular interest in British powerful, clear and unsettling, works about everyday people - imperialism and modern South Asia charting their journeys from invisibility farmers, prostitutes, porters, from the eighteenth century to the to visibility and from the periphery to the core of British social life. servants. present day. Major focuses of his

research include secularism, Dr Aminul Hoque MBE is a lecturer in Sharmeen will also relate this to ideologies of empire; and the the Educational Studies Department, how Dutt was in many ways a very interconnected histories of Britain Goldsmiths, University of London, contemporary figure with his mixed and its former colonies. His first and a visiting lecturer at London religious backgrounds and two Metropolitan University. foreign wives. book traced a history of the concept He gained his doctorate from of secularism in nineteenth century Goldsmiths in 2011, and his in-depth Sharmeen Haque is currently through debates on Muslim ethnographic research for it forms the working on a Masters Dissertation education. He is currently working basis of his book British-Islamic on one of Michael Madhusudan on a history of Portuguese, Mughal, Identity: Third-Generation Bangladeshis from East London, Dutt's farces (Buro saliker ghare Dutch, French and English published by IOE Press, Trentham ron), at the School of Oriental and colonialisms in Bengal. He works at Books (2015). You can follow Aminul African Studies (SOAS). SOAS, University of London. on Twitter @BrIslam2015.

Wednesday 21 October 2015, Thursday 22 October 2015, Friday 23 October 2015, 6.30- 6.30-8.30pm. Lab 1A, 6.30-8.30pm. Lab 6, 8.30pm. Venue to be confirmed Idea Store Whitechapel, 321 Idea Store Whitechapel, 321 Whitechapel Rd, London E1 1BU Whitechapel Rd, London E1 1BU The Guardian & Times coverage of the late President Gandhi and Bengal? Whatever Happened to the Ziaur Rahman’s life Company? (1971-1981)

Gandhi in Noakhali, 1946

President Ziaur Rahman & Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat, Gazipur (1981)

By Ehtasham Haque

By Roger Williams The late President Ziaur Rahman London’s Lost Global Giant: In Ziaur Rahman (1936 – 1981) is best known for his role in declaring the Tagore hosts Gandhi and wife Search of the East India Kasturba at Santiniketan in 1940 Company has just been published. independence of Bangladesh, and for It is a small book about the his service as the president of By William Rhind Company’s legacy in London — Bangladesh from 1977 to 1981. As where to see it, and what material the founder of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), which In 1946 the Noakhali region of and cultural effects it has had on dominates the politics of Bangladesh current day Bangladesh the city. experienced serious communal along with the Awami League, his riots. Mohandas Gandhi camped in legacy remains hugely relevant to the Noakhali for four months and LONDON'S LOST GLOBAL recent history of Bangladesh and as toured the district in a mission to GIANT: In Search of the East India well as today’s politics. This restore peace and communal Company is the final part of THE presentation will strive to understand harmony LONDON TRILOGY, which he has Ziaur Rahman’s life through been researching and Bangladesh’s national life from 1971 William has been Outreach Worker photographing since returning to to 1981 in the ight of the coverage by at the Gandhi Foundation London after two decades in the (www.gandhifoundation.org) since British newspapers The Guardian December 2013 and prior to that wilderness of the Weald. and The Times. was on their executive committee for five years. He has degrees in The author raises a fascinating Ehtasham holds an MA in History and Law from the question: how could a leviathan Management from Westminster universities of Glasgow and such as the - Business School; Post Graduate London. at its height handling more than half Diploma in Law and Community

the world's shipping, with its own leadership from SOAS, University It was through his father being born of London and a BA Honours in in India that he developed an 200l000-strong army - have interest in that country and disappeared, as it seems, without International Relations from London therefore Gandhi. trace? Well, it didn't, of course, and Metropolitan University. A freelance in a quest that takes him around researcher with interest on Islam & Having a part Catholic, part the capital and beyond, Williams the West, Social Contract Theory, Anglican and part Presbyterian brings together scattered jigsaw Bangladeshi politics, British heritage he grew up with an interest Bangladeshi politics, democracy, in ecumenism that led into interfaith pieces to build a fascinating picture governance and transnationalism. matters. of this 'lost giant'.

Saturday 24 October 2015, Saturday 24 October 2015, Dr Georgie Wemyss is the author 2.30-9pm. Venue 2, The Rich Mix 2.45-4.15pm. Venue 2, The Rich of The Invisible Empire: White Centre, 35-47 Bethnal Green Rd, Mix Centre, 35-47 Bethnal Green Discourse, Tolerance and E1 6L Rd, E1 6L Belonging (Farnham: Ashgate, 2009), and Senior Research Fellow at the OUR SPECIAL EVENT The Bengali contribution to Centre for Research on Migration, the World Wars Refugees and Belonging at UEL.

The British Empire in Fiji and Sunday 25 October 2015, its Legacy: Indian Indentured Labourers, Exile and Modern 2.30-4.30pm. Lab 1A, Day Multiculturalism Idea Store Whitechapel, 321 Whitechapel Rd, London E1 1BU Film Screening (Sahara), lecture (A life in exile) and an The of Bengal: exhibition (Empire, Exile and Collaboration and Resistance Sugar Plantations - the journey and experiences of Indian indentured labourers in By Shahida Rahman Fiji) Shahida Rahman is an author, publisher and freelance writer. She writes historical fiction, non-fiction and short stories including the ‘Lascar’ (Indigo Dreams Publishing 2012) is a work of historical fiction inspired by a paternal ancestor, a lascar (seaman). The highly acclaimed novel revives the story of these unsung heroes and draws

attention to their plight, educating The film explores current social people through the use of fictional issues and multiculturalism in the characters. ‘Lascar’ was shortlisted Island of Fiji and includes both for the Muslim Writers Awards, native and Indian characters. Unpublished Novel Awards (2008). ‘Injustice’: Sketch from Vanity Fair Before the film show there will be a relating to Nawab of Bengal’s petition to lecture by the Director of Sahara Dr Parliament for recompense, 1871 Sunday 25 October 2015, Satish Rai on 'A Life in Exile'. 11am-1pm. By Lyn Innes

POPULAR EAST INDIA An English descendent of COMPANY DOCKSIDE WALK of the betrayal (1757). (Emeritus Professor of Postcolonial Literatures, University of Kent, Canterbury)

The presentation will deal with the British government’s attempt to mould and control the last Nawab

Nazim of Bengal, and Orissa, A an exhibition will run concurrently from 2.30pm onward during the Syed . Born in day, covering the story and 1829, Mansur Ali Khan succeeded experiences of Indian indentured By Dr Georgie Wemyss to the title at the age of nine, and labourers taken to Fiji by the British was forced to abdicate in 1880, at Empire to work on sugar plantation Places are free but advance the age of 50. He was the eleventh and their interactions with native booking only. Meeting place will be Nawab to succeed Mir Jafar as Fijians. In addition we aim to put on provided to those who are booked show some Indigenous Fijian Nawab Nazim of Bengal, Bihar and cultural performance. on the walk. Orissa.

Monday 26 October 2015, of operating in an unfamiliar and Bangladeshis at home and 6.30-8.30pm. Venue to be environment. The Garden is thus abroad; and an increased ability for finding better quality solutions. confirmed an example not only of how colonial institutions tried to mould the Indian landscape, but also the AIMS AND OBJECTIVES Calcutta Botanic Garden: many constraints they came up Knowledge Formation and against in doing so. 1. Organise seminars, exhibitions, events and activities in the UK to the Expectations of Botany in a Colonial Context, 1833- encourage and facilitate research Adrian Thomas had a long and knowledge generation / 1914 (including Botanic overseas career with the British dissemination with respect to Garden’s role in introducing Council, including four years in Bangladesh and Bangladeshis tea cultivation to Bengal) . He has also worked for abroad the Royal Asiatic Society and the Linnean Society in London. He is 2. Consider, learn lessons and currently completing a PhD on the explore the potentials of the long historical links between history of Calcutta Botanic Bangladesh and Britain Garden between 1833 and 1914. 3. Explore and develop innovative BRICK LANE CIRCLE ways of promoting better understanding between the UK (BLC) Bangladeshi community and the wider diverse multi-faith / multi- cultural communities in Britain BLC is a voluntary organisation

(company limited by guarantee, By Adrian Thomas 4. Encourage and facilitate better founded in 2006) set up to help connections between Bangladesh transform the intellectual and the UK with respect to In 1787 the East India Company landscape of the Bangladeshi education, economics, social, authorised Colonel Robert Kyd to community in the UK and take it culture and tourism to a new level of confidence and take over 310 acres on the west critical engagement with bank of the River Hugli near 5. Engage young people in the everything relevant for the Calcutta, in order to lay out a UK from diverse backgrounds community's progress botanic garden. He engaged and generate interest among and development. them to learn more about workers to “embank and ditch” Bangladesh and Bangladeshis the land, and then began to The organisation hopes to abroad and undertake innovative experiment with crops he hoped achieve this by developing and and exciting projects / activities facilitating better connections to introduce to Bengal. For the for mutual benefits following 160 years of the colonial between people who are engaged period this was the premier in research and intellectual pursuits involving Bangladesh or 6. Help develop deeper and botanic garden in India. Bangladeshis abroad; shared common roots among the encouraging more people to get UK’s diverse population through Laying out a garden is never a involved in objective knowledge research, knowledge sharing and neutral act, and Calcutta Botanic seeking and creating learning about each other’s history, country of origin and Garden was organised to achieve opportunities for debates and experiences in the UK. numerous scientific and practical intellectual exchanges. purposes. It served both as a The Circle believes that For details please email European base for collecting and one important element necessary [email protected] classifying South Asia’s plant life, for making breakthroughs and or phone 07914119282 and as a site for experimenting solving long standing problems in www.bricklanecircle.org our community, or any with many economic and medicinal crops. community, is to bring people from different backgrounds and political divides to talk to each However, aesthetic choices also other, discuss rival perspectives had to be made as priorities and debate over different changed and the layout of the narratives and ideas. The result is Garden was altered. New designs likely to be greater levels of often reflected broader changes empathy between people; better in the history and policies of the understanding of the problems and issues faced by Bangladesh , but also the difficulties