University of Louisville ThinkIR: The University of Louisville's Institutional Repository Electronic Theses and Dissertations 5-2017 I. In the time of the others : a novel ; II. Out of east Pakistan : postcolonial colony Bangladesh as a case study of postcolonial state and postcolonial nation-state from east Pakistan to independence through the liberation war of 1971 : a critical analysis. Nadeem Zaman University of Louisville Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.library.louisville.edu/etd Part of the Comparative Literature Commons, Fiction Commons, Military History Commons, and the Political History Commons Recommended Citation Zaman, Nadeem, "I. In the time of the others : a novel ; II. Out of east Pakistan : postcolonial colony Bangladesh as a case study of postcolonial state and postcolonial nation-state from east Pakistan to independence through the liberation war of 1971 : a critical analysis." (2017). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. Paper 2718. https://doi.org/10.18297/etd/2718 This Doctoral Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by ThinkIR: The University of Louisville's Institutional Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of ThinkIR: The University of Louisville's Institutional Repository. This title appears here courtesy of the author, who has retained all other copyrights. For more information, please contact [email protected]. I. IN THE TIME OF THE OTHERS: A NOVEL II. OUT OF EAST PAKISTAN: POSTCOLONIAL COLONY BANGLADESH AS A CASE STUDY OF POSTCOLONIAL STATE AND POSTCOLONIAL NATION-STATE FROM EAST PAKISTAN TO INDEPENDENCE THROUGH THE LIBERATION WAR OF 1971: A CRITICAL ANALYSIS By Nadeem Zaman B.A., University of Illinois at Chicago, 1998 M.A., University of Louisville, 2013 A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the College of Arts and Sciences of the University of Louisville in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Humanities Department of Comparative Humanities University of Louisville Louisville, KY May 2017 Copyright 2017 by Nadeem Zaman All Rights Reserved I. IN THE TIME OF THE OTHERS: A NOVEL II. OUT OF EAST PAKISTAN: POSTCOLONIAL COLONY BANGLADESH AS A CASE STUDY OF POSTCOLONIAL STATE AND POSTCOLONIAL NATION-STATE FROM EAST PAKISTAN TO INDEPENDENCE THROUGH THE LIBERATION WAR OF 1971: A CRITICAL ANALYSIS By Nadeem Zaman B.A., University of Illinois at Chicago, 1998 M.A., University of Louisville, 2013 A Dissertation Approved on April 13, 2017 by the following Dissertation Committee __________________________________ Dr. Simona Bertacco, Director __________________________________ Dr. John McLeod, Committee Member ___________________________________ Professor Paul Griner, Committee Member ___________________________________ Dr. Ranen Omer-Sherman, Outside Reader ii DEDICATION This dissertation is dedicated to my parents Farhad Zaman (1947-2014) and Najma Zaman whose stories of living through it all are the heart and the inspiration iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I owe a deep debt of gratitude to Professor Elaine Wise for accepting and welcoming me into the department in 2011, and from the beginning to the very end being a pillar of support and encouragement. Mere words are not enough for thanking my distinguished committee – Dr. Simona Bertacco, Dr. John McLeod, Professor Paul Griner, and Dr. Ranen Omer-Sherman – the vast sum whose individual, respective, and collective treasure of knowledge raised this work to levels I had not imagined it would reach at its inception. For her love, patience, kindness, and endless encouragement, my love and gratitude to my partner Amy Lynn Steiger. My years at the University of Louisville Department of Comparative Humanities have been among the most creatively explosive and intellectually flourishing than any other time in my life. I would like to thank additionally, Dr. Annette Allen, Dr. Pamela Beattie, Dr. Shelley Salamensky, Dr. Linda Gigante, Dr. Osborne Wiggins, and Dr. Maryam Moazzen for their mentorship, guidance, and contributions to my efforts. Many thanks to Ms. Lisa Schonburg for her tireless work to keep us on track and for patiently answering my endless questions each and every time throughout the years. iv ABSTRACT I. IN THE TIME OF THE OTHERS: A NOVEL II. OUT OF EAST PAKISTAN: POSTCOLONIAL COLONY BANGLADESH AS A CASE STUDY OF POSTCOLONIAL STATE AND POSTCOLONIAL NATION-STATE FROM EAST PAKISTAN TO INDEPENDENCE THROUGH THE LIBERATION WAR OF 1971: A CRITICAL ANALYSIS Nadeem Zaman April 13, 2017 This dissertation is a combined creative and critical project consisting a novel and a theoretical component. The novel entitled In the Time of the Others is a fictional account set during the true event of the Bangladesh Liberation War of 1971. Using the war as a backdrop, the novel tells the story of one man trying to manage his family, marriage, and financial situation by returning to an inheritance he never claimed. The journey brings him from his home in southern East Pakistan (present-day Bangladesh) to the capital city Dhaka, to the home of his maternal uncle and aunt under whose charge his mother had left the inheritance. Within days of his arrival the military regime of West Pakistan declares a crackdown on Dhaka, and East Pakistan, and the war that will eventually bring about the new independent state of Bangladesh begins. The novel encompasses the nine-months of the war, showing through the various journeys of its main and supporting characters a people and their identity and culture seeking to establish an independent country the making of a postcolonial state and the emergence of a postcolonial nation-state from Bengali nationalism to Bangladeshi sovereignty. v The critical analysis uses postcolonial theory to frame the creation of Bangladesh as a case study in postcolonial state and nation-state formation. In sections that examine the background of events from the end of British rule in the Indian Subcontinent in 1947 to Bengali identity and Bengali nationalism, fundamental European theories of nation, nationalism, and sovereignty that cannot be applied wholesale to the Subcontinent, to the intervention of Bangladesh and its emergence as a postcolonial state and postcolonial nation-state the theoretical and critical analyses are proposed. Also examined is the novel as the representative and chosen form of writers in postcolonial literature to imagine, re- imagine, contextualize, and decolonize the postcolonial nation through fiction. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE ACKNOWLEDGMENTS……………………………………………………………..iv ABSTRACT…………………………………………………………………………....v I. IN THE TIME OF THE OTHERS: A NOVEL PART I: THE CENTER CANNOT HOLD……………………………………………1 1………………………………………………………………………………...1 2………………………………………………………………………………...14 3………………………………………………………………………………...24 4………………………………………………………………………………...30 5………………………………………………………………………………...36 6………………………………………………………………………………...44 7………………………………………………………………………………...50 8………………………………………………………………………………...61 9………………………………………………………………………………...70 10……………………………………………………………………………….83 11……………………………………………………………………………….87 12……………………………………………………………………………….92 PART II: HELL IS EMPTY……………………………………………………………96 13……………………………………………………………………………….96 14…………………………………………………………………………….....106 15…………………………………………………………………………….....115 16…………………………………………………………………………….....125 17…………………………………………………………………………….....132 18…………………………………………………………………………….....137 19…………………………………………………………………………….....148 20…………………………………………………………………………….....154 21…………………………………………………………………………….....167 22…………………………………………………………………………….....172 23…………………………………………………………………………….....181 24…………………………………………………………………………….....186 25…………………………………………………………………………….....192 26…………………………………………………………………………….....198 27…………………………………………………………………………….....209 28…………………………………………………………………………….....225 vii PART III: THE YEAR OF THE VULTURES…………………………………………229 29………………………………………………………………………………..229 30………………………………………………………………………………..231 31………………………………………………………………………………..240 32………………………………………………………………………………..250 33………………………………………………………………………………..258 34………………………………………………………………………………..269 35………………………………………………………………………………..282 36………………………………………………………………………………..287 37………………………………………………………………………………..296 38………………………………………………………………………………..305 39………………………………………………………………………………..319 40………………………………………………………………………………..329 41………………………………………………………………………………..334 42………………………………………………………………………………..339 43………………………………………………………………………………..349 44………………………………………………………………………………..359 45………………………………………………………………………………..366 46………………………………………………………………………………..383 47………………………………………………………………………………..386 48………………………………………………………………………………..390 49………………………………………………………………………………..394 50………………………………………………………………………………..399 51………………………………………………………………………………..402 52………………………………………………………………………………..404 53………………………………………………………………………………..406 II. CRITICAL ANALYSIS……………………………………………………………..408 Overview………………………………………………………………………..408 A Short Background of Events and In the Time of the Others: From British Rule to Partition, the East Pakistan Era, and the Move Toward Bangladesh……….416 Identity as Catalyst: Bengali Nationalism to Bangladeshi Sovereignty……….422 One Size Does Not Fit All: The European Nation, and Nationality, Nationalism, and the Problem of Transference……………………………………………...429 Bangladesh: Postcolonial State – Postcolonial Nation-State………………….441 The English Novel as Form, Its Postcolonial Inheritors, and the Many Facets of Writing the Postcolonial Nation………………………………………………454 CONCLUSION……………………………………………………………….484 REFERENCES………………………………………………………………..489