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The First World War had wrought a revolution in people's ideas of equality and liberty everywhere. In India, the Home Rule agitation had heightened political awareness and ambition across the length and breadth of the country under the British Raj. The Rowlatt Bill (1919), based on the controversial recommendation of the Rowlatt Committee, was enacted to deal with acts of sedition on the lifting of the Defense of India Act after the war. This was the backdrop when Philip Finney joined the Bengal Police in 1924.
“Khuda Buksh: The Pioneer of Life Insurance in Bangladesh” brings to life a forgotten era in Bangladesh and Pakistan's history, in narrating the story of one man and his team who laid the foundation for the life insurance industry in Bangladesh and Pakistan. Between 1930 and 1970, Khuda Buksh worked tirelessly to establish the insurance business in the South Asia region, amid enormous political upheaval and overcoming engrained religious and cultural prejudices against life insurance.
Banker to the Poor is an autobiographical account of the founder of the Grameen Bank, Muhammad Yunus. This work is fundamental rethink on the economic relationship between the rich and the poor, their rights and obligations. The Grameen Bank is founded on principles of trust and solidarity. Muhammad Yunus believes that the right to credit should be recognized as a fundamental human right because credit is the last hope left to those faced with absolute poverty.
How to organize rural people for development? Azizur Rahman Patwari of Panchagram shows the way. Integrated village development is the key to the door of prosperity and happiness of the people of Bangladesh, for 90% of them live in villages. This process requires the introduction by the Government of a viable local and village government system for village administration and rural infrastructure development. Within such a facilitating environment local entrepreneurs and community leaders can improve the social and economic condition and quality of life.
This is a book written by a head of state and head of government when in office and first published in 1967. It is at once an autobiography of former President Mohammad Ayub Khan of Pakistan, and also a description of the major events in the history of Pakistan in which the author participated, and of the problems which the country continue to faces. President Ayub describes his village upbringing in the northwest of undivided India, his years at Aligarh University and Sandhurst in England, and his service in the British-Indian army before and during the Second World War.
On the night of March 15, 1971, K.M. Shehabuddin, a young Pakistan Foreign Service Officer, was posted in Delhi. The news that filtered in from East Pakistan led him to renounce his allegiance to Pakistan and pledge loyalty to the unborn state of Bangladesh. The first career diplomat to join the war - even before the formation of the Mujibnagar Government - he became the first head of Bangladesh's Delhi mission. From April to October 1971, he played a leading role on the diplomatic front of the liberation war.
Writing an objective biography of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the only larger-than-life political figure of Muslim Bengal, is no easy task for a historian. In this well-researched book, Sayyid A. Karim has given a fascinating account of the life of Sheikh Mujib and makes an assessment of his legacy.
Stephen Hatch-Barnwell’s (1909-1989) Tour of Duty as ICS (Indian Civil Service) in Bengal (1933-1947) as CSP (Civil Service of Pakistan) in East Pakistan (1949-1966) is not just another British officer’s “notes to successors” for those of us who care to read such memoirs. The author makes it a point to inform the readers that his main purpose was to show what life was for a young ICS officer in the very last days of the British Raj and not to give a personal life history to the readers.