
Governance at Crossroads: Insights from Bangladesh, strives to bridge the gap between assumptions of western theories and shortcomings of local practices. The book is an outcome of an International Conference on 40 Years of Bangladesh: Retrospect and Future Prospects held in Dhaka on 26-28 November, 2011. It was organised by the Insitute of Governance Studies (IGS) (Now BIGD), BRAC University, in collaboration with the Center for Development Studies (CDS), University of Bath, UK to mark the 40th Anniversary of the Independence of Bangladesh.
The Parliament is one of the least researched political institutions in the country. Unlike other parliaments which routinely compile and publish information on different types of activities of parliamentarians, the Bangladesh Parliament remains seriously deficient; it does not appear to be much aware of the practices followed in other parliaments. Nor does there exist many scholarly works on the working of Parliament in Bangladesh.
Bangladesh can duly boast of the status of “Development Puzzle”. The country sustained economic growth averaging 6.7 percent per annum over the last decade; also displayed remarkable advancement in social indicators such as reduction in incidence of poverty, infant and maternal mortality, fertility, food insecurity etc. In driving such socio-economic development in Bangladesh over the last forty years or so, BRAC has played a pivotal role in supporting government initiatives as well as pursuing programmes of its own domain.
Volume II contains Swadesh Bose’s classic works on the consequences to Bangladesh of the Government of Pakistan that favored industrial development of West Pakistan at the expense of East Pakistan. Other subjects are the challenges to agriculture and poverty reduction in Bangladesh, monetary policy in post-liberation Bangladesh, the role of industrial policy and much more.
Contents:
How have the Muslims of Bengal developed an identity historically separate from that of the Hindus, and even from the rest of the Muslims of India, evidenced in their life styles and their pattern of development? The book focuses attention on the status and development of the Muslims of India, evidenced in their life styles and their pattern of development?
This book aims to puncture two popular myths: that Bangladesh is a flat alluvial plain where soil fertility is maintained by silt provided by annual floods; and that the country will be overwhelmed contour by contour by sea-level rise in the 21st century which will displace many million people.
21st February is the International Mother Language Day. The choice of the date owes its origin to the state language movement of East Bengal beginning with the creation of Pakistan in 1947 and ending with the liberation of Bangladesh in 1971. The saga of this martyrdom for mother tongue is the subject of this book written by a participant in the movement, who is a luminary in the intellectual horizon of Bangladesh. The book gives the details of the movement from 1947.
First published in 1978 it was then the most authentic and comprehensive study of the historical, political and economic background of the emergence of the new nation, Bangladesh. Rich in useful rare data collected from different sources varying from personal to international, this book gives a vivid description of the birth of the nation by one who had a unique access to rare source materials.