S. Mahmud Ali is the author of many volumes on Asia-Pacific security issues; namely U.S.—China Relations in the "Asia—Pacific" Century; The Fearful State: Power, People and Internal War in South Asia; Asia-Pacific Security Dynamics in the Obama Era: A New World Emerging (Politics in Asia (Numbered)); Cold War in the High Himalayas: The USA, China and South Asia in the 1950s; and US-China Cold War Collaboration: 1971-1989 (Routledge Studies in the Modern History of  Asia).

In 2010, this illustrious author published his book, Understanding Bangladesh, the very title of which is suggestive enough to help readers predict its thematic points. In other words, Ali presents a chronological historical narrative in this book that identifies the reasons for the creation of Bangladesh and explains the rationale behind its post-independence socio—political and economic volatility. He aims to examine Bangladesh as an unusual case of state formulation (xii). The book analytically unfolds the ‘key events’ about how Bangladesh ‘came into being’, including summing up ‘the contradictions of the Bangladeshi experience’ (xvi) of about 253 years. Being a historian, an expert on war studies and a security analyst, the author inspires the readers to discover Bangladesh from a ‘realists’ point of view.

Ali organized the book in six chapters beginning the chapter one to cover the period between 1757 of ‘battle of Plassey’ to brutal ‘Operation Searchlight’ of 1971 highlighting the ‘baggage of burden’ of colonial conundrum of British intrigues and stratagems; of divide and rule; the artificial creation of class system—the ‘Ashraf’ and ‘Atraf’, creation ‘of a new class of loyal intermediaries’, the ‘Bhadralok’, the ‘martial’ and ‘non-martial race’ etcetera, to unveil the political dynamics between Bangladesh and its big neighbour and also from within the Bangladesh’s social fabrics. Chapter one extraordinarily laid the building blocks for the subsequent chapters. Though terse and at times aphoristic, it included anecdotes befitting historical facts such as the partitions of Bengal, power struggles in the centre among ‘Punjabi—Muhajir—bureaucratic—feudal elites’ vis-à-vis the undermined leadership and gradually marginalized people of the provinces, especially the Eastern one. In addition to the Cold War centric geopolitical dynamics that was shaping much of the south Asian future, in the vivid narration Ali also included important events like post 1947 ‘Pakistan experience’, the language schizophrenia’ and importantly the’ fragmented polity’, that in cumulative turn, portrayed the canvas of the secession of East Pakistan and the emergence of an independent Bangladesh.

In the second chapter, the author covered in minute detail a series of events depicting the ground realities of independent Bangladesh with its founding father in the ‘heart’ of the helm of affairs of the nation (1971-75). The chapter unambiguously focused on the ‘several simultaneous crises’ the Bangladesh’s ‘unquestioned leader’ faced. The author boldly asserted the fact that the political party which provided leadership in the war of independence—the ‘Awami League’s lack of administrative skills and experience, a failure to grasp the enormity of the challenges’, the absence of ‘a vision around which the national consensus could coalesce’ and reconcile the anguish, the despair of the citizens of a newborn democracy from becoming a divisive society, which ultimately contributed to the brutal assassination of Bangabandhu. The chapter also highlighted the great power rivalry on the fringes of the Cold War’s bipolar confrontation between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R., at a time of America’s global retrenchment in consonance with Nixon’s ‘Guam Doctrine.’

Third chapter described the period of ‘violent uncertainty’ (1975-1990), where waves of mutiny and rebellion took place that not only shook the military hierarchy but damaged the social fabric to the extent that the country’s ‘dream and aspiration’ has been delayed making it a far cry to alleviate its status from the ‘international basket case.’ The author very candidly painted the mosaic of Bangladesh’s polity of the time having brought different facets of the ubiquitous tendency of major stakeholders of the state: the judiciary, the legislative, the executive including the ‘king makers’ the military, where the most important stakeholders the ‘The People’ were left to insignificance. The period, according to Ali, also witnessed a strategic shift in Bangladesh’s diplomacy, aiming to create a ‘strategic balance’ between the capitalist and Muslim worlds, vis-à-vis the Soviet Union and its allies, thereby playing a neutral and non-aligned role in international affairs. It was then that America was repairing its tactical damage from 1971. Besides, the chapter continues to offer its readers a bumpy ride, apprising them of different ‘pauses’ in time and substance, ranging from authoritative rule to pseudo-democratic leadership, showing finally that ‘people power’ reigned supreme in deciding what type of leadership they wanted to administer them.

The period of Bangladesh’s quest for a democratic transition is vividly portrayed in Chapter Four, covering the timeframe from 1990 to 2007. In this period, according to the author, Bangladesh, for the first time, witnessed the maintenance of its military a ‘scrupulous neutrality’ to allow the politicians to work out the mechanisms of ‘a transition to representative governance.’(189). Both the BNP and the Awami League claimed credit for having become the ‘Solon’ of Athens, for devising the idea of the ‘caretaker government’, which would hold neutral elections during the transitions.

However, both political parties failed to reflect on ‘the utter mistrust dividing key actors’, rendering the spirit of parliamentary politics, which emphasizes plurality, ineffective. The period, as the author reminds the readers, saw more boycotts of the parliament. As a corollary the opposing political parties took all disputes to the streets, to divide the nation further, to weaken the nation-state from within, to stagnate the development process; of the economy and of the political maturity, exposing the ‘soft belly’ of inheritance of the hundreds years of British colonial as well as two and a half decades of Pakistani neo-colonial legacy of mistrust, mismanagement and mismatch of balance of power that is so important for a state to function effectively. The readers are also refreshed about the historical fact that the country, once again, unfortunately becomes an ‘onlooker at its own banquet’ leaving its democratic future to be ‘defined’ and ‘defended’ ‘by the military at the donor community’s behest.’ (249).

The fifth chapter, as a consequence of the ‘apparently zero-sum conflict’ between the two ‘giants’ and ‘political rivals’, BNP and -Awami League, illustrates a period (2007-2009) when normal government functioning in Bangladesh was suspended. The army reappeared in the political landscape of the country as a ‘saviour’ figure, albeit with the disapproval of the ‘politicians’ from within, but backed by the ‘donors’ from without. The ‘tattered’ political legacy continued to prevail at the dismay of the common mass, for they are repeatedly, in the name of ‘democracy’ and ‘popular demand’, made hostage on their soil. On top of this political melodrama came the contentious issues of maritime boundary demarcation between Bangladesh and both neighbours, where, with a small interval, both of them sent their naval vessels to enter into Bangladesh's claimed waters to test the ‘caretaker government’s’ resolve. However, despite such grim portents, we are notified by the author that the results of the ninth parliamentary election transformed yet again Bangladesh’s political landscape, giving the Awami League an ‘unusually sweeping mandate, casting the BNP to the margins’ (261).

Identifying the key players among Bangladesh's students’ organizations, bureaucrats, military, political, and business elites-the forming of ideational alignments of different groups; chapter six accounts for the political, diplomatic, informational and economic experiences of Bangladesh and its people The chapter also explores to identify right, left and centre political ideologues and their related groupings and made an audacious attempt to unveil some of the stratagems to weigh the degree of influence of the ‘other’ on these groups to establish their authority at dictating the socio-political ‘roadmap’ of the nation. The ‘other’, which is mentioned in the book as ‘India’, had its targeted agenda. According to Ali’s substantial factual analysis that include, ‘formation of the government and administration to politics, economics, and defence policy making matters.’ (332). In this chapter, Ali, approaches a step further into demystifying the articulation of an unusual narrative—the emergence of religion based political activities in Bangladesh tracing its root to the colonial period. He also explored into details of the various causes for the ‘creation’ and time-to-time eruption of ‘anger’ of the people of the land that prevailed which has been springing from the ‘logical sense of deprivation’ and ‘realists’ interpretations of ‘constant marginalization’ by both their previous masters—the British and the west Pakistanis. As a keen reader one would feel that, to understand the arguments and theoretical aspects of the previous chapters, comprehending chapter six is of immense importance to the reader. To understand contemporary Bangladesh, especially its security—insecurity dynamics and the reasons behind its being called a ‘development paradox,’ it is essential to scrutinize the aims, objectives, activities, alignments, and aspirations of both internal and external key players.

Ali avoids being traditional by including an epilogue instead of a formal concluding chapter at the end of the book, where he introduces new issues, such as the bloody BDR mutiny. He argued that, like most other political issues, the country was yet again divided in this crisis. He, however, was very specific to summarize one of ‘the most elaborate conspiracy theories, presented as the gleanings from over a dozen reliable sources.’ (337). Although he concludes with a very brief outline of the country’s achievements but highlights one of the existential challenges—the impacts of climate change which pose a severe threat to the ‘Bengal’s Delta’s water cycle’ that might trigger a sea level rise resulting in the displacement of millions of people that he termed as ‘environmental refugees’. He emphasized that such a challenge could threaten various non-traditional elements of ‘national security’ about which, unfortunately, the Bangladeshi leaders are not paying enough heed. Ali’s concern about the population explosion as another existential challenge for Bangladesh is also evident when he uses the allegory of ‘Noah’s capsizing ark’ to describe the demographic density and the related threat it poses to Bangladesh.

The strength of Ali’s work is demonstrated through his arduous collection of some of the very important primary and valid secondary data both from English and Bengali sources. The very methodology of the heuristic data display also sufficiently substantiated his analysis enabling the readers to embark on deductive learning through logical reasoning. The arguments made through the pages of his works are further enriched by page and chapter wise notes, appendices and index. The glossary of terms included in the book, especially explaining the typical non-English terminologies made it even easily comprehensible by the readers of foreign tongue.

The book, however, has appeared to be very pessimistic at the end about prospects of Bangladesh, when he used phraseologies such as; ‘if Bangladesh succeeds and survives its myriad demons,’ (xvii), ‘the spreading rot’(221) and using the metaphor of ‘Noah’s capsizing ark’, (345-347) for the country. It is also not very clearly understood why Ali’s pen missed the tremendous ‘resilience’ of the people of Bangladesh against all odds. For instance, to withstand the strategic shocks of a series of natural and manmade disasters, and the violent political upheavals, including the ‘informal’ economic drivers that are silently contributing to the ‘formal economy,’ to keep the national development aspiration alive. Bangladesh’s more than five decades of existence among the polity of nations; its honourable contribution for the world peace under UN umbrella, the fulfillment of the most of the Millennium Development Goals, women empowerment, increase in literacy rate, reduction of extreme poverty and most importantly attainment of self-sufficiency in food production are some of the instances that deserve inclusion in the Bangladesh narratives.

Despite some of Ali’s catchy tales of despair that he envisaged about Bangladesh’s preparedness to deal with the ‘existential’ challenges, it can objectively be said that his writings, ‘Understanding Bangladesh’, sparked off considerable degree of awareness among readers and critics in the wake of its publication as an authoritative and evolutionary accounts of ‘a still poorly understood country.’

Understanding Bangladesh by S. Mahmud Ali was published by C. Hurst & Co. Ltd in 2010. It contains 441 pages.

 

Writer: Commodore Syed Misbah Uddin Ahmad, (C), NUP, ndc, afwc, psc, BN (retd), Director General, Bangladesh Institute of Maritime Research and Development (BIMRAD). Email: misbah28686@gmail.com