This dissertation intervenes in the fields of South Asian Masculinity Studies, Affect
Studies, Critical Disability Studies, Feminist Cultural Studies, and Trauma as well as
Memory Studies. The focus of this project is on the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War, a
nine-month long war between East Pakistan and West Pakistan, which started on 26
March 1971 and ended on 16 December 1971 with Bangladesh, former East Pakistan,
emerging as an independent nation. I concentrate on East Pakistani/Bangladeshi
muktijoddhas (freedom fighters) who fought in the war, and birangonas (survivors of
sexual violence) who were abducted by military officials and their collaborators. Drawing
on political speeches, parliamentary debates, press statements, and governmental news
reports, I examine how these sources create a narrative of the manly muktijoddha who
demonstrates his masculinity through exhibiting courage and disavowing his pain. I
further analyze memoirs by freedom fighters who complicate this image of the
courageous muktijoddha through recollecting moments of pain and fear during combat.
Significant to my analysis are also survivor testimonies of gender, physical, and sexual
violence of wartime women in East Pakistan/Bangladesh, which oppose a more singular
nationalist rhetoric of the 1971 war that celebrates the male muktijoddha while
marginalizing women’s experiences. I delve into how birangona testimonies narrate the
women’s trauma of sexual violence and of witnessing their daughters’ abuse by wartime
soldiers. In analyzing women’s stories, I highlight the importance of listening to the
voices of birangona-mas (survivors who are also mothers), and thereby question the
nationalist mythologizing of the muktijoddha’s mother who sends her son to war. In
exploring the muktijoddha, the muktijoddha’s mother, and the birangona/birangona-ma, I argue that there are multiple alternative readings of the war that are suppressed by nationalist discourse, which warrant recognition within Liberation War and South Asian history. / Dissertation / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / My dissertation focuses on the Bangladesh Liberation War that took place between East
Pakistan and West Pakistan from 26 March 1971 till 16 December 1971. This war led to
the independence of Bangladesh, former East Pakistan. During the war, Bangladeshi
governmental documents and nationalist speeches portrayed the East
Pakistani/Bangladeshi freedom fighter or muktijoddha as an ideal masculine figure who
fought against West Pakistani soldiers with courage. I analyze memoirs by freedom
fighters who show how they both conform to, and disrupt the nationalist portrayal of the
courageous muktijoddha. I also examine personal recollections of birangonas (women
survivors of sexual violence) who speak of their trauma, reveal narratives of their
daughter’s abuse by soldiers and their collaborators, and provide a reading of the wartime
woman that challenges the nation’s vested interest in the ideal male muktijoddha. Overall,
my project encourages people to rethink the Liberation War from the perspectives of
wartime men and women survivors who have witnessed violence and mutilation
firsthand.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:mcmaster.ca/oai:macsphere.mcmaster.ca:11375/28421 |
| Date | January 2023 |
| Creators | Shabnam, Shamika |
| Contributors | Chakraborty, Chandrima, English and Cultural Studies |
| Source Sets | McMaster University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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