cover_bigd_monograph_no1

This monograph brings forth the critical history of BRAC’s formative years, which is intertwined with the “vernacular humanitarianism”—humanitarian response of local actors based on the ecological, socio-political, and economic realities of the land—that emerged in the context of the Great Bhola Cyclone in 1970 and the Liberation War in 1971. [...] Then the declaration of Urdu as the only official language of Pakistan and the heavy-handed approach of the West Pakistan- based central government to stifle student protests against the declaration— an example of the self-fashioning of the nation—gave birth to the historic Language Movement of 1952. [...] Owing to the extensive media coverage of the devastation, the deltaic region came out of the shadows of geopolitically significant Pakistani and Indian nation-states for the first time and caught the world’s attention (N. [...] In an autobiographical book, Beyond the Century, Haider Akbar Khan Rono, the leader of the Communist Party of Bangladesh, offers insights into the emotional state of Bengali nationalist and leftist politicians in the aftermath of the cyclone. [...] The leadership of the politically conscious Bengalis in the relief operation is a testament to the intersection of the emerging social space of vernacular volunteerism with the critical time and temporality of the region’s political BIGD MONOGRAPH | NO.