To the social scientists, Bangladesh is an enigma wrapped in paradoxes. She defied conventional prophets of gloom and doom during last three decades by making significant strides in social and economic spheres. Ironically, she is deeply divided politically despite bonds of extraordinary ethnic and linguistic homogeneity. The multiple dimensions of paradoxes of governance, economy and crucial sectors like finance and water are unwrapped in the twelve essays in this volume. While unrevealing the Bangladesh conundrum, this inter-disciplinary study uncovers a number of new paradoxes. It furnishes evidence in support of stimulating new hypotheses such as ‘Friendly Fire’ (the harmful effects of benevolent measures by the Government), ‘Humpty Dumpty Disorder’ (where old institutions are beyond repair), ‘legal system as slot machines’ (where an alien judicial system encourages frauds and forgeries) and odd mixture of opposites like cosmetic ethical banks and commercial micro credit. It also provides copious recommendations on governance, economic and financial reforms for policymakers in the country. Though the findings are based on the experience of Bangladesh, the issues raised in this book are common to most developing countries. While considering the options for reforms, it took into account cross-country evidence. It provides valuable insight into development process. It is a must read for policymakers, scholars and students in the fields of public policy, economic development, political science and sociology.
This volume intends to cast hitherto unfocused light on the emergent literary sensibilities shown by four Muslim women in pre-modern India. Gulbadan, Jahanara and Zeb-un-Nessa belonged to the Mughal zenana, which was an enigmatic liminal space of qualified autonomy and complex equations of gender politics. Conversely, Habba Khatoon, famously known as ‘the Nightingale of Kashmir’, was a common woman who married into royalty, but her happiness was short-lived with her husband being treacherously exiled by Emperor Akbar. While the subjective selves of these women never much surfaced under extant rigid conventions, their indomitable understanding of ‘home-world’ antinomies determinedly emerged from their works. This monograph explores the literary-political imagination of these women that was constructed through statist interactions of their royal fathers, brothers or husbands, and how such knowledge percolated through the relatively cloistered communal life of the zenana.
