Book launch: Firsthand account of the life, politics of Sheikh Mujib

“The book provides us a moment to reflect upon what went wrong but not in the spirit of blame,” says Rizvi.

ISLAMABAD:

Pakistanis now have access to a firsthand account of the life, politics and ideas of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the founder of Bangladesh. The English translation of Rahman’s autobiography, “The Unfinished Memoir,” was launched by the Oxford University Press at a ceremony in Islamabad on Wednesday.

“It was [Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s] concern for the people of Bengal that brought him into politics…when he realised that people were still marginalised after independence from the British, he demanded autonomy,” said Gowher Rizvi, international affairs adviser to the Bangladeshi prime minister.

“The book provides us a moment to reflect upon what went wrong [in the history of Pakistan] but not in the spirit of blame,” Rizvi said.

Rahman wrote the diaries between 1967 and 1969 while he was jailed. The book, however, only covers a period up until 1955. Rahman was assassinated in 1975 by dissident army officers, but his notes and diaries survived.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 24^th, 2012.