{"id":550,"date":"2021-10-08T09:10:00","date_gmt":"2021-10-08T08:10:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/librarycollections\/?p=550"},"modified":"2021-10-07T16:41:58","modified_gmt":"2021-10-07T15:41:58","slug":"public-opinion-and-conflict-in-south-asia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/librarycollections\/2021\/10\/08\/public-opinion-and-conflict-in-south-asia\/","title":{"rendered":"Public opinion and conflict in South Asia"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A brief look at the Bangladesh Liberation War through the holdings of the BLDS Legacy Collection<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

One of the main aims of the British Library for Development Studies Legacy Collection (BLDS) project is outreach and promotion. As part of this we are assisting with some teaching sessions at Sussex in order to demonstrate both the relevance of specific holdings and to educate and hopefully enthuse students as to the value of using primary source materials in their research.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One such class is on the International System Today course, where we will be dropping into the session on South Asia to show some materials and explain a little bit about the collection. We knew already that this area was one of BLDS\u2019s strengths, with nearly 300 shelves of material from India, around 100 shelves from Pakistan and nearly 400 boxes from Bangladesh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the Indian and Bangladeshi material already catalogued (and now also available via Primo Collections<\/a>) we were able to browse for material under the theme of \u2018Conflict\u2019 as well as search via the relevant Subject Headings (India-Pakistan Conflict, 1971<\/em>) to find a whole host of relevant material, and then narrow this down to items containing illustrations, which we might reasonably expect to be more aesthetically appealing examples to present to students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was thus an opportunity to see how the metadata work we\u2019ve done to make the BLDS Legacy Collection more accessible functions with a specific test case \u2013 and it was with relief that we realised that we hadn\u2019t been totally wasting our time for the last two years! There was a huge amount of relevant material, and we were therefore able to pick out a few different examples for the class.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We wanted to show how material from different types of organisation can illustrate their varying agendas, and also contemporary ephemera reveals the narratives and conflicts of the time, rather than those imposed by hindsight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, for instance, this issue of Pakistan News<\/em>, dated 15 July 1971 and produced by the Pakistani Embassy in London. The headline concerns the British response to what Pakistan considered to be Indian belligerence, with the main article reporting a formal protest lodged by the Islamabad government. Interesting too is the language used of \u2018secessionists\u2019, \u2018Bangla desh\u2019 with very much inverted commas \u2013 attempting to establish a clear narrative of illegitimate revolt and foreign interference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Front
Pakistan News Vol. XXIII No.14 July 15, 1991 BLDS – Pakistan<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

We can contrast this with various publications produced by the nascent Bangladesh independence movement\/government, which instead seek to turn the attention of world opinion to the atrocities committed by the Pakistani army. The Truth About Bangla Desh <\/em>which is a compilation of press reports from foreign journalists on the March 1971 crackdown, produced by the Bangladesh Public Relations Department, and The Road to Freedom which is full of evocative photos depicting the Bangladeshis as plucky insurgents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Front
The truth about Bangla Desh BLDS Bangladesh – Box 389<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Page
The truth about Bangla Desh\nBLDS Bangladesh – Box 389 <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Front
Road to freedom BLDS Bangladesh – Box 349<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Page
Road to Freedom BLDS Bangladesh – Box 349 <\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The final items in this quick survey are from the sub-collection of Indian political parties pamphlets, which provide in contrast a non-governmental slant on the conflict, and show how it fitted into wider political discourses of the day on the sub-continent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Indian Communist Party\u2019s US Arms for Pakistan, final page makes clear that for the ICP, who aligned with the Soviet Union, the conflict was part of wider regional geopolitics which at the time pitted the United States, Pakistan and China against India and the Soviet Union.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Page
US arms for Pakistan by the Indian Communist Party – BLDS India <\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The second pamphlet Bangla Desh and Jana Sangh is from the Sampradayikta Virodhi Committee, an anti-communalist front formed in the 1960s to combat the rise of Hindu nationalism, and shows another interesting dynamic of the conflict, namely the clash between the Islamism of West Pakistan and the secular tendencies within the Bangladeshi independence struggle \u2013 and how this complicated analysis of the struggle for those viewing it through a solely Hindu\/Muslim lens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Front
Anti-national politics unmasked – Bangla Desh and Jana Sangh – the Sampradayikta Virodhi Committee – BLDS India<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Page
Bangla Desh and Jana Sangh – The Sampradayikta Virodhi Committee – BLDS India <\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

We definitely don\u2019t pretend to be subject experts ourselves. Instead, we hope that this post highlights the value of the collection for those interested in the history of South Asia in the second half of the twentieth century. As well as illustrate the different light that the varied source material available in the BLDS Legacy Collection can shine on complicated historical events.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A brief look at the Bangladesh Liberation War through the holdings of the BLDS Legacy Collection One of the main aims of the British Library for Development Studies Legacy Collection (BLDS) project is outreach and promotion. As part of this…<\/span><\/p>\n

Read more ›<\/a><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":339,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":""},"categories":[151104,4491],"tags":[202418,96148,96969,106134,153357,202427,215681,262,202426,202424,202428],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":647,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/librarycollections\/2022\/04\/27\/freedom-day-new-perspectives-on-apartheid-from-the-blds-legacy-collection\/","url_meta":{"origin":550,"position":0},"title":"Freedom Day - new perspectives on apartheid from the BLDS Legacy Collection","date":"27 April 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Today marks the 28th anniversary of South Africa\u2019s first post-apartheid elections, now commemorated as Freedom Day. Previously, under the apartheid regime, non-whites in general had only limited voting rights, while black South Africans were unable to vote at all. The 1994 elections were the first non-racial national elections where everyone\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "BLDS (British Library for Development Studies)"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/librarycollections\/files\/2022\/04\/SAfrica_GuineaA-scaled.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":398,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/librarycollections\/2021\/04\/02\/not-as-boring-as-they-sound-reading-the-history-of-zimbabwean-independence-from-airline-annual-reports-in-the-blds-legacy-collection\/","url_meta":{"origin":550,"position":1},"title":"Not as boring as they sound \u2013 reading the history of Zimbabwean independence from airline annual reports in the BLDS Legacy Collection","date":"2 April 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"By Danny Millum - BLDS metadata and discovery officer One of the many strengths of the BLDS Legacy Collection lies in its holdings of annual reports, from both government departments and public and private companies. While obviously vital source material for business and economic historians, these might appear a little\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "BLDS (British Library for Development Studies)"","img":{"alt_text":"Cover of 1968 Annual report image shows a female air steward in a blue uniform in front of an aeroplane","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/librarycollections\/files\/2021\/03\/Zimbabwe-Air-Zimbabwe-1-Annual-report-1968.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":433,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/librarycollections\/2021\/04\/30\/well-thats-a-lot-of-pamphlets\/","url_meta":{"origin":550,"position":2},"title":"Well that's a lot of pamphlets....","date":"30 April 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"BLDS Legacy Collection By Caroline Marchant-Wallis - BLDS Metadata and Discovery Officer I was chatting to my Librarian mentor recently about how we approached starting the BLDS Legacy Collection project, and I realised it was a good question. 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On 30 March 1978 the country\u2019s Supreme Military Council, led by Col. Ignatius Kutu\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "BLDS (British Library for Development Studies)"","img":{"alt_text":"Image of letter written on a typewriter from I.K. Abban to I.K Acheampong","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/librarycollections\/files\/2021\/01\/Ghana-Annan-letter-.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":67,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/librarycollections\/2020\/09\/08\/like-a-child-in-a-candy-store-a-historian-of-20th-century-west-africa-delves-into-the-blds-legacy-collection\/","url_meta":{"origin":550,"position":4},"title":"\u2018Like a child in a candy store\u2019 Gerardo Serra delves into the BLDS Legacy Collection","date":"8 September 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Before the spleen of writing, editing (and re-writing and re-editing) sets in, there is a fleeting moment in which the historian is like a child in a candy store, starry-eyed and gleefully lost. I experienced such a moment when, in 2016, I walked into the basement of what was then\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "BLDS (British Library for Development Studies)"","img":{"alt_text":"Front cover of the pamphlet Somali women in socialist construction, showing statue of woman on a plinth","src":"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/librarycollections\/files\/2020\/12\/Somali-women-socialist-construction-scaled-e1606920568654.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1015,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/librarycollections\/2024\/06\/05\/exploring-different-approaches-to-using-tricontinental-and-mujeres-in-your-research-from-a-library-perspective\/","url_meta":{"origin":550,"position":5},"title":"Exploring different approaches to using Tricontinental and Mujeres in your research from a library perspective","date":"5 June 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Reposted from the BLDS Legacy Collection Blog By Danny Millum A little belatedly we wanted to write up the details of the \u2018Exploring different approaches to using\u00a0Tricontinental\u00a0and\u00a0Mujeres\u00a0in your research from a library perspective\u2019 workshop, which took place on Monday 22 April in the Global Studies Resource Centre. 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