The achievement of Kishwar Chowdhury in the Australian MasterChef competition is something that should be celebrated. No doubt, she is an inspiration to many, especially young women of, particularly, Bangladeshi origin. Seeing the real food that we eat at home being presented in such a way in the competition has brought pride in many of […]
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What was the purpose of the USA’s invasion of Afghanistan?
The Al-Qaida slaughtered innocent people in New York by crashing planes onto buildings. But the Afghan people were innocent and had no role in this barbaric slaughter of the innocent – made up of people from many corners of the world, including Bangladesh. The USA’s invasion of Afghanistan, and the subsequent occupation of the country, […]
Is there a difference between Bangladeshi and Indian food?
I don’t think so. What do other people think? My view is based on several factors, one of which is that a large part of Bengal is within India, so the variety of Indian food includes foods from Bengal, which shares common characteristics with many elements of food in Bangladesh. Also, India itself has many […]
Being critical should be separated from nationalistic hatred
By M Ahmedullah (From a Facebook post on 7 June 2016) There is a danger that when criticising the British Empire for all its crimes – exploitation of people around the world in unprecedented ways; the violent takeover of large tracts of lands around the world; displacement of people from their ancestral lands; genocides of […]
A turning point in my life in 1981
Sharon Prabhakar’s concert at Harrow Leisure Centre disrupted; a torn-up burgundy hunter jacket; a lost earing; a big movie-like action fight on the highway; a night at the Wembley police station. Materials needed for constructing social history come from many sources. They are public records, print and non-print media, oral history and so on. When […]
Problems of history
People study history for many reasons, and I will not try to provide a list in this regard. I want to talk about some problems that arise from history. History is full of wars, conflicts, genocides; rise and decline of power; population movements; growth of knowledge, innovations and discoveries; etc. Those who study history seriously […]
President Zia of Bangladesh
President Zia of Bangladesh was brutally assassinated on 30 May 1981 by members of his military. Not many people in Bangladesh knew much about President Zia before he started to take control of the country in November 1975. At first, he was the deputy chief martial law administrator, then became the chief martial law administrator […]
Pemba, the first conflict grave of the English East India Company
(You may want to read my article in the Muslim News) ‘On December 21, 1608, a strange exchange transpired onboard the Ascension, the flagship of the fourth voyage of the East India Company. This was between the crew and a group of six or eight captives brought on board after the English captured their three […]
Francis Drake (1579) and Henry Middleton (1605)
Two Englishmen in Ternate (You may want to read my article in the Memorients) ‘Ternate is a small, cone-shaped volcanic island in North Maluku (present-day Indonesia), the most important of the several original homes of cloves, the highly sought-after spice. I took a domestic flight from Jakarta to Ternate on 14 September 2018 and stayed […]
The proposed law against hurting religious sentiment in Bangladesh will actually hurt religion
By M Ahmedullah, 20 May 2016 There is a current draft law in Bangladesh prepared to deal with cybercrime. It includes ‘deliberately defaming someone or hurting anyone’s religious sentiment’. It stipulates a sentence of two years imprisonment. Of course, defaming someone innocent by someone who has access to the internet is unacceptable. Only proper evidence-based […]