KARACHI, Dec 29: A book titled ‘Women, war and the making of Bangladesh — remembering 1971’ by Yasmin Saikia was launched at a local hotel on Thursday evening.

The event featured a simultaneous conversation between Ms Saikia, a professor of history at the Arizona State University, and literary critic Dr Asif Farrukhi.

During the conversation the author discussed her reasons for choosing the war of 1971 in Bangladesh as her subject, and her experiences while interacting with people of Pakistan, India and Bangladesh. The book is based on several accounts of Bangladeshi women in the 1971 war and their experiences of the war.

While discussing her work, Ms Saikia stressed the need to study the war from a human perspective to find a reconciliatory ground for both the victims and the perpetrators. The author said she found in Bangladesh “an absolute unwillingness to forget the trauma of 1971”, whereas, in Pakistan the students particularly had little knowledge of the event. She also expressed her concern over a selective make-up of history, and stressed that we needed to understand our history better to recreatethe role that was handed down to us.

Exploring Pakistan’s approach to the war, Ms Saikia said it was a trauma that Pakistanis would like to forget. She added that both Pakistan and Bangladesh were using the 1971 war as a memorial, and very few had really tried to fathom its depth.

Ms Saikia said her aim was simply to try and humanise herself and those around her instead of presenting the cold, documented facts of history that people were mostly exposed to. She said the history she had tried to project demanded a love affair with humans, who required entering personal space.

“I have lost a lot of respect for the way history works in this region, and gained a lot of respect for the people of this region,” she said.

Focusing on the women in her book, Ms Saikia said she found it hard to think of them as just victims, adding: “The more women I met who were violated in the war, the more generous they were in giving their inner story, which I consider a privilege.”

From her understanding of the war, and given her interaction with people in the two countries, Ms Saikia said beneath the external memories was a deep-seated urge to heal. She said that during her research more and more people requested her to highlight stories that showed people’s will to move on after the tragedy. The author suggested that both nations now look at the issue culturally and find cultural tools of reconciliation so that they could come to terms with the tragedy and learn to forgive and forget.

In response to a question from the audience, Ms Sakia said those living in Bangladeshi camps — barring a few — were not particularly living a life of luxury. She said one could not continue to criminalise such people simply because their forefathers did something wrong.

“We the people at the centre must have the empathy for the people out there,” she said.

Earlier, managing director of the Oxford University Press Ameena Saiyid introduced Yasmin Saikia, and said her book would go a long way in showing the war of 1971, as well as the cultures and the times that generated it.

“This is a very important topic that we must not shy away from, and through discussion only can we reach a conclusion,” she said.