Md Firoz Mudhan Ahsan, The University of Hong Kong
Abstract
My paper investigates how the identity of the self pitted against the violence of war may enable an individual to represent a community via a sort of creative deployment of transitional justice made possible in the liminal space of literature. Such restorative measures by means of literary acknowledgement may prove effective in regard to bringing to notice the suppression of wrongdoing. In the prominent nationalistic narratives of Bangladesh, the Urdu-speaking migrant Muslims known as muhajirs are predominantly shown as collaborators of the Pakistan army. These narratives portray them as traitors and denominate them as Biharis, although many came from various places outside Bihar. The perpetration of Biharis by Bengalis in the wake of the war and after independence is a highly controversial and sensitive issue in today’s Bangladesh. This paper critically appreciates the saddening tale of Biharis (the stranded Pakistanis in Bangladesh) as mirrored in the novels Of Martyrs and Marigolds (2012) by Aquila Ismail and Invisible Lines by Ruby Zaman (2011).
Keywords: Biharis, identity, traumatic memory, transitional justice, perpetration, immunitary paradigm, etc.