EXCELLENT BOOK ON EAST PAKISTN By Ehtesham Arshad

OF MARTYRS AND MARIGOLDS

Of Martyrs and Marigolds is an elegantly written, powerful story of a young Pakistani woman, caught in the throes of revenge in Bangladesh. Suri is born in the eastern part of Pakistan to parents who chose to migrate to it from India in 1947, when the British Empire dissolved its colony in the Indian subcontinent. She leads an idyllic life informed deeply by the Bengali culture, British colonial past and the social character of a country created for Muslims. However, in the rapidly unfolding violence that accompanies the liberation struggle of the Bengalis, Suri is considered to be a ‘Bihari’, a migrant from India, who speaks Urdu and therefore has no place in Bangladesh.

Forgotten in the documentation of the history of Bangladesh, are the unspeakable acts of torture and murder committed by the Bengalis on those who spoke Urdu and had migrated to East Pakistan in 1947. Of Martyrs and Marigolds puts on record the dispossession and massacre of the ‘Bihari’ men and women in East Pakistan/ Bangladesh in 1971-72.

In its evocation of the brutal manner in which the Pakistan army put down the demands of Bengalis for autonomy, the horror inflicted by the Bengalis on the Biharis, and India’s war with Pakistan culminating in the creation of Bangladesh, is devastatingly real. Adapting real history into page-turning fiction, Ismail captures an important era in South Asian history with intelligence and grace. Part historical drama and part romance, Of Martyrs and Marigolds is testament to fiction’s unique power in documenting the complexities of human conflicts.

Of Martyrs and Marigolds is available on Amazon.

http://www.amazon.com/Martyrs-And-Marigolds-Aquila-Ismail/dp/1463694822/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1335117236&sr=8-1

Posted on Apr 25, 12 | 8:12 am