TheDaak review

Book: The Gendered War: Evaluating Feminist Ethnographic Narratives of the 1971 War of Bangladesh by Sanjib Kr Biswas and Priyanka Tripathi, Bloomsbury, 2023, 198 Pages, 216 x 135 mm, ISBN 9789354359019, ₹1299.00

by Sanjukta Nath

War histories are often gendered in their representation of women and their experiences of war. The book by Sanjib Kr Biswas and Priyanka Tripathi is a feminist intervention in the traditional historiography of war which often represent women as “neglected and defiled victims of the war” (p.163). Such representation often has little or no connection to the real experiences and sufferings of women during war. By applying a feminist ethnographic narrative as a lens to re-read the history of the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War, the authors have tried to bring out the various roles that women played in the making of Bangladesh as fighters, war heroines, rape survivors, care givers and highlight their post-war condition. The book brings feminist ethnographic narratives in the form of fiction novels and nonfiction memoirs, oral history, interviews, etc., to closely look at the lives and experiences of women during the war.

The book goes to length in introducing feminist ethnographic narratives as an important approach to situate the experiences of women during war. Feminist ethnographic research methods in studying war allow the researchers  to foreground their knowledge based on “lived experience and concrete realities” (Ghosh 2016: 1; cited in Biswas and Tripathi 2023: 27). It also applies a postmodern reading of ethnographic literature so that it can be broadened to include both fiction and nonfiction literature. Moreover, to overcome the politics of representation in traditional historiography, the book grounds itself in  postcolonial feminist theory, as it “is more accurate when talking about women’s resistance against the politics of representation  in the South Asian region because it contextualises women’s issues instead of generalising them” (p. 5).

The book has been divided into five chapters. The book begins with a feminist reading of select literature from India, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Western accounts dealing with historiography of the 1971 Bangladesh War. It notes the gendered nature of the literature and how the different literature have either mentioned gender violence against women in passing or have not touched about the issue of rape and gender violence. For instance, in the analysis of the Bangladesher Shadhinota Juddha: Dolilpotro (1982; 2009), a detailed account of the war consisting of “fifteen volumes has mentioned only the narratives of five rape survivors” (Mookherjee 2015: 180; cited Biswas and Tripathi 2023: 115). Similarly, Iftikhar Malik’s The History of Pakistan (2008) has “overlooked the controversy over the number of deaths and the intensity of the gendered violence in the war” (p. 34).

The book then provides a nuanced analysis of some selected feminist ethnographic fiction novels and non-fiction (oral history interviews, memoirs among others), respectively to highlight the different experiences of women during the war.

The book analyses three feminist ethnographic fictions, namely, Dilruba Z. Ara’s Blame (2015), Tahmima Anam’s Golden Age (2007) and Kamla Shamsie’s Kartography (2001). The chosen novels have taken “a postmodern approach to cross the barriers between anthropology and fiction” and have dealt with issues based on the “novelists’ real time experiences with the women of the war” (p. 164). Through its engagement with the different novels, the book engages with different aspects of war experienced by different women. In Blame, the author talks about the female protagonist Laila’s journey from “a bondaged life to a liberal life; to her engagement in the war and her sexual victimisation in the war” and how she is blamed for her sexual victimisation in the war”  (p. 68). It highlights how there is a denial of position for the raped women in the post colonial Bangladesh and “their acceptance in the same society when they fight back” (p. 78). Golden Age (2007) elaborates on the protagonist Rehana Haque who “is the brave mother of Sohail and Maya; and a brave fighter in the freedom struggle of Bangladesh’” (p. 87). It seeks to counter the homogenous portrayal of South Asian women and point out “many positive instances of the agency of Bengali women in Bangladesh” (p. 85). For instance, the motherhood of Rehana in the book is more than biological, as she emerges as the “universal mother to every member of the Muktibahini who struggled for the nation” (p. 88). In Kartography (2001), Shamsie portrays the lives of women who were scattered in different nations due to migration owing to ethnic conflict and the plight of Bengali women in Karachi as a secondary citizen and an easy victim of trafficking.

The book does note how fiction novels cannot depict the whole truth even though they point the readers to several gender-related issues. Since the idea of nation has become a “place of memory, desire and nostalgia” for diasporic writers (p. 108). These writings are limited by the writers’ own feelings and subjectivities, and the lives, agency, and sufferings of women are shown through symbols and metaphors rather than as they actually are (p.109). Accordingly, the book argues that reading of both fiction and the non-fictional works on the 1971 war can provide more insights into the truth.

The book goes on to critically evaluate different non-fictional narratives on the 1971 War. It analyses A War Heroine, I Speak (2017) [Translated from Ami Birangona Bolchi] by Neelima Ibrahim, The Spectral Wound: Sexual Violence, Public Memories and the Bangladesh War of 1971 by Nayanika Mookherjee (2015). Death Reckoning: Memories of the 1971 Bangladesh War by Sarmila Bose (2011) and Women, War, and the Making of Bangladesh: Remembering 1971 by Yasmin Saikia (2011).

The book also notes the concern of fabrication, lack of objectivity and accuracy, often involved in ethnographic non-fiction narratives. For instance, in Bose’s (2011) Death Reckoning: Memories of the 1971 Bangladesh War, there is a lack of feminist scholarship because the author has given more priority to the discrepancy in the numbers of victims and women fighters (p. 157). The book notes the relative nature of truth particularly in case of genocide which “disappears with death” and can be fabricated under “the set of new ideologies” (p.157). Moreover, there are biases in different non-fiction ethnographic narratives in their way they have dealt with the plight of Bihari women (Urdu speaking women) who suffered gender violence- rape, cutting off breasts and other gross violations, at the hand of the Bengali nationalists. For instance, Neelima Ibrahim’s work has described the ethnic struggle between the Bengali community and the Bihari community, but has only taken “one-sided positions to show Biharis as the perpetrators. However, Saikia’s (2011) Women, War, and the Making of Bangladesh: Remembering 1971 has maintained “a balance in the narratives on Bengali and Bihari victims of the 1971 War” (p. 156).

The book highlights the importance of oral history in non-ethnographic narratives as it also brings out the differences in narratives of  men and women in “content and approach” (p. 113). It points out that where men’s stories “narrate heroism in the battlefield and diplomatic missions”; women’s narratives are marked by “issues related to health and hospital” (p. 113). 

However, reading both fiction and non-fiction ethnographic narratives on the 1971 war point to one that that war is experienced by different individuals differently. For instance, the plight of Birangonas (women who were raped by Pakistan army and their local collaborators) is different from the plight of Bihari (Urdu speaking women) in Bangladesh. By highlighting the varied experiences of different women – Birangonas (War heroines) and the Bihari women (Urdu speaking women), the book does demystify the tendencies of grand narratives to homogenise the experiences of women during the war. For instance, the book through different fictions and non-fictions highlights the prevailing prejudice against Birangonas in the post conflict Bangladesh where they are blamed for the violence that happened against them.

The book is an academic read, particularly in the context of gender studies, historical research and war studies. It highlights the importance of  bottom-up approach to writing history by applying feminist ethnographic narrative approach to understanding the secondary position of women in traditional historiography. Although the book has tried to make a methodological intervention in reading war from an ethnographic narrative perspective, it does falter itself in some places.

In their attempt to make a case for feminist ethnographic narratives in looking at the 1971 War, the authors do not give us much idea or go in detail on the already existing similar works on the War. For instance, the Land of Buried Tongues: Testimonies and Literary Narratives of the War of Liberation of Bangladesh, by Chaity Das (2017), focuses on the men and women who suffered in the war by bringing their buried voices with the help of war memoirs and testimonials, and untapped fictional and non-fictional accounts. In her depiction of the deeply gendered universe of war, the obscure borders between perpetrators and victims become visible. Another book titled Stories from the Edge: Personal Narratives of the Liberation War by Razia Sultana Khan, Niaz Zamann (2017) is a collection of personal stories of women who experienced the war from the periphery who belonged to the exodus of people who left the main cities for the villages, or were in Agartala, or interned in camps in Pakistan. Similarly, Mookherjee (2012) while understanding the extent of gender violence during the 1971 war has noted how the absent piece of skin on the circumcised penis had also become an active site of gender violence against men by the West Pakistan Army. 

The book has used the term ‘positive agency of women’ to highlight the active contribution of women to the 1971 war to challenge the stereotyping of women as just the victims of gender violence. As to why certain contributions are considered to be positive, is somewhere not dealt with by the authors in the book. It  fails to bring out the narratives of women who might not have actively participated in the war. How they were impacted by war; or how in the post conflict Bangladeshi women are situated can give the readers a more nuanced understanding of women during and post conflict Bangladesh.

However, the book, through its elaborate and extensive research, has significantly contributed to bringing out the dire need to have alternative methods of historiography along with for a more nuanced and holistic understanding of war.

References: 

1. Das, Charity (2017), The Land of Buried Tongues: Testimonies and Literary Narratives of the War of Liberation of Bangladesh, Delhi: Oxford University Press. 
2. Khan, Razia Sultana and Niaz Zamann (2017), Stories from the Edge: Personal Narratives of the Liberation War, Bengal Publications.
3. Mookherjee, Nayanika 2012). The absent piece of skin: Gendered, racialized and territorial inscriptions of sexual violence during the Bangladesh war. Modern Asian Studies, 46, pp 1572-1601