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  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
Dynamics Among Mother Language, Motherland, and Liberation Struggle: Decolonization of South Asia in Perspective

Dynamics Among Mother Language, Motherland, and Liberation Struggle: Decolonization of South Asia in Perspective

Sazzad, Rehnuma

Hardcover

Series: Palgrave Studies in Languages at War

Foreign Language GeneralLinguisticsIndian & South Asian History

Currently unavailable to order

ISBN10: 3032285429
ISBN13: 9783032285423
Publisher: Palgrave MacMillan
Published: Nov 2 2026
Pages: 341
Language: English
This book offers a comparative study of how language movements shaped divergent paths of nation-building in postcolonial South Asia. Focusing on East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) and Tamil-speaking regions of Sri Lanka, it examines why two linguistic struggles--both rooted in cultural rights--produced radically different outcomes: a successful Liberation War in 1971 and a protracted Civil War from the 1980s onward. Drawing on Benedict Anderson, Edward Said, and Gayatri Spivak, it explores official nationalisms (Urdu, Sinhala) versus vernacular counter-nationalisms (Bengali, Tamil); reveals how writers of novels, poems, and plays shaped national consciousness; and highlights contrasting impacts of language movements on women's emancipation. The book traces the trajectory from cultural grievance to armed struggle, arguing that language rights are not symbolic but structural to political life in decolonized states. By comparing the secular Bengali movement with the sectarian Tamil struggle, it illuminates the possibilities--and limits--of emancipation in modern times.

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