The fourth ULAB Literary Salon was held on 13 August at 5 pm at the auditorium, of the ULAB Research Building at Dhanmondi. 

The event engaged the audience with a discussion on Partition and its effects, intended and unintended. 

The discussion took into its ambit the Bengal Partition of 1905, the second Partition of Bengal – and the Indian subcontinent in 1947 – and the birth of Bangladesh in 1971. The Salon showcased aspects of these partitions, living histories that, ironically, bind India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh.

Noted and respected academicians, writers, historians, and custodians of the memory of Partition were present at the event: Prof. Niaz Zaman, among Bangladesh’s best-known academics, Prof. Sayeed Ferdous, Head of the Anthropology Department at Jahangirnagar University, and a noted researcher and writer on the various shades and impulses of Partition. Prof. Rituparna Roy, a Kolkata-based academic and founder-trustee of Kolkata Partition Museum, and Aanchal Malhotra, a young New Delhi-based writer who has written two engaging books related to the western Partition, Remnants of Partition and In the Language of Remembering.

Prof. Kaiser Haq, Mentor of the Lit Salon, helmed the conversation along with author and ULAB visiting faculty Sudeep Chakravarti.

Once a month, each month, the ULAB Lit Salon offers Dhaka’s literary-minded populace a Saturday evening of book launches of leading authors, book readings, discussions, book signing, and sale of books at a discount by The Bookworm and ULAB Press, ULAB Lit Salon’s partners.

BDST: 1534 HRS, Aug 14, 2022
MSK