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DISCOVERY

Viga Boland

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* Appeared in Canadian Authors and Bookman,

Fall, 1976

It is not an unusual experience to find that the neighbour you exchanged niceties with over a period of 20 years or longer is a total stranger. It is even less wonder then when 10,000 miles separate two continents that they are little more to each other than places on a map.

On March 25, 1971, Pakistani troops invaded Bangladesh. During the ensuing 9‑month blood‑bath, presses and networks abounded with the tragic details of the rape and massacre that blighted the lives of this agricultural nation of 75 million people. As history will substantiate, once again disaster had served as an introduction to one of the lesser known countries. In Discovery of Bangladesh, Stephen Gill hopes to now further our awareness of this Muslim nation.

Mr. Gill's carefully planned and researched work is an all‑embracing look at Bangladesh: its history, formation, its all too chaotic political climate. Rut the author goes further. He studies its physical geography and climate, its industry and its religion.

The problem with such a study is the possibility that it will become merely another textbook. However, to label Discovery of Bangladesh as such would be to do the author an injustice. As objectively as possibly, but with devotion, Mr. Gill presents its people, the political leaders, the artists, and the common folk who still use "bullocks and two sticks with a plough" to till their soil. Overpopulated and undernourished, assailed by riots and poverty, threatened constantly by floods and cyclones, the Banglees exist in a world of which television can only show us a small part. Mr. Gill's chapter on the atrocities suffered at the hands of the Pakistanis is uncomfortably depressing but necessary if we are to speak of Bangladesh in anything but a superficial way.

In support of his information and insights, the author has relied extensively on other writers and reporters. A full bibliography, chronology of important dates, tables, and a chart of basic facts about Bangladesh is supplied. Excellent photos, some sadly graphic, aptly illustrate the facts provided. An authoritative source book for students, The Discovery of Bangladesh is highly recommended. As reading material for those who care about our distant neighbours, it will truly be a discovery.

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