The Time of Decolonization: A Social‐Theoretic Reconsideration of Bangladesh's “Pre‐History”

Abstract

In the telos of Bangladesh's official national biography, the country's independence from Pakistan in 1971 overshadows the end of British colonial rule in 1947. Collective amnesia regarding this juncture of decolonization persist in political life, even as effusive references to this past structure the ideological contours of belonging. Colloquially known as the Pakistan‐amol , this “pre‐history” has been instrumental both to post‐independence projects of party‐state consolidation and for historically dominated groups seeking to redirect political power “from below.” This paper reconceptualizes the Pakistan‐amol not as precursor to national destiny, but as a temporal‐analytical concept which illuminates the conjunctural tensions and structuring dynamics shaping a historical sociology of decolonization. Such a social‐theoretic reconsideration of the Pakistan‐amol informs a critical analysis of contemporary memory politics in Bangladesh. While grounded in this case, the paper suggests the need for similar concepts in other contexts for rethinking global decolonization as an ongoing political project.