Bangladesh: A Legacy of Blood
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Bangladesh: A Legacy of Blood (ISBN 0-340-39420-X) is a book written by journalist Anthony Mascarenhas. The book chronicles the bloody coups and uprisings in the post-independence Bangladesh. The main focus of the book is the assassinations of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and Ziaur Rahman, two of the main architects of independence and presidents of Bangladesh. The book was published by Hodder and Stoughton, in 1986.
This book is written in a racy style, giving a large amount of details about the coups and their plotters, in the early days after the formation of Bangladesh. It includes a section of black-and-white photographs showing the slain Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Bangladesh's also-assassinated president General Ziaur Rahman, plotters behind various coupls, politicians and some photocopies of documents and an official gazette related to the many coups this South Asian country has suffered.
In its jacket, the book promises that it has "revealed" issues like who killed Mujib (the first prime minister of Bangladesh), who was responsible for the jail killings in Bangladesh, and how General Zia was assassinated. Written in 13 chapters and an index, the book also contains a list of officers convinced by General Court Martial and hanged for the assassination of President Ziaur Rahman.
In a November 1985 preface to the book, Mascarenhas writes: "This is a true story; in many ways a text book of Third World disenchantment. On the 16th of December, 1971, the state of Bangladesh (population 70,000,000) was born at the end of a nine-month liberation struggle in which more than a million Bengalis of the erstwhile East Pakistan died at the hands of the Pakistan army. But one of the 20th century's great man-made disasters is also among the greatest of its human triumphs in terms of a people's will for self-determination."
Mascarenhas describes his own book thus: "This book is the unvarnished story of their (the early leaders of Bangladesh) times, eseentially the sad history of the first 10 years of Bangladesh. It is based on my close personal knowledge of the main protagonists; on more than 120 separate interviews with the men and women involved in the dramatic events; and on official archives and documents which I had the privilege to inspect personally. The dialogue, whenever used, is a faithful reproduction of the words which my informants said they actually used during the events in which they were involved."
Its author is a veteran journalist, associated with Bangladesh from the start of its freedom struggle. In 1971, he left Pakistan to expose in The Sunday Times the atrocities committed by the Pakistan Army in the region now known as Bangladesh.
Mascarenhas served for 14 years on 'The Sunday Times', and subsequently worked as a freelancer.
This book is published by Hodder and Stoughton, with a coverprice of UKP 4.95 net in the UK. It was first published in 1985. It is devoted "to Yvonne and our children -- who have also paid the price". Mascarenhas is of Goan origin, and traces his roots to the former Portuguese colony on the west coast of India, which, at one time, had a number of its migrants settled in and around the port city of Karachi (since pre-Partition times, and prior to 1947).
A Bengali language version of the book was released in the late 1990s in Bangladesh, with the title Bangladesh: Ekti Raktakta Dalil (বাংলাদেশঃ একটি রক্তাক্ত দলিল)
