IN-PERSON Barcelona. Section B

Abstract

As a country whose independence has evolved around several dialectical premises, Bangladesh is a classic case of the nation as a reservoir of multilayered cultural connotations. The movement for a separate homeland followed by the struggle for primacy of mother language; a sustained battle against relative deprivation culminating in the Liberation War, the continuous challenge of upholding democracy amidst a syncretic tradition –Bangladesh has seen it all over half a century and counting. Several war memorials representing this protracted and embroiled history of nation formation, are instrumental in encapsulating the country’s heritage. The 7 March Speech by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman (UNESCO’s documentary heritage), the Shahid Minar (commemorating the sacrifice of language martyrs in 1952), the Martyred Intellectuals Memorial, the Liberation War Museum, the Bangabandhu Memorial Museum, the 1971 Genocide-Torture Archive and Museum (the latest addition in a provincial town) – are all part of a consecrated war heritage. As heritage, war memorials in Bangladesh uphold collective memory as intangible property (Lévi-Strauss 1997) transformed into tangible cultural artifacts. Notwithstanding fuzzy political motives behind memorialisation/ obfuscation of selective histories, living memory as preserved in these heritage spaces, has dynamically evolved through recreation of cultural expressions. The paper is an empirical study of the processes of construction of the war memorial heritage in Bangladesh through a mixed method that takes up critical analysis of documents and artifacts, embellished with interviews of curators.