Who really owned Britain’s royal jewels?
19 September 2026
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In Focus
The 25,000-year history of betel nut chewing
17 September 2026
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In Focus
The world map we know is distorted. Why does it matter?
15 September 2026
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In Focus
Bengal and the coming of Islam: A story of soil and spirit
14 September 2026
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In Focus
Xuanzang’s travels to Bengal and beyond : The man, the pilgrim and the Monkey King
11 September 2026
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In Focus
Professor Anisur Rahman: The economist who put people at the centre
10 September 2026
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In Focus
APO 433: Dhaka’s forgotten post office of World War II
9 September 2026
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In Focus
Dadabhai Naoroji: The man who exposed the economics of British colonialism
8 September 2026
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In Focus
Untold stories of 1971 through private letters
7 September 2026
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In Focus
The extraordinary journey of Atish Dipankar Srigyan
6 September 2026
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In Focus
Echoes from Old Bengal
Jnanendra Nath Gupta was born in 1869 in colonial Bengal. His father, Ghanashyamdas Gupta, was a district judge and, therefore, he spent his childhood in various parts of Bengal and Bihar.
9 July 2017
A letter from the Tiger's Den
The advent of the holy month of Ramadan, ever since the year 2000 CE, reminds me of an idealistic soul, a gallant freedom fighter against British colonial rule in India, who so graciously replied to my letter, that too, from an unknown.
18 June 2017
Are we going the right way?
In a country of 16 crore people, the central offices of all government bodies and institutions are in Dhaka. The most job opportunities, the best schools, colleges, universities, healthcare options and even the services required by business operators are far more readily available here than any other place in the whole country.
11 June 2017
The war that never ended
“The world watched through my camera [as] this soldier shot the boy in cold blood, and his life was not in any danger at all.
4 June 2017
Ideological Struggles Within
There is a widely held belief that culture and religion are mutually exclusive entities. And herein lies the primary source of conflict.
21 May 2017
The bonds that run deep
In tracing the shifts from joint families of yesteryears to some single-parent households of today, what is happily evident
is that the essence of the family remains the same.
14 May 2017
Indelible Imprints: The Genius from Khulna
Khan Bahadur Qazi Azizul Haque was born in 1872, in the village of Paigram Kasba, Phultala, in the Khulna district of Bengal, British
7 May 2017
When the blackboard comes to life
Looking up information on underprivileged children's education in Bangladesh, I found a picture online of a classroom that looked far
28 April 2017
Prelude to a spreading nightmare
The recent flash floods in the haor regions exemplify the threat of climate change that looms over Bangladesh. It signifies our
21 April 2017
Rare images of Dhaka's Gurdwara
I spent a part of my impressionable years, that is to say, my boyhood school days in Islamabad, West Punjab, Pakistan.
7 April 2017
Building a city of tomorrow
At present, Dhaka city's area has been extended up to 520 square miles and its population currently is 15 million. It is assumed that
31 March 2017
“The war is not over yet”
March 25 has been declared as Genocide Day recognising the atrocities carried out by the Pakistani Army on civilians 46 years ago on this day. In this week's In Focus, Mashruk Ahmed tells the stories of these valiant freedom fighters of Bangladesh through their photos and words.
24 March 2017
The Rebel Eternal
With Independence Day only eight days away and World Poetry Day three days from now, the time couldn't be more fitting to honour one of the greatest political poets to have ever lived, Kazi Nazrul Islam. Here, we look back at the revolutionary poet who masterfully used poetry and prose as vehicles for political and social justice.
17 March 2017
UNEQUAL CITY
Urban planners need to see the disenfranchised classes not as the poor but as fellow human beings who deserve, like anybody else, basic access to all urban amenities and social institutions.
10 March 2017
A Quiet Courage
Principal Protiva Mutsuddy, a great language movement veteran was born at a time while her motherland was under
3 March 2017
The science fiction about women
I am at a chemistry lab at Dhaka University where no girl is crying or talking about love. With a steely resolve and
17 February 2017
An oasis in a volatile region
The Arab Spring that started with the self immolation of fruit vendor Mohamad Bouazizi in the Tunisian city of Sidi Bouzid in December 2010 had all the markings of a people's revolution breaking out against long running autocratic governments, especially in North Africa and the Middle East.
10 February 2017
We shall overcome
While the public often views the Liberation War and the Language Movement as the apex of protest music in Bangladesh the use of
3 February 2017
Untangling memory, taking a stand
Yesterday was the International Holocaust Remembrance Day. But what does it mean to remember the Holocaust? It cannot be only to speak of the details of the gruesome barbarity that engulfed a continent in the last century through voyeuristic descriptions of horror. Neither should one speak of the death of six million in the contextual realms of history; it cannot be a matter of numbers. Does one, as the student from Alan Bennet's History Boys, simply gloss over the matter with a pithy “Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent.”?
27 January 2017
Michael Madhusudan Dutt: A Birthday Tribute
We celebrate Michael Madhusudan Dutt's birthday on 25 January, but we cannot be certain that this is absolutely accurate, just as we
20 January 2017