Articles written by Ikhtisad

Essays and Features - links included

• Publishing in Bangladesh: Is Covid-19 damaging the good and amplifying the problematic?, Scroll.in, 9 August 2020

• Joy Bangla pseudo-liberalism on the eve of progressive change, Shuddhashar, 6 August 2020

• Covid-19 in Bangladesh: How the Awami League transformed a crisis into a disaster, The Asia-Pacific Journal, 1 August 2020

• Press freedom in Bangladesh: How to kill the Fourth Estate in 48 years or less, Routledge's Press Freedom in Contemporary Asia, 5 November 2019

• In Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina's landslide victory confirms that democracy is dead, Scroll.in, 2 January 2019

• Obligations of a society revealed by a hashtag, Star Weekend, 7 December 2018

• Bangladesh looks ahead full of optimism, to a barren wasteland, Shuddhashar, 3 December 2018

• Bangladesh has damaged its democratic credentials with the latest crackdown, Scroll.in, 11 August 2018

• Autopsy of a protest in Bangladesh, Asia Dialogue, 9 August 2018

• Bangladesh's so-called war on drugs is merely a cover for an extrajudicial killing spree, Scroll.in, 19 June 2018

• Bangladesh's garments industry: 5 years on from Rana Plaza, Asia Dialogue, 24 April 2018

• At the heart of Bangladesh's anti-quota protests are government's broken promises on job creation, Scroll.in, 14 April 2018

• Bangladesh stands on a knife's edge as Islamists resume their attack on its secular foundations, Scroll.in, 12 March 2018

• Seeing and not believing, Cityscapes Magazine, Issue 8, 28 June 2017

• Politics and business combine in Bangladesh to turn Chittagong Hill Tracts into a disaster zone, Scroll.in, 17 June 2017

• The struggle for freedom, against the definitive licensed fraud, Shuddhashar, 10 June 2017

• Three more signs that Bangladesh's ruling Awami League has tightened its embrace of Islamism, Scroll.in, 28 April 2017

• Bangladesh is in dangerous denial about the rising threat of Islamist terror, Scroll.in, 1 April 2017

• The greatest joke in Bangladesh consists of two words: Human rights, Scroll.in, 6 February 2017

• 5,000 sacked for demanding higher wages: The human cost of Bangladesh's $27-billion garment industry, Scroll.in, 29 January 2017

• As winter sets in, Dhaka slum evictions oust people who play a key role in keeping the city running, Scroll.in, 18 December 2016

• Attacks on Hindus, indigenous people expose Bangladesh's growing intolerance, Scroll.in, 21 November 2016

• Terror attack: The Bangladesh government cannot afford to pretend it's business as usual, Scroll.in, 7 July 2016

• Madrasas, silent politicians at the root of Bangladesh's extremism, The Quint, 6 July 2016

• Dhaka terror attack: Why denouncing the terrorists as being untrue to Islam is completely ineffectual, Scroll.in, 4 July 2016

• Dhaka terror attack: Bangladesh pays the price for its government's policy of appeasing Islamists, Scroll.in, 2 July 2016

• Terror in Bangladesh: root cause and red herrings, The Wire, 23 June 2016

• Hasina's ominous silence as Bangladesh's Hindu lambs are targeted, The Quint, 13 June 2016

• Why religious fundamentalism and not immigration is the real problem on the Assam-Bangladesh border, Scroll.in, 28 May 2016

• Bangladesh's slow capitulation to Islamism, Scroll.in, 3 May 2016

• Bangladesh being pushed to the edge by ever-rising Islamism, The Quint, 2 May 2016

• Is Bangladesh burying its secular voices?, Scroll.in, 23 April 2016

• Dhaka Literary Festival 2015 - An Overview, The Luxembourg Review, 7 April 2016

• Writing from the margins in Bangladesh, Ballots and Bullets - School of Politics and International Relations, University of Nottingham, 18 November 2015

• Muffled Voices: Who holds the onus of being THE Bangladeshi writer? (Descended from immigrants and revolutionists), Kitaab, 21 June 2015

• A Bale of Hay, Commonwealth Writers, 3 December 2014

• Ekusher Prothom Kobita (The first poem of the Language Movement), Alal O Dulal, 13 February 2014

• Legal Matters, Alal O Dulal, 23 October 2013

• Right Is Might, Minty/Bit/Stronger, October Issue, 2013

Reviews - links included

• When it was Bangladesh's time (Book Review of In the Time of the Others), Dhaka Tribune Arts and Letters, 9 February 2019

• Racism in a post-racial world (Book Review of The Sellout), Dhaka Tribune Arts and Letters, 11 October 2018

• As a poet lives, she writes (Book Review of Across Oceans), Dhaka Tribune Arts and Letters, 9 June 2018

• The death squads are here, they never left (Book Review of Jallad), Dhaka Tribune Arts and Letters, 13 April 2018

• India in thirteen stories (Book Review of One Point Two Billion), Dhaka Tribune Arts and Letters, 4 January 2018

• The Vegetarian: A defiance to be celebrated (Book Review of The Vegetarian), Dhaka Tribune Arts and Letters, 7 October 2017

• History is not enough (Book Review of Dark Diamond), Dhaka Tribune Arts and Letters, 6 April 2017

• Between science fiction and fantasy (Book Review of Escape From Baghdad!), Dhaka Tribune Arts and Letters, 26 March 2016

• She feels the foe within (Theatre Review of Birangona: Women of War), Dhaka Tribune Arts and Letters, 1 June 2014 (page 4)

• A Different Flavour (Book Notes on The Devil's Thumbprint and The Ocean of Mrs. Nagai - Stories), Dhaka Tribune Arts and Letters, 4 May 2014 (page 7)

• Not I, Footfalls and Rockaby (Lisa Dwan at the Royal Court Theatre), Dhaka Tribune Arts and Letters, 2 February 2014 (page 5)

• Disgraced (at the Bush Theatre), Dhaka Tribune Arts and Letters, 7 July 2013 (page 7)

Dhaka Tribune (Op-Eds and Feature Articles - links included)

Op-Eds ("From The Margins" Column)

• Bangladesh's slow capitulation to Islamism, 12 May 2016

• A sheep will not be a lamb to the slaughter, 28 April 2016

• The defenestration of secularism, 21 April 2016

• Requiem for a Shonar Bangla, 14 April 2016

• Sorry, not sorry, 2 December 2015

• There is only one F-word, 24 November 2015

• Words have power, 17 November 2015

• An apology, not an apologist, 3 November 2015

• Keep calm and carry on, 27 October 2015

• God forbid, 20 October 2015

• The killing field, 19 May 2015

• A counting up of actions, 5 May 2015

• The circus is coming to town, 31 March 2015

• Crimes of humanity, 4 March 2015

• The art of ruling the minds, 24 February 2015

• No aliens are human, 18 February 2015

• Making murder respectable, 3 February 2015

• A right, without interference, 27 January 2015

• An old child's ruminations to the brave mother, 13 January 2015 (translated from Mahbub ul Alam Chowdhury's article dated 10 May 2007)

• Two players and a grenade, 6 January 2015

• Friend of poverty, 30 December 2014

• Writing history, 16 December 2014

• Dictated by desire, 18 November 2014

• Aren't we gullible, 11 November 2014

• Branded, 4 November 2014

• Line in the sand, 28 October 2014

• Party time, 21 October 2014

• Indelible stamp, 16 October 2014

• Jungle booked, 30 September 2014

• O Conspiracy!, 23 September 2014

• Education damnation, 16 September 2014

• Kill first, 2 September 2014

• Public, private, and secret, 20 August 2014

• Great stage of fools, 22 July 2014

• Imagine Sisyphus happy, 15 July 2014

• To the sound of trumpets, 8 July 2014

• A bang and a whimper, 1 July 2014

• Teach, don't preach, 24 June 2014

• Cup of dreams, 10 June 2014

• The mighty pen, 3 June 2014

• The enemy within, 27 May 2014

• Watered-down, 20 May 2014

• Lawrence of Brunei, 13 May 2014

• Rinse and repeat, 22 April 2014

• People in glass houses, 1 April 2014

• The age of self-determination, 26 March 2014

• 239 greater than 370, 18 March 2014

• Familiarity breeds contempt, 11 March 2014

• Egalitarian Uncle Pennybags, 4 March 2014

• More qi than Sochi, 25 February 2014

• It is history, 18 February 2014

• Cotton without candy, 11 February 2014

• Limits of acceptability, 4 February 2014

• Minorities beware, 28 January 2014

• Bangladeshis and their friends, 21 January 2014

• Some are more equal, 14 January 2014

• Democracy on prom night, 7 January 2014

• I stand accused, 24 December 2013

• The conviction of Bangladesh, 10 December 2013

• Morning constitutional, 3 December 2013

• The myth of evolution, 26 November 2013

• Second in Rome, 19 November 2013

• The first duty of a man, 12 November 2013

• Love all, trust a few, 6 November 2013

• The greater fool, 29 October 2013

• The yellow submarine, 22 October 2013

• Righting wrongs, 9 October 2013

• A tale of two dates, 29 September 2013

• Promises, old and new, 25 September 2013

• Preserving a legacy, 15 August 2013

Features

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• 'I regard myself as a searcher after truth', (Jon Snow exclusive) 12 December 2015

• Writers of all lands, unite!, 21 November 2015

• A closer look at Bangladesh, 14 November 2015

• Pens of resistance, 31 October 2015

• The business of independence, 26 March 2015 (page 13 of Independence Day Special)

• Last year's words, 21 February 2015 (Ekushey Special)

• A year of partisan politics, 27 December 2013

• Silence no more, 25 October 2013

• Is might always right?, 27 September 2013

• Thatcher's legacy: Thatcherism on foreign shores, 17 May 2013 (page 10) 

Dhaka Tribune (Weekend Tribune, Realpolitik - links included)

  1. Defamation Laws in Bangladesh: Defence against slander!, 19 April 2013 (page 17)

  2. Secularism in Bangladesh: How secular are we?, 26 April 2013 (page 17)

  3. The Jamaat-Hefazat Connection: The road to Hefazat-e-Islam, 03 May 2013 (page 18)

  4. Sharia Law: In defence of sharia, 10 May 2013 (page 17)

  5. BNP-Jamaat Relationship: A dodgy friendship, 17 May 2013 (page 17)

  6. Separation of Powers: The truth about the separation of powers, 31 May 2013 (page 17)

  7. Polls in Pakistan: Lessons from the "former enemy" state?, 14 June 2013 (page 17)

  8. Presidents in Bangladesh: Hail to the Chief!, 21 June 2013 (page 17)

  9. Found Pillars of Bangladesh: Socialism, secularism and democracy, 28 June 2013 (page 19)

10. Bangladeshi Foreign Policy: Of foreign hats and dependencies, 12 July 2013 (page 17)

11. Awami League-India Relations: Playing it smart, 19 July 2013 (page 17) 

12. Prostitution in Bangladesh: The world's oldest profession, 26 July 2013 (page 17) 

13. Rohingyas: People without a country, 02 August 2013 (page 17)

14. Demarcation of Land Boundaries: Whose line is it anyway?, 05 September 2013 (page 21)

15. Hartals: Is might always right?, 27 September 2013 (page 17) 

16. Women's Rights: Silence no more, 25 October 2013 (page 17)

17. A year of partisan politics, 27 December 2013 (page 19)