'You can forgive, but you cannot forget'

Shashi Tharoor, Afsan Chowdhury, and Kamal Chowdhury spoke on the larger than life figure of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in a panel entitled, "Sheikh Mujib: Icon of post-colonial liberation" moderated by Shamshad Mortuza. The hour-long panel was conducted at the Abdul Karim Shaittyabisharad auditorium on the second day of Dhaka Lit Fest. It began with a brief summary of the life and legacy of the father of the nation, after which it delved into his political motivations prior to, during, and following the Liberation War. The panelists also discussed, on a more general level, the importance of maintining historical continuity between colonial and post-colonial times, and of remembering the role of the peasantry in Bangladesh's history -- which often goes unmentioned in typical middle-class narratives. The session concluded with an interative question-answer segment.