The Interpreter of Maladies was published in 1999 however Jhumpa Lahiri had been working on this her whole life. The nine short stories involve the experiences of various Indian Americans, and they often involve issues that come with relationships and the complexities in people’s lives. The rich history and diversity of Indian culture play a huge role throughout the stories, some of them focusing on religion and others using the traditions of the country. The story that stood out to me involved Mr. Pirzada who was from Bangladesh. He was separated from his wife and daughters for some time due to him being given a grant for work. Whenever Mr. Pirzada would come over for dinner he would also watch the news just to see how the war was going.
Pakistan first gained independence as a country with two different areas, the East part of Pakistan (which is now called Bangladesh) and West Pakistan (which is todays Pakistan). The country at the time was not only physically divided but it was also divided by religion. The war in 1971 started because the East part of Pakistan, wanted to separate themselves from the West part of Pakistan. This division led to the conflict and in the end many innocent Bengali civilians were slaughtered by the army. Before the end of the war people had started to flee the country in masses and going to India. For the war to end Bangladesh had to fight hard for their independence, and this came at a price, hundreds of thousands if not millions of lives (estimated to be around 3 million lives). In the end the nine month conflict finally ended on December 16 1971.
Links for if you want to read more into the war:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-16207201
https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2019/12/16/remembering-the-war-of-1971-in-east-pakistan
This was certainly helpful for me to better understand what was going on in these times. I did not know that Pakistan was split into East and West when it first became independent. It is also insane that the war costed the lives of an estimated 3 million citizens!!
This presentation definitely opened my eyes to the history of Pakistan. I pride myself on being semi knowledgable, but I was unaware of the wealth of history that is in that country. The conflict between Bangladesh and Pakistan was one that was unknown to me.
Hello,
thank you for your presentation. I had no idea about this part of Pakistan’s history, especially how Bangladesh was formerly a part of the country. It definitely helps bring the week’s reading into context. It’s so interesting how things such as religion can divide people so much to the point where lives are lost.
Hello,
I truly appreciate this presentation. I am rather unfamiliar with Pakistan’s history so this was all new news to me! I had no clue that Bangledesh was originally a part of Pakistan. I was also shocked to hear that the war cost around 3 million people’s lives.
Thank you for the extra context on the this week’s reading! It was interesting to read more about Pakistan’s history. I was not aware that so many people died in the war. That is a devastating number. Mr. Pirzada’s story also stood out to me the most.