Culture and Imperialism

Land of Two Rivers chronicles the story of one of the most fascinating and influential regions in the Indian subcontinent. The confluence of two major river systems, Ganga and Brahmaputra, created the delta of Bengal–an ancient land known as a center of trade, learning and the arts from the days of the Mahabharata and through the ancient dynasties. During the medieval era, this eventful journey saw the rise of Muslim dynasties which brought into being a unique culture, quite distinct from that of northern India. The colonial conquest in the eighteenth century opened the modern chapter of Bengal’s history and transformed the social and economic structure of the region. Nitish Sengupta traces the formation of Bengali identity through the Bengal Renaissance, the growth of nationalist politics and the complex web of events that eventually led to the partition of the region in 1947, analyzing why, despite centuries of shared history and culture, the Bengalis finally divided along communal lines. The struggle of East Pakistan to free itself from West Pakistan’s dominance is vividly described, documenting the economic exploitation and cultural oppression of the Bengali people. Ultimately, under the leadership of Bangabandhu Mujibur Rahman, East Pakistan became the independent nation of Bangladesh in 1971. Land of Two Rivers is a scholarly yet extremely accessible account of the development of Bengal, sketching the eventful and turbulent history of this ancient civilization, rich in scope as well as in influence.

During the last few years many people of great talent have been allowed to emigrate from the Soviet Union.As many of Russia’s best living writers are now living outside their own country, it was recently decided to launch a quarterly journal to which they would all contribute. This journal, KONTINENT, would open a dialogue between these writers and the literary figures in the West interested in the problems of Eastern Europe.This collection is drawn from the first two Russian volumes of KONTINENT, and includes valuable contributions from the most famous ‘stars’ of Russia’s ‘third emigration’. There is the historic controversy between Alexander Solzhenitsyn and Andrei Sakharov, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize; a memorable article by Abram Terz (Andrei Sinyavsky) on the literary process in Russia; a novella by Vladimir Maramzin; and poems by Joseph Brodsky, widely accepted as Russia’s most talented living poet, and by Alexander Galich, whose work is enjoyed in song form by millions of Russians.