The J-Z Show। Ep. 3। Can we ever get out of history wars?
Episode 3 of The J-Z Show confronts Bangladesh’s “history wars,” asking whether the nation can ever move beyond the divides born of 15 August 1975.
The third episode of The J-Z Show turns to one of the most painful and defining moments in Bangladesh’s history: the assassination of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman on 15 August 1975. For Jon F. Danilowicz and Zafar Sobhan, the conversation is less about retelling the event itself than about understanding how its memory continues to shape politics nearly fifty years later.
Mujib is revered as the Father of the Nation, but his legacy remains a battlefield. As Zafar Sobhan notes, competing narratives about Mujib’s life and death have become central to questions of legitimacy and power, with each political camp seeking to claim or contest his place in history. Jon Danilowicz adds that such “history wars” are not unique to Bangladesh but are especially corrosive when they prevent societies from reconciling and moving forward.
The hosts also examine how the memory of 1975 has been used in different ways—sometimes as a call for justice, other times as a weapon of political control. This raises a deeper question: can Bangladesh ever build a future if it remains perpetually locked in disputes over its past?
The episode does not offer easy answers, but it does open space for reflection. If the country is to find common ground, it may require reimagining how history is taught, remembered, and debated—not as a tool to divide, but as a foundation to build on.
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