Book Launch of DEH Faculty and Student Collaboration
The Thought of Nirad C. Chaudhuri translation pre-launched at ULAB
The Department of English and Humanities at University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh on Thursday, December 12, 2019 organized a pre-launch ceremony for the translation of Ian Almond’s critically acclaimed book The Thought of Nirad C. Chaudhuri: Islam, Empire and Loss. The book, to be published by The University Press Limited, has been translated by Assistant Professor Sarker Hasan Al Zayed of ULAB’s Department of English and Humanities and ULAB graduate Raihan Rahman.
The author, Professor Ian Almond, was present at the ceremony and read passages from his original work, while the translators read selected parts from the Bangla version. ULAB Pro Vice Chancellor Professor Shamsad Mortuza gave a welcome speech and Professor Kaiser Haq, Dean of the School of Arts and Humanities, introduced the author and the translators. UPL publisher Mahrukh Mahiuddin also gave a brief speech on the occasion. The discussion was followed by a performance of Baul Bhajan Khyapa and accompanying musicians.
Professor Ian Almond’s book was originally published by Cambridge University Press in 2015. The book is a critical examination of the factors that played a role in the evolution of acclaimed South Asian thinker Nirad C. Chaudhuri. In the translation, readers will find Almond’s analysis on how Empire creates “native informants,” enabling local subjects to alienate themselves from and even abhor their own cultures. Through analysis of Chaudhuri’s views on Islam, his use of the archive, moments of melancholy and loss in his writing, and his opinions on empire, Almond
dissects the constitution of an Indian writer and locates the precise ways in which Chaudhuri was able to produce the kind of discourses he did, exploring how conservative, pro-Western intellectuals are formed in postcolonial environments.
Ian Almond is a Professor of World Literatures at the School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University in Qatar. The translators are Sarker Hasan Al Zayed, an Assistant Professor in the Department of English and Humanities, ULAB, and a PhD Candidate at the State University of New York, Albany; and Raihan Rahman, an engineer from BUET who completed his MA in English (Literature and Cultural Studies) at ULAB.
Some pictures of the occasion:
