ULAB holds pre-launch event for Bangla translation of ‘The Thought of Nirad C Chaudhuri’

The Department of English and Humanities at the University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh or ULAB has organised a pre-launch event for the translation of Ian Almond's book “The Thought of Nirod C Chaudhuri: Islam, Empire and Loss”.

News Deskbdnews24.com
Published : 14 Dec 2019, 09:05 PM
Updated : 14 Dec 2019, 09:28 PM

The book, being published by The University Press Limited, has been translated by ULAB Assistant Professor Sarker Hasan Al Zayed and ULAB graduate Raihan Rahman.

The author, Professor Almond, read passages from his original work, while the translators read selected parts from the Bangla version at the event on Thursday.

ULAB Pro Vice Chancellor Professor Shamsad Mortuza gave a welcome speech. ULAB’s Dean of School of Arts and Humanities Professor Kaiser Haq introduced the author and translators, and UPL Publisher Mahrukh Mahiuddin 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 Chandra 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 the 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.

Almond is a professor of world literature at the School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University in Qatar.