Arts of Irreconciliation and the Futuring of Bangladesh
Professor Nayanika Mookherjee (University of Durham)
Irreconciliation focuses on the less examined but frequent ethnographic instances when survivors refuse to forgive in response to persistent impunity of past injustices, particularly, in the face of absence-presence of the rule of law and staged processes of justice which serve the powerful (Mookherjee 2022). This paper seeks to explore the aesthetic manifestations through which various forms of irreconciliation (briefly standing in for non-forgiveness in the face of injustice) is expressed in two instances: in the context of the Bangladesh liberation war of 1971 and the fall of the authoritarian rule (Lacy and Mookherjee 2020) of a ‘left-liberal’ government in Bangladesh on 5th August 2024/ or what is referred to in Bangladesh as 36th July 2024. The brutal and till date remorseless killing (officially 1500 killed, 19,931 injured) by this ‘left-liberal’ state in July-August 2024, led to the fleeing and hence fall of the government. In January 2025, the resignation of the UK Labour Party Minister Tulip Siddiq is related to her familial links with this ousted government of Bangladesh.
Most post-conflict reconciliatory exercises make it incumbent upon survivors to forgive and seek closure as an exhibition of ‘moving on’. Exploring various aesthetic manifestations linked to the war of 1971, I have developed the concept of irreconciliation based on my long-term ethnographic research in Bangladesh (2019, 2022). I have explored various instances of not forgiving in the face of continuing injustice, in the context of its liberation war of 1971. What are the various instances of not forgiving, remaining irreconciled to the unresolved injustices of 1971 and the July 'revolution' of 2024? What forms does this position of not reconciling manifest in, apart from refusing to forgive? What are the limits of irreconciliation and how does it impact on the future configurations of Bangladesh? My attempt is to examine how aesthetics capture the links between irreconciliation and political consciousness and the ways in which this debate is constituted through the engagement with the arts, in Bangladesh and beyond.
Mookherjee, Nayanika 2022. Ed. “On Irreconciliation” in the Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute Special Issue Book series: Wiley.
Lacy, Mark and Nayanika Mookherjee. 2020. ‘“Firing cannons to kill mosquitoes”: Controlling virtual ‘streets’ and the ‘image of the state’ in Bangladesh’ in Mascha Schulz and Julian Kuttig (Guest editors) edited. Ethnographies of the Bangladeshi State to commemorate 50th anniversary of Bangladesh. Contributions to Indian Sociology, June 2020: 280-305. https://doi.org/10.1177/0069966720917923.
Mookherjee, Nayanika 2020. ‘71: Pakistan’s past and knowing what not to narrate’ in the Special Issue ‘The Past for Pakistan: History and the Republic.’ Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East. Duke University Press. Vol. 39, No. 1, 2020: 280-305. https://doi.org/10.1177/0069966720917923.
Nayanika Mookherjee is a Professor of Political Anthropology in Durham University and Co-Director of the Institute of Advanced Studies. Her recent publication includes the edited book ‘On Irreconciliation’ (2022) and she was invited to deliver the 2023 Firth lecture on this theme at the ASA (Association of Social Anthropology of UK) annual conference. Based on her widely-reviewed and acclaimed book The Spectral Wound: Sexual Violence, Public Memories and the Bangladesh War of 1971 (2015 Duke University Press, funded by Wenner Gren; second finalist BBC’s Thinking Allowed Ethnography Award, AAA’s Michelle Z. Rosaldo award), in 2019 she co-authored a graphic novel and animation film: Birangona and ethical testimonies of sexual violence during conflict (www.ethical-testimonies-svc.org.uk) (funded by ESRC) and received the 2019 Praxis Award. She has co-edited various volumes which include: ‘The Aesthetics of Nation’ (2011 with Christopher Pinney), ‘The Self in South Asia,’ (2013); Aesthetics, Politics and Conflict (2015 with Tariq Jazeel). She has published extensively on anthropology of violence, ethics and aesthetics and researches on gendered violence during wars, debates on irreconciliation and transnational adoption. Drawing on her research on memorialisation, she is co-leading a project on Durham’s Black History which is developing a walking tour in collaboration with Durham Cathedral. It explores the relationship between Durham’s history of enslavement, mining and imperialism (Durham Cathedral & City Centre | Durham University). She is finalising her manuscript Arts of Irreconciliation (funded by Leverhulme Trust; Rockerfeller Foundation Fellowship at Bellagio) and continuing her research on transnational adoption (funded by British Academy). As the ASA Ethics Officer (2007-2012), she led an extensive consultation of the ASA membership and completely updated the ASA Ethics Guidelines in 2011.