New Delhi: A new book by American investigative journalist Scott Carney and Norway-based research scholar Jason Miklian reveals the story of how a cyclone in the Bay of Bengal sparked a country into revolution, culminating in the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War.
The story brings to light the events in 1971, from the perspective of “those who lived it”, including the then-Pakistan president General Yahya Khan and his close friend and then-US president Richard Nixon.
Published by HarperCollins India, ‘The Vortex: The True Story of History’s Deadliest Storm and the Liberation of Bangladesh’ will be released on 21 June on SoftCover, ThePrint’s online venue to launch non-fiction books.
Written in narrative non-fiction form, the book rests on material collated from “more than two hundred interviews over four years, multiple trips to Bangladesh, and correspondence with sources in Bangladesh, Pakistan, India, the United States, the United Kingdom, South Africa, and elsewhere,” the authors note.
Alongside oral history, the duo also conducted extensive archival research and made documents, such as Khan’s service record, accessible to public for the first time.
The story takes off with Bhola Cyclone hitting East Pakistan (present-day Bangladesh) in November 1970. The cyclonic storm not only killed 500,000 people but also set in motion “a chain reaction of turmoil, genocide and war”.
The deadliest tropical cyclone in modern history had made landfall at a time when Pakistan was on the brink of a historic election. It ripped the country in two and led the world to the brink of nuclear war when American and Soviet forces converged in the Bay of Bengal.
The book is divided into a three-act structure, with each chapter told through the eyes of contemporaneous individuals, starting with Hafizuddin Ahmed who was a footballer in 1968, before his pivotal military and political role in the war. Other figures include the Pakistani and American heads of state, American expats and a Bangladeshi revolutionary.
“The Bhola Cyclone and the war to liberate Bangladesh altered the course of world history. Fifty years ago, the Nixon and Yahya Khan administrations did everything in their power to commit and cover-up genocide, while India and Bengali freedom fighters achieved what no superpower could,” said author Scott Carney, describing the book.
Co-author Jason Miklian noted that the book not only shows how climate change can trigger wars but also “how hope and resilience in the face of calamity can help us overcome humanity’s greatest danger.”
“The biggest risk we face from climate change isn’t in rising coastlines or more extreme heatwaves, but the outbreak of global conflict,” he remarked.
Also read: New book looks at India’s role in Bangladesh Liberation War & its ‘little-known aspect’