Historical archives show how historical narratives of the war are produced, curated and often instrumentalised to serve the dominant political parties’  ideological interests. “Muktijuddho-Alaap” is a critical consensus of collective resistance through narrative discourse. It claims back counter-hegemonic discourses of the silenced women, peasants, workers, subalterns, and the alternative history of politics during the liberation war. 

This online session conducted by Afsan Chowdhury explored the night of 25 March as not only an instance of genocide, but a moment that exposed the Pakistani state’s strategy, its construction of “enemy,” and its structural weaknesses. After the 1970 elections, the military regime chose force over political settlement, viewing the transfer of power as a threat to state unity. The discussion traced this crisis to Pakistan’s centralised structure, which conflicted with East Bengal’s political realities and fuelled growing resistance. The 25 March operation, aimed at destroying potential opposition by targeting key social and intellectual bases, instead triggered widespread armed resistance and transformed the struggle into a people’s war.