This book offers a comparative study of how language movements shaped divergent paths of nation-building in postcolonial South Asia. Focusing on East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) and Tamil-speaking regions of Sri Lanka, it examines why two linguistic struggles—both rooted in cultural rights—produced radically different outcomes: a successful Liberation War in 1971 and a protracted Civil War from the 1980s onward. Drawing on Benedict Anderson, Edward Said, and Gayatri Spivak, it explores official nationalisms (Urdu, Sinhala) versus vernacular counter-nationalisms (Bengali, Tamil); reveals how writers of novels, poems, and plays shaped national consciousness; and highlights contrasting impacts of language movements on women’s emancipation. The book traces the trajectory from cultural grievance to armed struggle, arguing that language rights are not symbolic but structural to political life in decolonized states. By comparing the secular Bengali movement with the sectarian Tamil struggle, it illuminates the possibilities—and limits—of emancipation in modern times.

Rehnuma Sazzad is an Associate and Research Fellow in the Institute of Commonwealth Studies and Institute of English Studies, School of Advanced Study, University of London, UK. Her research focuses on Colonial and Postcolonial Literatures, Decolonization, and British Cultural Studies. Her first monograph is Edward Said’s Concept of Exile (Bloomsbury 2017).