January 13, 2026
|9780822967903|Translingualism and a Struggle for Rhetorical Sovereignty|The Language Movement in Bangladesh charts the Bangla Language Movement from a rhetorical perspective. Following Partition in 1947, major conflicts over land, religion, power, and language characterized the newly independent nations of India and Pakistan. The debate over recognizing Bangla as a state language in East Pakistan was particularly consequential. Lasting nearly a decade, it upended Pakistan’s political and social order and set the stage for Bangladeshi independence in 1971. Shakil Rabbi investigates the rhetorical facets of this debate and its takeaways for critical conversations around translingualist perspectives and rhetorical sovereignty. Rabbi analyzes the…