A short review

Lawrence Lifschultz's Taher's Last Testament: Bangladesh the Unfinished Revolution gives as detailed an account as we are ever likely to have of the unsuccessful Bangladesh uprising of November 1975. The text, first published in Bombay in The Economic and Political Weekly, revolves around Abu Taher, the army officer who played a major role in the uprising and was later executed by the present regime. At a personal level, the book is an intensely moving account of the life and death of a brave military officer. At a much broader level, the book provides a useful overview of the Left in Bangladesh and indirectly suggests a number of reasons why revolutions, at least in the short term, fail.