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Citizen-driven humanitarianism and the Bangladesh liberation war : Australian aid during the 1971 refugee crisis
Stevens, Rachel
Stevens, Rachel
Author
Abstract
This open access book presents an international history of humanitarianism during the Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971. Examining the motivations, actions and competing interests of multiple humanitarian actors such as the Red Cross, Oxfam, grassroots NGOs and individuals, it analyses the impact of humanitarianism for refugees in the camps. With western governments indifferent or slow to respond to India's pleas to assistance, Stevens shows how international aid to Bangladeshi refugees during the 1971 crisis was citizen-driven. Focusing on the actions of individuals and NGOs in Australia, Stevens shows how they rallied community support, fundraised at record levels and effectively lobbied the Australian government to increase aid and recognise Bangladesh's independence. Using archival materials from Australia, the UK, Switzerland and the US, Citizen-driven Humanitarianism and the Bangladeshi Liberation War provides an account of how civil society was galvanized, even radicalized, in their pursuit to remedy systemic problems such as ethnic persecution, militarism and poverty. Documenting the myriad forces at play during the refugee crisis of 1971, it shows how broader social and cultural developments coalesced to create the citizen-driven humanitarianism of the late 20th century.
Keywords
History, Political history, Twentieth-century history
Date
2024
Type
Book
Journal
Book
Volume
Issue
Page Range
1
Article Number
ACU Department
Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences
Faculty of Education and Arts
Faculty of Education and Arts
Collections
Relation URI
Event URL
Open Access Status
Published as ‘gold’ (paid) open access
License
CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
File Access
Open
Notes
This work is published open access subject to a Creative Commons AttributionNonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International licence (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). You may re-use, distribute, and reproduce this work in any medium for non-commercial purposes, provided you give attribution to the copyright holder and the publisher and provide a link to the Creative Commons licence.