Citizen-Driven Humanitarianism and the Bangladesh Liberation War: Australian Aid During the 1971 Refugee Crisis

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.

The ebook editions of this book are available open access under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence on bloomsburycollections.com. Open access was funded by Australian Catholic University.

Rachel Stevens is a Research Fellow in the Research Centre for Refugees, Migration and Humanitarian Studies at Australian Catholic University, Melbourne, Australia. An immigration historian, her books include Immigration Policy from 1970 to the Present (2016) and Refugee Journeys: Resettlement, Representation and Resistance (2021). Previously, she was a researcher at the University of Melbourne and Lecturer at Monash University.