Bangla Academy responds after Jahanara Imam’s book found among abandoned books

Bangla Academy has stated that its officials were unaware that Jahanara Imam’s books were among the abandoned stock of books.

On Sunday, November 9, 2025, the Director General of Bangla Academy, Mohammad Azam, issued a statement noting that an online report in the daily ‘Prothom Alo’ dated November 8, 2025, headlined ‘Bangla Academy sold books donated by Jahanara Imam, now priced at lakhs of taka’, had been published.

The statement said that while some elements of the report were partially true, certain aspects were highlighted in a way that could mislead readers despite other information in the article.

It added that misleading headlines and highlights were widely circulated online as templates, and others used similar highlights to report the news. Naturally, many expressed opinions on social media platforms such as Facebook.

The Academy said that due to public attention, it is issuing this general statement instead of sending its comments to the newspaper directly. It hopes the newspaper will represent the matter appropriately and others will reassess the situation. Opportunities will be provided to present actual data if needed.

The institution stated that between 25 June 2025 and 23 October 2025, Bangla Academy auctioned thousands of long-stored abandoned books and other documents. This included a large number of books collected from book fairs, which were selected by a committee each year and declared obsolete or abandoned; books from the library deemed unfit for use; and Bangla Academy’s own publications rendered unsellable for various reasons.

Such books had long been stored in a room adjacent to the library, the abandoned book depot. These books were recently sold at auction.

It was necessary to sell these books because the room was completely full. There was no remaining space to store books received from the upcoming fair or other books likely to become abandoned. The library and relevant staff were consulted before the sale, and they confirmed these were abandoned books accumulated over many years.

The statement clarified that Bangla Academy did not sell any books specifically from Jahanara Imam, Ahmed Sharif, Muktagacha collection, or any other listed collection. All books donated by Jahanara Imam and others remain as they were.

No new committee was formed, nor was there any reassessment of the collections. Only books abandoned over at least a decade were sold, including books from the previous year’s book fair declared unsellable or abandoned.

The statement explained that the controversy arose because a 2014 committee on library reorganisation included some of Jahanara Imam’s books in the process. The first meeting of the ‘Bangla Academy Library Reorganisation Committee’ was held on 13 January 2014, chaired by Professor Anisuzzaman. Members included Shamsuzzaman Khan, Professor Hayat Mamud, Professor Bishwajit Ghosh, Farida Parveen, Rezina Akter, and Md. Mobarak Hossain. A policy was drafted to remove certain books from the library.

A sub-committee of five members, including Md. Mobarak Hossain, Professor Hayat Mamud, Subrata Barua, Bishwajit Ghosh, and Rezina Akter, was formed to execute this. The sub-committee held numerous meetings to determine which books would not remain in the library.

The statement said that from the Bangla Academy records, 359 books were donated by Jahanara Imam’s family. After selection, most books were retained for preservation.

The list of books approved for preservation was finalised in December 2018. Currently, 308 of these books are available on designated shelves in the Bangla Academy library, accessible to anyone for viewing and use.

Books deemed unsuitable for the library were archived separately, but the Academy noted that previous administrators had not implemented such a plan. Most former officials are no longer at the Academy, and library staff from that period have also left, so there was no realistic way to assume which books were usable or not in the abandoned stockpile.

The statement criticised the Prothom Alo report by Sadia Mahjabin Imam, calling it an example of agenda-driven journalism. Despite repeated explanations, the headline implied that Jahanara Imam’s books had been specifically identified and sold by the current administration.

The statement clarified that no extra or unsellable books were sold intentionally, and the report misrepresented a decade-old event where thousands of abandoned books were sold collectively, with no separate identification of Jahanara Imam’s collection.

The Academy urged media and the public to visit the library to see that the designated list of collections remains intact.

While it is true that some books donated by Jahanara Imam and other respected national figures may be sold elsewhere or online, the Academy emphasised that exaggerating past responsibilities and attributing them to the current administration is neither proper nor ethical journalism.