Side one of the disc consists of two vocal compositions sung in Bengali, of which the title track was a message of unity to the newly independent nation, formerly known as East Pakistan.

The third selection is a duet by Shankar and sarodya Ali Akbar Khan, supported by Alla Rakha on tabla, a performance that presaged their opening set at the Concert for Bangladesh.

[2] To help raise funds to try to alleviate the misery, he turned to his friend George Harrison,[3] then riding a wave of popularity with the success of his first post-Beatles solo album, All Things Must Pass.

[4][5] Within six weeks, Madison Square Garden in New York was booked for two UNICEF shows on Sunday, 1 August; Western stars such as Eric Clapton, Bob Dylan, Ringo Starr and Leon Russell had pledged to be there; and Harrison's purpose-made single "Bangla Desh" was receiving airplay on US radio.

[7] With the Apple documentary film Raga in post production and awaiting release, the Beatles' record label would also be issuing a Shankar benefit disc,[8] a three-track EP.

[9] For the sessions in mid July,[10] most likely held at the Record Plant West like Harrison's,[11] Shankar wrote a new composition, "Joi Bangla", which became the EP's title track.

The final selection, "Raga Mishra Jhinjhoti", was a sitar and sarod jugalbandi (duet) in dadra tal, featuring Shankar and Ali Akbar Khan, with Alla Rakha on tabla.

[26] In mid August 1971, Shankar told Melody Maker that Indian music was now more popular than ever before in the West, adding that he, Rakha and their accompanists might perform some of the songs at his upcoming concert at the Royal Albert Hall in London.

Among latter-day reviewers, author Alan Clayson considers the title track "more melodiously uplifting than any other of George [Harrison]'s Indo-pop productions".

[28] Writing on the occasion of the Concert for Bangladesh film's DVD release in 2005, Francis C. Assisi, a reviewer for The Canadian India Times in the early 1970s, recalled the juxtaposition of reading about the "holocaust" caused by the Bangladesh Liberation War and the regional cyclone, and seeing his two-year-old son "joyfully revelling in the recently released Ravi Shankar–Ali Akbar Khan duet 'Joi Bangla'".

[21] In his book on Harrison's musical career, Simon Leng describes "Raga Mishra Jhinjhoti" as "stirring ... [a] masterful performance" and similarly highlights "Oh Bhaugowan" for its "impassioned and moving appeal for divine assistance".