And Bangladesh: Emotion And Reason
Nidhu Bhusan Das
Back in late 1960s and early1970s, specifically between 1969 and 1971, the tidal wave of emotion swept the people of East Pakistan even as a nation was in the making.Bengali nationalism had it’s high tide. Was it all emotion sans reason? Emotion bereft of reason cannot lead to the emergence of a nation. The reason in this case is the fact of exploitation and the desire of Islamabad to perpetually suppress and oppress the people of East Pakistan from eleven hundred miles away The majority ethnic group of East Pakistan,the Bengalis perceived with pain and shame that they were under the colonial rule of a minority. This fact and perception provided enough reason for the people to rise in revolt. The Bengalis began to recoil from the reality of Pakistan soon after it’s birth.Their struggle against exploitation continued and gained in strength with the passage of time. Awami Muslim league shedded the adjunct ‘Muslim’ in keeping with the spirit of the emerging Bengali nationalism.Under Sheikh Mujibur Rahman the Awami League came to the forefront of the nationalist movement. The league put up the Six-point Demand in 1966,and the so called Agartala Conspiracy Case
was instituted by the Pakistan Government to frame Mujib and others .In recognition of his struggle and sacrifice,the people he led fondly crowned Mujib with the title Bangabandhu.
TheBangabandhu was at the helm of the upsurge after he had been acquitted of the Agartala Conspiracy Case and released from jail following the Eleven- point Movement of students and agitation of Democratic Action Committee(DAC )in 1969. The people of the then East Pakistan were agitated as they perceived they were being exploited by Islamabad. The upsurge was for their emancipation. Bangabandhu reflected the hopes and aspirations of the people when he significantly and unequivocally declared in the mammoth public meeting at Race Course Ground(now Suharawardy Udyan) of Dhaka on 7 March 1971: ‘The struggle this time is for liberation,for emancipation.’ This may,perhaps,be seen as the preliminary to the final Declaration of Independence at midnight of 26 March 1971,followed by a nine-month long liberation war which ended with the surrender of about a lakh strong Pakistani Occupation Army in Dhaka under General Niazi.Indian army fought against the occupation army side by side with the freedom fighters of Bangladesh and India sheltered the huge number of evacuees from Bangladesh during the liberation war. In fact, the occupation army surrendered to the joint force of the Indian Army and the freedom fighters on 16 December 1971 at Race Course Ground,Dhaka.
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Now in the month of February when the Bengalis with pride look back to the glorious martyrdom of 21 February 1952 for the state language status of their mother tongue and take pledge to uphold the values associated with Bengali nationalism ,it is imperative that one undertakes to see how reason and emotion went hand in hand in the struggle against exploitation.The language policy adopted by Islamabad clearly demonstrated to the people of East Pakistan that injustice was meted out to them,and they would be discriminated against in other fields as well.Urdu,the mother tongue of only 12 per cent of the Pakistanis, was adopted as the state language of the country which was eventually declared an Islamic Republic.The Bengalis of East Pakistan protested against this blatant injustice.The language movement thus turned out to be the protest against injustice and the fountainhead of Bengali nationalism based on language and culture.Bengali nationalism thus is secular in character and emerged as a counterpoint to the theocray sought to be established in Pakistan .
The recent verdict of the Supreme Court of Bangladesh restoring the basic character of the 1972 Constitution of the country bears evidence how the apex court functions as the conscience keeper of the nation. In the wake of the dastardly killing of the founding father of the nation Sheikh Mujib by renegades and usurpation of state power the four pillars of.the state policy enshrined in the Constitution- nationalism, democracy, secularism and socialism – were erased which drastically changed the basic character of the polity and it’s mother law.The apex court held that the amendment to the Constitution by the usurpers was wrong and illegitimate. The court, evidently , acted in it’s wisdom and reasoned to uphold the spirit which went into the building of the nation.Perhaps,the court took into account the resurgence of the Bengali nationalism which denigrates religious fundamentalism as regressive. If the people of Bangladesh go by modernism which is marked by scientific spirit and secular logic , the country is sure to progress and prosper as it has a rich alluvial soil, resourceful manpower and strategic geo-political position in South Asia. It is important for the nation to go by reason in the age of globalization for gaining in status as an Asian Leap Forward is on the card with India and China emerging as economic giants.Dhaka should,perhaps, have pragmatic domestic and foreign policies.Pragmatism,in this context, is synonymous with modernism.
Dhaka has a number of achievements to boast of. Meanwhile, the Unesco declared the Language Martyr Day ( 21 February ) as the International Mother Tongue Day .The SAARC is a reality . The member nations can utilize the forum for mutual gain and individual as well as regional prosperity as they are doing in Europe with their European Union.Not suspicion, but understanding and goodwill can help bring peace and prosperity.Understanding can grow only in a democratic and secular climate. Reverting to secularism Bangladesh is back to the root and can win the trust of the democratic world to it’s advantage insofar as it’s development efforts are concerned.It is heartening that Bangladesh has reinvented itself and can now work for it’s progress and economic growth,instead of being busy with fundamentalist rhetorics and raising war cry against India.
