45 years ago, at the beginning of the month of March, Yahya Khan
announced on televisions and radios that the General Assembly of
Pakistan was to be postponed 'until a later date'. Having lost by a
landslide to the Awami League in the general elections, his actions
represented those of a desperate man aiming to salvage an even more
desperate union between two pieces of land, divided by a thousand miles
of India and connected, only tenuously, through the politics of
religion. On the streets of Dhaka, for the first time ever, chants for
independence were heard.
“Bir Bangali ostro dhoro Bangladesh shwadhin koro”.
The list of heroics goes on alongside the list of lives lost to
genocide. On 2nd March, A.S.M Abdur Rab hoisted the new flag of
Bangladesh at Bottola in Dhaka University. Two days later, 300 Bangalis
were killed by the Pakistani army. On the 7th, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman
stood at the Racecourse and gave what would become one of the
most-quoted speeches in the history of a fledgling Bangladesh while on
the 9th, Maulana Bhashani held a huge rally at Paltan in solidarity with
an independent Bangladesh. Unknown to both Sheikh Mujib and Zulfikar
Ali Bhutto (of Pakistan People's Party), Yahya Khan had already given
the go-ahead with Operation Searchlight as he engaged them both in mock
negotiations until the 23rd of March. By then, it had become abundantly
evident that a political manoeuvre to quell Bangladesh would be
impossible. Blood must be spilled.
This night, 45 years ago, saw the beginnings of a targeted ethnic
cleansing that evokes images of a Jewish Holocaust long past and an
Armenian genocide long forgotten. Estimates of a body count range from
7000 onwards in a single night. Zulfikar Ali-Bhutto looked from behind
the curtains of his Sheraton hotel room as Dhaka burned, while Mujib was
taken captive in the quiet of the night. The formal declaration of an
independent Bangladesh, first read out unofficially by Abdur Rab and
Shahjahan Sikder at a public rally on 3rd March, was finally announced
via a radio transmission with the liberatory words of Sheikh Mujibur
Rahman (Genocide Bangladesh archives). Within a few weeks, the
Mujibnagar government began operating as the legislators of a sovereign
Bangladesh. Our country would go on to resist a genocide that lasted
until December of that year until Pakistan finally admitted defeat, but
did not admit to her sins. Within a year, the constitution of the
People's Republic of Bangladesh would come into effect, drafted by Dr.
Kamal Hossain and signed by the likes of Mujib and Tajuddin Ahmed. The
rest, as they say, is a very bloody and painful history.
The Roots of IndependenceExcept, it's not. It's
not a history to be looked at with nostalgia and pride only. It is a
living and breathing history that is yet to be put to bed, for better or
for worse. “If you want to understand the roots of our constitution,
you have to look towards the movements of 1948 (the beginnings of our
Language Movement) and that of 1954 (the victory of Sher-e-Bangla Fazlul
Haq and the United Front over the Muslim League)”, Dr. Kamal Hossain
tells us, as we sit in his law chamber, decorated with an uncountable
number of books. “How is it, we must ask, that a region that had been
divided based on religion came to denounce religious politics within a
span of seven years only? The secular movement was not only historic; it
was emblematic of what the image of an independent Bangladesh would
stand for.”
The damage of religious displacement had already begun, however.
Beginning from Partition the mass migration of Hindu populations from
Bengal continues to this day, calling into question the secularism that
our independence championed. What, then, did secularism mean?
The Constitution of Bangladesh, adopted on the 4th of October 1972,
remains one of the important documentary relics, living persons
notwithstanding, of a time of revolution and revolt that demarcates both
what it means to be a citizen of this country and also provides an
(almost) untouched view into the ideals of the past upon which this
country had been built. Everything starting from photographs to memory
can be, and is, distorted in our political climate, where freedom
fighters can be called war criminals, and vice versa, while the
ideological debate surrounding the body count continues in a horrifying
and disregarding tone. On the constitution we had identified four ideals
that would define our lives as Bangladeshis- nationalism, socialism,
secularism and democracy. Were these really just big words or did they
reflect accurately what the nation felt?
“Anyone who wants to say that the principles in the constitution
were forced upon the people is nothing short of mistaken,” Kamal Hossain
continues. “The Pakistanis had dismissed our movements as very
urban-centric a long time ago. But they were not only wrong, they were
short-sighted. The Two State theory of partition only worked in this
region because the zamindar class were at the time mostly Hindu and
there was a general feeling of ill-will against them. What they had
understood to be a religious difference was, in many ways, an economic
one. Our principles grew out of the consciousness that we developed from
our suffering, from our exploitation and from our deprivation”.
The question we must ask is this- does an independent Bangladesh live
by, or even want, the same ideals as a revolutionary Bengal did? The
jury is still out. In a mere 45 years, there have been 16 separate
amendments to the Constitution where these four principles themselves
were altered. It began in 1975, with that unspeakable formation of
BAKSAL, where democracy was shed in favour of a one-party rule that
precipitated the dark road of military coups and conquests and
subsequent rule that would blight the formative years of this country.
Within that time frame, Ziaur Rahman amended the constitution to declare
that all orders of Martial Law had been validly made and then, in 1988,
General Ershad made Islam the state religion of Bangladesh
(Constitution of Bangladesh, 1972). During this time, and even the times
of democracy that would follow, rampant corruption, capitalism and
empty rhetoric seemed to characterize our political arena. Any and all
critiques of the amended constitutions and even the laws themselves were
and are deemed to be tantamount to treason, even if it is simply
pointing out the logical fallacy of having a state religion and
propounding secularism in the same page. “Anything that we might have to
say against the state might be taken as treason. How is this politics
of a liberated Bangladesh?” asks Kamal Hossain, now animated and in the
throes of a revolutionary nostalgia. “People keep mentioning 7th March
as one of Bangabandhu's greatest moments, but do they forget that in
1954 he left his post as Minister to organize the country, to develop
the revolutionary consciousness of the masses? Who among us today would
be able to give up a certain position of power to do that?”
Treason or not, these conversations have been a long time coming. The
21-point movement of 1954 identified not only a Bangla nationalism that
was not empty, but also the roots of the oppression on East Pakistan
which included capital flight and economic parasitism. They wanted
self-sufficiency just as the freedom fighters wanted autonomy and
self-sufficiency in 1971. Here, too, there is room for the constitution
to grow. As Kamal Hossain remembers, sadly, the case for the indigenous
people of the hill tracts is something that an independent Bangladesh
overlooked. “The struggle for freedom was not only for Bangalees. It was
a movement that symbolized the right of a community to decide how they
should live their lives.” And yet, Bangalee nationalism dominated
narratives, in all the wrong ways. To this day, the indigenous
population waits for the implementation of the CHT accord and their
freedoms that were given to them as citizens of Bangladesh under the
constitution.
Do we remember that socialism was one of the defining principles of
our constitution when we look at instances of RMG labour exploitation,
bonded tea workers and cases like the Padma bridge scandal? Do we
remember secularism when we think of Ramu, Jamaat-e-Islami terror and
the displacement of Hindu communities? Do we remember democracy when we
let mock oppositions line the seats of a Parliament building that was
obtained by blood? Do we, even, remember nationalism beyond sports and
holidays? Or do we simply sigh and move on; thinking nothing good can
possibly come out of this chaos?
On a night not unlike tonight, 45 years ago, the Pakistani army was
in the midst of occupying Dhaka University and rounding up student
leaders, teachers and activists and murdering them. They called it
Operation Searchlight for they sought to identify and wipe out bastions
of Bengali resistance. Today, as we walk those hallowed halls we are met
with a barrage of propaganda and the ubiquitous presence of a Chhatro
League once championed. We call that night in 71, 'KaaloRaatri', the
darkest night in the history of our country. There are dark nights to
come still, for the revolution is only half-finished.
“Historically, this region has always been inhabited by a
freedom-loving people,” says Kamal Hossain. “The British came and fell,
the Pakistanis came and fell, military rule in independent Bangladesh
came and fell. Authoritarianism does not work in this country.” Even in
his twilight years, the drafter of our constitution seems to be imbued
with an unshakeable belief about the Bangladeshi nation. Tomorrow,
Independence Day will probably not be characterized by the desire for
perpetual revolution and justice that it had been 45 years ago. Away
from the ideals of a Bangladeshi utopia, what are the realities that we
face today? Who gets to Bangladeshi, who gets to own capital and
labourers, who gets to walk down the streets without fear?
“You cannot imagine the response we would see when the slogans
blared: Jaago, Bangali jaago. It was unbelievable and it convinced us
that victory was inevitable,” concludes Kamal Hossain. Perhaps the past
can still have a lot to teach us about our current state of affairs, as
we learn and amend and become conscious of our own exclusions. Should
we, then, begin tomorrow with the slogan Jaago Bangladeshi Jaago?
0 comments:
Post a Comment