The people at the epicenter of our struggle for independence

The celebration of this year's independence day as acuired special significance for two milestone events. One, the publication Bangabandhu's Diary titled Karagarer Rojnamcha published by Bangla Academy in this March. Second, the Parliament took a historic move to pass a motion for observing 25 March as Genocide Day. Both events are significant as people assume the center-stage of our struggle for our independence. The latest book of Bangabandhu, like his Unfinished Autobiography, anchors on the pains and aspirations of the ordinay people around him for whom he dedicated his life.The book clearly brings out the tensions and dreams of the people and the leader so neatly interwined.I was particularly touched by his entries of the diary which depict the inner mind of an architect of an independent Bangladesh during the mid sixties immediately after his  launch of the historic six points. Every entry is filled with passion and love for his emerging independent Bangladesh without mentioning in so many words.

I was particularly moved by his anxiety for the struggling workers of his party on 7th June, 1966 and subsequent days. We all know there was a call for general strike on that day for realization of his demand for autonomy of Bangladesh, the Eastern part of the then Pakistan. The general strike was also called for release of the political detainees including Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. This was a peaceful call for allout shutdown. But the oppressive government of the day used bullets to respond to this peaceful general strike and killed dozens of party activists and ordinary citizens. He was so agitated in the jail seeing hundreds of his leaders, workers and students being dragged to jail with summery punishments that he could not take his meals. Neither could he sleep. He was only asking the jail authorities to do justice to these new entrants into jail, perhaps for the first time.

 He was a veteran in jail and would know most of the people managing jail. The jailors were all respectful to him. So he made a humane call to them that these young detainees are given proper food, medicine and clthes so that they can cope with this trauma of detention. In fact, he was equally sympathetic to ordinary fellow ordinary detainees and give them all kinds of support. They all felt that he was the one who could give them the dignity of humanbeings even if they were detained. He made sincere attempt in providing human rights to these detainees.

He would always ask the jailors to follow the jail-codes and provide all the services as they deserved. But they would be apologetic to him and blame the `higher authority` for their inadequate response to his call. He himself was in solitary confinement and had to go through mental trauma of loneliness. Yet, he responded to this mental attack bravely as he was optimistic about the movement which was gaining grounds. He also started gardenining in addition to reading and occasional cooking. His optimism about the light at the end of the tunnel is reflected in almost all the pages of his diary. One can only compare this strength of mind of a people's leader with that of Nelson Mandella who too went through similar ordeal. Hearing the attrocities faced by his political activists he was fully convinced that the oppressive rule of Ayub Khan would end and his dream of a free and fair Bangladesh would be realized.

The subsequent mistreatment of him by the ruling government and accusing him of a treason against the state under so-called Agortala Cospiracy case made him even more confident that his dream of an independent Bangladesh would materialize. But even in those difficult days he was in favour of a democratic transition and remained hopeful of a massive uprising against the oppresive rule. His dream came true when he had to be released under public pressure and people conferred him the title of ` Bangabandhu`.

 He continued his peaceful movement despite all odds and mobilised the people for an electoral mandate so that he could make a demand for political and economic justice on the basis of such a mandate. And that was what exactly the case when he got a massive mandate in 1970 in the general election. His electoral success outwitted the military and civil beaurucracies of Pakistan and he was poised to become the legitimate Prime Minister of Pakistan. But the elites of Pakistan could not digest this outcome and conspired to negate the verdict of the people.

The session of the Constituent Assembly called by the President was suddenly postponed on March 1, 1971 and people of Bangladesh reacted sharply on the street. Bangabandhu instantly called for a peaceful non-coperation movement which continued for 25 days. In between he gave a clarion call for liberty on 7th March with an appeal to the army to go back to their barracks. He even sat for negotiation with President Yahiya Khan during those tumultaous days. Yahiya and his allies had some thing else in mind. They pretended to negotiate only to give room for  the Pakistani army to come to Bangladesh to fight the agitating Bengalis. On 25th evening Yahiya Khan suddenly left Bangladesh giving his nod for a genocide in Bangladesh.

It was our collective failure as a nation that we could not project to the world the depth of atrocities which started on 25 March 1971 when more than fifty thousand people were massacred just on a single night. But better late than never. The Bangladesh Parliament has finally taken a collective decision to announce 25 March a Genocide Day. In addition, the cabinet has moved pretty first in approving this holy motion and asked the Foreign Ministry to start working for getting UN and other international recognition of the Day. The Foreign Ministry has moved swiftly and assigned two high officials to move on.

The ministry has also established a special desk to coordinate the diplomatic activities for getting global recognition of the day. In fact, there is no dearth of evidences of atrocities by the Pakistani army and its local collaborators. Besides diplomatic rports by archer Blood and books like Blood Telegram by Garry Bass, even Pakistani perpetrators like General Amir Abdulla Niazi or Major Siddiq Saliq have written in details about the depth of atrocities in those difficult days of 1971. The Sunday Times report titled `Genocide`by Anthony Mascarenhas and a number of reports of New york times speak volumes about the length and breadth of genocide faced by the unarmed people of Bangladesh.  Indeed the brutal state called Pakistan began to be submerged under the corpses of valient freedom loving people of Bangladesh on the very night of 25 March 1971.

 Amidst unprecedented bloodbath, Bangabandhu declared independence of Bangladesh in the early hours of 26th March 1971 and he was immediately detained by the occupying army which took him to a jail in West Pakistan. And thus started a war of liberation which was conducted by his able leuftenants in his name. The bloodiest war of Bangladesh liberation cost lives of three millions and more tha ten million refugees in the neighbouring states of India. Thousands of Bengali women were raped and killed. The freedom fighters fought the war with valour and courage originating from the strong and uncompromizing leadership of Bangabandu. At the last push for freedom the Indian soldiers joined the war and brought an end to this human tragedy. The occupying Pakistani forces surrendered on 16th December,1971 and amidst joy and sorrow the independent Bangladesh was born.

Thanks to the committed diplomacy of India under the leadership of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi Bangabandhu was freed from the clutches of Pakistani ruler and he returned to Bangladesh as its Father of Nation on January 10, 1972. And he did not spoil a minute and started rebuilding a war-torn Bangladesh with virtually nothing in his hands. But he was also very successful in this phase of reconstructing Bangladesh with support from peace-loving people and governments of the world. The special support given by India deserves to be acknowledged in particular. Then on he was putting all his energies for rebuilding the infrastructures, enacting new laws, writing a new constitution, making a new five year plan, rebuilding army and bureaucracy and what not. When he was deeply involved in rebuilding his beloved Bangladesh a conspiracy was being hatched with support from pro-Pakistani evil forces.

 A sudden attack by a handful of conspirators killed him and most of his family members on August 15, 1975 and thus derailed the forward movement of Bangladesh for many years until his daughter Sheikh Hasina could takeover the helm of affairs in 1996. And she too had to go through many ordeals including detention like her father for sticking to the basic causes of independent Bangladesh. But she fought these conspiracies with courage and wisdom and returned to power to lead Bangladesh towards the goal of achieving Sonar Bangla as dreamed by the Father of Nation.

We were singularly lucky that we found in him someone to epitomize our hopes and aspirations. Our joys and sorrows evolved and revolved round him when we were preparing ourselves for a separate homeland of our own.  Our joys and sorrows were transformed into his. His bold utterances that welled up from his heart became ours. He naturally became the arch-hero of our road-map. He became a leader per excellence. At one stage he and his people were fused as one. Not only did he forge us into a nation, he shaped for us a destination for our vision to come true. But so unlucky we are as a nation that a section of our own people killed him at the behest of the enemies of Bangladesh.

Thus came an ominous phase in our national life when we were facing an existential crisis. To obviate this crisis we sought the depth of our learning, farsightedness, intense welding between the aspirations of the leadership and the people and above all, Himalayan courage such as that of Bangabandhu. That's when we refocused our attention to trace the origin of his courage, the basis of his bond with the mass, the source of his unflinching inspiration to be faithful to truth. We started to fathom the aesthetics of his politics, palpate the root of his human and aesthetic sensitivity.

 And we continue to seek wisdom and courage from his eventful life was indeed larger than himself. During his short tenure as a head of the government and also of state he left enough guidelines and examples of how we can make this homeland of ours into a Switzerland of the East. We are already a middle income country and on our way to become a developed country by 2041. Our macroeconomic transformation has simply been amazing registering seven plus percentage of growth lately. The social development including drastic fall in poverty, increasing life expectancy crossing, of late, seventy two years is equally fascinating. The total fertility rate has come down to two. Some people have already started calling Bangladesh a miracle country. Some brand it to be a role model of development.

If we remain faithful to his ideals of a pro-poor and corruption-free nation-building, I am confident the struggling people of Bangladesh will be able to celebrate his birth centenary in pomp and grandeur in a country with full of hopes and aspirations. We are singularly lucky to have her daughter Sheikh Hasina in charge of this dream project. Despite many challenges, she has been able to put people in the center of her strategy of inclusive development like her father. The mega projects which she has already started rolling will surely transform the entire face of Bangladesh. Her bold decision to implement these projects without being hesitant for a second speaks volumes about how aptly she has inherited the courage and foresight for a people-friendly developmental transformation of Bangladesh from the Father of the Nation which he demonstrated during his short tenure as a statesman. The writer is Professor of Development Studies at Dhaka University and former Governor, Bangladesh Bank.