Bhasani's Historic Farakka Long March: Its Message and Significance

Maulana Abdul Hamid Khan Bhasani was described as an epic hero. His life was intimately involved in the land, labour and language of the poor peasant. And he was always with sharecroppers and fisherfolk, rickshaw wallas and jute and sugar producers, industrial workers and farm labourers, the urban poor and shopkeepers and primary school teachers, and other segments of the "Wretched of the Earth," to use the Black revolutionary Frantz Fanon's phrase.

And-clad in his spotless white panjabi while always wearing his favourite lungi and tupi-he remained opposed to everything our ruling classes have hitherto come to stand for. I'm telling and reflecting on Maulana Abdul Hamid Khan Bhashani, proverbially known as the majloomjononeta or the leader of the oppressed, one who was perhaps the most popular revolutionary peasant leader from Bangladesh.

 He organised and led the poor peasants from East Bengal to settle in a river island called Bhashan Char in colonial Assam-a place where he lived and was loved by its people, who gave him the title "Bhashani." This is reminiscent of how the Argentine revolutionary Ernesto Guevara came to be lovingly called "Che" in Cuba, which, however, was not the place of his birth.

Soon after the partition of the subcontinent in 1947, India took initiative to construct a barrage on its side of the Ganges and commissioned it in 1975. In the past few decades, many of the 54 Bangladeshi Rivers that originate in India have either been diverted or dammed upstream, inside India. All of these hydro-developmental initiatives have left a profound impact on Bangladesh as it is at the receiving end of the Himalayan fluvial regime.

 In particular, Bangladesh's agriculture, fisheries, and human health and wellbeing are reported to have been significantly affected by the disruption of natural water flow in its rivers. The debate over the water sharing issues between India and Bangladesh dates back as early as their birth but the historical developments of the disputes have never been adequately addressed in settling the issues.

 In an environmentally interdependent world the environmental or ecological decline of one country or region is a problem for the entire community of nations on earth. With the emergence of post-colonial nation states, an array of demarcation lines was drawn on the common rivers according to the borders of newly established states. It developed a sense of individual ownership instead of collective ownership of the common rivers.

 Rivers were no longer being considered as an integrated unit of resources. Upper riparian states started to use common rivers to the end of their own interests at the cost of the interests of the lower riparian states. And this can be identified as one of the major reasons that created problems among the co-riparian states around the world.

Over the past few decades, many of the 54 rivers in Bangladesh that originated in India have been either diverted or dammed upstream, inside India. All of these hydro-developmental initiatives have left a profound impact on the ecology of Bangladesh which is reported to have been significantly affected by the disruption of natural water flow in its rivers.

Anthropogenic as well as environmental changes bring pressures on the basin's water resources and the riverine ecosystem itself, presenting unprecedented challenges and potential conflict. Since its birth, Bangladesh has been in an ever growing disputation over the water sharing issues with India.

After commissioning Farakka barrage in 1975, India has been diverting most of the water flow of the river Ganges to her end. As a result Bangladesh is losing a lot of its agricultural and industrial production, fishing and navigation, human health and wellbeing and so on. Changing water flow of the river Ganges has eventually changed the hydraulic character of the rivers and the ecology of Bangladesh.

The environmental changes have resulted in the loss of livelihood of a large population in the south-western part of Bangladesh in particular and across the country in general. The affected area is a part of the Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna Basin which is among the world's largest and most populated river basins. Bhasani was the leader, who stood righteously for correct water sharing and launchd the historic Farakka long march for which he will be ever remembered.

An inseparable part of Bangladesh's history, Bhashani's place in the public consciousness was assured when he took the lead in the mass movement to unseat Field Marshal Mohammad Ayub Khan in early 1969. As students all over the country, together with the broad mass of citizens, took to the streets to demand a withdrawal of the Agartala conspiracy case and indeed a return to democracy, it fell to Bhashani to step in as a necessary catalytic force and carry the movement forward.

 It was on his watch that the Bengalis of East Pakistan substantiated the demand, at every point along the way, that Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and all his co-accused in the case be freed, that the regime walk off the stage. It was again Bhashani who counseled the incarcerated Mujib (not yet Bangabandhu) not to fall for the temptation of joining, on parole, the round table conference Ayub Khan had called. Mujib, argued Bhashani, first would need to be free, without conditions. Sometime in the third week of February 1969, he warned the regime that he would lead a march to the Dhaka cantonment unless the Agartala case was withdrawn.

 On February 22, the regime capitulated. By the end of March, the regime was history.There was restlessness of an inspirational sort in MoulanaBhashani. He was never one to rest complacent; and his entire career in politics is proof of how consciously and purposefully he stayed clear of the entrapment of political power.

 It was always at the grassroots that he kept himself. When he thought that Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy was pushing the Awami League into a clear pro-American camp in the later 1950s, he knew what he would do. At Kagmari in February 1957, he bade farewell to the Awami League and gathered his followers into a new organization he called the National Awami Party. At Kagmari he did something else: he warned the state of Pakistan that unless it began to fulfill the aspirations of all its people, it would find Bengalis waving it off with an assalamualaikum.

That was a brave act. And it was the very first hint of what could happen in the country if Pakistan did not sit up and take notice in good time. Obviously, such attitudes did not go down well with the ruling circles in Pakistan, a point made rudely clear by General Iskandar Mirza when he served the crude warning that Bhashani would be shot like a dog. With history being a matter of irony at some of its pivotal turning points, it was not surprising that Mirza went into oblivion and Bhashani lived on, to fight many more battles.

As he was often referred to, would not be averse to rekindling communal politics in secular Bangladesh through his invocation of a Muslim Bangla. He once told a public rally in 1974 that the country was facing a food crisis because the minister for food was a Hindu. It was an insult hurled at the eminently respectable PhaniBhushanMajumdar. And it did not do Bhashani any good. The contradictions in him persisted. MoulanaBhashani remains a point of reference in Bangladesh's history.

 His role in the War of Liberation remains admirable. He did not go to power, did not seek power and yet wielded power through his moral presence on the political stage. Finally, we can say thatMaulana Abdul Hamid Khan Bhasani was a man where we find his life as a full of protest and patriotism.Bhasani's significant contribution for liberation war and independence. The historic Farakka long march was a significant event in his life.His leadership will always inspirethe nation. The Bengalis will never forget Maulana Bhasani.


Dr Forqan Uddin Ahmed is a writer, columnist, researcher and Former Deputy Director General, Bangladesh Ansar & VDP.