Published:  12:10 AM, 14 January 2025

Professor Md. Anisur Rahman Sir: The Guru of Gonogobeshona

Professor Md. Anisur Rahman Sir: The Guru of Gonogobeshona
 
Babul Chandra Sutradhar

On January 5, Professor Dr. Md. Anisur Rahman left for the land of no return. He was 91 years old. His passing was subject to the inexorable laws of nature; yet the isolated and deprived people of Bangladesh and various countries of the world who have become acquainted with his life-oriented theoretical perspective on development and who are moving forward with a unique strength in their hearts in an indomitable addiction to their own welfare, will never be able to say goodbye to this great person from their hearts. The invaluable education that he distributed to know and understand oneself through a self-power-generating method called 'Peoples’ Research' (gobogobeshona in Bengali) will never be forgotten.

His health had been deteriorating for several years, he would occasionally be admitted to the hospital, we would go from the RIB office to see Sir, sometimes at home, sometimes at the hospital. Sometimes when he felt well, Sir would come to the office. When asked, 'How are you, sir?' he would pause and say, 'I will not answer that question again.' Finally, goodbye forever!

I first heard Sir's name when I was a student at the higher secondary level. I heard Sir's name many times in many places while studying at Dhaka University. And I formally met Sir when I came to work at Research Initiatives Bangladesh (RIB), in 2005. At that time, I was just starting to take up peoples’ research. I started working with fear and eventually gained confidence through the close proximity and advice of Anis Sir, RIB Chairman Dr. Shamsul Bari and Executive Director Dr. Meghna Guhathakurta.

Anis Sir was dedicated to the work of awakening countless people around the world who were labeled as 'backward' for a long time of his life. It seems that Sir left with the dream of gonogobeshona!

Gonogobeshona or peoples’ research was Sir's lifelong dream and the means to implementation of this dream was Sir's favorite organization Research Initiatives Bangladesh (RIB). RIB is a non-profit and non-political service organization, which was established in 2002 by the joint initiative of Anis Sir and several renowned social researchers and thinkers of the country. RIB continues its work with the vow to conduct continuous research on the livelihoods of the disadvantaged population, culture-based lifestyles, the nature of deprivation and how to tackle the prevailing deprivation in its own way and start a dignified civic life. Through Participatory Action Research (PAR e.g. gonogobeshona), the members of the target population themselves identify the problems existing in their social environment/area and conduct research on possible solutions to these problems. RIB believes that such an initiative will play a necessary role as a supporting force in the path of building a rational social system through the exchange of mutual identities and ideas between both the larger society and the marginalized population.

As a development-oriented research institution, RIB has shed light on many groups living in seclusion in all corners of Bangladesh through peoples’ research, where the role of Anis Sir was unforgettable. There was a time when the names of these populations were unknown in the civil society and even at the policy-making level of the country. These communities, identified by names such as marginalized people, Prakrits, Dalits, Adivasis, ethnic groups, tribes, etc., include Musahar, Bhumij, Rishi, Muchi, Mahato, Shabdkar, Ravidas, Harijan, Kawra, Buno, Kartabhaja (Bhagavajjan and Bhagavaniya), Santal, Munda, Bagdi, Garo, Mahali, Marma, Rakhine, Fishermen, Jola, Nikari, Chaudhali, small farmers, etc.

As a general worker of this organization, I consider it my responsibility to write a little about Sir. However, selecting the subject to write about Anis Sir is quite a difficult task for me. Because I have been working on the methodology for 20-21 years, reading Anis Sir's books and taking his advice. In actual sense, one thing has been captured very clearly in my limited knowledge; Anis Sir has very easily taken the overall concept of development out of the monopoly of economics and linked it to psychology. Because, his thought was about the development of all, not the development of any particular group. The three truths he discovered in development thinking are:

(a) that a people however short of resources they may be, can keep moving forward by mobilizing whatever they have, while those waiting upon outside resources may be wasting their time and energy and/ or falling into the trap of patro-client relations with outside quarters surrendering their self-determination;

(b) self-reliance awareness can emerge in people traditionally given to dependence thinking and a culture of dependence and even with very meager material resources, in response to appropriate stimulation;

(c) development –even economic development— is not a question just of economics which seemed to have appropriated the term, but is a holistic question where psychology, among other disciplines, plays a vital role.

He discussed the experience of successful peoples’ research conducted in countries such as India, Sri Lanka, the Philippines, Nicaragua and showed how the people of the deprived communities were able to join the journey of development by simply using their own knowledge. All that was needed from outside was to create animation or provide information.

If you read his much-acclaimed books ‘Apohrita Bangladesh’, ‘Participatory Action Research:  Learning from the School of Life’, autobiographical book (2volumes) ‘Pathe Ja Peyechhi’ etc., you can fully appreciate how vast the psychological world of Anisur Rahman was. He considered Nobel laureate economist Professor Amartya Sen's 'Individual Freedom' to be an essential catalyst for development.

Anis Sir, who had a very distinguished academic career, was also a uniquely successful personality in his professional life. And that is why it has been possible to leave behind a treasure trove of valuable ideas on community-owned and collective development from generation to generation. This treasure trove is not going to be wasted, but will continue to serve as a guide for travelers on the path from darkness to light for ages.

Anis Sir, a professor of economics at Dhaka University, was associated with the country's renowned cultural institution Chhayanaut, where he used to take Rabindra Sangeet classes. Sir himself was a Rabindra Sangeet artist; his album 'Bhuban Bhara Sur' has received special praise from the audience. Considering the quality of this album, the Bangladesh National Archives took the responsibility of preserving it.

Sir attached great importance to the human dignity of man. He believed that everyone has knowledge the only thing lacking is practice or sharpening. There is no opportunity to look down on any person or group - if we look down on people, we ourselves as members of the human race fall to miniature - this was the message from his heart. I will conclude with the words of Anis Sir, which are born of this realization of human self-esteem: “It is of fundamental importance that PAR seeks to enhance the people’s self-esteem by highlighting their positive qualities, challenging them that they can startle the world, and not denigrate them as „poor. Poverty is only a situation in which they are placed, but the particular human being concerned may be inferior to none, and should be given this credit in the way we call and relate with her or him”.

May the memory of respected Anis Sir be immortal.


Babul Chandra Sutradhar is
a human rights activist
and a researcher.



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