Stories out of a tale of freedom
Syed Badrul Ahsan enjoys an objective reading of history
Revolutions make history. And yet, in more instances than we would care to remember, history becomes the first casualty at the hands of those who try recapturing it in their analytical formulations. In Bangladesh, certainly the product of a revolution brought about by a concatenation of seismic events stretching particularly from the mid 1960s and going all the way up to the end of 1971, history or an interpretation of it has remained an intrinsic part of the national consciousness. Despite our misgivings that along the way (and that was after the rightward lurch the country took in August 1975) Bangladesh's history took a battering at the hands of those who followed Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman to power, the historical narrative has remained pretty much in place. But, yes, there have been the efforts at an embellishing of it, with sometimes clear, deliberate moves being made to minimize the role of those who were pivotal in the struggle for liberation. And, of course, following August 1975, the brazenness with which history was sought to be diluted was to lead in time to crises of critical proportions. The price is still being paid by the nation. Ghulam Murshid, in the manner of so many others in Bangladesh, remains aware of the long agony the country has gone through. The extent of his belief, one shared by many, that there is a clear and present need for a dispassionate placing of history before the nation now comes in the form of Muktijuddho O Tar Por: Ekti Nirdolio Itihash. The objective on Murshid's part is obvious: he means to acquaint readers with what he considers to be an objective view of Bangladesh's struggle for freedom without the frills or the shades of grey which have led so many other writers of works on the history of 1971 to grief. Murshid's views are not touched by what one would generally think of as a partisan presentation of events. In his work you will have little cause to believe that the politically partisan is at work. But what does happen, all the way to the concluding chapter of the work, is the effort of an individual, a scholar to boot, to present the case for Bangladesh in his role both as a nationalist Bengali who observed conditions unfold between the 1960s and early 1970s and as a historian who is not willing to deviate from a reinforcing of the truth as it shaped up in those critical times. There is a retracing of the events that led up to the movement for independence which Murshid shows up in graphic detail. A particularly admirable act on his part is to provide the reader with details of movements that are not easily available in present times. Read here of the student movement against the education report in 1962. The writer does a fascinating job of enumerating the causes that led to the movement, bringing into the narrative the role played by student leaders who were to have a significant impact on the fashioning of Bengali nationalism as the Sixties progressed. Predictably, Murshid sees in the Agartala conspiracy case the decisive moment which turned the tide against Pakistan. Where the Ayub Khan regime had thought the case would destroy Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, clearly the irritant around them, it was in fact the way in which the case was put into shape and the accused brought to trial that sounded the death knell for the regime. A consciousness among Bengalis that their future was bleak in Pakistan was a powerful sign of their secular nationalism rounding itself into a concrete form. It was also the moment that catapulted Mujib into the position of undisputed leader of the Bengalis. Ghulam Murshid's focus on the War of Liberation, much as it dwells on the nature and prosecution of the war, takes clear and serious account of the bitter internecine struggle among various elements of the political leadership gathered under the umbrella of the Mujibnagar provisional government. The writer points to the numerous ways in which Tajuddin Ahmed was undermined as prime minister by such powerful quarters as those led by Khondokar Moshtaque Ahmed and Sheikh Fazlul Haq Moni. Murshid's detailed analysis of the Mujib Bahini, of the way in which it was set up and operated, is but one of the many instances he cites of the divisions that were fast cropping up in the liberation movement. The Mujib Bahini, it became clear soon enough, was being assisted by the Indian military to an extent that not even the Mukti Bahini was. For the Young Turks in Mujibnagar, the Mujib Bahini was one way of ensuring the primacy of the imprisoned Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. That was, in a subtle way, an expression of revolt against the Tajuddin government. The force certainly did not endear itself to many and indeed conveyed the impression of being a band of elitist young men looking not to strategy on the battlefield but to a political role for themselves in what was soon to be a free country. There is a fairly comprehensive account of the war and its aftermath in the work. Bangabandhu's return to Bangladesh on 10 January 1972 and the gradual erosion of his links with Tajuddin Ahmed provide a fresh new perspective on an old tale. It remains rather intriguing that Bangabandhu did not, in all the time that Tajuddin was part of his government, seek to know from the Mujibnagar government prime minister details relating to the launch of the war against Pakistan. The suggestion has been made, and remains, that from the very moment of his return from Pakistani incarceration he came to be under the overwhelming influence of the very men who had been instrumental in undermining Tajuddin in 1971. The parting between Mujib and Tajuddin, when it came in October 1974, was to prove costly for the country. Unmitigated tragedy was the result. Muktijuddho O Tarpor ought to be on the table of everyone whose interest in Bangladesh's history has not dwindled into inanities. The book does credit to the country. It takes every Bengali back to the age of idealism and struggle that once upheld a cause. It is an opportunity to put the pieces, scattered by coups and counter-coups and political intrigue in post-1971 times, back together again. >Syed Badrul Ahsan is Editor, Star Booksh5 Review
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