The spirit of independence and the new generations

The spirit of independence and the new generations

Md. Anwarul Kabir

Published on December 16, 2007

On special days like our victory or independence days, repeated lamentations on erosion of the spirits of independence since the post Mujib era, in fact, is a clich�. To the new generations, especially to many members of the post liberation generation this simplistic notion has no special appeal at all. Rather, to them the spirits of liberation signifies some nostalgic slogans of some members of the older generation. This is, no doubt, due to the utmost failure of our older generation bore the torch of some patriotic ideologies with a view to guiding and rationalising the popular demand for independence. Perhaps, they were so overwhelmed with their success in the war of independence that they were little concerned for transmitting those patriotic ideologies to the newer generations, who eventually have sat at the steering position in different sects of the society of the present Bangladesh. Understandably, due to this weakness of the patriotic forces of the older generation, the reactionary and defeated forces of 1971 could quite easily succeed to manipulate the mindset of the younger generation by fabricating and twisting our national history in a shrewd manner. The defeated forces knew that if the new generations, who have not witnessed the war of independence could be kept in the dark concerning our history of the liberation, one day they would be in a state of success. This speculation of the evil force has been deemed to be true to that extent that even in the independent Bangladesh the infamous identified collaborators and war criminals like Motiur Rahman Nizami and Ali Ahsan Mojaheed could elate themselves to the position of ministers in independent Bangladesh. Not only this, �there was no war criminal in 1971�, this recent comment of sedition nature has been uttered by the notorious war criminal Al Mojaheed and yet the government seems to be impotent in this regard!

As a nation we must be ashamed of the fact that as only after a few years of independence we have deviated from the very objectives of our war of liberation, which could have been driven forces for the overall development of the country. The valiant freedom fighters in 1971 sacrificed their lives not only just for achieving a mere nation state. Rather they dreamt of complete emancipation of the people of their Sonar Bangla in dignified ways. The Bangladesh as we are witnessing today is not keeping with the ambition of the freedom loving people of that time. In fact their ambition reflected in the spirits of independence which are depicted in the 1972 constitution as four firm columns namely, nationalism, democracy, socialism and secularism. The unfortunate distortion of these four columns has rotted the nation as a whole and so we are facing a severe crisis in the socio-political fabrics of the country.

Abandoning the much hated �two nation theory� in 1971, people of this land embraced the Bengali nationalism and secularism as basic mantras for the salvation. Irony is that being a valiant freedom fighter, Ziaur Rahman totally failed to foresee the implication of the reinvention of the two nation theory in disguise of �Bangladeshi nationalism� on the people of the country. It was the first sidr hit on the spirit of the independence and destroyed the first column of the constitution. Again, it was Zia, who divided the nation into pro-liberation and anti-liberation groups by legalising communal politics in Bangladesh for his own political interest. So, instead of secularism, as a nation, after a few years of our independence we have stepped into the realm of communalism again in our socio-political realm.

Many have claimed that in the independent Bangladesh, it was none but Bangabandhu had killed democracy and established authoritarian rule by introducing BAKSAL in 1975. Apparently this seems to be true. But this becomes half-true if we objectively analyse rationale behind introducing BAKSAL on his part. In fact, it could be argued that democracy loving Bangabandhu was bound to embrace authoritarian rule in accordance with the demand of the time. The very objective of BAKSAL was to establish socialism in the country, which was one of the major spirits of our war of liberation. Besides BAKSAL was formed in a democratic way through proper discussion in the parliament and most of the people of the country at that time including leading intellectuals, journalists and other professional group, as reported in the newspapers of that time unanimously congratulated BAKSAL. However, right now, no conclusive remark on BAKSAL is possible as it died at its infantile stage with the brutal killing of the father of the nation.

Socialism has been depicted as one of the vital driven forces for our war of liberation. Because at that time for the total economic emancipation, secularism was considered as the most powerful ideology. Though, at the present global context the term socialism has no appeal to many but in the context of our country this symbolises the economic emancipation of the people. However, we have also distorted this spirit of liberation by importing consumer driven and black money oriented economy in our country.

The post 1975 era failed to put the country on right democratic footings. In fact, from 1975 to 1990 the country was running under either direct or quasi military regimes. This is historically proven that no military regime in the world works for promoting true democracy. However, post 1990 could be golden era for practising true democracy in the country. But due to rising impact of communalism and terrorism, corruption ridden leadership and intolerance between two major political parties, the country failed to avail that opportunity.

The change in 1/11 has instigated rays of hope among some people of the country. Especially vibrant utterances of the army chief General M U Ahmed as well as the head of the interim government, Dr. Fakhrudding Ahmed on the issues of liberation war and war collaborators have prompted some to think that the country is now moving towards the right direction. But yet, most of the people are really confused. In fact what is the ultimate goal of this government is not clear to the people. However, if we want to see a real progress of the country, we have to start from the premise. Especially, it is a must to instil into the mindset of the new generations the spirit of the liberation. Then may be in near future, infusing the spirits of liberation in the new generations, the fresh leadership will be created to lead the country in a positive way.

Md. Anwarul Kabir is an educationist, working at the Computer Science Department, AIUB and a freelancewriter.