A Preface to bengali nationhood
Prof Dr Mijanur Rahman
Bangabandhu's speeches were always
spontaneous and undrafted. He would never read out the text of a speech written
earlier. "When Sheikh Mujib's speeches would not be written beforehand,
those could not be put in writing either," said sociologist Sardar Fazlul
Karim.
Numerous articles and several books
have already been written on Bangabandhu's March 7 speech that has earned a
distinguished place among the world's greatest speeches of all time. This
particular speech by Bangabandhu has even made it to "We Shall Fight on
the Beaches: The Speeches That Inspired History" -- a compilation of the
most impactful speeches between 431 BC and 1987 AD. The title of the book,
compiled by Jacob F Field, has been taken from the famous speech by the then
British prime minister Winston Churchill during the World War II. The book ends
with "Tear down this wall!" speech by the then US president Ronald
Reagan in 1987. Bangabandhu's historic speech titled "The struggle this
time is the struggle for independence" can be found on Page 201 of the
223-page book.
As much as it is true that the
speech in its documented form has now made an indelible mark in the political
history of the world, it is also undeniable that by reading the speech or the
analyses on it, one may realise its significance but can never grasp the
essence of the true Bangabandhu in it. Let's say Bangabandhu's March 7 speech
was drafted beforehand. According to her daughter Sheikh Hasina, "Abba
[Father] had a cold that day. I rubbed Vicks [anti-cold ointment] on his
forehead and chest. He was lying in bed under a sheet." Let's imagine his
cold turned worse and he caught fever, so much so that he barely could talk.
Bangabandhu had no way to go to the Race Course Ground [now Suhrawardy Udyan]
which was already teeming with people. He then had the text of the speech sent
to the venue and got someone else to read it out to the people. Had it been so,
how would the speech have sounded? Without Bangabandhu, the March 7 speech is
unthinkable. "Bhaiyera amar [My dear brothers]" -- could anyone other
than Bangabandhu himself articulate these apparently simple words in such an
emphatic way? It was Bangabandhu's presence at that very juncture of time and
his own voice behind the speech that made the address one of the greatest in
the world history.
Lincoln's presence was not a must
at the dedication of the unionist soldiers' national cemetery in Gettysburg on
November 19, 1863. Senator Edward Everett was the main speaker there. Everett's
two-hour speech was followed by Lincoln's and it lasted only two minutes.
Martin Luther King Jr delivered the "I Have a Dream" speech on August
28, 1963 at a programme addressed by the leaders of 20 more organisations
involved in the American Civil Rights Movement. His speech was written. Toward
the end of the speech, King, prompted by singer Mahalia Jackson, departed from
his prepared text for a partly improvised peroration on the theme "I have
a dream". It would not have mattered much if someone else, other than
Churchill, had delivered the "We shall fight on the beaches" speech
on June 4, 1940. Since taking the office of the British prime minister on May
10 in 1940, Churchill in fact had given four speeches on the same issue at the
House of Commons of the UK Parliament till June 18 that year. But that the
March 7 speech in 1971 would have to be delivered by Bangabandhu was a
historical necessity.
Bangabandhu is the great man, as
described in the book titled "Bhobishshoter Bangalee" by S Wajed Ali,
whom the Bengalis were waiting for and who would lead them to a dignified way
of life.
It was announced on March 1 that
Bangabandhu would address a rally at the Race Course Ground on March 7 and
would announce the subsequent programmes. The flag of an independent Bangladesh
was hoisted on March 2 and the manifesto of independence was read out a day
later. According to Sardar Fazlul Karim, "A man cannot just appear out of
nowhere and claim, 'I am your leader'. Nor can others accept it in their hearts
and say, 'Yes, you are our leader'. Only an armed man can become a leader by
force, something not possible for an unarmed individual." Bangabandhu is
both a creator of history and a creation of it. Only he could create history
with one sentence -- "The history of the Bengalis is a history of
colouring the roads with the Bengali blood." It was only Bangabandhu who
could create an epic with a single remark -- "You won't be able to
suppress the seven crore people."
Syed Manzoorul Islam, an English
literature student of Dhaka University back then, was working as an interpreter
for a foreign journalist at the rally venue. He was instantaneously translating
what Bangabandhu was saying. After listening to the translation for a while,
the journalist asked Manzoorul Islam to stop. Though the pressman had no
knowledge about Bengali, he started listening to the speech very carefully.
"From his facial expressions, it seemed as if he could understand every
word, as if Bangabandhu were delivering the speech in English, not in
Bengali," Manzoorul Islam would later say. Before leaving the venue, he
asked the journalist what could happen next. "Get ready," the
journalist replied.
Bangabandhu did not stop after
saying that the struggle was for independence. He rather went on to add,
"The struggle this time is the struggle for liberation." Even in the
face of an imminent war, he was aware of the need for a struggle for
emancipation. The word 'independence' came up in his speech only once but
'liberation' or 'emancipation' was used quite a few times -- "The people
of Bengal now wants liberation", "People of this country will taste
economic, political and cultural emancipation", "Until my country is
liberated", "We will liberate the people of this country,
Insha-Allah", and in the end, "The struggle this time is the struggle
for liberation; the struggle this time is the struggle for independence."
The struggle for emancipation is
much more significant than that for independence. People cannot feel the
essence of liberation even after the end of the rule of a foreign country until
they achieve economic and social emancipation. Our struggle for independence
ended in 1971. The Bengalis for the first time in their millennia-old history
got a sovereign country of their own. The newborn country had only started
taking its baby-steps towards economic and social emancipation when it suffered
a major setback -- the assassination of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh
Mujibur Rahman on August 15, 1975. The history then started taking a backward
course, one that could not be stopped yet, especially in the societal context.
We were far more liberal in our views even in the 1940s than we now are. The
society, at least a significant part of it, was not so much wrought with
fanaticism and intolerance as it is now. It's true that we are sprinting ahead
in the economic context. We are likely to become a middle-income country by
2021 and a developed one by 2041. But will we be able to achieve the kind of
emancipation Bangabandhu had dreamt of? He had said, "Those who live in
this land -- Hindus, Muslims, Bengalis and non-Bengalis alike -- are our
brothers. It is your responsibility to protect them. Make sure we uphold our
image."
It's time we started thinking how
we through our collective efforts can build a multidimensional and pluralistic
society. Liberation is more powerful, more significant than freedom. By
liberation, Bangabandhu had meant emancipation from all sorts of deprivation,
discrimination, exploitation, meanness, bigotry and spiritual depravity. His
daughter Sheikh Hasina is now leading us in the struggle for liberation. But it
is a struggle that never ends, never stops, for people by nature strive
relentlessly for furthering their liberation, for solidifying their
achievements and for safeguarding their emancipation.
Writer
Vice-Chancellor of Jagannath University, Dhaka
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