Today we observe the 38th birth anniversary of our People’s Republic. This post marks this occassion in two ways.
First, it notes ten milestone events in the preceding half century to that got us to 26 March 1971. History does not begin with the speeches and declarations of that month. Our Liberation War didn’t happen overnight, in a vacuum. We do ourselves an immense disservice if we fail to mark those events.
Then it updates a 2-year old list by Rumi Ahmed. The list compiles achievements that, written from the vantage point of a quarter century ago, would seem fantastically optimistic. And yet, everything in that list is true.
We have beaten the odds many times. And we will continue to do so. Tomorrow will be a better day.
10 seminal events of the half century to 1971, in chronological order.
1. 1 July 1921 – Dhaka University founded.
2. 16 December 1923 – CR Das, leader of the Bengal Congress Party, formulates Bengal Pact. It was an agreement between Hindu and Muslim leaders of Bengal to institute majority rule and affirmative actions for Muslims. The pact failed, largely because of the foot dragging by the Congress after Das died.
3. 1 April 1937 – Fazlul Huq becomes the first Prime Minister of Bengal after his Krishak Praja Party wins a plurality of seats in general election.
4. 14-15 August 1947 – It was our tryst with destiny too, and we too felt the pains of partition.
5. 21 February 1952.
6. 7 October 1958 – Isqander Mirza and Ayub Khan declare martial law to ’save the country from misrules of corrupt politicians’. Hopefully we will never see another such rescue mission.
7. April-May 1961 – Pakistan government’s attempts to ban Bangla Naba Barsha and Tagore’s 100th birthday spark a cultural rennaissance.
8. September 1965 – India-Pakistan War, our taxes pay for their war while we are left undefended.
9. January 1969 – the revolution that we have forgotten. Hundreds of thousands of people marches to the cantoment where Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was being tried for the Agartala Conspiracy Case. Asad’s bloodstained shirt becomes an instant icon.
10. December 1970 – Awami League wins as clear a mandate as possible in a democratic election.
And 10 events that would have seemed impossible in the early 1980s, and yet came true.
- Doubling of per capita income in a generation.
- Bangladesh trying to reach the semifinals of world cup cricket.
- Nearly 50% of adult population carrying a mobile phone device and will actively SMS each other from most of the remotest villages.
- The majority of urban middle class owning a family motor vehicle.
- A majority of youngsters with access to internet.
- A dozen or more private TV and radio channels, all beaming 24 hour of quality news and entertainment.
- Bangladesh being one of the countries with highest number of vernacular newspapers published online. Bangladeshis all over the world will be hooked to 24 hours of live programming and online newspapers.
- Bangladeshis being one of the fastest growing immigrant communities in North America, Europe, and Australia. One is hardly able to walk a New York / Toronto / London / Rome / Sydney street without bumping into a Bangladeshi.
- Military forcing a change in government only to go back to barrack, accepting the results of a democratic election.
- He (and we) would be what he is (we are) now.
Independence day thought — A provincial state within a federal structure is better than a sattelite state. BD is a failed experiment. If we return to India as the province of Eastern Bengal, we would grow at a much faster Indian growth rate of 9.8 percent and all our institutional ills will be tackled by the far more educated and experienced hindu educated classes that are basically more honest and patriotic than us. There can be no better thought of independence on this day of our independence than to relinquish our independence. Islam is a liability to be reckoned with and we do not want Islam to be our permanent disability.
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Brothers A-A-A Reply:
March 27th, 2009 at 8:59 am
Hmm. I wonder how people would have reacted if someone were to write a comment like ‘Bangla is a drawback and we should return to Pakistan’.
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Udayan Reply:
March 27th, 2009 at 8:39 pm
I had assumed that was a sarcastic post. Or written under a pseudonym. Perhaps no-one has responded as it was not to be taken seriously.
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Jyoti,
What are the sources of your knowing the following ‘events’?
– The majority of urban middle class owning a family motor vehicle.
– Majority of youngsters with access to internet.
What I worry most these days is this that the road to development for Bangladesh, in a PEACEFUL way / without BLOODSHED, is getting narrower and narrower, if not already closed practically(???). The widening spread of terrorism / violence in India, even after more than 60 years of elected rule and increasing influence of the ‘harijans’ / ‘Dalits’, is a must to ponder about. What do you think about all these, fellow bloggers? I think its high time, if not already late, to think about these things and get to a conclusion, if we really want to change Bangladesh qualitatively, not quantitatively.
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Ameen on qualitative change. not decontextualised UNspeak.
majority of youngsters on the internet?
oh dear oh dear. this list cant be your making jyoti. it makes me want to eat my face. in the 80s i suspect only a few nuclear physicists used an internet, nobody predicted it. Bangladeshi society was not active in moulding that technology, we’ve become a market for it… because we love to talk.
i dont understand change 2.10.
Hundreds of Adarsho Grams for the landless.
Tista Barrage demonstrating potential engineering capabilities.
LGED’s rural roads connecting people and places.
Larger amount of schooling, realisation of its benefits.
Realisation that development dollars are rubbish.
Hyder Husyn.
Pseudo decentralisation of the adminstration.
strengthening of religiousity in some parts of nonhungry society.
for 10 years time..
Maybe people will be able to wake up to a decent mature newspaper.
To a government that cares more about its people aspiration than some dumb loan condition.
A political culture where real , tuned ideas can form and be translated by organisations without reliance on duffer ideas and funds from white powers.
An intelligensia fluent with religions and people.
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Jyoti Bhai, thank you for a great post. Thank you for reminding us that we are the heirs of a proud political tradition.
Birthdays are a time for introspection, and for thinking about the way forward. Happy birthday to all of us.
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Fug, amen to your wishes.
Fug/Ahbab, the 2nd list was compiled by Rumi bhai. The link to his original post wasn’t working before. Fixed now.
Ahbab, I don’t have any data to back up those things. But they don’t sound far fetched. In 2007, there were over 100,000 registered passenger vehicles (cars, 4wds, motor bikes), a five-fold increase since 1995. I don’t know how we can measure ‘urban middle class’, but the essence of Rumi bhai’s point — most urban middle class having access to family vehicle today, whereas this wasn’t even dreamt of in the 1980s — doesn’t seem unreasonable. As for the internet point, again, don’t have any data. But there are 43 million sims used in Bangladesh, most net compatible, and is pretty cheap. Plus there are net cafes even in places like Sitakundu and Jamalpur.
On your point about the peaceful path to development being blocked, the story is more complicated than one might think. On the one hand, it is definitely the case that we have seen a widening wealth gap between haves and have nots. But this is only half the story. Look at the haves. Most wealthy Bangladeshis today (successful professionals/businessmen or corrupt politician/bureaucrat or whatever) has a relative in the rural heart of Bangladesh, and scratch the surface, and most of us have our roots in the rice fields.
The last few generations (starting from the first quarter of 20th century, boosted by partition, and fully blooming after liberation) have seen a lot of former have nots becoming haves. This is something often overlooked in our collective moaning and ha hutash. The question really is, will today’s have nots get the same chance that the parents of today’s haves did? Or more importantly, do today’s have nots believe that their future will be better?
If the answer is ‘yes’, then peaceful path to development is not blocked. If the answer is ‘no’, then we have a problem.
My personal observation — which is not substitute for any rigorous survey (but then, no one has done one, so it’s not like I can be proved wrong) — is that the have not overwhelmingly believes in the possibility of a better tomorrow. The lady who works as a bua today is sending her daughter to school so that she can learn and get a job in a factory. The guy who is working as a helper in the local garriage is saving money to buy to open his own shop someday. I look at these and I don’t see class war and revolution, I see the spirit of liberty and unbound Prometheus.
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Amen! Great post and counter-comment, Jyoti!
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Bangladesh is the only country that fought a War of Independence against an invading conventional army and won it. Very few of us remember the hundreds of thousands of our ordinary fellow countrymen who laid down their lives to liberate the country.
We must not forget the innocent and brave sons of the soil lost on the 25th of March night genocide perpetrated by the savage Pakistani army.
We must not forget for a moment the native collaborators of the barbarian Pakistani army who killed millions during the nine month long War. They must be tried and prosecuted according to the law of the land.
We are a resilient nation. We have shown our resolve to move ahead in spite of natural and man-made disasters.
Bangladesh now has the strongest democracy in place since independence. It is only quality leadership that is needed to take Bangladesh to prosperity and progress in the next ten years.
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Jyoti,
I think the pivotal point, facing Bangladesh, is not that of haves vs. have nots. I do not wish to insinuate class struggle either, here. I think it is, rather, the rampant double standard, i.e., application of one policy for one or a few and another for the majority, which is alarmingly threatening to tear apart the socio-political fabric in Bangladesh.
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jyoti Reply:
March 26th, 2009 at 10:20 am
Yes. Agree with that observation. Dhaka is a very angry city.
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Ahbab Aziz Reply:
March 26th, 2009 at 1:22 pm
I think not only Dhaka, the whole Bangladesh, ala India and other pseudo-democratic countries, is simmering with anger, borne out of the omnipresent injustice and double standard, and this anger is spreading slowly but surely with every passing day.
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On this day, my respect to all who gave their life for the motherland. I found following write up in the paper. Worth reading.
http://www.dailynayadiganta.com/fullnews.asp?News_ID=136175&sec=6
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On this great day, a great reminder that we shall overcome all the darkness and we will.
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Bangladesh is the only postcolonial country to gain independence through a successful liberation war. We may be a fractious nation but we can also make the improbable happen. I do wish to shout out something but without any partisan link but will all the ardor and intensity of our dynamic birth: Joi Bangla.
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Ashraf Hossain Reply:
March 26th, 2009 at 6:45 pm
Akash,
What else can I say, thanks a lot.
A Freedom Fighter in Exile
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I agree with Abul Kashem. Most Bangladeshi politicians, businessmen and other members of the ruling classes are only interested in privatizing their gains and socializing their losses with the poor people, thereby keeping the country backward and underdeveloped indefinitely. We are much better off being a part of India as proposed.
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[...] the occasion of the 38th birth anniversary of Bangladesh, Unheard Voice lists 10 remarkable events for pre-independence and post independence eras each. Cancel this [...]
Well here’s a few of the things I wish to see in the next 38 years myself. If a few of these sound like fug’s list, well that’s because it was partly “inspired” by it. If people find too much of a Muslim flavour to it, well, that’s the mileu I grew up in.
§ Laws that allow and protect the right of women – the other 50% of Bangladesh – to inheritances equal to that of their brothers or other male family members.
§ Literacy rates close to 100%
§ A country where violence to settle disputes is such a major exception that the party in power apologises to the people for any violent act by any of its affiliated wings.
§ A political religious culture where real , tuned ideas can form and be translated by organisations without reliance on duffer ideas and funds from white Arab powers.
§ In the same vein: a day when Bangladeshi Muslims have no doubts that turning towards Riyadh, Manama or Doha is very different from turning towards Makkah. AKA Strengthening of religiosity in some parts of religious society.
§ No ministry/department for expatriate affairs because all Bangladeshis abroad are given rapid assistance by the Foreign Ministry through our incredibly efficient embassy staff abroad and, besides, Bangladeshis don’t migrate as much anyway because of the flourishing employment opportunities at home.
§ Bangladesh is known around the world as a pioneer in the widespread use of non-fossil fuel based energy – whether renewable or not. (This is not a global warming concern.)
§ Universal laughter greets any overt or covert attempt at military rule because everyone knows that that is not how we do it in Bangladesh. The protagonists behind such a move resign immediately to write Humayun Ahmed-style farces, and are never given book deals/newspaper space to write about truth commissions and food security.
§ A religious intelligentsia fluent with religion and the people instead of giving themselves up to “culture wars” rhetoric – e.g. the imam of the local mosque gave a khutba at the jumma prayers before February 14th against Valentine’s day. Not once have I heard him talk about the open garbage dump in front of the entrance to his mosque, which probably cause more harm than some weird pink day.
§ Bangladeshis, regardless of religion, race, class are allowed to travel through/walk into the areas/buildings their tax money builds for those who rule and protect them, be it the Shongshod Bhobon, Cantonment, Pilkhana or Secretariat.
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