Neither students nor the masses who joined them in the political upheaval that reached its peak on August 5, could, perhaps, comprehend what they had done. That the entire nation owned August 5 and was ready to defend it at all costs was evident when people in every neighbourhood held all-night vigils to drive back robbers as the police fled their stations immediately after the fall of the past government. It was a case of total collapse of law and order. But the nation was united behind students to face any challenge to their independence and national sovereignty. The armed forces also rose to the occasion and stood beside the people.
Students managed road traffic in absence of traffic police and the people were with them heart and soul. Now the nation is facing another daunting crisis, the most devastating flash floods in the last 31 years inundating 11 north-eastern and south-eastern districts. About 5 million people are affected. Will the hardly three weeks old interim government of Dr Yunus be able to tide over this new crisis? But Dr Yunus and his team of advisers are not alone in meeting this new challenge. The whole nation is behind him. Whether natural or manmade, Bangladeshi people have shown in every case of past calamities their resilience against all odds. As always, such resilience is demonstrated through national unity. Consider the long queues of people with food, water, clothes, cash money at the TSC (Teacher-Student Centre) of the Dhaka University where some three thousand students of the anti-discrimination student have been busy collecting and packaging donated relief goods for the flood-stricken people. Notably, their relief goods collection started since August 21 following the heavy rainfall the days before in the Indian state of Tripura causing floods there. To make matters worse, in the face of building water pressure, the Dumbur dam on the Gumti river in Tripura was reportedly opened resulting in the sudden deluge in the downstream areas of Bangladesh. The student volunteers have also been coordinating the entire relief operation through their committees formed across the nation for the purpose. The energy of the nation's youth is now unleashed for the humanitarian cause of helping the flood-hit people. All such activities are taking place spontaneously without seeking any state support. So, the government can now plan, and it has already been doing so, how the yet bigger challenge of post-flood rehabilitation work could be met. On this score, the Chief Adviser, Dr Muhammad Yunus, on Saturday, August 24 met NGO leaders and stressed utilising their expertise as well as local knowledge (the experiences of the people in their centuries-long struggle against floods and other natural disasters) to carry out relief operation and post-flood rehabilitation in a coordinated fashion. At this point, he did not fail to bring to the notice of those present on the occasion the extraordinary scene at the TSC.
We also witnessed such concentration of youthful energy when they braved the bullets of the autocracy and brought about its downfall. But they would not have been able to achieve that had their brothers, sisters, parents, friends and neighbours not also joined them.
It is a kind of unity among the people that the nation saw during the Liberation War in 1971. So, it is not just accidental that people are calling August 5 as the day of second independence.
People, in the thick of street fights, skirmishes and brawls during what were later known as revolutions of the past, did not know they were becoming part of history. The famished Paris mob that stormed the Bastille fortress on July 14, 1789 did not know that their action would go down the history as one that would change the world. So were the working class women protesting against food shortages and high prices of bread in the streets of Petrograd (then-capital of Russia) on February 23, 1917 unware that they were part of revolution that not only changed the Russian, but the world history.
In fact, no revolution is ever planned. It happens. History later records it as a revolution. So, was what happened on August 5, 2024 a revolution? Being the part of the fast-changing events, it is not possible to grasp what the totality of it is looking like. Will it all reach a successful end?
Many revolutionary events in history did not end up in the expected way in the long run. The republican revolutions of 1848 in Europe, for instance, finally ended not with a bang but a whimper. So, did many others. This is how some historians would like to describe great social and political events of the past. Success or failure of a revolution is in the mind of the historian who narrates it. Revolutionary events, like storms, take place to bring about a radical change in the existing order of things.
The August 5 was such a revolutionary moment with the potential to change the oppressive structure of the state and governance. Hence was the outburst of protesting masses, whose energy was unleashed to destroy the existing order-the physical structures and the narratives of that oppressive order. So did a few instances of excesses were seen to have been committed to the chagrin of some cultured members of society. True, the people who bring about changes are in the thick of things. They have no scope to observe and analyse events from a distance and come up with a value judgement ---if those were good or bad!
But if excesses do not happen, that is anything but revolution. It is up to history to judge that.
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