Maulana Bhashani: The lighthouse of a nation\'s journey to emancipation

Maulana Abdul Hamid Khan  Bhashani returned to Bangladesh from exile on January 22, 1972. It was not a very pleasant and colourful home-coming amid resounding applause. But for a student of contemporary history of Bangladesh politics it was no less significant a day as evident from the past and subsequent course of events.
As regards the past, one can genuinely compare it with a situation when a sailor of a ship in a dark and tempestuous journey looks forward for directions from a lighthouse far away, same is a nation that follows the footprints and proper guidance of its illustrious leaders in their quest for national emancipation. Maulana Bhashani is one such great leader of the Bengali nation. Covering a period of the last half a century of the British rule along with another three decades following thereafter, the man who stood like a robust banyan tree against all the storms and turbulences, terror and torture on the people of the eastern part of the lower Gangetic region, was none but Maulana Bhashani.
As I write a few words about Maulana Bhashani, I remember some comments of the famous Indian CPM leader Mr. Hare Krishna Konar on Maulana Bhashani, which I gathered from a write-up of Mr. Haider Akbar Khan Rano, a prominent CPB leader. Konar remarked, “The people of East Bengal, and the left progressive forces there in particular, are very fortunate, because they got all-out co-operation and guardianship of a great leader like Maulana Bhashani.”  
Bhashani can be compared with Dr. Sun  Yat-sen, the great nationalist leader of China. But it is a matter of great regret and disgrace on the part of left progressive forces here that they could not make best use of it. Their own petty factional feuds in the one hand and wrong theoretical dogma, and above all, their blind imitation with slavish camp-following practice, on the other hand, made them so much obsessed that they could not evaluate Maulana Bhashani in the true perspective. Taking advantage of the tremendous influence and mass popularity of Maulana Bhashani, they could have organised and stirred the cause of national emancipation of the people and achieve a ‘New Democratic People’s Republic of East Bengal’, but they miserably failed to do so.
KAGMARI CONFERENCE: It was Maulana Bhashani who first raised the voice of protest against the autocratic Pakistani ruling class, who were engaged in extortion, exploitation, deception and repression of all kinds done to the people of East Bengal. From the rostrum of the historic Kagmari Conference at Tangail he bade farewell to the West Pakistani rulers as early as in 1957 with his famous pinching and hard-hitting utterance of ‘Assalamu Alaikum’ to them. Some people at that time were rather critical about Bhashani’s role in upholding the just cause of the Bengali nation. They did not hesitate even to dub him as the ‘paid agent of India’. In response to his demand for full autonomy of East Bengal they even said that 98 per cent autonomy had already been given to the people of East Bengal.   
What a pity that the banner of autonomy and nationalism was taken away by others from the hands of Maulana Bhashani and his followers due to the inaction and confusion of the latter.  In a wry pensive tune we can only sing today the immortal hymn of poet Tagore:  O Lord, whomsoever you give your banner, give him due strength and acumen to carry it forward. ( ????? ????? ???? ???, ???? ??????? ??? ????? ) I believe, the lack of correct assessment of the pulse of the people by the left progressive forces pushed them to attach paramount importance to class struggle, totally ignoring the national question.  But historically it was the responsibility of the left progressive forces and the working class party to combine and coordinate the national question and class question together and carry forward the national liberation struggle to its logical conclusion and achieve inevitable victory fighting from the forefront. Unfortunately, things took a different turn.
The left followed the wrong and perverse ideas of Charu Mazumdar with unprecedented zeal and engaged themselves in annihilation of the class enemies.    
SIX-POINT AND 11-POINT MOVEMENTS: On the other side of the national scenario, Six-point movement was fizzling out to a great extent at that time. It could not gather momentum as such. Dictator Ayub could crush the movement with ruthless torture and repression. Almost all the senior leaders of the Awami League were put behind the bar. A total lull engulfed the entire political arena. An uncanny feeling of eeriness and silence prevailed everywhere. In a situation like that Maulana Bhashani came forward with all his boldness and charisma. It was December 08, 1968. A red letter day in the history of the Bengali nation in its quest for national liberation. When a total frustration, inertia and suffocation halted all moves ahead it was Maulana Bhashani who broke through the curtain of darkness and political lull, pronouncing his historic declaration to march ahead towards the Lat Bhaban (Governor House) from a public meeting at the Paltan Maidan.                         
This resulted in inevitable skirmishes and clashes of the masses with the police and the law-enforcement authorities. The unrelenting leader did not falter, but joined a huge assembly at Baitul Mukarram mosque to offer his prayers followed by a brief, fiery speech where he declared a day-long general strike against the Ayub Regime the next day, on  December 07. It was a complete hartal on that day. Indeed, it was the first bell of downfall of the 10-year-long tyrannical regime of General Ayub Khan.
The rejuvenated vigour of the long suppressed people was now untamable.  The 11-point movement of the students and the 6-point movement of the Awami League gained a much needed momentum. We, who were at the nucleus of the 11-point movement, witnessed with awe and admiration, how the undaunted and unyielding leadership of Maulana Bhashani animated the whole nation into its quest for fundamental rights. He was a saint who walked through the dark paths of oppression and tyranny of the regime, being himself the ray of hope to liberty. The saga following those events is a synthesis of promises and despairs, of gains and losses. On one side, the mass upsurge against the military ruling class of Pakistan reached its zenith and on the other side, the leftist progressive forces failed to hold the reins, thereby lagging behind those high-paced turn of events.
The year 1969 witnessed a dramatic sequel of events in the political arena of East Pakistan. On January 05, the All-party Students Action Committee signed the historic declaration of 11-point movement, which was formally presented before a largely attended students’ meeting at the Bat Tala of Dhaka University on January 10. The 11-point movement incorporated all the points raised in the 6-point movement initiated by the Awami League, leaving the East Pakistan Students League no excuse to remain aloof from the united students’ movement on the plea that the 6-point has not been given due importance in the agenda.  On the other side, both factions of the East Pakistan Students Union put one of their main agenda – Anti Pak-American Arms Pact – on focus, along with key demands of the working  class people. The entire city of Dhaka thundered at the plebeian demands of justice and sovereignty, fuelled by well-organised meetings, rallies and demonstrations. It was in one of those rallies, on  January 20, Vice-President of Students Union, Asaduzzaman, much respected amongst his fellow comrades, was shot dead by the police on the Dhaka University campus. An ardent follower of Maulana Bhashani,  Asaduzzaman had led only a few days ago a successful campaign championing peasants’ rights at Hatirdia, Narshingdi District at the call of Hat-Hartal by Maulana Bhashani. Being subjected to brutal and indiscriminate baton charge of police, he was compelled to return to Dhaka as an ailing patient. It was the death of Asad which set ablaze the whole nation and the people rose in revolt against the state machinery.  Fuel was added to the inferno when the Nabakumar High School student, Matiur, was  shot dead by the police, on  January 24, resulting in unimaginable mass upsurge against the autocratic regime. The whole administration seemed to have collapsed. The elites and the business houses panicked in those dire situations.
THE PROPHET OF VIOLENCE: Maulana Bhashani carried on his meetings, rallies and processions. He roared: “Some will eat; some would not; cannot be so; must not be let it be so. Set fire; set fire to this tyrannical throne”. ( ??? ???? ?? ??? ???? ??, ?? ??? ??, ?? ??? ??? ?????? ?????? ???? ??????, ??????????? ???? ???? ?????? ???, ?????? ???? )  Literally, the whole nation was on fire. Nothing was spared – the residences of Ministers and Justices engaged in the so-called Agartala Conspiracy Case were special targets and, indeed, many who belonged to the reactionary classes got scared. The international media started calling Maulana Bhashani the “Prophet of Violence”.
On February 16, Maulana Bhashani demanded withdrawal of the Agartala Conspiracy case and immediate release of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman failing which the walls of Dhaka Cantonment would be demolished to get him free. In the meantime, President Ayub called a Round Table Conference (RTC) at Rawalpindi with all the political leaders of the country for coming to a solution of the political impasse prevailing in the country. Maulana Bhashani rejected the proposition outright. Awami League also refused to join the RTC without Sheikh Mujib. Ayub slightly relented and agreed to release Sheikh Mujib on parole to facilitate  his participation in the RTC. But the greatest impediment to this was created by the All-Party Students Action Committee. We said that Mujib can go to the RTC only as a free citizen. Anything short of that will not be acceptable to the student community. I still remember, a prominent Awami League leader at that time Khondokar Mushtaque Ahmed invited us to his residence at Aga Mosih Lane. Saifuddin Manik, Tofael Ahmed, Mahbubul Haque Dulon and myself went to know his viewpoint. He put forward many arguments and justification for Mujib’s joining the RTC on parole and his advice to us was not to jeopardise the move. We came back but remained firm to our stand. The future course of history proved the correctness of our stand.  
At that time, Maulana Bhashani made a long and hectic tour throughout the entire Western part of Pakistan addressing mammoth public meetings everywhere, with clarion call to rise against the autocratic regime of Ayub Khan. In this long tour he was highly acclaimed and supported everywhere, although some little dissenting voices was raised sporadically in some places. One such place was Shahiwall Railway Station where a fundamentalist group  demonstrated against Maulana Bhashani. But they were ultimately repulsed by the general masses of the people.
Reaching Lahore, Maulana decided to hold a press conference. The members of his entourage advised him not to do so. They argued that throughout the whole country and the world at large he had already been depicted as the Prophet of Violence. In a press conference he would have to face many unpleasant questions in this regards. It will be very difficult to answer these and satisfy the press. Maulana’s instant reply was that he knew how to face a hostile Press.
I wonder what self-confidence, adroitness and promptness he displayed on that occasion while replying to the questions of the journalists. Quoting a couplet from the poet Allama Iqbal, he said that all these he had learned from the teachings of the great son of their soil. The couplet was:
“ Jis khet se dahkan ko muassar na ho roti
Usi khet ki har khosha-e gandam ko jala do, jala do”  
(The cornfield which cannot provide a meal to the peasant/ Burn down, burn down, every grain of corn of that field.)
He also said that there cannot be any understanding and peace between the exploiters and the exploited, between the oppressor and the oppressed, between the persecutor and the persecuted. He said that he had no faith in such a philosophy.
After a long tour in the then West Pakistan Maulana Bhashani returned to Dhaka on March 24, 1969 and landed at the old Kurmitola Airport. A massive reception was awaiting him organised by the NAP, East Pakistan Sramik Federation, East Pakistan Peasant Association, East Pakistan Students Union and other left-oriented mass organisations. A special mention about the militant workers of Tongi industrial zone has to be made here. They came to the airport chanting slogans for Sramik Raj, Krishak Raj which they learned recently from different rallies of Maulana Bhashani. They came in large numbers – they came from far and near to see their saviour. They came with their red caps on the heads and red flags in their hands. They flooded the entire area with their leaders Kazi Zafar Ahmed and Haider Akbar Khan Rano at the forefront. I recollect Maulana Bhashani was seated on a chair strongly fastened on the roof a truck flanked by Mahbubullah and myself on each side. We proceeded towards the Central Shaheed Minar where Maulana Bhashani delivered a historic, rather, prophetic speech. Bhashani said: There cannot be any election under Ayub Khan; he has to resign forthwith. We don’t accept his constitution. We shall tear it into pieces.
And in reality, we witnessed that no election under Ayub Khan had taken place in Pakistan. The next day Ayub resigned and Martial Law was promulgated throughout the whole country on March 25, 1969. General Yahya took over power from him.             
THE LIBERATION WAR: For long two years after the promulgation of martial law the nation witnessed many a breathtaking events where each and every citizen of the country was direct or indirect participant. There is no scope to go into elaborate description of those affairs in this write-up. Still, I want to keep on record that the declaration of LFO (Legal Framework Ordinance) and general election under that Ordinance in 1970, devastating tornado and cyclone on November 12, 1970, visit of Maulana Bhashani to the affected areas and his subsequent public meeting at Paltan Maidan where he lambasted the ruling class  of Pakistan for not visiting the devastated places and the distressed people of East Pakistan, and the landslide victory of the Awami League in the election with tacit support and blessing of Maulana Bhashani are important landmarks in the annals of Bangladesh. All these episodes must not be forgotten. The followers of Maulana Bhashani today should come forward to evaluate him in the right perspective of history and project him as the ‘Lighthouse’ of our journey to liberation.          
During the nine months of the liberation war Maulana Bhashani was unfortunately kept in virtual internment. He and his followers were not allowed to play their due role in the liberation struggle. Nevertheless, defying all the impediments and harassments, restrictions and embargoes his followers met in a conference on June 02, 1971 at a school building at north Beleghata in Kolkata and formed the Bangladesh Jatiya Mukti Sangram Samonnay Committee (Bangladesh National Liberation Struggle Coordination Committee) with Maulana Bhashani as its Chairman. Sree Barada Bhusan Chakravarty, a famous NAP leader from Dinajpur, presided over the conference. Present, among others, in the conference were the representatives of NAP Bhashani, Communist Revolutionaries Coordination Committee led by Zafar-Menon-Rano, Communist Party of East Bengal led by Deben-Bashar, Communist Workers’ Sangha, Hatiar Group, Revolutionary Students Union, Bangla Students Union, Peasants Association and Workers Federation. The Coordination Committee was headed by Maulana Bhashani, in absentia. This was a very significant matter at that particular moment as he was interned. Where he has kept was also unknown to us. That his followers got united to take part in the national liberation struggle in spite of all these hurdles, created a sensation among the patriotic left forces everywhere; it aroused them with new hopes and aspirations.        
POST-LIBERATION BANGLADESH: In the post-liberation Bangladesh it was Maulana Bhashani who first raised the voice of protest against the rampant loot and smuggling, corruption and extortion, terror and torture which became the order of the day. Not only that. Every dissenting views was branded as Naxalite to suppress the voice of the opposition, and it was declared that Naxals would be shot at sight. Maulana Bhashani instantaneously challenged this unfair and unlawful declaration. At a public meeting at Paltan Maidan, he warned the authorities: “Naxal is not written on anybody’s forehead.” He also said this kind of declaration would only give rise to state-terrorism and total anarchy in the country. His forebodings came true. The white terror unleashed by the then JRB (Jatiya Rakkhi Bahini) created nationwide panic and suffocation. At that moment Maulana Bhashani was the only ray of hope for the innumerable youths of the country who could not dance to the tune of the ruling party.  
He raised his voice against Indian hegemonism and economic exploitation. He  led in 1976 the historic Farakka Long March in protest against the unilateral diversion of water from Indo-Bangla common river of the Ganges. It shook the world conscience when thousands of people assembled at Kansat, very near to the Indian border. He wrote a letter to the Indian Prime Minister, Mrs. Indira Gandhi, in whiche he said, “Your letter of May 04, 1976 is but a repetition of the official version of Farakka issue which I did not expect from you as grand-daughter of Pandit Motilal Nehru and daughter of Pandit Jawharlal Nehru, your illustrious ancestors. You yourself always fought for establishing democratic rights of the deprived people ensuring justice in all spheres. I am extremely grateful to you and the great people of India for assistance during our liberation struggle. About Farakka, I repeat my request to you to visit the northern districts of Bangladesh and assess the extent of damage caused to our agriculture and industrial production.”
Things took too many twists and turns after that. Everyday, every moment since then the water-sharing question of many other Indo-Bangla common rivers got more and more uncertain and complicated. After Farakka Project, India is contemplating to divert the water of Brahmaputra, constructing a barrage at Tipaimukh. At the same time India is delaying the formal signing of Teesta water-sharing agreement on this or that pretext. In every case, India is giving a leap service only to the rightful share of water for Bangladesh saying that nothing detrimental to the interest of Bangladesh would be done ever. But where is that thunderous voice of protest against all these unfriendly deeds?
Who will shout khamosh from the Paltan Maidan today? Who will declare an all-out struggle to establish a true democratic government conducive to the national interest and sovereignty? How long will this nation have to wait for a Bhashani again – I do not know. Our ‘Lighthouse’ during national disasters is no longer there to show us the correct path. His absence is felt by the entire nation at the deepest corner of the heart.    

The writer, a former minister, was a leader of the All-party Students Action Committee   of 1969.
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