Remembering Maulana Bhashani

Today is the 40th death anniversary of Maulana Abdul Hamid Khan Bhashani. He died on November 17, 1976 in at the age of 96. Banglapedia records: "Bhashani was born in 1880 at village Dhanpara of Sirajganj district. His father was Haji Sharafat Ali Khan. Apart from a few years of education at the local school and madrasa, he did not receive much formal education. He began his career as a primary school teacher at Kagmari in Tangail and then worked in a madrasa at village Kala (Haluaghat) in Mymensingh district."  
Maulana Bhashani dedicated his life in the struggle for establishing a society free of exploitation, oppression and repression. As Wikipedia mentions: "In 1917, Bhashani was inducted into active politics and joined the Nationalist Party led by Desbandhu Chittaranjan Das as an activist. Inspired by Mohammed Ali, he joined the Indian National Congress in 1919. In 1920 he was arrested and imprisoned. After being released, he participated in the Khilafat movement. In 1921 he participated in Das' Non-Cooperation Movement against British imperialism. He suffered imprisonment for some days at that time along with his large numbers of followers. He joined the Muslim League in 1930. He was elected a MLA in Assam Legislative Assembly from Dhubri (South) constituency in 1937 and served till 1946. In April 1944 he was elected the president of (Assam) Muslim League at its Barpeta session where after he devoted himself to Pakistan movement."
Poor people from Bengal used to go to sparsely populated Assam to earn a living by cultivating land. At one stage in the 1930s the Assam government  introduced a so-called line-system, an arbitrary line of demarcation beyond which the Bengalee settlers were not allowed to move. Simultaneously, the  Assamese people started a movement to oust the Bengalee settlers from Assam which is known as  "Bangal Khedao" campaign. Maulana Bhashani took up the cause of the Bengalee settlers and built up a vigorous protest movement against the
"Bangal Khedao" hate campaign. He organised a big peasant rally at Bhashan Char on the Brahmaputra river. Henceforth he came to be known as the Maulana of Bhashan Char - Maulana Bhashani. At about that time the peasants of Santosh in Tangail appealed to the Maulana to save them from the oppression by their Zemindar. The Maulana moved to Santosh, built up a resistance movement and the Zeminder relented.
 In 1947, after partition of the Sub-continent, he started living at Santosh in Tangail district.
On June 23, 1949 Bhashani formed the first opposition party Awami Muslim League and became President of the central committee while Shamsul Hoque became the General Secretary. Ataur Rahman Khan and Abdus Salam Khan had been nominated as Vice-Presidents. Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman became Joint Secretary. In 1952, Maulana Bhashani became the convenor of all-party citizens' committee during the Language Movement and was arrested.
In 1954 Jukto Front was formed against Muslim League under the leadership of Sher-e-Bangla A.K. Fazlul Haque, Maulana Abdul Hamid Khan Bhasani and Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy. In the election of 1954 Jukto Front became the winners by a large margin. Meanwhile, differences of opinion developed between Bhashani and Suhrawardy and the former left the Awami League and formed the National Awami Party-NAP.
Maulana Bhashani led the historic 'Farakka Long March' on May 16, 1976 from Rajshahi to Sona Masjid at Chapainababganj in protest against the unilateral withdrawal of Ganges water by India through the Farakka barrage. Demonstrations   were all over the country.
Earlier, Maulana Bhashani sent a letter to Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in the last week of April, 1976. In the letter he reminded her that in 1971 the Indian army and the freedom fighters of Bangladesh liberated Bangladesh and wondered how India could now deprive Bangladesh of its legitimate share of Ganges water. The Indian Prime Minister sent a reply in a week's time. She did acknowledge the bond of relationship between Nehru family and Maulana Bhashani but did not give any definite comment on the water crisis.
The Farakka Long March served the cause national unity.
The writer is Chairman, National People's Party and Convenor, NDF.   
[email protected]