Revisiting history to know meaning of the Victory Day

It is yet another Victory Day, the 53rd, today. It is the day to commemorate the final day that sealed the ultimate triumph of the nine-month-long war against the occupied force. It is the day that completed the emergence of sovereign Bangladesh on the sacrifice of three million lives along with the ultimate dishonour to 200,000 women. It is the day that finally accorded the pre-eminence of the unique culture and heritage of the Bengal delta. It is the day that upheld the undying aspiration of the people of this land to become the master of their own destiny. Thus, the day has etched a permanent niche in the nation's history.
A critical aspect of the day is to look back at the historical journey of the nation as well as the origin of the ancient land dating back to around 3,000 years ago. The civilisation on the land of Bengal thrived between the banks of the Ganges and Brahmaputra and prevailed with the resources of the Gangetic Delta. Remnants of the earliest settlements in the region date back to the Vedic Period. Mahasthangarh in Bogra is the oldest archaeological site in Bangladesh, dating back to 300 BCE. Historians and archaeologists mostly agreed that the culture and ethnicity of Bengal differed significantly from that of the Vedic people.
The non-Vedic, also referred to as non-Aryan, people lived in various ancient localities such as vanga, pundra, radha, gauda, samatata and harikela. The ancient inhabitants were mainly of Austric and, Austro-Asiatic and Dravidian origins. Later, the Aryans came to Bengal, although their influence and domination were much less in the land compared to their strong foothold in northwest India. Thus, a mixture of blood, race and culture developed as time passed. Nevertheless, the pre-Aryan elements are deeply rooted in the culture of Bengal. The inhabitants and their ancestors retained many of these elements in their lives and culture, differentiating the people of Bengal from those of other parts of Aryanise India.
Over the ages, the geographical boundary of ancient Bengal changed many times under different dynasties, namely Mauryas, Guptas, Gaudas (King Shashanka, to be precise), Pauls and Sens. Except for Pauls, who were Buddhists and ruled for four centuries, all other dynasties are Hindus. Muslim rules started after the fall of Sens, who were basically non-Bengali, in the early thirteenth century when Bakhtiyar Khalji, an Afghan-origin warrior, conquered the region. However, Muslim rulers in Bengal often revolted against the Delhi Sultanate and Mughal dynasties to establish independent rule. Their rule continued for around seven hundred years, with regular religious conversion from Hindus and Bhuddhas to Muslims. Oppressive caste and class system, originating from Aryan culture, among the Hindus, was a critical factor in this respect. The British took over Bengal in 1757 after the deceitful battle of Plassey, heralding the modern period of the land's history. Having a Muslim majority in the eastern part of the land, also named East Bengal and now Bangladesh, it gradually emerged as a separate territory in 1947 with the partition of India. In 1971, East Pakistan became the sovereign Bangladesh.
All these historical contexts and circumstances are critical to revisiting the ancient and medieval history of Bangla, especially when a section of revisionist historians try to craft distorted historical narratives. These historians, mainly in India with political patronage, are now rewriting many chapters of the history of ancient and medieval India and even erasing some chapters. Many critics and experts allege that the move is nothing but saffronisation of history, which means taking an extreme Hindutava approach to writing, reading and interpreting Indian historical events.
As the history of Bangladesh is significantly linked to many historical movements of the Indian subcontinent in the last 3,000 years or more, such revisionism also casts ominous shadows on the traditional history of Bengal. It is reflected in the revised version of some school textbooks in the country that sparked controversies. So, it is time to revisit the long history of Bangladesh with care and caution in order not to get trapped in the charlatanic narratives.

[email protected]