Bangladesh was not born with a silver spoon in her mouth. She was
born of a nine-month long bloody battle, a concrete and substantive
armed combat with the occupation forces of Pakistan in 1971. She has
earned her independence by fierce fighting, not by compromise solutions
or peace negotiations.
All these are the facts of recorded history. But
some of our people, who have no sense of history, or who want to make
mischief again after ‘71, try to twist the facts of the Independence War
to promote vested interests. They tend to look askance even at the hard
facts of the war, put an entirely different construction on its
motives, call the undisputed things into question, and make a mountain
out of a molehill.
The first thing they cast aspersions on is who really were involved
in the Liberation War of 1971. They hold this assumed idea that it was
fought between Pakistan and India, and Bangladesh was made a scapegoat
for the long-borne rivalry between these two belligerent countries of
the subcontinent. They argue that India came to help Bangladesh as a
snake in the grass, and profited more than Bangladesh by fighting and
winning the war. What Bangladesh gained was not worth the candle. They
shed crocodile tears for Bangladesh, and keep smelling a rat in India’s
relations with Bangladesh.
It is, however, not a spur-of-the-moment idea. It’s rather the part
of a deliberate propaganda campaign. The exponents of this queer theory
must have a far-reaching cause at the back of their mind. They are
trying to give currency to this grotesque idea at such a time when the
war criminals are standing trial, and the whole nation is supporting it
except for a few of their blind followers and staunchest allies.
So, while the whole gamut of the fundamentalist politics in
Bangladesh is going through a sticky patch, and the marked war criminals
are languishing in prison, their hired hands are trying to clutch at
straws by manufacturing weird ideas with a view to fishing in the
troubled waters. Their motive is to pass the buck to others, and prove
the accused innocent. They try to establish that there was no war
between Bangladesh and Pakistan, and there should be no question of the
existence of war criminals in Bangladesh. They point their accusing
finger at the Pakistani occupation army, and ask to try the 195 captured
Pakistani soldiers who were acquitted as per the conditions of the
Simla Treaty drawn up on July 2, 1972. But that was virtually impossible
at the moment.
There were obvious reasons for that. 400,000 Bangladeshis stranded in
West Pakistan during the Liberation War were held hostage by the
Pakistan government, who used them as a bargaining chip to free the
Pakistani war criminals captured in Bangladesh. Besides, 16,000
Bangladeshi civil servants were dismissed from job and barred from
leaving Pakistan. Many of the army officers were put in concentration
camps. So, while Bangladesh made an attempt to try those 195 POWs
(prisoners of war) keeping them out of the repatriation process
negotiated for the release of most of the stranded Bengalis and
Pakistanis, Bhutto furiously refused and threatened that if Bangladesh
carried out the trial, Pakistan too would hold similar tribunals against
the Bangladeshis detained in Pakistan. The Pakistan Government also
rejected Bangladesh’s right to try the prisoners of war on criminal
charges and quickly seized 203 Bengalis as “virtual hostages” for the
195 soldiers. They however expressed their willingness to constitute a
judicial tribunal and try them after the fashion of similar
international tribunals. Bangladesh, being apprehensive about the fate
of 400,000 Bengalis trapped in Pakistan and to gain access to the United
Nations beating China’s veto, called a halt to its attempt at trying
the Pakistanis in Dhaka with the hope that Pakistan would keep her
promise and hold the trial of the accused 195 Pakistani soldiers. Upon
this formal understanding, the last group of 203 detained Bangladeshis
were repatriated to Bangladesh on March 24, 1974. But it is clear that
the 195 Pakistanis were not freed without charges. The trial of the
local collaborators however was being carried out until the killing of
Mujib.
To make the current trial process conditional upon the trial of those
195 accused Pakistani soldiers, as many are making, is nothing but a
legal sleight of hand to save the local war criminals facing the trial.
It is also an indirect denial of the strong popular demand raised in
favour of the trial. The Grand Alliance Government is trying to try the
local criminals who were involved in killing, plunder, arson attacks,
rape, molestation, and all other crimes against humanity perpetrated
against the people of Bangladesh during the Liberation War with the
backing of the Pakistani occupation army. They are, too, war criminals
for aiding and abetting the war criminals, and in one sense more
criminal than their Pakistani masters. The occupation army could not
have perpetrated the massacre by themselves, if these local
collaborators had not assisted them.
Some of the Independence detractors want to belittle the achievements
of Bangladesh in the Liberation War. They prefer calling it a war
between India and Pakistan. They are also on the wrong track. To ignore
the active role of Bangladesh in the Liberation War is to reject the
glorious gallantry of the people. It was a well organized and corporate
combat shared by peoples of Bangladesh from all walks of life. The
military and civil forces stood hand in hand and shoulder to shoulder,
and went on fighting until the last enemy bit the dust. The war took
place in two phases. The first phase was the war of resistance, which
began just after the Operation Searchlight was unleashed (25 March,
1971). The moment the marauding Pakistani forces waged the unprovoked
crackdown on the sleeping people at dead of night, some of our patriotic
armed forces started fighting back almost instantaneously. Charged by
Mujib with the responsibility of making every house a fort and remaining
prepared to fight the enemies with whatever they have—the freedom-mad
people of Bangladesh did not hesitate to immediately jump into
counter-attacks. This war of resistance continued until the Mujibnagar
Government was formed on 17 April, 1971.
The second phase of our Liberation War started formally under the
auspices of the Mujibnagar Government in an organized way. The whole
country was divided into eleven sectors under the command of eleven
highly efficient army officers. Apart from this, many civil commanders
formed different guerilla forces to fight the enemies. The valiant
military and the civil freedom fighters of Bangladesh forged ahead so
indomitably that the highly trained Pakistani armed forces were kept at
bay. They had no choice but to surrender.
Although the war lasted only nine months, it took a heavy toll of
human life and honour. It wreaked havoc on the entire country. As many
as three million people were killed, and two hundred thousand women were
raped and molested. Numberless houses, buildings, mills, factories,
bridges, culverts, roads, highways, and railways were destroyed. If all
these do not amount to a war against Bangladesh, and fought back by the
people of Bangladesh, then what else was it?
The critics of our Independence tend to consider the Liberation War
as a ‘civil war’ waged against the solidarity of Pakistan at the
instigation of India. They regard the war-hero, Mujib as ‘India’s agent’
who agitated for breaking their ‘holy’ Pakistan. This was basically the
view of the Pakistani rulers, and was shared by some of the
fundamentalist political parties in Bangladesh who sided with them in
the war. But victory was in favour of the mass people. The collaborators
could not put up with their defeat, nor could they stomach people’s
victory in the war. So, they tried and are still trying to avenge upon
the pro-liberation peoples and their ideals by way of manufacturing
strange stories. That India joined the Bangladesh Liberation War just a
few days before the final victory might have prompted their fertile
imagination to call it an ‘Indo-Pak War’. If this wild imagination is
not kept in fetters, they will go on to spin more yarns about it. And
you never can tell, one fine morning they would come up with another
queer theory that the 1971 War was a ‘US-Soviet’ war, because in the
same war, America sided with Pakistan and Soviet Russia with Bangladesh
giving huge military support and diplomatic assurances. When America
sent a nuclear-armed aircraft carrier of their Pacific Fleet to the Bay
of Bengal to support Pakistan, Russia sent their Fleet to the Andaman
Sea to support Bangladesh and India. But the war ended before any such
assistance could be rendered. However, the inventive Independence
critics can have ample chances of calling the war a ‘US-Soviet’ War. If
they can justify a claim like this, the list of the war criminals would
be lengthened, and the ongoing trial of the Bangladeshi war criminals
may be shelved for another four decades.
The history of the declaration of independence has undergone huge
distortion at the hands of the vested quarters and political parties.
The politically partisan intellectuals held repeated postmortems of
history to use it in their respective favour. This tug of war with our
history has caused serious harm to our national integrity. The
impressionable young generation has been the worst victim of this. They
are confused by the frequent changes in the historical accounts, which
are in a state of flux in keeping with the change of the governments.
This long-drawn-out hostility between the two major rival parties, Awami
League (AL) and Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), revolves around
their two political idols — Mujib and Zia. And the bone of contention is
primarily centered on the declaration of Independence.
The nagging controversy with regard to the declaration of
Independence is no longer unimpeachable. Mujib- Zia dichotomy regarding
this should come to an end. In the eye of history, nobody was worthy of
the declaration of our Independence except for Mujib. What Zia did was
just read out a declaration note on behalf of Mujib. This is based on
hard facts, and the reading out of the declaration note of March 27
could not be considered as the formal declaration of the Independence of
Bangladesh, which was actually made on March 26, 1971.There is as such
no room for fabrication in these two distinct facts.
It is Mujib who, for the first time, formally made the declaration of
the Independence of Bangladesh on March 26, 1971. S. A. Karim in his
book Sheikh Mujib: Triumph and Tragedy writes that the wife of M.R.
Siddiqi was given an urgent message over telephone from Bangabandhu
received through the wireless operators of Chittagong. The message reads
as follows: “Message to the people of Bangladesh and the people of the
world. Rajarbagh police camp and Peelkhana EPR suddenly attacked by Pak
Army at 2400 hours. Thousands of people killed. Fierce fighting going
on. Appeal to the world for help in freedom struggle. Resist by all
means. May Allah be with you. Joy Bangla.” This message from Bangabandhu
was then taken as the declaration of independence, which was read out
by M.A. Hannan, general secretary of district (Chittagong) Awami League
at 2:30 p.m. On this basis, March 26 was declared Independence Day.
The declaration of independence made by Major Zia took place on the
following day (March 27, 1971). As a matter of fact, Zia made two
speeches. In the first speech, he claimed himself as the president of
Bangladesh, and urged upon the people to fight the Pakistan army. When
this unauthorized speech created confusion among the people, the Awami
League leaders asked Zia to read out a text prepared by A. K. Khan to
nullify the effect of the speech he had previously made. Zia followed
the suggestion, and made a second speech, where he categorically
mentioned that he was speaking on behalf of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur
Rahman, the great national leader.
Zia’s speech, however, had an electrifying effect among the fighting
men and the civil population. But it was more to the credit of an
ex-officio person than to the credit of Zia, the very person. In other
words, it was an on the spot demand which Zia happened to meet. Had
there been some other army officials, say, a major or a colonel or the
like, the effect would have been the same. Moreover, March 27 was not
declared ‘Independence Day’ on the basis of Zia’s declaration.
So, Zia should not be said to have declared independence of
Bangladesh. He only read out the message of declaration on behalf of
Mujib, which, too, has an historic significance and that was duly
recognized by the Mujib Nagar Government. But that should not be
manipulated into usurping Mujib’s position in the declaration. Besides
Zia never claimed himself the declarer of independence during his
lifetime, and it is said that once he vehemently opposed a proposal made
by one of his henchmen to establish him as that. In his article ‘The
Birth of a Nation’ published in the Weekly Bichittra on 26 March 1974,
regarding Mujib as the Father of the Nation, Zia overtly admitted that
Mujib’s 7 March speech was for him the ‘green signal’ of the Liberation
War.
The Constitution, which was accepted as the “Declaration of
Independence” on April 10, 1971, by 403 elected MPAs and MNAs also bears
the testimony to the declaration of independence by Mujib. Under that
constitution was formed the first government of independent Bangladesh
(Mujib Nagar Government) with Mujib as the first president. The
constitution of 1972 was later written in the light of that
constitution. As it is put in the sixth section of that constitution
(Declaration of Independence): “Whereas in the facts and circumstances
of such treacherous conduct Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the
undisputed leader of 75 million people of Bangladesh, in due fulfillment
of the legitimate right of self-determination of the people of
Bangladesh duly made a declaration of independence at Dacca on March 26,
1971 …” Again, in Section 10 of that constitution, Mujib’s declaration
of independence is confirmed: “We the elected representatives of the
people of Bangladesh … thereby confirm the Declaration of Independence
already made by Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman” That Mujib declared
independence is an historical truth, which is properly substantiated by
the Declaration of Independence of April 10, 1971, which can be
considered as the precursor to the constitution of 1972.
Mujib is regarded as the ‘Father of the Nation’ for his contribution
to the birth of a nation. Although this is a much bigger thing than
being the claimant for a declaration, nevertheless, facts cannot be
reduced to fantasies. That Mujib proclaimed the Independence has got
very little to do with his being the founding ‘Father of the Nation’.
Even then, all these arguments can be ignored willy-nilly, but the
course of history cannot be changed. This is what history is. We can
hold it down, or repress it for the time being. But we cannot stop it.
The independence critics also find fault with the Pakistani armed
forces’ surrender to the Indian commander Lieutenant-General Jagjit
Singh Arora. But this was done as per military hierarchy. He was the
General Officer Commanding-in-Chief of the Indian and Bangladeshi forces
in the Eastern Theatre. This does not necessarily mean that it was a
war between India and Pakistan. It is rather the norm of the war. In
fact, India joined the war after Pakistan attacked eight air fields in
northwest India, otherwise India might have not participated in the war.
The guerilla force called Muktibahini and the newly formed Bangladesh
Army had already been fighting the Pakistani forces for about eight
months prior to the arrival of the Indian army. So, there is no reason
as to why it can be called an Indo-Pak war!
But the denouncers love to dub it as that. It is no wonder that they
will try to twist the actual facts of our Liberation War. Even four
decades after the Liberation War, they have not changed their
conservative mindset, although they have intentionally changed their
appearance and taken on a pro-liberation veneer especially in their
speech. Now, they do not overtly take the anti-liberation stance.
Instead, they try to twist facts in order to justify their means. This
is more dangerous, because known enemies are easier to fight against
than the unknown enemies. The unknown enemies are harping on their
propaganda with the Goebbelian (Paul Joseph Goebbels was the Reich
Minister of Propaganda in Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945) hope that some
day people would believe them. But this is a sheer impossibility. They
are, perhaps, ignorant of the fact that all people can be fooled for
some time or some people for all time, but all people cannot be fooled
for all the time.
These bizarre stories about our independence are no laughing matter.
They should not go unchallenged. Law should not be broken with impunity
especially with regard to the independence issues. The detractors of our
independence are enjoying all the facilities the state can offer, but
refusing to recognize the truths about its independence. They are really
the limit. There is no scope for evasion of their responsibility. The
High Court, too, was in line with it. An honourable judge had once
expressed deep resentment against the distortion of the history of
independence at the hands of some disgruntled varsity dons, and regarded
it as a treasonable offence. The youngsters of the ‘Projonmo Chattar’
have also come up with the demand of passing a law to protect our
Independence history from distortion. Fair enough, but our hard-earned
independence needs to be protected from all ills and fostered in all
possible avenues—individual, social, political, cultural, and legal. It
is the responsibility of the People’s Republic to put this popular
demand into effect. The supreme sacrifice of three million people should
not go unheeded anyway.
Dr. Rashid Askari writes fiction and columns and teaches English literature at Kushtia Islamic University. E-mail: rashidaskari65@yahoo.com
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