Memoirs of a nonconformist

 Academic Press and Publishers Library, 2015.

There are people who seem to be genetically inclined to act like Mary's contrary lamb.  Kamal Siddiqui, a former civil servant who had reached the highest rung of the civil bureaucracy, was a freedom fighter, a left-leaning activist who had been subject to police investigation during his years as a Chemistry department student at Dhaka University, had been hauled up before court for his pains, had taken part in the vandalizing of the USIS library in Segun Bagicha, and…. Well, you just have to go through In One Life:  the Memoirs of a Third World Civil Servant (Part 1) to have a comprehensive picture of one such seemingly genetically-driven nonconformist.  Even his surname was a mistake committed by the Punjabi clerk at the prestigious PAF Public School, Sargodha (Pakistan), from which institution he had passed his Senior Cambridge examinations.  So Siddique was turned into Siddiqui and has stayed with him.

 Siddiqui's book, while being a memoir of his journey from childhood to the early years as a member of the Civil Service of Pakistan (CSP), is equally a perspective on left-wing student activism in Bangladesh (then East Pakistan), specifically Dhaka, and more.  Let the author elucidate:  "My story…is not a sanitized version of what happened, rather the truth as it occurred to me… this story tries to pinpoint the difficulties and challenges under which civil servants, playing second fiddle to politicians and military dictators, have to work in a least developed country, oscillating between immature democracy and outright autocracy…it tries to flesh out the social, political, economic and cultural realities of the country in which I grew up and lived most of my life."  In realizing these objectives, he has succeeded in varying degrees, although, I suspect, he will have to flesh out in more comprehensive details the trials and challenges facing the senior civil servants in another book, as the volume number 1 of the book under review seems to indicate will be forthcoming.

 Siddiqui acknowledges that he had embraced Marxism in his youth, and, even though he has undergone gradual transformation in his belief system into a liberal humanist, in a sense he remains an "unrepentant Marxist, if that means an unconditional and a priori commitment to the…disadvantaged, sidelined, oppressed, marginalized, humiliated and reduced to a state not fit for human beings…."  So, given this position, it does not come as a surprise that the author, in assessing the post-Cold War global scenario, believes that "socialism and social welfare throughout the world stood to be replaced not by a humane capitalism but monetarism and neo-liberalism in which greed and selfishness in the name of super-profit and supremacy of the market emerged as the only gods to be worshipped."

 Throughout the book Siddiqui comes across as assertive, occasionally outspoken in his assessment of people, institutions, events, and society.  He does not mince words, nor pull punches, much like his days of student activism, when, among other things, he was a vigorous participant in actions that contributed to the unceremonious ending of the 1964 Dhaka University convocation, and, for which he was expelled from the institution (to be reinstated later as per court directives), or when, as a symbol of protesting the Vietnam war, he was part of a small group that vandalized the USIS in 1965.  Siddiqui, though, has made his position clear that, in being forthright, he might have hurt the sentiments of some people, and that his judgment on people and issues could be faulty and wrong, but, from his standpoint, he was being sincere.

To take a few examples of the author's trenchant observations, his assessment of Dr. Akhter Hamid Khan, the originator of the Comilla model of rural development, would run contrary to popularly held views on him (as much as people know about Dr. Khan these days).  Siddiqui believes that he was blind to the Comilla model's shortcomings, was no revolutionary, but an advocate of a pacific evolutionary archetype where there was no room for drastic land reforms.  On the enigmatic EPSL (East Pakistan Students' League) leader of the 1960s, Sirajul Alam Khan, he holds that Khan was extremely anti-left, and was instrumental in goading vacillating elements in the Awami League towards making the Bangladesh independence agenda a fait accompli, which was his last positive contribution to the cause of Bangladesh.  During the liberation war, he was almost totally immersed in Indian General S.S. Uban's plan to create a force dedicated towards eliminating the Bengali leftist elements rather than the al-Badars, Razakars and the Pakistani forces.  He later on formed the JSD to prevent the radicalized Chhatra League sections from embracing the traditional left parties and to direct them towards a self-destructive course of actions.  

 Among his striking, and thought-provoking, observations is one on the academically outstanding students of his (and subsequent) time:  "My general observation about them is that they could not go beyond a point in their quest for academic excellence.  Many of them have published books, monographs and articles with prestigious publishers and in international research journals of repute but these have not left behind any indelible imprints on the sands of time."  He offers likely explanations for this phenomenon that readers might find plausible or contentious, but at least food for thought.  He comments on perceived or real deteriorating standards of education in Dhaka University, and places a major share of the blame for such a situation having come to pass on President Ershad's "evil design to destroy the standard of university education."  Comparing the Dhaka University of his and present times, he goes on:  "The most important reason for high academic standards in Dhaka University in our time was the recruitment of high quality students and teachers.  Merit, rather than political considerations, was the only criterion in recruiting students and teachers."

 Siddiqui, to reiterate, provides both a kaleidoscopic, as well as incisive, view on various issues of his time.  He is nostalgic about Dhaka as a livable city with a "small population and a Mofussil (small town) touch," and courtesy and manners among students that transcended intense political rivalry.  Well, Dhaka, for several consecutive years now, has been classified by a relevant rating organization as being among the top two or three most unlivable cities in the world, and the political culture and mannerisms have deteriorated to an abysmal level.  He looks back on when he first noticed the racism that is quite endemic in our own society, including among the educated middle classes, especially when it comes to marriage.  His stringent remark on this issue is germane:  "The truth is when people in Bangladesh, or for that matter South Asians criticize apartheid in South Africa or racism in the US, they conveniently forget their own dark secret."

 Siddiqui is evidently most comfortable discussing political matters.  When he had not yet reached the age of ten, he witnessed first hand the election campaign of Amena Begum of Awami League/United Front in the 1954 general elections, partly because it was also organized from their home.  Amena Begum won against her Muslim League opponent, but it was "alleged by both the rival groups that the other group was involved in false voting."  Some things never change!  Or, as the French adage goes, the more things change, the more they remain the same!  He had confronted NSF (National Students' Federation) terrorism while a Dhaka University student, and an active member of EPSU (East Pakistan Students' Union), including threatening NSF activists menacing him with throwing concentrated sulfuric acid at them (he was, to recall, a Chemistry student), actually hurling one without severely hurting the victim, and, consequently, being left alone by that group for the rest of his days at the university.

 Siddiqui marvels at the perspicacity of a former Bengali Sargodhian, then Major Ziauddin of the Pakistan army, who, while the author was undergoing probationary training at the Civil Service Academy in Lahore, told him in 1969 that the country would split in two years' time (that is, 1971)!  And he talks about another ex-Bengali Sargodhian, Major Manzoor, who also deserted from Pakistan to join the liberation war.  Eventually, Siddiqui left leftist politics because of how it was being practiced, although retaining some of its fundamental ideals as guiding policy of his life.  On a lighter note, he mentions all the traditional beliefs and superstitions he had come across in his impressionable years, but these did not seem to have left any deep imprint on him as he added on years.  A small error has crept in when he talks about Khaled Musharaf being killed in the November 7 uprising of 1976.  The year, of course, was 1975. If Part 1 is any indication, Part 2 (and 3, if relevant) of In One Life:  The Memoirs of a Third World Civil Servant should be most interesting and enjoyable.     

The reviewer is an actor and educationist.