Have we been faithful to the martyrs?
On December 16, 1971, I was barely 23 years old, and a lieutenant in the second battalion of the East Bengal Regiment. I was the company commander of Charlie company of the battalion.
As one who has taken part in the Liberation War, as an armed soldier, my experience and memory is of course exclusive to soldiering. Millions of Bangladeshi suffered various kinds of oppression, torture, injury, dishonour and, finally, death for supporting the independence of our country. But active fighters with weapons were not in the millions. In the last 47 years or so, no one has tried to bring out the exact figure. However, books have been written by fighters laying down the accounts of battles and the war as a whole.
Forty-seven years down the memory lane, I recall the companionship and comradeship of the fighters during the entire nine months. A brave dear friend, Lieutenant Badiuzzaman, became a martyr on December 4 near the Azimpur Railway Station, a few hundred meters north of the Akhaura town. Badiuzzaman was the company commander of Bravo Company of Second East Bengal, as well as my course-mate or friend at Pakistan Military Academy Kakul. I lost Naib Subedar Ashraf and a dozen more soldiers in the same battle of Akhaura.
The Bangladesh Forces of 1971 lost a few thousand soldiers during the entire nine months. A few thousand Indian officers and soldiers also laid down their lives in December 1971 alone. The Indians were helping the freedom fighters; today is a befitting day to recall the bonds formed on the battlefields and to reaffirm our gratitude.
Simultaneously, it is also the time to answer a few questions honestly and courageously. Question one: why did India give us a helping hand? Question two: how do we express our gratitude towards India for their great help? Question three: what is the limit of gratitude towards India in terms of time or in terms of giving? Question four: how do we carry out self-criticism for not fulfilling the aspiration of the people before and during the Liberation War?
In 1971, India gave us a lavish helping hand. It sheltered almost 10 million refugees on their soil for almost nine months. The refugees were not only given shelter, but food, some treatment and clothing. International charitable organisations closely cooperated with India. The entire matter was a burden on the Indian economy. India had to look for friends in the international arena. So one reason for India to offer a helping hand was of course its humanitarian attitude. Not all political leaders or statesmen are always humanitarian.
Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was courageous and steadfast in surmounting the local and international criticism. America was not a friend of China and Soviet Russia in 1971, yet while Russia supported India's position, China did not. In 1971, Pakistan was a country with a reasonable standing among the community of Muslim countries. Very few Muslim countries supported the aspirations of the Bangladeshis in 1971. Yet Indira Gandhi pushed forward.
There were other reasons for India's help. For India, it was a geo-strategic necessity to break Pakistan; and the opportunity came without much asking. India wanted to break Pakistan. India wanted a friendly, independent neighbouring country in the East, particularly in the context of unfriendly relations with China. In the context of numerous insurgencies raging in the North Eastern provinces, India needed a friendly neighbour which could help implement policies of India's central government. So by December 17, 1971, India bound seven hundred million Bangladeshi people with laces and folds of gratitude.
Within Bangladesh, there have always been questions about something called "the spirit of Liberation War". This matter has been described differently by people with different approaches. When the war began, I was a Second Lieutenant in the Pakistani Army, with only seven months of commissioned service. Before joining the army, I was totally apolitical because of my education being in Cadet College. The first tint of political thinking in my mind came while I was a gentlemen-Cadet at the Pakistan Military Academy Kakul where I could discern the anti-Bengali attitude among some Pakistanis. After my commission, however young I may have been, I could still clearly discern the anti-Bengali attitude in the Pakistani political arena.
As a student in the primary and secondary schools before joining the Cadet College, I had the opportunity of being fellow-mates of Bihari-Pakistanis. The attitude of the Bihari-Pakistanis was aggressive and characterised by a superiority complex. In the Pakistan Army also, the attitude of the majority officers and soldiers who belonged to West Pakistan was aggressive and characterised by a superiority complex or mind-set. It did not take long for me to become politically conscious so that before March 1971, like everyone else in the whole of East Pakistan, I was also orientated towards an upcoming struggle. Nine months passed without leaving much time to ponder on politics.
Indeed activities were so intense and battle-oriented that we hoped for everyday to be longer than 24 hours. At the end of the war, to think over the political aspect of the war was a luxury for young lieutenants and captains. Personally, I again got the opportunity to look back at the political memories of the War of Liberation only after becoming commandant of the Bangladesh Military Academy, located at Bhatiari North of Chattogram city.
In my retired life, there has been ample time to think of politics. I surmise that, the spirit of the Liberation War can best be described relating it to the causes of the war. The absence of democracy in the country, or lack of respect for democratic values by the Pakistani rulers, or undermining the democratic spirit which shined in the minds of the people of East Pakistan (much more than in the minds of the people of West Pakistan)—is the first reason which gave birth to a yearning for an independent Bangladesh.
The second reason is the alienation of the Bengali popular culture and literature by the West Pakistani bourgeois and bureaucratic rulers. The third reason was depriving the Bengali people of their genuine right to an equal or equitable share in the services and economic activities of the country. The fourth, among many more reasons, was the misuse of the religion of Islam and not implementing its true spirit in national or daily life, while passively discouraging the practice of other religions.
The cumulative effect of these four reasons and others (not discussed in this column) was two-fold. First, the quality of life in East Pakistan was far below expectation, and second, people were disenchanted with the very concept of the state of Pakistan. The last nail in the coffin was the total and flagrant disregard for the result of the nation-wide election held in the state of Pakistan in December 1970. The military junta ruling Pakistan had no logic or reason in disregarding the results of the election, but they did. They did so partly having been coaxed by the-then Peoples Party of Pakistan. In any democratic context, it was the right of the people of East Pakistan, nay the Bengalis, to opt out of the state of Pakistan. Having been denied the right to do so peacefully, the Bengali people had only one option, that is to fight and gain independence.
I want to highlight two aspects related to the spirit of the Liberation War. The first is "the spirit of democracy and respect for democratic values." Officially, democracy is being practiced in Bangladesh but the spirit is not being honoured. In other words, numbers matter, not the feeling.
The second is, or could be, the economic emancipation of the people of the country. Wealth and resources are distributed among the people in a highly inequitable manner making a mockery of democracy, fundamental human rights and social justice. It seems to me that a coterie of people think and behave as if Bangladesh is their kingdom.
Between December 12 and 16, 1971, our battalion was positioned on the bank of Balu River, in the Eastern side of Dhaka. Several minutes before 5 pm on the 16th, I received the order to withhold weapons. I was told that Pakistan had surrendered. Our battalion walked along the Demra area to Dhaka road, reaching the stadium at present day's Bangabandhu Avenue by about 8 pm. We were in the capital of a sovereign, enemy-free, independent Bangladesh. On that historic evening of December 16, the memory of losing friends and comrades was fresh and burning; it is fresh till today. I would like to conclude by recalling that we owe a lot to the martyrs of the Liberation War.
Patriotic citizens, let us pass every single day by always asking the question, "Am I being faithful to the martyrs"?
Syed Muhammad Ibrahim is Major General (Retd), Bir Protik.
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